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45. NORTHERN TREACHPITALITY; Animal I am.

The snow gets deeper, in places, drifts, the further north we go. The deeper it gets, the slower we go. At a toilet break Thin Man assigns the soldier to take over driving. I get to sit with Eenunh, Tinunh, and Soda.

"Lay down," Eenunh insists. I do what I'm told. I entertain them with groans, saying, "Oh lawd! Let them old people lay down!" Eenunh puts her fingers on my lips, signal to shut the hell up! I squint through tired eyes, see her smiling down at me. A kiss. Too tired to kiss back. Road weary. Miles. Miles and miles. Miles and miles and miles.

I feel as if I could sleep. I lay quietly, eyes closed, let the hum of the engine and wheels sooth me. I hear the girls talking but don't know what they're saying. Sleep comes.

I awake with a start! There's... excitement in the voices!

"Where did they go?" Thimiannh is asking.

"I don't know!" the soldier replies. There's anxiety in his voice.

"What happened?" Soda inquires.

"In the trees we lost sight of them. We had to slow down to negotiate shell craters or... something... snow-covered obstacles in the roadway," Thimiannh says. "There were soldiers and commannh at the side of the road and they directed us to bear right through that. We're still on the same street. I think another truck got in front of us and went slow, weaving left and right around obstacles in the road, holes and lumps under the snow. Then, it sped off. I thought it was ours until it sped away. And we followed the track in the snow, and saw them again, or saw that one truck, and then they sped away again."

I sit up! It's dark, not totally, but dark. I feel a literal pain in my ass! I am afraid!

"Are we there?" I ask. Is this Casah Garibe?" They tell me it is. I needed the sleep.

"We're still following the track," the soldier says. "But... is it their track? We should be able to see them now, in this curve. They should not be so far ahead that we can't see them! Our people would not have left us so far behind. There's only one track. I don't think two trucks could make one track so consistently."

I can see the snow isn't very deep, maybe six inches. I can see the long curve of a street, like in Costaramannh.

"Are we in the city? Are we in Sagribe?" I ask again. "Yes!" several voices answer.

Tinunh is popping clips into rifles! Eenunh is too. Soda grabs for a weapons bag. Thin Man is reaching into his. I reach for mine. Tinunh squeezes past me, a moment's eye contact, her hand on my shoulder. She goes forward and pops clips in two rifles in the soldier's bag. I find the only bag left on a shelf behind me and open it. Two rifles, two clips. I feel for the clips I put in my coat pockets in Costaramannh, still there. I pull each one out and look. The flechettes are there.

"Should we stop?" the soldier is asking. "Should we go back? Look! These tracks are not our forward escort and our lead truck! This is a single vehicle that ran through here once. It looks like a new track in fresh snow! This is..."

Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip!

Something is hitting the left side of the truck!

Splinters of the white material fly in from the left and richochet off the right side!

They're hitting high! I hear impacts lower but no penetration!

"Everyone low!" Thimiannh yells! The girls are down before I can think! I fall on my knees, spin to face the back doors!

Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip!

Suddenly the truck lurches to the right!

"They've hit the tires!" the soldier yells. "I can't steer!"

We stop! Everyone falls forward. We're up! I'm at the back doors! I peep, and duck! Peep! Duck! I don't see much of anything in the dim red light. It must be early evening. The Sunstar must be below the overcast.

Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip!

"They're hitting the back door!" I yell. No penetration!

I need to piss! Really need to piss!

"We need to get out of here! Out of the truck, into that house... those ruins on the right!" Thimiannh is saying. I can't see what he's talking about but trust his judgment!

"We need to go out this gull-wing, all of us, and get cover!" he yells. Thip-Thip is blowing holes in the side of the truck again! "Bring everything! We may have to spend the night out here! Your bags may stop a flechette! We need to go in stack-up, one after another, to that wall! This may be a trap! They may have pinned us down here to get us to come out! They may be waiting. But we need to go now before they have a chance to improve their position! The truck is no cover! Is everyone ready?"

I'm not ready! No one is ready! We all strap our pack-bags and weapons bags around our necks, left and right. We're ready! Each person falls in behind the soldier, now in between the seats, and Thimiannh still in the passenger seat. Soda is in front, Eenunh, Tinunh... and me.

The gull-wing goes up! Thin Man is out! The soldier, out! Soda, Eenunh, Tinunh... out! Out! Out! I struggle between the seats, my bags snagging!

Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! I throw my right leg out, bust my nuts on the window sill! Fall! Get up! Run!

