She looked around at the camp, and huddled in on herselfto protect against the night's chill. She held her hands out to the fire."Yeah, I can see that."
"I can see it in you too," he said.
"What?"
"I can see that you're not a quitter. You've gotsome fight in you. You all do." He poked the fire with an old car antenna,sending a pocket of ashes scattering into the sky life a cloud of fireflies."You wouldn't have made it this far if you didn't."
"I don't know about any of that. I'm just trying notto get killed."
Sergeant Tejada chuckled a bit, a deep chuckle thatseemed out of place. "Trying to stay alive. Hell, that's the biggest fightwe got out here these days. I know a lot of soldiers that couldn't face it.They took the easy way out." Sergeant Tejada made a gun out of his fingersand held it up to his temple, pretending to fire. "These weren't nocreampuffs neither. These were the type of men that would walk into a firefightsingin' the Star-Spangled Banner. But when it came down to it, and the death ofthe world was staring them in the face..." Seargeant Tejada poked the fireagain. "...well, they found themselves not up to the task. So, when yousay you're not a fighter, I don't believe you. You're here. You're alive, andyou're going to keep fighting. And we'll keep fighting right along withyou."
A muffled gunshot rang out in the night. Sergeant Tejadastood up and dropped the antenna on the ground. "Excuse me, miss. I gottago see what the hell is going on." With that, Sergeant Tejada walked offinto the night.
Clara stared into the pit of the fire, suddenly feelingvery exposed in the night air. Above her, the sky was a dark gray, lit only bythe faint glow of the moon's light trying to penetrate the cloud cover above.She wrapped her arms around herself, and watched the dance of the orange lightin the fire's coals. Page after page shriveled and burned. She would catch aword or three as each new page was exposed for a brief second before it wasconsumed by the fire. Perhaps if she caught enough of them, she could predictthe future.
She was trying to make sense of the words, when a voicecame out of the darkness startling her. "Where are you guys planning ongoing?"
Clara jumped and jerked her head to locate the speaker.It was a young man, dressed in fatigues, his face smooth and youthful. He musthave been eighteen or nineteen-years-old at the most. "Jesus, you scaredthe shit out of me."
The boy just smiled. "Sorry about that."
Clara turned her attention back to the fire.
"So are you going to answer my question?" thesoldier prodded.
She looked at him and saw no harm in telling him wherethey were going. "We're going to the coast."
The man made a quiet whistle. "The coast? That's along way."
"Yeah, well, hopefully it's far enough away that wecan put this damned city behind us. At the coast, there's less people, sohopefully less of those things."
"You guys sure you don't want to stay here? We gotlots of guns."
Clara didn't quite know how to put it gently, so sheblurted out, "What good are guns without bullets?" She wished shecould take it back as soon as she said it, but the man across from her justsmiled.
"You think we're crazy, don't you?"
"I didn't say that," she replied.
"You didn't need to say it. It's obvious."
She looked up to the sky, annoyed by the youthfulprodding of the soldier. He was trying to lead her somewhere she didn't want togo, so she simply said, "I don't think you guys are crazy. I think you'rea bit unrealistic, but not crazy. I mean, what are you going to do when you runout of bullets?"
"We'll do what we always do. Improvise."
The cocksure nature of the kid's answer drove her nuts.She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to take him down a peg. She wanted himto realize that this wasn't all just some sort of twisted game they wereplaying. Before she could get any of this out, Sergeant Tejada's red faceappeared out of the darkness. "What are you doing over here, Carter? Goget some damn sleep. Your watch starts in four hours. I don't need you noddingoff at your post."
"Yes, sir," Carter said before disappearing.
Sergeant Tejada stooped down next to the fire, and pickedup the car antenna he had discarded earlier. He poked around in the embers ofthe fire before tossing another textbook in the flames.
"Everything alright?" Clara asked.
"Fine. Just fine. If an Annie steps on the bridge,then an Annie dies on the bridge." Sergeant Tejada pulled a cigarette fromhis shirt pocket. He lit it and then looked at her. "You want one ofthese?"
Clara wanted nothing more, but she decided to play itcool. "Why not?" Sergeant Tejada took the cigarette from his lips andreached across the flames to hand it to her. Then he pulled another from hispocket and lit it.
"I didn't used to smoke, you know. I just took itup." Sergeant Tejada fell silent. He puffed on his cigarette and blew thesmoke into the night air. It hung and wafted away from the campfire.
Clara measured her next words carefully. "You knowwhat you're doing is hopeless, don't you?"
Sergeant Tejada just smiled as his head drooped a littlebit. "I would never say such a thing." He looked around theencampment, as if to see if anyone was listening. "This isn't all abouttaking back the city. That is indeed an impossible task. This is about savinglives... the lives of my boys. I have fourteen soldiers here... fourteensoldiers so far from their homes that they can never hope to make it back ontheir own. They needed purpose, and misguided or not, I gave it to them."
"How long will that purpose hold them?" Claraasked before taking a heavenly drag of her cigarette, ignoring the fact thatthe butt was still somewhat wet from being on
