Trepidation | Trepidation Trilogy | The Empty World Sequence

Twenty-Four

Claudia looked through the fence and saw a group of American soldiers in their basic uniform of olive, which was less treatening than the several versions of camo and battle dress she had seen them wear since the battle. They left her view, as they passed through the gate and Claudia noticed them again as they walked toward the tribe's camp.

      The soldiers and various civilian contractors that worked on the base were often stopping by. Since hearing testimonials from the soldiers who had witnessed the Battle of Danube Valley and the efforts of the Goth, the base commander had allowed them to camp only a short distance from the fence. The soldiers who had time to themselves were allowed to leave the base to go into the camp as they liked and some of the Goth were allowed within the military base.

      The various merchants within the tribe had been quick to set up their displays and, now, most often it was trade the people came from the base to do. They were American or German, rarely of other nationality but married to an officer and living on base. Younger soldiers, particularly the Americans, were newly stationed at the air base and wanted gifts to send home. Sometimes, they just wanted to chat up the prettier boys and girls of the tribe.

      There were both men and women on base. German and American military had male and female soldiers that trained together and shared assignments. Claudia supposed the majority thought of their fellow soldiers as teammates, and civilians as potential lovers if not friends alone. American guys in particular would spend hours standing around talking to Helena or Sascha. She was back to her old self and quite flirty.

      Claudia had not been around so many Americans, except for the short time she had visited America. They always had nicknames. They were Joey, Pat, Tony, Fin, or Dan. Sometimes, the names made little sense, except to imagine them names by reference. The little guy called Sinatra had pretty blue eyes, the guy named Cheeks had been put on KP after being caught "mooning" a rival barrack. Sometimes, they had militray nicknames such as Serge or Chowmeister. Somehow, a man with the fine name Randolph was called Ray Ray.

      Justin had been to the fence once, since being in the base hospital. Claudia had not seen the inside, but John and Elzbieta assured her it was impressive inside, with American and German "mad genius doctors" inventing replacements for every part of the body, and new ways to repair existing parts. Justin had regained use of both eyes though his left pupil was permanently dilated. They were greenish, sometimes blue.

      Justin said Elzbieta was just as pretty as he imagined, and that he'd had no idea Miko was so young. He was allowed to stand at the fence for a while, met people who had been voices before. "I'd seen you on TV before," he said to Claudia, "but you look younger in person."

      They were working on his ear now, Justin still hadn't left the base, though Elzbieta had been allowed to visit. She talked about him constantly. Clearly it was love, the way she thought everything he did or said was hilarious or romantic. Elzbieta said that he had survived because, after being knocked out by the explosion that temporarily blinded him and crippled one ear, apart from burning parts of his left side, another of his platoon had been shot, while still off balance from the explosion, and fallen on top of him. Morbid, but being beneath his dead friends had sheltered Justin from the further spray of bullets and flame.

      Elzbieta did not speak fluent English though she basically understood it, and so her retellings of things Justin said sometimes lacked clarity. They certainly had schools in Poland that taught the language and even though there had been technological stagnation, they had still had rebroadcast of some British and American shows that were subbed rather than dubbed, but Claudia suspected Elzbieta's lack of fluency was due to the fact that she watched very little television and used the café computers only for researching Polish literature. Claudia gathered, from what Elzbieta had understood and repeated, that Justin's superiors would discharge him from his further obligation to serve due to the considerable loss to his sense of hearing.