“But Doug, think about it. We can’t hang around here, suppose there are more of them,” I pleaded.
“I told you, I don’t care.”
“We’re going. That’s an order.”
Doug looked at me, uncompromising, his mind set in stone. His conviction was apparent, his resolve absolute; I had never seen this side of him before. I looked in his eyes. They were bloodshot and unblinking. Without any of us noticing, it was as if he had gone through a transformation.
We were in the clearing near the Covert, beside the two dead soldiers. Martina had thrown blankets over the two soldiers. We covered them up, out of sight, out of mind—or at least we wished it would be that easy; but Doug had it in his mind. He did not want to leave them there like that, and as I looked in his eyes, I realized—Doug could not leave them there.
“Don’t you understand Lloyd, we can’t stay here!” Andy yelled.
“I don’t…”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t care. I know,” Andy threw his hands up in desperation. “Let’s leave 'im here. There’s no talking to him.”
“No,” Martina said as she started to remove her knapsack. She had one of the foldable army-issue shovels attached to the back of it. Andy started to protest to her as she removed it and started digging, but he quickly stopped when she threw him a cutting look.
We all started to dig. We worked hard digging holes; fortunately the ground was soft and the work went quickly. The two young soldiers were buried in shallow graves near the Covert. I looked around, wondering if anyone would say a few words, but no one dared—what could we say? I felt a measure of peace knowing that their final resting place was in such a beautiful valley. Dust to dust—as they say. Doug was looking at the piles of earth. I hoped he had some measure of peace too. Even though burial was foreign to us from the space station; it seemed right for these Earth dwellers.
We searched the boys’ bodies before we left, but there was not much besides the key. We took their guns, which meant we had one each, but Doug refused to carry one, so I ended up having two dangling off my knapsack.
"Across the big valley," Martina said, "you could hear the river."
"Especially near the crater," I said. "It’s got to be their transport."
"It's been a coupla days," Andy said. "if the government was coming for us--it woulda been a long time ago."
"So," I said, "I guess there's not much choice."
"Man," Andy said, "I'm not looking forward to that big trek again."
"He was whining about your shape Doug--turns out he ain't so great either!" Martina said to Doug, but there was no response.
We made it across up the ridge and down into the long valley. The trees were old and large, each competing with the others to reach up high to the sunlight. When you looked down at them from the side of the mountain, the brush looked as dense as the growth we had just climbed up, but when you actually got down to the valley; even though it was mucky the ground level was quite clear. All the dense greenery was high up in the sky, reaching for the sun; while we walked relatively freely among thick, strong trunks. I guess we were getting used to the uneven ground--real earthlings. As we crossed the valley, we headed more to the left than we did before. Straight ahead was the steepest part of the mountain and where the crater was--but to the left was where the river sound was strongest. Even rookie Earth travelers knew that water flowed down a mountainside. It was not long before we could hear the din of the river in the distance. The ground crackled under our feet as we trampled on dead branches and sloshed through muddy areas. The bugs were in full force here, and I cursed them with every second step. Looking up through the trees, strong rays of sunlight danced through the waving leaves.
“I need a break,” I said.
Andy looked at me, sweat rolling down his face. He opened his mouth for some smart mouth comment, but then reconsidered and just plopped himself down on the same fallen tree. The other two followed suit within a couple of seconds. We all sat there; alternately squinting to the distance, hoping to catch sight of the river—and then looking up to the heavens—to the beautiful sunny sky.
“Do you think it’s much farther,” Martina said.
“I think I see some blue over there,” I said, squinting hard.
“That’s probably just an illusion from the fatigue,” Andy said.
“Well, even if it’s an illusion, it motivates me.”