I see all of them leap up onto and over the wall of a ruined building! A porch roof is collapsed down over where a door might have been in the middle! There are windows, on each side, no roof.

The wall looks about four feet high! I run to it, slipping in the snow, know I can't leap it! It's five feet high!

I run right where the corner of the building is broken down, sling myself back, in through that corner, fall hard on broken rock! I hear the 'Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip!' of flechettes whiz through the air, hit the wall! I feel debris, hear it hit my coat, from where flechettes hit the wall! I roll onto my belly, elbow crawl out of a room into what was once a hallway. There are doorless doorways at my right and down the hall to my left!

I belly-crawl down the hall, look to my left, see Eenunh's back through a wide doorway, once the foyer of the house, Tinunh against the door in the wall they leapt over.

"Gary!" she says, reaches toward me.

To my right, a hallway back through the center of the house, toward the back of the ruin, I see Soda, following the disappearing legs of Thin Man, or the soldier, going back to my right, the left side of the ruin!

"Eenunh! Stay there! Keep your position! If they come over the wall you've got them! Tinunh, watch your mother's back! If they come from the sides or behind..."

Eenunh turns! Even in the dark I can see her face is terrified! She calms. It's... a transformation. Her beauty... ruined by terror... restored in grim determination... ruined by that as well. I watch the golden irises flicker, fast, furious, curious.

"I'm going to try to flank them outside to the right of you!" I tell her. Soda and Thin Man went to our left! If it's better back here to keep moving away, I'll come back for you!"

"Agreed!" she says. "We're in a good hole here, cover on three sides. Go! If... we have to leave from here... we'll be making for the center of the city, the Government complex. If... we can't find you... try to go there. Gary... I... I love you! I love you!"

The prospect of being separated terrifies me! I turn, go, before my face betrays me.

"Eenunh..." I say, choking. "I love you. Tinunh..." Thip! Thip! sounds from somewhere, hits... somewhere.

I elbow crawl down the hall, through the snow to where I saw Soda and the legs. I don't see them to my right, a hallway, a doorway to the outside, no door. There's a strong smell of burnt wood. There's a back door, no door. I go left, down the opposite hallway, toward another doorway, no door. The floor is filled with loose debris under the snow that hurts my elbows, pelvis, ribs and thighs. The bags are cumbersome. Where the door once was, leading out into the weedy yard, weeds stick up through the snow about six inches deep. There are dark bushes, a small copse of large pine trees. There's another ruin over there, the house next door. The dim light is getting darker. I look to my left. There is a low stone wall out along the snowy road. I see the front of the truck.

There's a shape! Moving there! By the driver's side tire! The tire is flat! Behind it I can see space between the bottom of the truck and the snow, someone crouched there.

He sidles forward, peeps out around the bow! I can see his butt and legs below the bow of the water-truck.

I point my rifle that way but can't aim at him! He goes back! I see his feet as he moves down the driver's side!

I get up and run for the bushes! I'm there! Down!

The bushes are thick, leaves still on them, some kind of succulent, thick green leaf. No protection from flechettes, but... cover. I can see through the bushes in places, keep my cover.

I work on out a few more steps, to where I can see the whole truck, front to back. He's back by the front tire! I aim! He moves back, stays there! It's getting darker. I aim at the place where he might peep out again, take a deep breath, exhale, inhale again, exhale. I breathe normally. He comes! I can see his lower back! I inhale, lightly, hold, and fire!

Thip-Thip!

He flops out face down onto the roadway!

I hit him!

He struggles to get back over behind the tire. He doesn't get fully behind it, just his head and and torso. He's on his belly! I see him from the waist, the hips down, legs twisting left and right in the snow. I could inflict another wound, firing through the snow a bit! I wonder if I should. I wonder where I hit him! I aimed for the small of his back, the big target. How bad a wound do these flechette rifles make? Are they... humanitarian, designed to wound, but not necessarily to kill? I have no idea.

There's another man! He's coming across the road! I aim but he's down beside the first one before I can get ready.

Another one, off to the right, coming across the road! I aim! He's coming right at me! I fire! He goes down! He thrashes to his left, back to his right! He's wounded, but not dead.

I... decide... he should be... dead. I aim.

He stops for a second... sitting on his butt... and I fire, aiming at his chest! He jerks, pitches backward! Lies still! I turn my aim back to the two by the truck. I can only see the legs of the first man. Where's the other one?

He comes from behind the truck running toward the wall of the house like the girls did!

