by AJ Rose
“I got plenty of stamina, Sarge.” Donnie grinned through a bite of bread. “Not to worry.”
If it wouldn’t have landed him in the middle of his plate, Chris would have thumped his forehead to the table. Unexpectedly, he was saved from further innuendo by Roger carefully setting his tray beside Ness.
“This seat taken?”
“Is now,” she answered. But she finished her drink and stood, her plate only half empty, carrying it to the dish station to bus it. She didn’t offer an explanation for her abrupt departure, which wasn’t like her.
Donnie whistled. “What’s her problem?”
“Her problem isn’t your business, Corporal, so finish your food in silence,” Roger snapped.
“Is that an order, sir?” Donnie asked, squaring his shoulders unconsciously, like a good soldier.
They knew Roger shared their rank, but as a team, he was Ness’s right hand, and most of the time, the rest deferred to him out of respect for her choice. He did have seniority, which put him above them in line for the next bump up the chain anyway. That he hadn’t received that promotion yet was only a matter of time, and then he would outrank them.
“Just fucking eat,” Roger said wearily. “I’ll check on her later.”
Chris was surprised. Normally, he didn’t think of Ness as having problems beyond the job, and the job never made her bitchy. If she’d had personal issues in the past, she kept it so well under wraps they all forgot she hadn’t been born in uniform, giving a smart salute.
The rest of the meal went quietly, the murmurs from nearby tables keeping them company more so than each other. When dinner was done, Chris left the mess tent to clean his gun, noting the sun had already sunk behind the mountains.
He sat on on his rack with his legs crossed, the weapon in pieces in front of him, a polishing cloth in hand and a gun cleaning kit on his knee. When Donnie came in, he flopped to his bunk and watched Chris for a minute, chewing on a toothpick and looking deep in thought.
“What do you think is going on with Sarge?”
Chris shrugged. “If we need to know, she’ll read us in.”
“I don’t think it’s orders.”
“Then I really don’t know,” Chris said. He didn’t want to wonder about Ness. She was their rock, the one they all leaned on, and if she had difficulty, who would hold them together?
“We’ve all fallen apart at one time or another,” Donnie said speculatively. “Except her. It’s not fair she doesn’t get the chance to flip out if she needs to. She should be able to expect us to catch her.”
Chris’s cheeks heated, as though Donnie had read his mind and refuted his concern. “You have a point,” he conceded. “And if anyone is going to fall apart, a massive attack on our home soil could certainly do it.”
“I don’t think that’s it, though,” Donnie said, lying back on his elbow and crossing his ankles. They kept their voices low, not wanting anyone else in the barracks to overhear and think less of Sarge. “She’s steady as a rock on assignment. I mean, even in that cave in Afghanistan—”
“Classified, Donnie,” Chris interrupted. They shared security clearances, but not everyone in the room did.
“All I’m saying is she’s the one who keeps her head, danger or no danger. She was built for this life. If she can save five lives, including her own, because she’s quick to recognize and solve problems, what is big enough to be eating at her like this?”
Chris leveled him with a droll look. “Eating at her? She left dinner a little early without saying anything to us about our next orders or what we could expect. That’s not a sign of something eating at her. And we have a three-day pass, so why would we be getting orders or prep instructions now?”
Donnie shook his head. “When was the last time you saw Ness show emotion like that?”
“She shows emotion every day.”
Donnie scoffed.
“She does,” Chris bristled. “She’s got determination, common sense, an iron will, and she gets annoyed, just like the rest of us. Those are emotions. Well, maybe not common sense, but the rest are.”
“A happy emotion,” Donnie clarified.
Chris frowned. “I think she’s happy being here, doing her duty, and leading a team of the most kick-ass people in service. If she doesn’t squeal or get all shrill and screamy like a lot of girls, then bonus for her and for us.”
“What happens to us when she’s not happy anymore?” Donnie asked.
