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36. MILITARY MISSION; Grocery Shopping In A Wilderness Of Mirrors.

"We have commandeered this part of the building," Thimiannh tells me, in the hall.

Eenunh and TInunh have gone in. He has come out. "We need to go out and get food. It's getting dark. Do you want to come with us?"

"Yes," I say, without thinking about it. I realize that I'll be leaving the girls. I want to tell them. I tell him.

"No," he says. He lowers his voice, sounds conspiratorial! "We're all going. Two of my troops will conceal themselves here, to see if anyone comes. We're not separating at any time we're here, any more than we have to. Bring your weapons bag!"

"Why did you ask me if I wanted to go, if we're all going?" I ask him, quietly. Was he going to leave me here if I said 'No'?

"Because you're the head of your family," he says. He smiles. "I want you to get used to being asked, and making family decisions. And... because... Soda told me to." We laugh. I give the chest hand salute. We laugh.

I go in, tell Eenunh the plan. Everyone gets their bags. On an impulse I open my pack-bag, strap on my corn-knife. I lay my two small knives at right angles, open my pliers, lay the little hammer across the handles, to detect it if anyone disturbs it. I don't mention it to Eenunh.

Seeing my coin bag, I bring it, bulky, heavy, but hopeful I can spend some of it. I've wrapped different denominations in gray paper, wet it to hold the coins in rolls. The night I did mine I started to do the girls' coins too, but they were more efficient so I stopped and played guitar while they wrapped coins. I remember that night, at home, comfortable with... my family. It seems... long ago, far away.

"Eenunh," I say, "I'm bringing my coins. All my coins. If we get a chance to spend them we should."

"Neh!" she says. I get kisses for my good idea! LOL She tells Tinunh, and Soda.

We go out. All the troops are in the halls. I do a head count. One to the right, at the turning point of the hall. I look back down the empty hall, one at the turning point there. Six here. Two behind us, two ahead, one and Thimiannh. I wonder where the missing two are concealed. I know two are out with the trucks.

We go up the ramps, and the troops stand aside, inside. Soda leads us out on the top floor of the parking garage.

"Step over here!" Thimiannh commands, and Soda and the girls and I do, hiding behind the ramp structure. I can't see over the parapets for a long way in the distance. We're six floors up, rooftop level. I see other parking garages on each side at the other entrance, and another one across the entrance below us.

The drivers come out, go at a run to the trucks, get in the back doors, leave them open, start the engines. Eenunh leaves us, at a run. She'll be driving. The three trucks pull out in the usual formation, ours in the middle, stop out toward the middle of the floor aimed toward the vehicle ramps. The drivers flip up the passenger gull-wings.

Thimiannh, comes out, behind one of his commanders, followed by the other. They go at a run and hop deftly in the gull-wings, all the other troops on their tails, hopping one after the other into the backs of their assigned trucks. We run, me a little less efficiently, perhaps, and jump into ours. I turn to close the doors but one soldier is coming in behind me! He closes the doors.

We're rolling! Trucks down the ramps, too fast to suit me!

"Everyone arm up!" Thimannh commands. We do, rifles strapped over our shoulders. "Safeties!" he commands. We all check; safeties on.

We turn left at the bottom of the ramps, take the exit opposite the one across the courtyard where we came in. There's no guard check for us leaving. There's a guard shack on the other side of the entrance, like the one where we came in. Traffic is pretty heavy on the street, the loop. They defer to us, let us out, in convoy.

The lead truck turns right, starts cruising slowly around, with the flow of traffic. I'm looking ahead and behind at the streets, people walking, cars parked and driving, store fronts, just what you'd expect in a city!

Hey! There's a fat guy! First fat Emoilihn I've seen!

We pass the entrance we came in. There are people on the sidewalks, lots of cars; quitting time! Everyone's going home, home to family, to rest, to renew for tomorrow. Colorful clothes, women's handbags, purses, shoes

Ahead I see two white trucks pull out from the right curb ahead of us. Our friendlies? The lead follows them and keeps circling on the loop. We've been all the way around this building. We're coming back by the exit we just came out of. I'm looking out the front window and see the damage to the building. Out the back I can look up and see the vertical strip of damage. There's no other damage to the building; just this one section. They must have hit it with artillery in several places to bring it down, accurately in that one spot, that one place where Entemannh sat having breakfast with... his wife, his baby daughter asleep in another room. An assassination! It was carried out with horrible efficiency, collateral damage be damned!

Two white trucks come out of the side street across from where we came out, crowd into traffic, pull in behind our back unit. Friendlies. I'm sure of it. And unsure of it, I ask, "Are those our rescue people, ahead and behind, again? Two trucks."

Thimiannh says, "Yes. These are the people from out in the woods. And some of them are deployed out around us, on the streets, using the loops to stay close to where we are. We planned this excursion, another test for treachery. We may get attacked. They may go in our rooms. We're testing everything we can to get a feel for who's on our side and who might be plotting against us."

I suspected that!

"We simply commandeered that space" Thimianh explains, "the apartments. We didn't ask anyone. I told the guard at the gate. He just took my command. I'm sure he reported it. We're not invisible here. They know who we are, and where we are. We just need to find out who THEY are. And that means just doing what we have to do, and seeing what they do. We need groceries, supplies, so we'll make this one trip out, hopefully stock up for three days. The hearing is tomorrow. It may only take one day. If it takes more than three we'll stock up again."