"Eenunh!" I yell! "One coming!"

I stand up, aim over the bushes at his head bobbing above the wall! I fire! I can't aim!

He leaps up on the wall on the other side of the fallen porch roof!

I hear the 'Thip-Thip!' of many flechettes!

His? Eenunh's? I don't know!

I add my own fire at the red-rimmed, dark silhouette on the wall!

He falls, lands on the wall, falls off! I can't tell if he fell outside or in! He would have fallen into the room I came in, the corner room! I worry about my girls!

No more sounds of shooting! Silence.

I don't know what to do!

The sky is black now, a light maybe reflecting off the snow on the air, the overcast, low, light reflecting off the snow, showing the slate gray cloud.

I move further out along the bushes to a new position, cover by a pine tree trunk, take aim at the legs on the road, fire! I see snow fly up, by the legs, but no movement in them, just from the impact of the shot. If... he was alive, that would have hurt!

I watch, looking all around me, across the road, to my right, behind. It's getting too dark. The snow silhouettes everything. Everything looks like somebody crouching, hiding, waiting. I need to piss!

I hear Thip-Thip somewhere to my left, where I think Soda and Thin Man went. The sound is a little distant.

I need to go out a little more, get more angle on the place where the girls are. The... enemy... seem to be focused there. They know where we went. How many more are out here? I think of the squads of sixteen who poured out of our escort trucks, tight stackups, ably securing a location with eyes up, guns on.

Are these even soldiers? They might be civilian gangs. Hell there could be thirty of them!

I hear Thip-Thip across the road! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! I work to my right, forward along the bushes. I'm aware my own movements may be silhouetted on the snow. The bushes and evergreen trees overhead may offer some shade, some cover. There's another ruin next door. That first place looked like a house, the floor layout, five doors, front, back, two on each side. This looks like it was once a neighborhood of houses. I see two doorways on the side, a door hanging on the lower hinge, can't see down the hall.

Movement! Two! They're coming across the road! I open fire! No hits! Moving targets! I should have waited!

"Two coming, Eenunh!" I yell! They turn toward me!

Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Flechettes whisk through the air, through the bushes! Leaves fly!

Targets coming at me, instead of across my field of fire! I inhale, lightly, hold, aim... Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip! Hit! Turn! Thip-Thip! Thip-Thip!

A hit!

A hit! They're down but still moving! One's trying to crawl back across the road! I aim for his torso... Thip! Thip! He stops. The other one isn't moving. I fire another double round into him! He doesn't move.

More Thip-Thip off to the distant left. I hope Soda and Thin Man and the soldier are sending rounds and not receiving them!

I scan the other side of the street. There's always one more son-of-a-bitch than you counted on.

And there he is!

He's in a ruin on the other side! He peeps out of a broken doorway, ducks back. Peeps again. Ducks back. I'm aiming for his next peep. When I see movement I fire! He falls! He wasn't peeping but moving back into the ruin, to reposition or escape. I aim, put another double-round in the darkness where he fell.

"Gary!"

It's Thimiannh! Off to my right!

Scared the hell out of me! I need to piss!

"Thin Man!" I reply.

"Lay for a while!" he says. He's not yelling. I can't see where he is, somewhere to my right, inside the building by the sound. The side door there, like in the one where my girls are. "Wait and see if more are there."

"Neh!" I say, in a spoken voice, not yelling. I'm scanning the landscape.

He speaks again, his voice near enough to hear, even though he's really quiet, saying,

"Did you see where Soda went?"

"I saw her go off to our left," I tell him. "I saw legs ahead of her. I thought it was you. Must have been your soldier. When I got back there they weren't in the building."

I hear distant Thip-Thip!

Off to our left. Somewhat more distant, I think. They're moving.

"I think that fire is them, on down the street somewhere!" I tell him.

"I... I need to go to her!" he says. "Can you hold this position?"

"I can try," I tell him. "Go." He comes out of the ruin to my right, practically duck walks across the yard, past the bushes, and hustles to the doorway I came out of. I only glance away from the street to see him make that crossing, afraid to take my eyes off the ruins across the street.

"Eenunh and Tinunh are by the front door of this house!" I tell him.

He stops there, inside the ruin. I take my eyes off the street to glance at him, back to the street. I glance again. He's gone.

I want to know Eenunh and Tinunh are okay. No soldiers have crossed here after that one, but... what if...

