Page 30 (1/2)

Other topics: the status of the rescue and ing operation (code na) What news froround bunker, because obviously the ene down here and it’s only a et the standard-issue reply: Co Our job isn’t to worry about strategy and logistics Our job is to kill the enemy

8:30 PM: Personal time Free of Reznik at last We wash our jumpsuits, shine our boots, scrub the barracks floor and the latrine, clean our rifles, pass around dirty um We play cards and bust each other’s nuts and complain about Reznik We share the day’s ruainst the silence inside our own heads, the place where the never-ending voiceless scream rises like the superheated air above a lava flow Inevitably an argu away at us We know too ie of eighteen? What happened to all the adults? Are they being taken somewhere else and, if they are, where and why? Are the Teds the final wave, or is there another one co, a fifth wave that willabout a fifth wave shuts down the conversation

9:30 PM: Lights-out Time to lie awake and think of a wholly new and creative way to waste Sergeant Reznik After a while I get tired of that and think about the girls I’ve dated, shuffling them around in various orders Hottest Sot to They start to blend together into one girl, the Girl Who Is No More, and in her eyes Ben Parish, high school hallway god, lives again Fro place under ainst rief I will trade rief for the spirit of vengeance

"Zoet in the bunk next to hts-out," I whisper back

"I can’t sleep"

"Close your eyes and think of soainst the rules?"

"Sure you can pray Just not out loud"

I can hear hi, the creak of the metal frame as he flips and flops around on the bunk

"Cassie always said my prayer with me," he confesses

"Who’s Cassie?"

"I told you"

"I forgot"

"Cassie’sfor me"

"Oh, sure" I don’t tell him that if she hasn’t shown up by now, she’s probably dead It isn’t up to me to break his heart; that’s time’s job

"She’s promised Promised"

A tiny hiccup of a sob Great Nobody knows for sure, but we accept it as fact that the barracks are bugged, that every second Reznik is spying on us, waiting for us to break one of the rules so he can bring the hahts-out will earn all of us a week of kitchen patrol

"Hey, it’s all right, Nugget…"

Reachingthe top of his freshly shaved head, running ertips over his scalp Sissy liked for et likes it, too

"Hey, stow that over there!" Flintstone calls out softly

"Yeah," Tank says "You wanna get us busted, Zo over and patting the o to sleep, okay?"

The ? If Reznik pops in for a surprise inspection, I’ll be peeling potatoes for a ainst s them up to his chin

"What prayer does she say with you?" I ask

"‘Now I lay me,’" he whispers

"Soet’s face," Duht shining in his big brown eyes Sissy’s locket pressed againstlike twin beacons in the dark Prayers and promises The one his sister made to him The unspoken one I made to my sister Prayers are promises, too, and these are the days of broken proh the wall

"‘Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep’"

He joins in on the next line

"‘When in the ht I wake, teach me the path of love to take’"