Chris hadn’t considered that. “She does her job until she moves up, and we get a new team leader. One of us gets bumped, and we pick up a newbie. We get farmed out to other teams. Who knows?”
“What happens if you and I get split up?” Donnie said hesitantly, as if the very idea didn’t deserve words to give it weight.
“We get split up then,” Chris answered, an uncomfortable roll of his stomach making him queasy.
“Just like that,” Donnie said in disbelief.
“What are we supposed to do?” Chris demanded. “Break orders? We go where we’re told. Do I want to split from you? No, I’d rather cut off my arm. But don’t go borrowing trouble, Donnie. Ness would have been a hell of a lot angrier at dinner if they were scattering us to other teams. She wouldn’t stand for it.”
“When you’re done there, do you want to go get a drink?”
“Where?” Chris wanted to know, surprised by the quick subject change. “We can’t exactly hit up local bars.” The army had a tent on deployments responsible for soldier morale, welfare, and entertainment. Being deployed stateside wasn’t a morale-suck like the desert had been, but soldier morale was priority number one after basic survival needs like food were met. However, due to the mix of military and civilians on this base—even segregated like they were—interest in mingling was heightened. Non-personnel were separated by manned checkpoints, so the college kids couldn’t exactly walk into the Rec Tent and get a beer before they were of age, but many of the soldiers were finding ways to sneak off with civilians. Case in point: Donnie.
“That girl you bumped me into, Cami, has connections. She knows a place where there’s cold beer and maybe some action. I’d give about anything for a cold beer.”
Like I want to watch you get your rocks off again.
“Come on,” Donnie pleaded upon seeing Chris’s hesitation. “Are you still pissed at me?”
“I believe you were the one pissed at me that day.” That day needed no explanation.
Donnie sighed. “I was concerned about you. I miss my friend.”
Chris could have ignored any other words Donnie might have said, but not that. “Me, too,” he admitted.
“Then go with me. Maybe Cami has a friend you can hook up with, too. It’ll be like home.”
Donnie was extending an olive branch, and his declaration of wanting his friend back was probably as good an apology as Chris was going to get, even if he wanted to snarl at the hook up suggestion. His lips twisted up in a grin.
If I go, maybe I can keep them from sneaking off. “Yeah, sure. Lemme finish this up.”
A few minutes later, Chris stowed his gun and put on a fresh t-shirt and his BDU pants, fastening his belt as Donnie tossed his shoes to him.
“I think you’ll like her,” Donnie said, excitement clear in his words.
“Who?” Chris knew perfectly well who.
“Cami. She’s pretty funny.”
“She’d need a sense of humor to want you,” Chris jabbed in amusement, trying to find their balance again. The balance they’d had before he’d had a flash of doing decidedly more-than-friendly things with the big man.
“Har har. Hurry up.”
They double timed through the base to the civilian side, and when they reached another barracks, Donnie stood at the door and called out.
“Cami? Hey, you ready?”
“I thought she lived in the dorms with the other civvies,” Chris murmured.
“She gave up her room to a family with a baby.” Donnie shrugged. “She and her friends
all came out here instead because they’re part of the class that maintains the solar field. They’re helping HQ getting it modified to run the base.”
Great, she’s pretty, funny, kind and smart. “Oh,” was all he said.
Once Cami and two of her girlfriends emerged, Donnie gave them a proper introduction, and they moved to another housing block where three more guys joined them. Chris didn’t catch all their names, but he figured the night was young enough, they’d say them again.
Instead of leading them toward town, where Chris had guessed there was a bar with a generator, Cami’s group pointed themselves toward the reservoir. Coming upon a large shed along the banks, one of the guys took out a set of keys and opened it to reveal a six-person golf cart.
“This is for carrying equipment to the solar plant up the road, but they let us have access because we help maintain the building.”
That didn’t make much sense to Chris. “I thought gas was rationed.”
“Cart runs on electricity,” the guy whose name might have been Mark said. “Shed’s rigged for solar power, and the cart plugs in when not in use. Clean energy for the win.” He grinned and clapped Chris on the shoulder. “Let’s go have that beer.”
