by Chris Bostic
“Joe, you with us?”
He looked up to find Leisa, both of their helmets in her hand, hovering over him.
“Yeah? I-I mean what?” he stammered.
“Connie says we’re moving out.”
“Really?” That came to him totally unexpected. “Where?”
She looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Does it matter?”
“Maybe.” The burgeoning sunrise caught him across the face. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes.
“What’s up?” Leisa leaned in, and Joe realized it must’ve looked like he wanted to whisper a secret.
“Just thinking,” he said cryptically. “Seriously, though. I thought Connie was acting weird…like he didn’t care anymore? Where are we going?”
“He says home.”
“Your place or mine?” he quipped with a grin.
“I wish mine,” she said softly. “But I probably wouldn’t even recognize it anymore.”
“What? That’s awful.”
He wanted to ask her about that. Surely she hadn’t been with the Regulators that long, he assumed, but Leisa didn’t give him the opportunity to find out. She straightened up and offered him a hand, saying, “That’s life.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” he mumbled and accepted the help. Not sure what else to say, he rambled on. “I mean, who cares? We’re left for dead. We can do whatever we want now.”
Leisa covered her gaping mouth. “Whoa! Don’t let anyone else catch you saying stuff like that. You’ll get the deluxe accommodations at Old Stony Lonesome.”
“Safer than here,” Joe replied, though he wasn’t sure he completely believed that. Prison life would be no picnic, especially for a deserter. “Seriously, though. Who cares now?” He gestured toward the hulking shape of the sergeant moving to the edge of the woods with Danny. “We’re behind enemy lines.”
“What’s that mean? A new set of rules?”
Joe shrugged, no longer caring about military regulations. “Or no rules. Why not?”
Leisa offered him his helmet but remained quiet for a while, seemingly turning the words over in her head. Finally, she whispered, “Maybe you’re right.”
CHAPTER 10
Joe was shocked to see Pete already over by Connie and Danny. His friend had his coilgun held at the ready and backpack pulled tight. Leisa took her pack from Laura, and the three of them headed over to join the guys. Joe thought about asking Leisa if she wanted him to carry her pack, but he knew better than to ask with Connie around. Chivalry had no place on the battlefield, much less in the Regulator’s ranks. She probably wouldn’t let him carry it anyway.
“So what’s the plan?” Joe asked his buddy even though Leisa had already told him they were headed home.
Pete stuck his hand through the face of his helmet to mute his mouthpiece, and whispered, “Connie’s had a change of heart. We’re headed out.”
Joe didn’t bother to mute his reply. “Great. Where to?”
“We’re following the river,” Connie replied. “Everybody stay close, and we’ll try to rendezvous with friendlies downstream.”
So much for getting away, Joe thought. He chanced a quick look at Leisa. She was busy whispering to Laura. So he gripped his weapon with both hands and steeled his mind for another march.
Maybe the time would come to bug out later and vanish into the mountains, if he could bring himself to do it. Or maybe the squad would make it back to their lines in one piece, though Joe doubted that part. Not after the legions of savages he’d seeing pouring over the hillside.
Joe wasn’t a planner, but he was patient. A person had to be to survive in the Republic that long, to keep from losing their mind. His time would come—or not. He was slightly less comfortable with fate, but only since it had dealt him a rather poor hand thus far.
“Danny’s on point. I’ve got the rear,” Connie ordered. “We stay close, like all up in your neighbor’s business…but single file. Fall in.”
Joe stuck to the middle. He was a little surprised to see Connie that close to the girls. He had never shown that side before, but Joe assumed he must’ve been feeling paternalistic now that they were truly alone in what was suddenly enemy territory.
Connie didn’t stay at the rear for long. They hadn’t gone fifty yards until he was jogging on ahead. “Just need to check in with Danny,” he made a point of telling Joe as he flew past, though he could’ve done that easily enough with his helmet.
