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My eyes slide over to Flintstone, who’s the closest to Tank, standing a couple of feet to his right Flint ansith the tiniest of nods

"Don’t you dumbasses ever wonder why they haven’t hit us yet?" Tank says He’s not laughing now He’s crying "You know they can You know they knoe’re here, and you know they knoe’re doing here, so why are they letting us do it?"

"I don’t know, Tank," I say evenly "Why?"

"Because it doesn’t matter any his gun around wildly If it goes off…"And you and me and everybody else on this damn base are history! We’re--"

Flint’s on hi hie of his bunk when he falls He curls into a ball, holding his head in both hands, screas are eain So around the loaded M16 Poundcake races into the latrine to hide in one of the stalls Du ears and scoots to the head of his bunk Ooet, who’s holding on toaroundon the barracks floor The only one unaffected by Tank’son her bunk staring stoically at hiht Tank falls to the floor and screa murdered

And it hitsto us A very slow, very cruelus from our souls outward, and I re our capability to fight so ht

It is hopeless It is crazy Tank is the sane one because he sees it clearly

Which is why he has to go

47

THE SENIOR DRILL INSTRUCTOR agrees with one, taken to the hospital for a full psych eval His bunk remains empty for a week, while our squad, one man short, falls further and further behind in points We’ll never graduate, never trade in our blue jumpsuits for real uniforms, never venture beyond the electric fence and razor wire to prove ourselves, to pay back a fraction of e’ve lost

We don’t talk about Tank It’s as if Tank never existed We have to believe the system is perfect, and Tank is a flaw in the systear, Du to be the squad nated corpses, usually Teds, to learn about hu, but nods at the body lying in front of him

It’s Tank

We stare at his face for a longHe’s so fresh, it’s unnerving Duar to make sure no one can overhear us, and then whispers, "Don’t tell Flint"

I nod "What happened?"

Du badly under the protective hood "That’s the really freaky thing, Zo"

I look back down at Tank He isn’t pale His skin is slightly pink without a o Dorothy in the psych ward, s?

"What if you cut hi Tank open," he says He’s looking at me as if I just told him to jump off a cliff

I nod Stupid idea Dulance around the hangar again "Get him off this table," I say "I don’t want anyone else to see hi me

Tank’s body is stacked with the others by the hangar doors to be disposed He’s loaded onto the transport for the final leg of his journey to the incinerators, where he will be consuray smoke and carried aloft in a column of superheated air, eventually to settle over us in particles too fine to see or feel He’ll stay with us--on us--until we shower that night, washing what’s left of Tank into the drains connected to the pipes connected to the septic tanks, where he will round

48

TANK’S REPLACEMENT ARRIVES two days later We know he’s co Q&A He won’t tell us anything about hier After he leaves, everybody in the squad is jacked up; Reznik et coer?"

"Soe," I explain "Soood"

"Marksuesses "That’s where we’re weakest Poundcake’s our best, and I’et can’t even shoot"

"Co for a fight If I were in charge, I’d give Teacup a rifle and a couple of clips and let her loose on every Ted in a hundred-et twists and squirainst o back to his bunk

"Zoer! Cassie is Ringer!"

It takes me a couple of seconds to reain

"I don’t think Ringer is your sister"

"You don’t know she isn’t, either"

It almost comes out offor you because she’s dead But I hold it in Cassie is Nugget’s silver locket What he clings to because if he lets go, there’s nothing to keep the tornado fro him off to Oz like the other Dorothys in camp It’s why a kid arical thinking They dwell on the same inconvenient truths that landed Tank on the dissection table

Ringer isn’t at roll call the next ear up for the range, check our weapons, head out across the yard It’s a clear day, but very cold Nobody sayswhere the new kid is

Nugget sees Ringer first, standing off in the distance on the firing range, and right ae can see Flintstone was right: Ringer is a hell of a rass and pop-pop! the head of the target explodes Then a different target, but the sa the controls on the targets He sees us coets rocket out of the grass, one right after the other, and this Ringer kid takes theht with one shot Beside , appreciative whistle