“Two of you are going to have to find laps,” one of the girls said, slipping into the middle of front seat.
“No problem,” Cami said, perching herself comfortably on Donnie’s leg.
Chris scowled but hid it when another girl, LeAnne, gestured to his leg. “Mind if I sit on your lap?” She was cute, with a pixie haircut and a bow-tie mouth that was stretched into a flirty smile.
“Go for it,” he said as generously as he could. Someone on the other side of Donnie shoved in on the three-person wide seat, pushing Donnie into him. Sitting hip to knee would have been fine, but it left nowhere for Donnie to put his arms, so he wrapped them around Cami’s waist.
“So how long have you been in the army?” LeAnne asked, twisting sideways to find a more comfortable position to talk to him as they motored to a road circling the north point of the reservoir. It was a route Chris had run in the early mornings, though once they rounded the point, they turned onto a dirt lane he hadn’t noticed before. It led into the foothills beside the reservoir, and the incline had LeAnne leaning back into him.
“Seven years,” he answered.
“Wow, you don’t look old enough to have been in for that long. Do you mind me sitting like this? We’ll level out soon.”
“No, you’re okay.”
Behind Cami’s back, Donnie grinned at him, though it was hard to see in the shadows. The sun had set, but the sky wasn’t yet black, and there was just enough light. Chris couldn’t find it in himself to smile back. To cover that fact, skimmed his brain for a question for LeAnne.
“Are you also an engineering student?”
“Environmental studies,” she answered. “When they get classes back up and running, and I can get my degree, I’m betting the job market for me is going to be choice. This blackout couldn’t have happened at a better time.”
Chris bristled, telling himself she hadn’t been faced with the damage the outage had done. Sure, she’d been displaced from her home, but she wasn’t too far from it, since the camp butted right up on CSU property, and while she was fit, she didn’t look like she’d had trouble getting food in her belly, like some of the people they’d run across in the sweeps. Like Slink.
He flinched when the married couple who’d killed themselves flashed through Chris’s memory, the woman’s swollen belly full of future and promise, snuffed out because of fear. Next came the two widowers in the mountains who hadn’t known what they’d be facing upon returning to their homes, who’d already lost their wives but stood to lose everything else. Even the couple who hadn’t wanted to leave their fixer-upper briefly surfaced, and Chris couldn’t bring himself to play off her flip comment.
“Maybe you’ll be able to come up with something to help the families who’re going through hell in this blackout so it never happens again,” he offered as nicely as he could.
Her smile faltered, and she nodded solemnly. “If I could do something that valuable, absolutely. But I think that’s more for the engineers. I can help them study the impact of new technology on the environment, but I don’t know that I’m mechanically inclined enough to build something like you’re talking about.”
“That’s why we’re here,” a guy from the front of the cart piped up. “We’ll build it, she’ll make sure it doesn’t kill our planet, and people don’t have to leave their homes to go live in shitty college dorms and eat FEMA disaster food ever again.”
“That’s the idea,” Cami agreed. “If they’d just keep teaching us, that is.” She seemed grumpy about her interrupted education, and Chris thought she sounded like an entitled brat. Of course, the fact she’d laced her fingers through Donnie’s at her waist could have colored his opinion. Possibly.
The cart jolted to a stop, and LeAnne had to throw her arms around Chris’s neck at the momentum change. He steadied her and then scooped an arm under her knees and one behind her back to lift her off him as he got out of the cart, wanting out of the cramped quarters quickly.
“My hero,” she giggled, taking the gesture the wrong way. He wanted to get away from her, not grope her.
In front of them, a trail began with scrubby brush and a few rocks standing stoic along the path. The fact that LeAnne and Cami were both wearing sandals didn’t lend to there being a strenuous climb ahead. Maybe they had a cabin up here or something, solar powered like the shed, where they had a cooler. If that was the case, he hoped there weren’t any beds.
