“Fucking ‘ey!” yelled Silva.
“How can they not?” replied Chandra. “We have a hostile army waiting on our doorstep.”
If only they could return to whatever hole they came from, thought Taylor.
“You don’t seem convinced, Major? I’d have thought you of all people would want to see this through?” asked Chandra.
He nodded, but she could see he was not at all happy.
“What is it?”
He looked up at her as he chewed a mouthful of food and thought.
“I want to see an end to the war, certainly. I’d just like to see it without losing anymore friends.”
The table went silent. It was the one subject all thought about and avoided discussing. Taylor looked up at their faces, realising that he wasn’t being the officer they needed him to be. He felt shallow and selfish for having broken the mood.
“Ahh, don’t listen to me. My head’s spinning, and I didn’t really sleep. I’m rambling.”
“It’s in all of our thoughts, but look at them,” Chandra said as she pointed to the rest of the troops enjoying their meal and larking about. “They need what morale they have. Thinking what might become of us serves nobody any good.”
“I know,” he replied.
He already regretted voicing his bleak emotions so publically. He rubbed his weary eyes and looked up with a smile.
“I just need a coffee and all will be well,” he replied.
The post war conditions had led to stagnation and a time of uncertainty. They were rebuilding while the enemy still loomed over them. They finished up as the trucks arrived to take them onwards. Chandra looked to Silva.
“Sergeant, get them loaded up.”
He nodded in acknowledgement as he leaped to his feet, bellowing his orders that echoed around the area for all to hear. Chandra got to her feet and followed Taylor so she may talk to him alone.
“You okay?” she asked.
He turned and smiled but winced as it hurt his bruised face.
“Just a rough night, is all.”
“I can’t tell whether it’s peace you want or more war,” she replied.
“Either would be better than this, just to know where we stood.”
She nodded in agreement as they strode to the lead vehicle. Taylor approached to see that Eli stood there, ushering the troops aboard. She smiled at seeing him, and it was a welcome sight after the grim manner he’d previously been in. They climbed aboard and were on the move within minutes. It was a tedious journey to get out of the town as the drivers fought through the traffic and chaos, but they soon hit the open road. They were once again travelling in open country that showed no sign of the war that had passed it by. Farmhouses were deserted, and the trails of tracked vehicles through many of the fields were the only sign of the recent conflict. The snow was already beginning to cover over such sights.
“What’s our job in Reims?” asked Taylor.
“Same as usual. We are to clear all roads and repair where necessary.”
“Engineers work,” he replied.
“Sure, but there are too few of them to work alone, and these Reitech suits surely make light work of the job. Plenty of civilians have already managed to get back, but many of the access roads are still a mess. We’ll be working to the west and the road to Paris. Even the name of the city conjured up a wealth of images they all wanted to forget.
It was noon when they finally arrived in the city. Few soldiers were to be seen amongst the ruins. Many of the allied armies had quickly returned to their native lands after the enemy’s retreat. Much of the city lay in ruins, and few had managed to get anywhere near the centre. A single policeman ushered their vehicles down a rubble- strewn road until they could go no further.
Taylor and Chandra leapt out from the trucks to survey the scene and gasped at the sight before them.
“Shit, this isn’t going to be a quick job,” shouted Taylor.
Two tower blocks had collapsed into the road in front them, and the rubble more than ten storeys high.
“We’re gonna need help, lots of it,” replied Chandra.
The policeman strode up beside them and patted them on the back.
“Good to have you here.”
Chandra turned to him.
“We’re happy to help, but we can’t do it alone. We’ve got engineers and a few vehicles on their way to assist, but more than anything, we need manpower.”
“What do you suggest I do?” he replied.
“The people returning from the east, they want their homes back, do they not?”
The man nodded.
“Then I suggest you send them our way to lend a hand. We need the roads cleared and access and communication links restored.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Not good enough. I want all physically able men and women between sixteen and sixty that arrive at this city to report immediately to work detail here,” growled Chandra.
The policeman looked uncomfortable and shied away, but she paced forward and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket.
“Look, this work has to get done. I don’t want to be here anymore than the rest of my troops. This isn’t my country. We’ve fought and bled over these lands so that these people could return. Show some God damn back bone and get them to lend a hand.”
The man looked past the Major to the rest of the troops who stood beside the trucks silently watching him. He could see the distain in their faces.
“You will get no pity from us. We have been here from the day this war started and are still working. Get to it!” she shouted.
The officer turned and stepped slowly away towards the crossroads where they had first met him. Chandra looked at Taylor with an expression of utter shock and astonishment.
“You’d think we were an occupying army by the welcome we’re getting here.”
“These people are broken. We know we have homes to go back to, what do they have? They’ve been blasted back to the stone age,” replied Taylor.
Chandra sighed. “Still no excuse for slacking and bloody rudeness after all we have done for them.”
Taylor stepped up close and whispered in her ear.
“Take it easy on these people. They may not have had to fight on the frontline, but they’ve lost everything.”
“Not their lives,” she snapped.
“Plenty have. We still have no idea how many millions died in these lands.”
She took a deep breath as she calmed herself and took in his words of wisdom.
“When did you become the cool headed prophet?”
“When the fighting stopped. These people aren’t soldiers. They aren’t under your command, and they have lost all but their lives. We need their help, but the last thing they need is abuse.”
She smiled. “How you have come on, Major, so where has the marine gone that would have kicked their arses into action?”
She stepped past Taylor and patted him on the shoulder as a thank you for putting things back into perspective. The Company still stood silently awaiting her command. They looked miserable and tired, despite the fact that work had not yet started.
“This is one of the main roads to Paris. We fought and bled over that city once and have given everything we had to get it back! This wreckage stands as much as a barrier to us as an enemy army. Would you stand here and let it tower over us in defiance? Leaving this country to ruin is to accept defeat. Every street we clear, and every town that is re-inhabited, is a victory over our enemy!”
