Spooked - The Iron Gate

Episode Date: August 15, 2018

Iron Gate: An American soldier takes over an empty house in Baghdad and encounters the one threat he is powerless against. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Know this. The person who says they don't believe is always the person that screams the loudest. From Snap Judgment's underground lair, listening to Spoot, Stay, is exactly one year younger than me. He always has been. My cousin and I are the same age. We go back to Granny's house, and my cousin says, at midnight, let's call Bloody Mary. My brother says, no, no, no, we can't. And he looks at me for support.

Me, his older brother. I want to be cool like my cousin. So tell my brother to stop me in a baby. Then we laugh. No. He whispers that you can't. And I tell him at midnight, we're going to see Bloody Mary leap out of the mirror,

and I tell him that if he doesn't help out, I'm going to send Bloody Mary upstairs to his room while he sleeps. No, no. Don't tell Granny. Because I knew he was going to tell Granny. He's got to come. Because we need three people to make it work, my cousin says. Look, I tell him, don't even worry.

All you have to do is, I'm going to hold the candle, all right? You just got to hold my hand, all right? I'd be wait. Excited. That's my grandmother falls asleep. After the $6 million man, After Hawaii 5-0, after the Rat Patrol. My brother starts with us.

Keening some, boy, quit. Quit. My cousin lights a candle. With granddaddy's lighter from the kitchen table, we turn off every other light in the house. And we file into the bathroom and line up in front of the mirror. We've only got 90 seconds on my brother's Casillo watch. Shut up, shut up, shut up.

30 seconds. I can see my little brother squeezing his eyes shut, tight, tight, tight in the mirror. Ten seconds. Say it. Say it. We've got to say together. Say it. Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. I don't see what happens next. Just something in the mirror and my little brother screaming and my cousin's screaming and I'm wondering what have we done when my grandmother burst over the first over the mirror. the door. What I remember, I remember is the look the brother gives me, betrayal, of shock, of hurt. I'm supposed to be his big brother. And I let something come out at him from this darkness. I don't know. What sprang out of that mirror. I don't know what it did, but 30 years later,

I wish, with all my heart, I wish, that I had said no. From Stamped Judgements underground layer, from Washington, some bird. burdens, hard to put down. Sometimes on our show, you hear tales of people, meaning inexplicable in their own home, in the attic or under the bed. But this next tale, that happens to our storyteller when he was very, very far from home.

It takes place in Baghdad at a time when American troops were particularly unpopular in that city. A soldier named Dallas Sanchez has been deployed as part of a sniper, Kill team. Spooked. Baghdad, um,

Baghdad was insane. Baghdad was really intense. Uh, Baghdad was just a constant sensory overload. Tons of extrajudicial killings. You could not leave the fob without finding like a dead body based down in a trash pile because there's no infrastructure. So talk about like the smell of the city.

It smelled like death. It smelled like old. death. This was the end of 06. The ward had been going on for three years and we were in a really hot area of operations. Can you describe your, where you lived normally? Did you have like a room? Were you in a tent? Like where are you living? It was so close to the green zone that it was a super, super cushy fob. We actually had like barracks. It's like a room, maybe a 10,000. Maybe a 10 by 12 foot rectangle. We decorated it.

I had my little bed. I actually had a Lou Reed Live in Berlin poster. When you're in the service, not just downrange. I think that those little living spaces, it feels like a cocoon. You know, it feels like you're a little bit safer. This was around Christmas time in 06. And like the mission that we were out on was a concurrent

SKT. And what's an SKT? Sorry. SKT. Our small kill team or sniper kill team. Like the basic tactic would be we would leave the fob very, very late at night in trucks, roll around the neighborhood with the lights out. For several hours, the trucks would slow down to a crawl, and we would try and like silently open the rear doors, just a dismount from the truck without slamming anything or making any noise.

Walk through the neighborhood as stealthfully as you can. We reach like the Target House. Basically from there, you just break in and then set up a hide and just pull overwatch over the sector

and just wait basically for someone to do something grimy like digging a hole to bury an IED and then we'd respond to accordingly. Anyways, yeah, we would have probably at least six hours notice that we were going to be a stepping off.