Pete hiked immediately ahead of Joe. For a shirker, he tended to keep up with Danny, but not quite hemorrhoid close.
The march was a departure from their days fanned out along a hillside where they’d tried to keep everyone from getting blown to pieces all at once. Joe assumed they were bunched up because they were much safer under the cover of the forest. At least he hoped.
It was slow going, though. Danny led the squad on a crooked path, weaving side to side to avoid the thickest brambles. They were so deep in the jungle that even by mid-morning Joe would’ve thought it was barely daybreak. Shadows hung heavy, trapping the moisture like an unexpected rainforest in the middle of the craggy hills.
Sweat bathed Joe, completely soaking through the thin, breathable layer under the armoring. He took repeated drinks until he was sure the bladder would run dry, but the Republic’s engineers were amazing. It seemed to hold so much that it was like the device somehow turned the air into drinking water. Or maybe it did.
Having plenty to drink was the only bright side. The darkness of the woods was gloomy, and it seemed to stretch on forever. From the ridge top, it had looked like a narrow cluster of trees, but hiking the forest was taking hours. They would’ve easily covered a couple miles walking the blasted hillside in the first hour, but Joe wasn’t sure if they’d even gone a quarter-mile through the woods in the same amount of time.
Nothing about the scenery changed. It was all deep green roof with hanging vines like homemade wildlife traps. Joe wondered if he’d see a bear or a savage tangled up in the vines, left for dead. Many times he almost found himself twisted up. The trips and tangles were worse than a minefield with no safe path. They all planted a knee in the dirt more than once, and cursing streamed like sweat from the exhausted squad.
The forest finally thinned, but Connie showed no sign of letting up. He maintained radio silence until Danny slipped on a rock at the edge of a little clearing in the woods.
“Hold up. We’re gonna check this out.”
“What is it?” Pete asked.
Connie helped Danny to a crouch. With coilguns brandished, they crept into the open without offering a reply.
Joe moved up to join Pete and waved behind himself for Laura and Leisa to join them. Having kept close by, it only took a couple steps for them to arrive and make a miniature defensive circle.
No one needed to tell them to assume that position. Shoulder to shoulder, back to back, they settled onto their knees and each stared out into a different part of the forest.
Connie and Danny were off to Joe’s right making more noise than Connie usually allowed. A flash in the woods in front of Joe set him on edge.
The first breeze in hours stirred the forest, whipping through the trees. He saw the flash again.
Joe raised his coilgun and peered down the sight ready to fire. The others felt him shoulder the weapon.
“What?” Pete whispered.
“I dunno,” Joe said through clenched teeth, and refused to say more. He continued scanning side to side and caught the silver flash again.
“Come on out,” Connie’s voice erupted in Joe’s ear, and he nearly pulled the trigger. “It’s all clear.”
“So you say,” Joe mumbled to himself, and doubt crept into his head about Connie’s story about the communicator. He had said he couldn’t raise any other squads or battalion, but he seemed to have no trouble talking with his squad.
Maybe the two transmitters are wired differently, Joe thought, remembering the frayed wires. But he couldn’t ask the others a
t that moment. His companions stirred to follow Connie’s orders. Joe refused to move until the flash showed itself.
A stiffer breeze ripped through the trees, bending a shrub to the side. The long absent river exposed itself from behind the leafy curtain. As water tumbled over giant rocks, it flashed and shone like a mirror.
“It’s the river,” Joe said, finally answering Pete’s question.
“Where?”
Joe pointed to a wall of brush that had popped back into place when the wind had momentarily died. “Right over there. See the flash?”
“Not really.”
An impatient Leisa tugged on his arm and motioned off to the side toward Connie. “We need to move out.”
“I know. I’m coming.”
He pulled his eyes away from the tantalizingly close river only to hear Danny say, “The river’s up here. Feels pretty good too.”
Joe didn’t bother to tell him that he was closer, though he was eager to find out how good it felt. He hurried on with the others to find Danny and Connie perched on rocks at the edge.
