Interrupted Journey

Chapter 9 - Saga

It had been quiet, ominously quiet, for a couple of days now. For the last few months we had been seeing people on the road every shift and there had been at least one half-hearted attack every day. For two days now, though, we hadn't seen anybody.

It was frustrating to be stuck down here at the bridge when there was so much work to be done on the farm. We knew we were losing crops because of the lack of manpower to tend the fields but, given the choice between being overrun today and starving tomorrow, there was only one rational choice we could make.

Towards the end of the shift, Mike wandered down to the bridge and, after noting the quiet and checking we hadn't been abducted by space aliens, he asked me to join him in the guard cottage when my relief arrived.

"What's up?" I asked as I strolled into the cottage. There was a pot of Jimbo's tea under a tea cosy so I risked a half mug and, preemptively wincing, took a sip.

"Nothing much," he answered, throwing himself onto the sofa that took up one wall of the small room. The squads are getting a bit cumbersome and I think we need to split them into platoons. Move Samson, Laura and Jimbo up to Sergeants.

"So that will make you a lieutenant... or probably a captain, won't it?" I said, testing the limits of my military knowledge.

"I was hoping to go for something like colour sergeant," he answered grimly.

"As I understand it, that doesn't really describe the job you're doing, does it?"

"There's no point in discussing this with you, if you're just going to use logic," he grumbled.

There was a knock on the door and Laura marched in. She saw me, shrugged and marched up to Mike.

"Permission to report, Sarge!"

He sat up and gave her a quizzical look then moved across to his desk chair to give the meeting the formality she seemed to be requesting. "Permission granted," he stated.

"Reporting an inappropriate relationship within my chain of command, Sarge."

"Message received and understood." Both he and I were having difficulty keeping straight faces. "Dismissed."

"Laura, sit down," he said as she turned to leave the room. "Have you really only just noticed? The rest of us have been giggling about it for days!"

"Oh! You know I'm useless at this sort of thing!" she replied with evident frustration as she collapsed onto the sofa he had just vacated.

"Laura!" I exclaimed. "Even I spotted it and I'm famously completely hopeless at that sort of thing."

"It's because she refuses to date anyone who can't whop her arse!" Mike explained to me. "He can't... can he?" he asked Laura.

"Not yet," she said with an uncharacteristic embarrassed giggle, "but with a bit more training, he'll take you!"

That was too much for Mike. He collapsed with laughter.

"Thanks for your support and understanding!" she grumped at him but she couldn't keep it up and soon was laughing too.

"It shouldn't actually be a real problem because of what we were just chatting about. The squads are getting too big. I need to promote the four of you to sergeants."

"Hurrah!" Laura responded. "More money."

"Tell you what, I'll double your wages - that'll make... oh yes, still nothing!"

"Thanks, captain!"

"Don't you start!"

"It's the job you're doing."