He was up on the wall, could have pumped rounds in before he fell, could have gotten in, still deadly! Can I risk moving? I have a bit of a view off to my right on the curving road, a narrow view off to my left behind the truck, past the corner of the ruin the girls are in. The truck's in the way for a large space. I listen. I listen. I scan. I scan. I let my eyes blur, hoping I can spot movement.

There! Something moved! It's at the right rear corner of the house across the street! That house has part of a roof on it, there in the back. The movement was at the right rear corner. I'm watching. I don't see anything there now. I can see the left front corner of the house just past the front of our truck. I'm watching, watching, watching, eyes left, eyes right, eyes on the door where I saw the other guy. Maybe this is the same guy. Maybe I didn't hit him and he went out the back.

There!

He's running from the left corner toward the truck! I can't see him! The truck's in the way!

He doesn't stop, comes behind the truck, running for the wall!

"Eenunh! One coming!" I yell in English! Wish I'd yelled in Emoilihn! No time!

I stand, aim over the bushes, see him leap up, fire, many times, spraying inside the ruin! I fire until I can't see him! I got six sets of Thip-Thip off but he kept coming! He got over the wall! I run back into the ruin, stumbling on broken rock or bricks in the snow! I turn down the hallway! I don't see him! I don't see Eenunh, Tinunh! The foyer area is dark! I keep coming, crouching, weapon ready for close quarters conflict! I get to the front hallway. I peep around the corner! Duck back! There! He's crouching on the floor in the hall outside the corner room where I came in! Silhouette against the snow out in the yard! He's facing away!

I pull the trigger! Nothing happens! I pull again! Panic! I grab under my pack-bag, trying to find the handle of my corn-knife!

He's up! He's turning! His weapon hits the wall! He's coming! I'm on him, grab the barrel of his weapon as he comes down with it! Push it to the wall! Thip-Thip sparks on the wall, richochets down the hall!

I pull my corn-knife and hack at him!

He blocks me with his left arm! I hold the barrel of his rifle and pin it against the wall! He fires! More flechettes richochet off the wall, Thip-Thip! sparking on the surface! I hold tight to the barrel! He's strong, even with one hand!

I hack again! Cut his arm! He turns away! I hack at his neck and and left shoulder! Hit! Hit again! He's down!

I... know... Eenunh... has come... is there... behind me! I turn to flatten my face and chest against the wall! Grab the barrel with both hands, lift it skyward!

I hear Thip-Thip! from behind me!

He falls back, to his left, against the wall, falls forward, hitting the opposite wall on his face!

I raise the rifle up as he drops to his knees! Thip-Thip! It fires once more into the night sky!

Eenunh has put two in him! She's leaning against my back. Puts two more! He doesn't move. I untangle the strap of his rifle from around him, put it over my own head. I look back. Eenunh has gone.

I clean my blade in the snow, green blood, on white snow. I sheathe it, look at the corpse. I feel my knees tremble. Eenunh is there, her hand on my back. When I turn, she's gone again.

"Eenunh?" I speak, normal voice.

"Neh! Gary!" I hear her voice. I fear the tremulous sound of it. I move toward her, in the 'good hole' she was in. She's there! Tinunh's face, still crouching, back against the front wall, grim little face, no fear. Tinunh peers out the door, still in place, where I can see the snow in the yard, to the right of the fallen porch roof. She shifts to that side, peers out to the left. Looks back at us.

"Are you hurt?" I ask, in English, and hear Eenunh ask, "Are you hurt?" in Emoilihn.

We're not hurt! Now, what to do? Should I get back outside, hold this position as Thimiannh asked? Should they stay in their hidey-hole? I feel like we should move. I don't like the thought of others still out there, or reinforcements coming. But it's all unknown. If we leave here...

Our truck's got two flat tires, left front and right rear. It's no good. I don't know if we have a spare, but even one wouldn't get us rolling again. We were following a track in the snow. These bastards have a truck here somewhere.

"What should we do?" I ask. I tell her what I've just told you.

"I don't know where we are," she says. "How far into the city are we? I think we crossed four loops. There could be four more, if it's like Costaramannh. If we go out in the open, they could be waiting anywhere. It's dark. It's cold. I don't know what to do."

Tinunh stands up, actively listening, not to us, but over the wall.

Eenunh looks at her, looks at me. "I think staying here any longer is a bad idea. We need to find Thimiannh and Soda, and the soldier. We need to all get back together and decide. Or we need to go on without them. Let's go looking for them. Then we'll decide."

"Neh!" Tinunh says.