I tell Thimianh of our coins. He approves. Soda shakes her bag, loose coins. I don't mention my bag being much fuller, tips people dropped into my guitar case.

Our convoy goes southwest at the next arc-road, crosses two loops, to a large building, big parking lot, lots of cars, trucks! We park as close to an entrance as three trucks can. Our friendlies deploy nearby, two close to an entrance off the road. One truck faces in; the other faces out. They're not real... obvious about being together. I like that. I feel secure. I see the other two trucks finding places to park south and north of us. We park. Three guards stay with our trucks, inside, concealed. Seven come in with us. We're all armed. I wonder if its wise, obviously attracting attention. But I figure they know, the people who make it their business to know. Inside, we're not obvious at all, men, women, in civilian clothes, in uniforms, most are armed. Damn! Ready to fight at a minute's notice, I figure, and that worries me, that they can't be sure when an attack might come, and so being alert all the time is just a way of life. The Terror Wars aren't over; just on pause.

There are bins, canvas bins, on wheels, to load things in, shopping carts. Three teams of two take bins and disperse, armed with shopping lists, one on each team is reading aloud to the other. One soldier stays with Thimiannh.

Eenunh takes a bin, walks beside it, guiding it with her right hand. She throws her shoulder to reset the strap of her rifle. Tinunh is looking around.

"I remember shopping here!" she tells her mother. I drop back, let them have some mother-daughter remembrances.

"This is harder than I thought it would be!" Sodaensus declares, quietly. Thimiannh doesn't respond. I don't know what to say. It's stressful. We've been awake a whole bunch of hours. I'm fatigued.

"I appreciate your help, Soda," I tell her. "This is an ordeal and you're having to go through it with us. I'm sorry to... put you through it in... your condition."

"My baby will be stronger for it!" she declares, laughs. She wraps her arm around Thimiannh's. I let them go ahead, trail behind, looking at the food goods. I see produce ahead. I'll get a few fruits. There are nuts! Woody shells. Several varieties. Earth nuts are said to be good sources of minerals! Someone checked and found that out a couple hundred years ago. Then they kept harvesting the nuts away from the ground they grew on, hauling away the minerals. Someone checked the composition again and found they weren't as good a source for minerals as they used to be. Plants can't make minerals. They have to find them in the ground where they grow. Little dirt-searchers, they find minerals and hand them up to you. I can't search dirt. Can you?

I'm bagging in gray paper bags, abundant nuts, the variety, twenty-one yellow fruit, hoping my coins are enough. I'm doing the math, sure I can afford things. I put them in Eenunh's bin. She's letting me. There are cloth goods. There are some silky ladies handkerchiefs. I select two for each of my girls. Mirrors! They're cheap, hand held mirrors, for ladies. I get sixteen of them! One for each female in Thimannh's milita group, Eenunh and Tinunh, and three for Eevannh and Tinunh's other friends. I remember The Machinist's girls and get three more. I look for bigger mirrors, see some, but they're expensive. I'm doing the math!

Soda is looking at a yellow dress, and a yellow suit, coat and pants. It will be so becoming with her green skin! I hope she buys them.

The troops are back, bins full of things. We go up a few more aisles behind Thin Man and Soda. She's buying the yellow dress and the suit! She picks out a white blouse, shiny material. And, passing a section with tiny clothes, for babies, she buys handfuls of gowns and onesies and booties and socks, and diapers! I throw in a couple more bundles of diapers, cloth diapers, in our bin. I'm sure I can afford it. The Throw-Away commercial model of petroleum plastic doesn't exist here. Cloth diapers are the only way.

We go to the checkout. I pull my things out of Eenunh's bin, put them in handbaskets there, go into the line. I lay things out, do the math; yes, I can pay for this with a few rolls of coins. Plenty. I hand the clerk the rolls. She looks at them, tears them open on the counter, quickly and efficiently counts and hands me back some. I have to fish out a few smaller coins, and the transaction is complete. There are gray-paper boxes to carry things out in. We gather at the exit, wait, and go out. Our truck is secure, the store exit a little distance away from where we parked and went in. One truck of friendlies is nearby, pulls out trolls along with us on foot. We load up, roll. The friendlies lead us out, come behind. The second trucks are not obvious ahead or behind.

Traffic is far less, most going the opposite direction, away from the center of the city. Soon we're back, go in the entrance we came in first. The friendlies drive on by. The guard waves us through. We go back to the garage, park with our back doors close to the ramp structure this time. And unload.

In the apartment the girls cook up a delicious meal. There is wine to drink, blue, green, and brown bottles. I try the brown. Each has a different flavor. I knew I liked the blue, better than the green, but I like the green too, so exploring the brown was an easy choice. We all sit back, just a few minutes, not much conversation, and all stand and head for bed as if by signal. LOL The very thought of laying it all down is sleep-inducing.

We shower in the bathroom, great water pressure, good pulsing shots, pounding on tired muscles. Mirrors! I come out, start to put on underwear. Eenunh's naked, and stops me, tosses them on the dresser, climbs under the blanket naked.

Good night. Good good night.