Connie dipped his helmet in the water and dumped it over his head.
“Is it okay to do that?” Pete asked, no doubt as surprised as Joe given the complex electronics contained inside.
Connie kept his hair as long as the men’s regulations allowed, and sprayed Danny as he shook his head like a wet dog. “Sure. These things are indestructible. You can’t wreck the radio…unless, you know.” He ran his thumb over the gash on the side and shrugged. Turning his back on the others, he dipped his helmet full again.
“Try it,” Danny encouraged, and followed Connie’s lead.
The rest of the squad dropped their packs and carefully approached the water. It wasn’t quite worthy of the river name at that point seeing how Joe could’ve walked across the water in ten steps, though he wasn’t sure he could have made it without several good stepping stones.
The water running from the dark mountains seemed surprisingly clear, and spilled over boulders that had perhaps rolled down from the surrounding slopes at some point. Joe was certain there was some depth to the stream at least partway out. Clear as it was, he couldn’t quite make out the bottom.
The girls apparently put aside any qualms about joining the others in the open at the riverbank. After a long look up into the towering slopes above and being certain that no mustard-uniformed savages were watching, Joe stepped farther from the shade of the trees to the water’s edge.
He slid in between Leisa and Pete as subtly as he could, but drew a raised eyebrow from his friend. Ignoring him, he pulled off his helmet and flipped it into a bowl. Though he was skeptical, he leaned out over the rushing water.
“You sure you want to do that?” Leisa whispered.
“Say what?”
“You might wash out the minty smell.”
He fought back a chuckle. “I think that was gone a long time ago.”
“Don’t worry.” She winked. “I’ll sneak you a little more of the spray when you’re done.”
“Break it out now with the soap and wash up,” he said.
She motioned with her head toward the others down the line. “Sounds good, but then I’d have to share.”
“That’s true.”
“Besides, my pack is back by the trees.”
“Oh, well,” Joe said. “Here goes nothing.” In a smooth movement he dipped his helmet under the water and lifted it over his head. Water sloshed over the side, pleasantly cool on his fingers. At least that was a relief given the ambient temperature.
He nearly howled when the helmet dumped on his head.
“Man that’s cold.” He looked to Leisa with a goofy grin. “Try it.”
“I’m not so sure after that,” she said. Joe dunked his helmet back underwater and faked like he’d douse her. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
“You two done playing around over there?” Pete interrupted with a harsh whisper.
Joe bit his lip, wondering why his buddy was giving him attitude like Connie would. “Say what?”
Pete raised an eyebrow at Leisa, who gave a little mini-shriek as the water poured off her shoulder-length hair. “You know what I’m saying. That’s not, uhm…allowed.”
“What isn’t? Cooling off?”
“Fraternization, bud.” Pete looked to his other side where Connie had straightened up and was pulling on his pack. “You better watch it.”
“It’s nothing,” Joe said softly, but turned his head quickly to see if Leisa was listening to them. To his relief, she’d stepped back to her pack, and returned a second later with a small green plastic bottle he hadn’t seen before.
“Here’s the shampoo version of the mint spray,” she said. “I couldn’t resist.”
“Me, either,” Joe said to himself, thinking more about her than the shampoo, and couldn’t hold back the smile. “Give me a squirt of that?”
“Maybe.” Leisa poured a dab in her palm. “It’s awful minty. You sure you want it?”
“More than you could ever know.”
Leisa’s eyebrows rose to her hairline with that statement. Joe thought about taking it back but left it hanging out there between them. Connie came to his rescue, bellowing like normal.
“Hurry up, ladies. We can’t stay here all day.”
“I could,” Pete smarted off, growing bolder as the days went by.
“Keep it up and we’ll leave you here,” Connie growled.
Pete growled something that sounded a lot like, “I’d be better off.” Lucky for him, Connie didn’t hear it.
Leisa grabbed Joe’s hand and squirted a blob in his palm.