"Agreed," I say. I go to the dead man, search his pockets, no clips, some coins. Since I have them in my hand I take them, put them in my pocket. He has a paper in his breast pocket. I hand it to Eenunh. It's too dark to read it. He has a knife on a belt. I take it, cut his belt, slip the sheath off, put it in my pack-bag. He has what feels like some soft food in gray paper in his coat pocket. I take it. He wears a toboggin. I take it. I see the first guy's rifle. It fell in, barrel down, but against the corner where I came in. He fell out that broken hole. I take it. With two more rifles strapped around my neck, hopefully with plenty of rounds still in their clips, I feel well armed.

The girls crouch and move past me, back through the ruin, go the way Soda went. They stumble on debris under the snow. I back to that point, eyeing the wall, out toward the road. This could be a vulnerable movement. I... fear... greatly. I need to piss!

The girls are waiting at the doorway on the left side of the ruin. There's another house there, another ruin, no roof.

"Let's go around the back of the house," Eenunh says. "Look! There's the tracks Soda and Thimiannh left. That's the way they went!"

"Yes!" I say, and with that they go! I follow, eyeing across the street. Tinunh reaches the corner of the other house, stops and aims her weapon out toward the street! Eenunh goes to the back door, weapon pointed in. I come and pass Tinunh. She comes behind me, passes me and Eenunh. I take Eenunh's place, aiming into the house, as she goes on to TInunh. We go to the far corner, repeat the relay process, follow the tracks in the snow. We cross the open yard, go behind another house, follow the tracks. Soon we're at an alleyway, the alleys that run down the middle of the space between the curving streets. The tracks go to the right, away from the center of the city. They go into the back door of a house with a roof! I don't like this. Rooms. Places to hide. It's the same layout, a five-door house.

"Look, Eenunh!" I tell her. "I can see three sets of footprints. This is our people!"

We go through the house, quietly, stopping, listening. Tinunh leads, peeping and ducking back at doorways. The front door is standing open. We gather there, Tinunh aiming back through the hallway we've come through. We see the tracks in the front yard, three sets, going to a hedge by the road, positions left and right, then on out. We can see from there they cross the street we came in on, go into the yard there, a slight rise. We all look at each other, and go! At a run! Cross the open space! We're noisy! The tracks go behind the houses, turn back toward the ambush site. We can see them along the back of this house and the next one. The snow is soft, frozen grass beneath it making occasional crunching noises. We move as stealthily as the snow allows, Eenunh setting the pace. Tinunh steps in her mother's footprints. We relay from corner to back doors, to corners, across between houses.

A truck! The back of a truck, parked between a couple houses up, about across from the ruin where we took cover. Between two houses ahead I see our truck, the bodies in the road. I see the guy who fell back off the wall, face down in the snow.

"There! Eenunh," I say, "behind that house is a truck! There may still be attackers with the truck! Let's... let's get off to the back of the yards. There's an alley! We can see the tracks from there, but have some cover behind the walls if they start shooting!"

"No!" she says. "Let's stay with the tracks, close to the houses. Thin Man stayed here. If they shoot we can get into or beside or out in front of the ruins and have some shelter!"

"Agreed!" I say, deferring to what I hope is a better plan.

"There's someone moving on the road!" I say. I watch a man... a soldier... And Thimiannh! Soda! They're heading for the truck! We move quickly on, making more noise than I'm comfortable with. We're at the house where the truck is. I call out before I can see him,

"Thimiannh!"

He calls back, "Gary!"

We come from behind the house with the partial roof as they come in off the road.

"I need to check something!" I tell Eenunh. "I think I shot one in here." I go back to the second building, duck under a partially collapsed roof, and see him there by the front door, dark stains on the snow. I put another double-round in him. Thip-Thip! He doesn't move. I go through his pockets, remove all I find there. Another piece of paper. I take his rifle. I go back out the way I came. Everyone is on alert. They heard the 'Thip-Thip!'

"Can we take their truck?" I ask. I hand Thimiannh the paper. Eenunh hands him the other one. The soldier is in the truck. The engine starts. We move to the back, get in, close the doors, pull them as quietly as possible. Click! Click! We're rolling. Thin Man and the soldier put their gull-wings up, rifles at the ready. Soda leans her back on the back of Thimannh's seat, her rifle barrel out the opening! Eenunh does the same behind the soldier. I think about opening the back doors, decide against it.

Out on the road we roll what seems slowly through the snowy street, avoiding lumps of debris under the snow. There's no track ahead of us. It's scary, moving slow when I want to speed away from here!

