here until the pickup. We’ve got water and some food. The entrances are secure. We just need to sit tight and wait.”
“Makes me wish I’d brought some cards with me,” Cannon said. He burbled up some phlegm and shot it out at the throng below just as if he were ridding himself of a cherry pip. Turning back from watching the spit’s descent Cannon caught Cahz’s eye. He said, “We do have one problem, boss.”
Cahz turned back from his companion and looked towards the service entrance that led back into the building. “Yeah, I know. Elspeth.”
“She’s gonna turn.”
“I know.”
“You know what needs done,” Cannon said, his voice betraying none of the emotion behind the issue.
Cahz only nodded. It was normally Cannon who was the quiet one, but Cahz sensed he wouldn’t leave the question.
“Lieutenant?” Cannon pushed.
Cahz knew Cannon was nervous. The big man was almost always in control always, confident his sheer strength could get him through. But Cahz knew the man was uneasy the minute he stopped referring to him as boss.
“I know, buddy. I know,” Cahz said. “I’m not going to ask you to do it.”
“It’s not that,” Cannon replied. “I’ll do her if you ask me. But when?”
“She wants to wait until she’s gone. I can respect that, but you’re right, there are issues with that. Do we lock her in a room? Set watch over her?” He turned to look his friend in the eye. “Do we cable-tie her to a radiator? There’s no good way to do this.”
“There never is,” Cannon said. “But it needs done.”
Cahz could see Cannon was waiting for an answer, a nice clean plan of events. All he could tell him was, “I don’t know, buddy. I guess we talk to her and Ryan.” He slapped Cannon on the shoulder again. “We’ll work it out.”
Cannon stood stoic and unmoving. Cahz sensed that the friendly pat wasn’t the conclusion to the matter he’d wanted.
In the deep pause that followed, Cahz couldn’t even see Cannon breathe.
“What is it?”
“The child?” Cannon said.
Cahz’s shoulders slumped as he thought of the angelic looking child. The soft pink skin framed by the grubby swaddling and the infected welt running the length of the left-hand side of her face. He let his hand slip from his friend’s shoulder.
“I’ll do them both,” Cahz said, looking down at his carbine. As he gazed at the slick black metal he couldn’t help but see the faces of the people he’d killed. Since the Exodus from the mainland, he hadn’t needed to administer the coup de grace. It had been years since he’d last been called upon to administer a mercy killing or watch over a friend to prevent their return. But all that time didn’t diminish the clarity-the look in their faces as he pulled the trigger. He’d forgotten the names of many of those he’d dispatched, but never the faces. Some of them cried. Some wore false smiles to try to help make it easier. And the ones who he’d guarded until their resurrection, in a way they were the easiest. He wasn’t shooting a human being. With their pallid skin, gaping maws and their vacant eyes, Cahz was destroying a monster, not the person they had once been.
“You ever read
“Nope,” came Cannon’s short answer. “Why?”
Cahz thought back to Candy’s dog being shot.
After a moment he said, “It’s not important.”
Ryan was pacing up and down, rocking the baby, when Cahz and Cannon returned.
“She won’t stop crying,” he said.
Elspeth lay on a camp bed, apparently asleep even with the racket. Cannon unconsciously walked round to cover her, just in case her sleep turned into something more permanent.
“The infection?” Cahz asked.
“No, I just think she’s hungry,” Ryan said. “It’s way past her feeding.”
“You didn’t bring any baby food?”
“Well, no, I didn’t think to. I threw on some clothes and grabbed an armful of Molotov cocktails. That was it.” Anger started to rise in Ryan’s voice. “I didn’t think any of this would happen.”
“Okay, fair enough. None of us thought today would turn out the way it has,” Cahz said, trying to diffuse the antagonism.
“Is there some powdered milk in that ration pack?”
Cahz looked down at the army issue meal. He hadn’t expected to open it so soon, and besides, was there any point feeding an infected child?
Cahz berated himself for having such a callous thought. “No, there’s not,” he said.
Worried that Ryan might doubt his honesty and expose his emotional bankruptcy, Cahz slung his weapon and sat down on a crate. He unfastened the pouch Bates had given him and slipped out the insipid khaki brick of plastic. Printed along the top were the words ‘peelable seal’. Cahz ignored the advice and pulled his knife from its scabbard. Although the packs were supposedly designed to be opened by hand, the only man Cahz had ever seen do so was Cannon and even that was as part of a bet to see if anyone could. Cahz placed the tip of the knife to the wrapping, but before he pierced it he read the batch number.
“Shit, Cannon, this thing’s only a year out of date!” he called out enthusiastically.
“Where the hell did Bates get that from?” Cannon asked. “I’ve never seen a single Post-Rising MRE.”
Cahz slashed open the packet. “Crafty little bugger. Do think he’s been hoarding them or does he have contacts off ship?”
Cannon shrugged.
Cahz spilled the contents onto the crate lid beside him. An assortment of different packets slid to a halt. “What can we give the kid?” he asked as he spread out the contents like a pack of cards.
Cannon reached down and picked out an item. He stretched over and passed it to Ryan.
“A dry cracker?” Ryan said, puzzled as he read the label. “She can’t eat a cracker.”
“Mash it up in a cup with a little water or chew it like a mama bird. Either way it’ll do for now.”
Ryan looked at the packet and then back at Cannon. “Okay,” he said sheepishly, realising how sharp this otherwise dumb-looking marine had been. “Will you hold her while I…”
“Sure,” Cannon said with a surprisingly kind smile.
“Anyone mind if I snaffle the gum?” Cahz asked, holding up the tiny red film bag with two solitary chiclets.
Neither of the other two men objected as Cahz tore open the packet and popped the contents in his mouth.
“Whoa there!” Cannon called out suddenly.
Both Ryan and Cahz froze. Cannon was staring at Ryan crushing a handful of crackers.
“Don’t waste them all,” Cannon said.
“But she’s hungry,” Ryan countered.
“Well mash up a bit at a time. There’s no point wasting them if she won’t eat it.”
“He likes the crackers,” Cahz explained.
“How else are you supposed to eat the peanut butter?” Cannon’s look was strangely serious. Evidently he actually was looking for a genuine suggestion from Cahz.
“Could you not just suck it out of the tube…?” Cahz’s lacklustre suggestion trailed off as he noticed Cannon’s stern look.
“Ali made a great Thai Satay with a jar of peanut butter and some canned coconut milk.” Ryan paused for a moment, looking at the ceiling. “At least that’s what he called it. Real spicy but nice. He made it a few times until we ran out of something. Couldn’t say what it was but it wasn’t right after a while. Maybe the coconut had
