Starcross

Chapter Twenty-One

Alpha Line – Section Five

Frederick, Colorado

 

            “Here it comes boys,” O’Quinn announced, watching the sun rise in the East. “Everyone look that way.”

            James reached up to his helmet and dropped the tinted safety goggles construction workers wore over his eyes. He got the idea in Loveland when debris kept getting in his eyes and they cut through a hardware store as they fled an ambush turned bad. At first he thought he was a genius but then he saw a picture of a soldier wearing them in an Army recruiting poster and felt like a fool.

            Though, it was still a good idea and now the whole squad, most of the platoon really, wore either tinted goggles or tinted glasses.

            Nick, who just woke up, blew his nose in the dirt that surrounded them, then wiped his nose on his fingers.

            James watched the whole disgusting routine. “That’s gross dude.”

            “Well excuse me,” Nick defended through a yawn. “I don’t carry around a handkerchief like it’s eighteen-fifty.”

            In response, James took his handkerchief, a white linen square, from his breast pocket and dapped the corners of his mouth. “You’re just jealous because I look good.”

            “Yeah, you better with that redhead following you around.”

            Adam dropped back into the trench line then, coming back from the latrine ditch. “What I want to know is why she’s following you. Why not…I don’t know… me?”

            “Cause you’re not a sad sack. Unlike our lovely James here,” Nick explained with a pat on James’ shoulder.

            “I don’t really consider myself a ‘sad sack’,” James said, sitting on the top of the trench to pull off his boot and dislodge a stone that bothered him all night.

            “He’s right.” Adam pulled a Slim Jim out and was busy fighting with the wrapper. “More like a tragedy case.”

            James had replaced his boot and was now too focused on retrieving his breakfast, a pack of breakfast biscuits wrapped in plastic that the Lions Club had baked up for the troopers so they weren’t forced to eat cold chili and cornbread, to reply. The day the lines were fully formed they came out and gave everyone a large Ziploc bag filled with biscuits, Slim Jim’s, dried fruit, and various hard candies. It was a nice touch and went along way supporting the men and women protecting the town.

            Nick, now squad leader, saw O’Quinn wave him over and weaved his way through the man-made crevice to see what the NCO needed. No one really wanted the job because Douglas was a pretty decent guy and no one wanted to insult his memory by replacing him; but Nick being Nick took the promotion graciously and did the job respectfully. Actually they were still awaiting reinforcements that were supposed to assigned from the fresh recruits but so far they had yet to come.