Soon we cross a loop and we're in a section where the snow has been cleared from the road. They close the gull-wings. It feels warm in here by comparison. There are cars in driveways, parked on the street. There's no light in the houses, but the sidewalks have been shoveled. At a loop there are trucks moving both ways. We keep going, intersect with loops, on, on in. Soon we see the Government complex, like the one in Costaramannh. The soldier drives all the way around, comes back to the main gate. The gate is closed. Soldiers come out. The driver's and passenger's gull-wings go up. Thimiannh speaks to soldiers on both sides. They talk excitedly! I hear them say,

"Your escorts came and the lead truck came in, and went straight out the other side! Your people went back out to look for you!"

They apologize for our situation. They open the gates. We roll in, stop just inside. They close the gates behind us. I fear another ambush, keep my weapons bag around my neck. So does everyone else. A soldier walks in front of us, us rolling, points to a ramp to the right, goes to it, runs up it. The boys put the gull-wings down. We go up the ramp. At the top, second floor, inside, we park, back in for quick getaway.

We get out. There are Blueboys there, Greenboys, Brownboys, male and female. They offer to take our bags. Thimiannh and Soda let them have their luggage. I don't want to let go of anything. I stay laden. Eenunh and Tinunh do too. The servants accept that. We're led into the hall, down just a few doors. It's warm in the hall. They open an apartment like the one we had in Costaramannh. We all take the rooms like we did there. We're close to the front gate, second floor. I'm not sure if I feel safe down this low. I liked the third floor in Costaramannh. But we're close to the truck if we have to run.

The Blueboys offer food on the table. It is steaming, warm, smells good. We all go to our rooms, come back out. Our soldier is sitting at the table. Tinunh comes, tells him,

"There's a room at the end of the hall. I'll go in with my mother and... father."

"I'd rather have the first room here, closer to the door," he says. "I'll take a first watch here in the living room. I'd rather try to be close to the door, with you folks on down the hall. Leave your doors open so you can hear."

Thimiannh nods, "Neh! I'll take the second watch."

"I'll take the third," I volunteer. I'm aware of my fatigue.

There's a knock at the door. The soldier, armed, goes to answer it. We all stand, rifles ready.

The soldier salutes. A man comes in. He is older, white hair at the temples. Uniform.

Thimiannh goes to him. They exchange salutes. They go out in the hall, our soldier going with them. I go to the door, listen. He's telling them we are secure here. Thin Man expresses doubt. I hear the man say his soldiers will guard our truck and the hallway. He says he'll have troops secure every hall on every floor, and a broad perimeter out around the complex. I expect Thimiannh to tell him it's not our truck. He doesn't. I hear the man ask about 'The Alien'.

They come back in. I am introduced, "Gary E. Andrews, Ass Oomam!" Thimiannh says. I reach to brush fingertips, hold my rifle in the crook of my left arm. The officer eyes me, looks at me like one might look at an animal... and animal I am. I don't understand the pronunciation of his name. I get the impression he outranks Thimiannh.

"Ass Emoilihn in Sagribe are eager to see you," he says. "And to hear your music!" He grins. He seems genuine.

I reply, in Emoilihn, "I am eager to see them!" I don't mention what now comes foremost in my mind. I did not bring my guitar out of the truck when we were attacked. It's back there, somewhere. We continue to exchange pleasantries, and he goes.

Our soldier says to Thimiannh, "Sir, I'll still take a watch, and I think we should stick to some element of our own security, until we're more sure of people here."

"My thoughts exactly," Thin Man says. "As we said before," he points at us in turn, "First watch, second watch, third watch."

"I'll take a fourth watch," Eenunh says. "We can all get some sleep. Let's eat. Let's get to bed. We need to work tomorrow, to find out where our people are. To find out who attacked us. We need to go back and get Gary's guitar. We need to do what we did in Costaramannh, get out, let ass Emoilihn see us. Gary needs to play. The music is more entertaining to them, lets them see him, see us all in a gentle way, that we are just like them, just want what they want, life, freedom, happiness. We need the people on our side. They need their fears allayed about us coming up from the south."

We go. We take our weapons bags, pack-bags, and go to the back bedroom. Tinunh climbs on the bed, to the middle, and is out immediately. We're not far behind. We fall into bed. Dirty, not even a splash of water on our faces. Eenunh reaches over Tinunh to touch me. I touch her hand, she grips mine. She is asleep in moments.

Casah Sagribe Garibe, the Cold Sagribe, lives up to its name.