The Soldier

Caitlin and Logan were walking though the growing darkness as night fell around the American camp.

“I assume you have something you want to talk about,” she finally said after they walked in silence for several minutes, “since you were the one who invited me on this little stroll.

“Because if this is a first date, it’s not working.”

Logan’s head jerked around and he tried to speak but only sputtered. Caitlin patted him on the back in a sisterly fashion.

“Relax, I was kidding.”

“Sorry,” Logan said.

“No worries,” Caitlin said. “So, what is our next move?”

“Given our present situation, we need to come up with a plan or plans to achieve our original goal.”

Caitlin stopped walking and stared at Logan.

“You have got to be kidding,” she said.

Logan turned to look Caitlin directly in the eye.

“No, I’m not kidding. Look, I know the lot of you thing I’ve gone ’round the bend over this, but if there’s any way to find that chip and return it to England, I want to take that shot. And frankly, even if we find the chip, it will do us no good if we don’t have a viable exit strategy. So I need you to help me come up with some options for getting our butts out of here.”

Caitlin shook her head in disbelief.

“OK, we come up with an ‘exit strategy’ that won’t get us all killed. How does that help us find the chip?”

Logan chuckled.

“That one’ll take a little more doing. We still need access to their computers, so we will have to find someplace that isn’t as closely guarded. Hopefully will come across just such a facility as we work on a way out.

“So, how do we get out of here?”

“Well, it’s certainly not just getting over the wall,” she said, “or it’s going to be a really long swim back to England.”

“We need transportation,” Logan said. “What about an airplane of some sort?”

He looked up into the dark sky.

“Not that I’ve seen or heard anything since we’ve arrived. But that might just mean that they aren’t as prevalent.”

“Maybe not,” Caitlin said, “But they would be awfully damned easy to shoot down. Remember all those anti-aircraft guns we heard about – they could just as easily be used on a plane leaving as trying to enter.”

Logan sighed.

“Agreed,” he said. “Which means somehow getting onto a freighter on its way back to England – and doing so without tipping off the Americans or I’m sure they’d just latch onto the ship with that damned beam of theirs and just send it to the bottom.

“Sneaking onboard through the docking facility seems unlikely, for whatever they’ve done wrong, their security verges on paranoid. And especially since we had to fight our way out, they’ll probably double or triple it for the foreseeable future.”

“What about using parachutes or hang gliders to get onto a freighter leaving at night?”

“Probably not doable,” Logan said. ” First, we’d have to find the equipment, then we’d need to get all of us and the gear to the top of The Wall, which probably means their guard towers, which means fighting our way in, which again gives us away and allows them to capture the ship.”

“You’re really not helping, Logan,” Caitlin said.

“Just playing devil’s advocate, love, pointing out the obvious problems that we would have to overcome.”

He stopped to think.

“What we really need is a diversion. A problem so huge it would distract the Americans and give us a chance to make good our escape.”

“So,” Caitlin said, “What is it that the American government fears the most?”

“Yes, what indeed?”

The next morning broke sunny and cheerful, with birds singing in the pine trees and butterflies darting from flower to flower among the bushes surrounding the camp.

Logan was the first to arise. He walked out of the cabin Kelley had arranged for the team to use and stretched. As he gently closed the door, he listened to the sounds of gentle snorting, able to pick out Willie’s rasp and distinguish it from David’s low rumble. Apparently Caitlin didn’t snore at all – something Logan thought he would definitely appreciate under different circumstances.

A good night’s rest had done him a world of good, but he wasn’t any closer to coming up with a plan to get all of his people back to England. The problems he faced seemed as insurmountable as the blasted Wall itself.

The aroma of coffee led him to what apparently was the communal dining room. He walked inside to find a half-dozen or so minutemen grabbing breakfast, apparently before heading out on patrol. They were dressed in camouflage clothing and carrying weapons of various sorts, mostly old AK-47s similar to what Jon Kelley was carrying when he came across Logan and his team.

Logan felt more than a little self-conscious as he walked inside. Most of the people in the building seemed to know who he was already and either nodded or actually offered a pleasant “Good Morning.”