“You better hurry,” she said, and went right to work lathering her hair. Joe noticed the strong minty smell immediately, but that didn’t deter him. He scrubbed in the shampoo as quickly as he could and knelt at the stream to get a helmet of water to rinse. He was a little too slow.
“What’s going on here?” Connie yelled. He hopped off a rock and raced over to Joe. “We got some kinda hair salon goin’ on here? We doin’ manicures next?”
“No, sir,” Joe said through gritted teeth, and bowed his head. A trickle streamed down his brow, bringing a poof of suds to the corner of his eye. The shampoo burned. Joe had to wipe his eye with the back of his hand, drawing more comments from Connie.
“You’re smelling good now, princess. The savages will pick up on that stank from a mile away.” Connie smirked. “Think we can get back in the war now?”
“Yes, sir.”
Connie turned his wrath on the girls next. Leisa had shared with Laura right after Joe, and it was proving more difficult to get the suds washed out of their longer hair.
“Sorry, but we don’t have time for conditioner.” Connie stalked back over to Danny, and turned back with one last burst of insults. “It seems our citizen soldiers need a whole lot less citizen and a whole lot more soldier. We’ve got a bunch of sissies in the ranks. Next time you either man up or share with the group. So now we’re not sharing lunch with you.”
“I’d rather go without powdered slop,” Leisa said under her breath loud enough for only Joe to hear.
He nodded in agreement. His stomach could stay turned inside out. A bit of reconstituted wheat didn’t constitute a meal to him.
Rage built up inside him as he pondered the full meaning of Connie’s citizen soldier insult. No one could make him a soldier. He was no legionnaire proud of his country, not ready to fight and die for some grand ideals. There was nothing moral or majestic about overrunning the barbarians’ rock-strewn, inhospitable land.
The Republic could force a citizen into the Regulators, but that didn’t mean he ever wanted to be a soldier. Joe harrumphed, drawing a look from Pete.
Connie hopped up on a boulder so he towered over the squad. “We’ve wasted enough time. We need to be making tracks in the daylight while the savages are sleeping.”
Joe felt compelled to remind his sergeant that they’d been overrun at daybreak, but he knew what Co
nnie meant. There was an excellent chance the savages would follow the same game plan as the barbarians, which meant mostly adjusting troop positions and hiding out during the middle of the day. That made it prime time for the squad to get back on the move—wherever they were going. It didn’t so much matter to Joe as long as they avoided a fight.
CHAPTER 11
The squad stayed along the stream and made slightly better time. The tree cover thinned to the point where Joe could easily see through the vegetation into the hillside beyond. The farther they went, the steeper the mountains rose until Joe felt like he was a speck in the bottom of a massive, but narrow, canyon. The perfect place for an ambush.
The sun beat down overhead, heating the canyon to a boil. Joe kept his helmet on. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to hear the others as he wanted to keep the sun off his face. His cheeks were redder than blood, but that was from the heat, not a sunburn. Even after all the hikes and the rest of the time outdoors, any exposed skin would’ve fried under that glare.
The water remained tantalizingly close while Connie herded them without breaks like stubborn mules. He left Danny at the lead so he could drop to the back. The first person to break ranks for a helmet dip was Pete, and their sergeant came unglued.
“You’ve gotta keep moving,” Connie said, his breathing ragged.
“Why?” Pete said, hands on hips.
“I’ll ask the questions.” Connie leveled his weapon at Pete. “Now get back in line.”
“Chill, man.” Pete flung his hands over his head and backed away from the river.
“No one stops until I say so.” Connie spun around to address the stunned group. “I’m still in charge here.”
“Yes, sir,” Laura sounded off as the others remained quiet.
Joe looked on in shocked disbelief. He couldn’t get how Connie was telling them one minute it’s a hopeless mission, and the next he was driving them to the breaking point. There was no figuring the guy out, Joe thought. It didn’t help that no one knew anything about him.