Generally, before heading out on a mission, were there particular things that you would fear? Like, do you remember anything about those moments? But I can remember one time, and it ended up becoming a pre-mission ritual, because Pelke had a really great sound system, and he'd be like, dude, we're about to get pumped up for this mission, press play. Benny and the Jets at 50 decibels, just cranking that out. Benny and the Jets became our anthem. You pack up like your 120 pounds worth of kit and scramble to the top of the truck, get your weapon mounted. I was a gunner. I had my head up out the top, just scanning, scanning like a maniac. When you're moving across open ground while scanning, sweating profusely,

I mean, like, I know this is public radio, so this analogy would probably never make it on air, but it really is like just doing a fat rail. To have eight guys moving in a file through a neighborhood, it's the point of the mission where you're most exposed, where you're most vulnerable. You have to maintain almost complete silence, Because aside from the sound of the wind, maybe some dogs barking, there is no sound. Like, so for 72 hours straight, it's basically like being in church. Because any sound could like compromise you and potentially get everybody that you love killed.

Okay. At the moment that this story takes place, how long had you been in comfort? or how many of these missions had you been on? So this was probably the seventh or eighth mission that I'd been on. The mission started out typically. It felt completely the same as any other mission. So it's probably like around midnight or one or two o'clock in the morning. We approached the building.

And before I've even gotten like a chance to drop my ruck, like my best friend comes up to me and he just looks really shooken up and he's like dude there's something wrong here there's just something bizarre so immediately walking in this place the first thing that I noticed was the sound

this dissonant noise it sounded almost like a broken radio in a room down the hall just completely atonal, an entirely disquieting, unwholesome sound. It almost sounded like a congregation of whispers. Like thousands of voices trying to communicate something, but in a completely nonsensical way. And that really was the point where I felt like something was really. different this time. I decided that, you know, I was going to look around some of the upper floors.

So as I was walking around like that, the second story, I came into this one room that it was completely stripped bare, simple cement floor. I don't know what drew my attention to it, but I turned to face the interior wall and just saw that the wall was pockmarked with bullet holes. with rounds. So I was standing there looking at these pockmarked walls. It just seemed like something wasn't right, that these, they weren't typical. And my squad leader showed me this pencil trick. You can insert like a pencil into like small arms fire against a wall. It'll tell you like the direction that the fire had come from. So this being the second story, I put the pencil into the wall and it's parallel to the ground just sticking in.

Like, it meant that those shots had been fired straight across. As soon as I stuck that pencil in, everything fell into place. This had to have been a kill room. But they had to have lined people up in here and just executed them. And I just felt a little heave in my stomach. Standing in a kill house. instantly just felt like the walls just collapsed in on themselves, felt really claustrophobic.

And I just needed to get the fuck out of the room. It seemed like there was a malign presence there that was trying to get somebody killed. And it was totally inexplicable. You have to imagine that all of this is under the backdrop, under the soundtrack of this just discordant noise. Just this ever-present, oral presence? This feeling that you were feeling, were all the guys feeling that?

And was that like a palpable kind of like anxiety in the air? There's like a, there's an undercurrent of tension. It wasn't like we all huddled together in a circle and are trading this back and forth. It was people would pair off with their best friend and be like, dude, you would not believe what just happened. nobody's going to talk about that because you're showing weakness. I think that if one person were to stand up and be like, guys, this is kind of scary, we would have ripped them apart. So we were left with all of this downtime.

And so you have now like half a dozen 20-year-old children. And one of the number one pastimes on these SKTs is looting. someone is like, hey, there's a storage unit down on the first floor. And that immediately became something that all of us jumped onto, because it gives you a chance, I guess, like, to prove that you're not afraid of no ghost, to prove that you're not scared. As soon as that call goes out, like, yeah, no, what, yeah. Yeah, hell yeah, man, I'll root through these people's.

that I have no business in. It's almost like an affront to whatever was there. It was just like a gated off unit on the first floor and walked over there. Like a gated off room? Would that be right? Yeah, basically like a storage space. I mean, exactly like a storage space. And there's just a very simple, symmetrical wrought iron gate on front.