Logan smiled and returned each greeting as walked over to the coffee pot. He picked up a mug from a stack and filled it with the steaming beverage. Two spoons of sugar and some milk, and the coffee was just the way he liked it. Logan took a sip and felt the warmth flow through him. He walked to a table next to a window and sat down. He was trying to concentrate on the problem at hand when he noticed one of the camp’s inhabitants walking towards him. The girl looked to be in her early 20s, with long, jet-black hair tied in a pony tail that hung halfway down her back. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that was tied at her waist.

“Mind if I join you?”

Logan instinctively stood up and motioned to the bench opposite him. “Please do, miss . . .”

The American snorted as she sat down.

“Well, you obviously are the Britisher everyone’s been talking about, only a brit would say ’miss,’” she said. “I’m Mandy Deertalker, and before you ask, yes I’m part Indian – Cherokee to be precise.”

“Actually, I wouldn’t have asked, it would have been impolite, Logan said.” But since you’ve brought the subject up, you certainly don’t look very much like Indians I’ve seen in the movies back home.”

He took a sip of his coffee and looked at Mandy over the lip of the mug.

“You’re not going to scalp me, are you?”

She laughed.

“No, unless you’re in to that sort of thing, and then it would have to be someplace much more private.”

Logan glanced at her to find her eyes sparkling with laughter. He put his coffee mug down.

“So, what can I do for you, miss,” he stopped himself. “Mandy?”

“Well, you’re a curiosity Mr. Logan,” Mandy began.

Logan stopped her with a wave of his hand.

“It’s just Logan, Mr. Logan was my father,” he said.

Mandy smiled, this time a warm inviting smile.

“Very well, Logan,” she said. “Anyway, the point is that no one’s ever made it inside before, at least no one that’s ever come to this camp. And I just wanted to know – what’s it like outside, I mean really like? Not what they Feds tell us.”

Logan smiled thinly.

“Well, from what Jon has told me, the Feds are definitely feeding you a bunch of crap about the outside world,” he said. “But that’s not to say its all peaches and cream out there. Things have gone downhill since the U.S. Cut itself off, but we’re surviving.”

“But it’s not like it is here?”

“No, not by a long shot. But tell me, Jon said the cities fell apart – doesn’t anyone live there anymore?”

“Oh sure,” Mandy said, “plenty of people do. But they’re the ones who mostly buy into the Fed’s view of things. Most of us Unificationists have taken to living in the wild, as far away from Federal influence as they’ll let us.”

Logan was listening politely, not expecting to hear anything from Mandy that he hadn’t already heard from Jon Kelley – but one word struck him like a brick.

“Unificationists?”

“We’re a relatively small movement,” she said. “Some, like Jon, just want to live their lives as free from official interference as possible.”

“But you don’t,” Logan prompted.

“No, there are some that think things could be as they once were,” she said, watching Logan’s eyes to try and gage his reaction. “We want the wall to come down and then have the United States rejoin the rest of the world.”

“That’s a lofty goal,” Logan said as he drank some coffee. Outwardly, he presented an impartial image, but inside he was ecstatic. “So why hasn’t Jon bought in?”

“He says it’s an impossible dream,” Mandy said. “He thinks there’s no way it will happen so it’s a waste of time and resources.”

Logan made a decision.

“Does this movement have a leader?”

“Actually, for this sector, you’re talking to her,” Mandy said, another smile playing across her lips.

“Of course I am,” Logan said, thinking to himself that he should have realized it from the beginning. “How exactly do you think we can help your movement?”

“I’ll tell you, but not here. The walls have ears as the saying goes.”

She stood and extended her hand.

“Come’on, let’s go for a walk.”

Logan looked at the offered had, then at Mandy’s face. Then he finished his coffee and stood.

“Right, a walk it is, then,” he said. But instead of taking the offered hand, he extended his arm. Mandy chuckled and put her left arm through his, resting her right hand gently on top of her own arm.

“My you are old school, aren’t you? I suppose you’ll also hold open the door and lay your jacket down on any mud puddles we should come across.”

“Doors yes, mud puddles, probably not,” Logan said. “Haven’t seen what appears to be a decent cleaner since we’ve arrived and I wouldn’t want to get it dirty.”

The former British soldier and the American freedom fighter laughed as they walked off into the woods.