X-mas Blues

Another lonely ape started hanging out at the dog-park.

The holidays are tough on everyone.

Death Face

We painted our death faces and sharpened our knives. I may have looked like an evil clown with a Kabar, but I was ready to face my doom.

Radar weren't born up here, but he took to our ways. Whatever they did to him Underground was just as bad to the things I seen up Dirtside. His eyes were painted red and black teardrops on his cheeks marked every man he killed. He was awful upset about Jackie and he wasn't planning to come back without her.

The cloud-girl looked at us like we was insane. Ain't no way we could explain that this might be our final battle, and we was ready.

Campfire Chat

I approached the fire to reheat my rations. I came up to one of the squad, cleaning his rifle near the fire. I dropped my tin on the coals at the edge of he fire. He had been alternately refered to as goat-lover and crap-face, so I wasn't sure how to address him. I vaguely remember him being Libyan. He spoke first, in French.

"Lieutenant, may I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"I love my rifle. She is a Lee-Enfield Type 4 Mark 1. I found her near El Alemain after the English retreated. She was the most beautiful rifle I had ever seen."

I looked at the rifle. The woodstock had been stripped and refinished. The barrel was evenly blued and unblemished.

"My uncle taught me to shoot with his Turkish Mauser. After the Germans came I stole a German Mauser. There were good guns. You could shoot straight with them and reload quickly. But they were not my Enfield."

He turned to me and smiled. His teeth gleamed brightly, reflecting the fire.

"Her name is Veronique. We have killed many Germans together. When the fighting stopped in the dessert, I took her back to my village. I took her apart and stripped the lacquer from her wood. I restained her with Khalesh oil... it is a vegetable we grow. The blacksmith resurfaced the steel. She is the most beautiful rifle of her kind."

I shifted a bit, nodded, pulled my tin out of the coals, and started to eat.

"The Sergeant calls her Avril to try to annoy me. He is a pig-lover, and stupid besides. He is jealous of the great love we share."

At this point I resigned myself to riding out this conversation. Veronique's man was either insane, or pulling my leg. I was determined to show my patience and/or sense of humor.

He smiled again.

"You are a good man, Lieutenant. I hope you find a gun you can love someday."

He put down the barrel brush and oily rags on a cloth and inserted the bolt back into the rifle. He rolled up the cloth and gently stepped through the camp back to his tent.