He won’t have the chance if I don’t let him out of my sight. His earlier thought about sticking to Donnie like glue solidified into a plan to totally cock-block him at every opportunity, and Chris meant to carry it out, starting with drinking a couple beers and loosening up. He always got affectionate when he drank, and this was his chance to take advantage of that.
They trooped up the trail for a couple minutes, stopping in front of a large rock resting against a giant boulder. He squinted into the deepening night to see how this wasn’t a dead end when the first of their group disappeared around the side of the rock. As they filed after, one at a time, Chris realized they were being led into a tunnel. Someone struck a match and lit a propane lantern he either hadn’t noticed or had been stashed in the tunnel, and they walked several feet through an opening that widened into a large cavern about the size of a restaurant dining room. Dotted around the sides and along a couple natural rock shelves were the accouterments of a college party crowd. A beer funnel and tubing, a keg tub, and the pièce de résistance, a small dorm fridge attached to some kind of device as small as a backpack that held an electrical plug and looked like an old ’50s style barrel vacuum cleaner. The mini-fridge was plugged into it.
“Who wants one?” Possibly Mark asked them all, and there was a chorus of me’s around the room as he opened the fridge door and revealed two lit shelves full of Coors Light. Not Chris’s first choice, but hell, he hadn’t had a beer in so long, his mouth watered as cans cracked and hissed around the room.
“Oh my god, that’s so good,” Donnie groaned, drinking deeply. Chris’s cock took notice of the moan of pleasure.
“Hits the spot.” He smacked his lips. He’d have finished his beer in a few gulps if it wouldn’t seem rude, chasing the buzz he wanted, but he paced himself along with the other guys, who were more casual about their consumption.
“If you’ve been in the service seven years, when did you join up?” LeAnne asked, touching his arm.
“Eighteen. Right out of high school,” he answered but offered no more. These were the last people to whom he wanted to explain his desperation to leave his drug-addicted mother.
“Why army? Why not marines or navy?” she pressed.
“Recruitment office was closest,” he answered. And on the bus route.
“What about you?” Cami sidled up to Donnie and th
readed her arm around his waist. He draped his arm over her shoulders and smiled down at her.
“Same.”
“Have you been in combat?” one of the guys asked.
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“What’s that like?” LeAnne asked, her eyes widening as her hand strayed to Chris’s arm again and stayed there.
“Hot,” Chris answered, draining his beer.
“Sandy,” Donnie said.
“So Iraq or Afghanistan then?” concluded the astute guy who’d brought up combat. “My brother was there.”
“Oh, really?” Donnie said with interest. “What branch?” He didn’t answer the question, though.
“Marines.”
They gave the guy respectful nods. He didn’t elaborate on his brother, so they didn’t pry. But leave it to a vapid woman to reduce their service to a competition because of her own interests.
“Meet any local women while you were there?” Cami asked.
Donnie coughed. “Classified.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “How long have you known about this cave? It’s pretty cool in here.” The night was nice, but having been without air conditioning for a few weeks during the warming spring made Chris notice the temperature difference more than normal. Air conditioning was the thing he’d missed most in hot, arid Afghanistan.
“It sort of gets passed down from the seniors in my frat to the next class when they graduate. No neighbors, natural soundproofing. It’s perfect for parties. These hills have whole systems of tunnels,” Possibly Mark answered. “They’re all over, but this one’s closest.” He settled on the floor within reach of the fridge and passed out another round of beers.
“Anyone ever get lost?” Donnie sat, curious. Chris hurriedly dropped beside Donnie, but it didn’t matter. Cami sat on his other side and hung on him.
“There are rumors of past frat pranks, leading pledges through them to find buried treasure or going snipe hunting.”
“Snipe hunting?” LeAnne said with a delicate frown.
A couple of the guys snickered. “We’ll take you sometime,” they offered, and she started to nod. However, idiotic as Chris thought her, he didn’t see the point of embarrassing her.