Those wrought iron gates are. loud that three of us walked up and got really low to the ground and just grabbed the gate on the bottom and just lift a quarter inch and then quietly walk backwards so that the gate's not rubbing against the ground so that it wouldn't be loud at all. We had left the gate like propped all the way open. So I think about half a dozen of us go into this storage unit. Upturned table chairs, clothing, decorations, silverware, all kinds of things. It smells like dust, old.

And it's pitch black, and the only light in this storage area is coming from our little red tack lights. It's already like three layers of spooky. Like we couldn't even use our nods in this space, our night vision goggles because it's so dark. dark, there's so little ambient light. And nods are really

for looting anyways because you really want to, yeah, there's an art to this deplorable practice. The only sound is like light rustling. I'd picked my way probably two-thirds of the way

back into the storage unit and I find this cardboard box with a couple of cheap little paintings in it. One of just a pastoral landscape with a in it. This is like, oh, these are going to look amazing in my room. And I turned, after finding them immediately, I turned to my left to show off my bounty, was just met with pitch darkness,

just blackness. There was no one else in the room. I was completely alone. And I didn't feel like I had tunneled out on these paintings. I mean, this wasn't like the Mona Lisa. It wasn't like I was, you know, just drinking in starry night with my eyes. I was just like, huh, these are neat paintings. Hey, check out the, oh, I'm alone. Makes no sense as to how six guys were able to creep out of a room. You couldn't step on the floor because of all of this furniture, all of the crap. Immediately, I feel like a leaden weight in my stomach. I just steeled my nerves, put my paintings, tucked them under my arm,

and started trying to quietly move towards that gate. I'm climbing over this stuff meticulously, but the entire time I just want to run. By the time I got to the front gate, I had really worked myself up into a froth. I was really terrified. I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could. And I get up there to the gate, and the gate is closed.

I get low and lift and start trying to push it open, and it just feels like it's sealed, like it's been, like, concreted in place. But I was not going to cry out. I stood there waiting for a solid two to three minutes, which probably doesn't sound like. that long of the time. But when you're sealed in a foreign space with like pitch blackness behind you and the weight of the entire mission security hinging on you forcing this gate open, it felt like an eternity. There was like a fear welling up in me because there's so many

different layers of danger to this. Locked behind a steel. gate in an extremely dangerous area and being muzzled, like effectively muted. When we return, spooked, the Iron Gate continues. Stay tuned. Dallas is part of an SKT, a small kill team in Baghdad. He's out in the middle of the night on a mission and abandoned building. In the past of time, he and some of the guys on his crew are looting the place. Suddenly, Dallas finds himself separated from his team and trapped behind an iron gate. Spooked.

The neighborhood where we were in Baghdad, Aldora, they're like a death squads basically roving the neighborhood. And if they saw someone alone, they just yoke them up, take you to the nearest trash pile, and put two rounds into the back of your head. But I caved. I broke. I was like, I don't care. At this point, I'm going to gorilla grod this gate open. I grabbed the gate with both hands and just shoved it as violently as I could. Nothing.

It felt like shoving on a brick wall. I remember shaking a little bit. I turned my light off and I stood there like at the mouth of that gate. So I could see into the opening of the courtyard where there's a little bit of moonlight. casting a shadow. So, and that's the only light source at this moment. I can remember consciously not wanting to look back. I had like a sweat coming out of every pore in my body, because you can't like pant, you can't like, like a dog, be scared or whatever in situations like that. Like silence is so important. So it's like a controlled hyperventilation. The fact that I lost my nerves so,

that I would compromise our SKT just speaks volumes about how terrified I was. I was the alternate gunner for our squad, and I had the squad automatic weapon, the casualty-causing weapon on the battlefield, broke between eight and a thousand rounds, armed to the teeth, against any physical threat, but in this instance, it's completely worthless. I felt really powerless. whatever was there, whatever was lingering, in that space, just did not want us there. Especially with us down there, rooting through all of their stuff, it was just wrong. Whatever was there wanted all of us out.

I stood there for maybe 30 seconds, and I just gave up hope and just resigned myself to the fear. And the gate just trifted open. just completely silently just like on well-oiled hinges the gate just drifts open right in front of me I thought I had chills before

I thought that I was scared before but in that moment it just I just could not explain what would cause that thing to drift open it just wanted us gone like at the end of the day

when we went in there It's with a malicious intent. Like we're set up in the building, just an invisible force waiting for someone to violate the rules of engagement so that we could kill them. So I came out of that gate in a mixture of rage and terror and immediately sought out my best friend to just unload. load on him. And I get to him and I was like in a whisper, in whisper mode like, what the hell is wrong with you, dude? Why would you do that? But he had no idea what I was talking about. As far as he was concerned, we went in, checked it out, everybody came out all in together. And that was it. At this point, I'd been in the building for maybe eight hours. I'm ready to go

home now. This has very not been a pleasant experience for me. I imagine that for some people it would be really easy to dismiss this like as nerves or you know, like the stress like a battle, yeah, trauma, things like that. But the thing to keep in mind about that is this was one of maybe 50 missions that I went out on, but nothing ever like this, nothing ever that came so close that was so blatant. like a force. So as the sun comes up, the gun trucks pull up and we exit the building. This is how just stupid you are at 20 years old.

Those paintings, they stayed in my rook. I brought those things back. So I'm back in my room in the barracks and take these things out. And I'm like, hey, check out these cool paintings that I got. And Cagoni, our platoon medic, is in there. And he's like, I would very, very much like to have that. And I'm like, no way, dude. Nope. This is my decoration. I went through the haunted house for this. This is my prize. I am keeping it. Thank you, sir. So KG leaves and

Sam comes in, one of our terps, one of our interpreters, Sam. And I was like, what the hell is up with that place, dude? Like, it's really, really weird. And he's like, oh, yeah, like, that place is unclean. I was like, what do you mean? It's unclean. He's like, very many people died in that building. So it's unclean. And no one goes there. And when he said that, it really brought home to me. What had happened. And it's such a thing to admit, it's like such a bad thing. But I picked up that painting. And I was like, hey, do you guys know where Cagoni went? Like I want to, you know, and I found KG. And I was like, here, man, I know this is really special to you. I'd really like for you to have this, and I gave it away.

Did part of you, any part of you, feel proud of this force or this spirit for fighting back in a way that had no military weakness? That wouldn't come until way, way later. Now, looking back all of these years later, I have a lot of respect for whatever that thing. thing was, it was able to scare me. I felt like anyways, like I got my comeuppance. Five months after this whole episode in May is when I got hit by a V-bed or car bomb. And even the fear was not as scary as that experience for the simple fact that I felt like if I caught around in the noodle, I'd be dead. If I got ripped. apart by an explosion, I'd be dead.

But whatever was inside of that structure, it felt like if you were to die in its presence, that it would have a completely different set of consequences than if you were to die just out in a insect or somewhere. Like, you could become, like,

trapped. Thank you, Dallas Sanchez. Dallas also wanted to thank his family and Suzanne for encouraging him to share his stories. He's looking for a publisher. Dallas is a long time, Snap Judgment listener.

We love it when listeners share their stories with us. And if you two have an inexplicable tale to tell, make sure you drop us a line that's spooked at Snap Judgment. That ORG. And Jasmine Aguilera, original music for that story was by Lina Morimoto. The piece was produced. Our theme song was created by Pat Massini Miller.

Additional original music. by Pat Massidi Miller, Leon Monimoto, and Rizogorio. And if you like real stories from real people with no ghosts, subscribe to the amazing Snap Judgment podcast, and it goes without saying. And let me say it anyway. Friends, if you're a fine yourself, trapped behind an iron gate.

With undead creatures closing in, please remember in this circumstance, the best thing you can do is to never. Ever. Never, never, ever.