“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she snapped, and then she grimaced.
“Ah,” he said with a triumphant smile.
“Damn,” she muttered, and then she said, “Well, have you military guys cased this place yet? Figured out how to take us? I don’t suppose that you have any nukes handy.”
“I beg your pardon?” said Kennedy taken aback.
“Nothing,” said Yuie with a private smile.
“So, are you one of those anti-nuke peaceniks?” he asked.
“Yes, I am definitely one of those anti-warmongering peaceniks that don’t like you nuclear-bomb-dropping military types,” she replied proudly.
Kennedy was annoyed. “That’s ridiculous. The United States has only used nuclear weapons twice,” he stated stiffly. “And that was in a dire emergency.”
“Yeah, I bet that the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki thought it was a dire emergency,” she shot back.
“It was wartime,” he said, outraged by her statement. “Dropping the bomb saved countless lives by us not having to invade Japan.”
“Why would there have been any need for us to invade, Japan?” she countered. “The Japanese were beaten. The only thing they had left was their homeland. Why should we have invaded? The war was over.” She gave him a so-there smirk.
He fell silent for a moment, and then he asked softly, “I wonder, how do you think the Chinese would have felt about that?”
“What?” she replied, confused by his question.
“The Chinese, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Burmese, and a lot of other Asians were still living under the occupation of the Japanese Army. Murder, rape, and torture were still happening. But not to us. We could have just walked away.”
He stood and went to the trashcan to clean his paper plate which the villagers would reuse. For a moment, Yuie stared after him, and then her gaze shifted to the others at the table. Everyone else was studying their plates. Yuie stood up and left the dining hall.
Two days later, Mike and the officers were strolling out by the graveyard. The officers had been told about Luis. They saw the fresh grave in the graveyard, making it the third grave that had been dug.
“We’ve been luckier than you, so far,” Major Collins admitted. “We’ve only had to dig one grave. One of my engineers had an accident.”
Collins hesitated, and then he said, “Mike, I would like to hear your version of the hanging.”
Mike looked up at him, and then he looked back at the graves. “I thought we would probably starve to death after we ran out of food, or maybe we would freeze to death during the winter. All of the adults were gone, except for Jackie, and she wasn’t any use to herself, much less to us. It was just us kids.
“But I wasn’t ready to give up and die, so I tried to convince the others that we had to prepare for whatever might happen. And it seemed to be working. Some of the others started helping me. I began to think that we might have a chance.
“Then those guys came, and they killed Pete, and they took Jackie and Maria. Looking back, I guess it was crazy to think that we could get Jackie and Maria back. But we had to try, anyway. We were too late for Jackie, but we saved Maria. We killed three of them, but one of them was still alive. What were we going to do with him? Let him go? He would have come back and killed more of us, I believe. We couldn’t hand him over to the police. We didn’t have a jail. Maybe we could have guarded him night and day. But we needed everyone’s help just to get ready for the winter.
“I thought about all these things when we were marching back to our camp. So I decided to kill him. But I didn’t want to just kill him; I wanted to make sure that everyone understood why we were killing him. So I had everyone speak who actually saw what had happened. And when everyone was convinced that he was the person who killed Pete and Jackie, I killed him in a way they would think of as an execution not just a killing. I think that by killing him, I prevented us from having to dig more of these graves. And that’s my answer, Major Collins.”
Mike turned at the head of the graves and looked back at the Major and the Lieutenant. Standing at the foot of the burials, Major Collins fell silent as he contemplated the graves. He wondered what he would have done had he been in Mike’s place. Silently, he admitted to himself that he very likely would have done the same thing.
“So, what do you think of Petersburg, Major?” Mike asked.
“I like this place, Mike,” the Major replied. “I like what you have accomplished here.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Mike said.
“Uh oh,” the Lieutenant muttered, his words barely audible. “Here it comes.”
“I’ve been thinking about what our next step should be. I started thinking about it, when I realized that you were probably coming here, Major Collins,” Mike said.
“What made you think I would come here?” the Major asked.
“Mainly, it was the way you handled that gang, Major,” said Mike. “You rescued the kids immediately. That same night. You took my suggestion that you approach quietly on foot. You were more interested in rescuing the children than in capturing the gang. I saw how you took care of the kids. I bet Erin really likes it there.”
“I hired her as my orderly,” the Major admitted, and Mike laughed.
“Major Collins, who does the Army report to?” Mike asked.
Wondering at the reason for the young man’s question, Major Collins said, “Ordinarily, the Army reports go up the chain of command. All the way to the Defense Department, if they’re important. Why do you ask?”
“Then who do you report to?” Mike asked, ignoring the Major’s question. “A better question is; who will you report to?”
“I suppose that when I contact a recognized civilian government, then I will report to them,” the Major replied slowly. “I will inform them of my presence and status and ask for their advice on how to proceed.”
Mike turned to fully face the officers. He was standing by the graveyard markers, ancient signs of human civilization. Behind him, stood the dark and threatening woods, and the low sun cast gleaming fingers of light through damp clouds, framing the young man’s face. As the officers watched, his whole demeanor changed from the kid he still was, to the young man he had been forced to become. Collins felt the presence of power, and the small hairs on his nape and on his arms stiffened, as he stared at this person.
“Very well, Major Collins,” Mike said, raising his voice slightly, his words firm. “Report.”
For a stunning moment, the Major opened his mouth to comply with the command, and then he caught himself. He stared at the young man, for in that voice he recognized authority; the authority that some men and women learn to project, and that for others, comes naturally. Now he knew what Mike had been planning, since Mike had realized that the Major would come to Petersburg to ensure that the people here were not in danger. He was telling Major Collins openly, I am the civilian authority here. I am the civilian government. You say that you will report to the civilian authority? Very well, report.
“I’m sorry, Mike, but I am not willing to recognize your authority just yet. Sorry,” said the Major, while taking a deep breath and with a conciliatory smile.
Mike smiled back, and once more he was the boy. “Take your time, Major,” he said easily. “This village isn’t going anywhere. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.” The soldiers watched as the young man walked back toward his office.
“That kid’s got big brass ones, I’ll give him that,” the Major mused. He glanced at the Lieutenant who remained silent. The Major’s eyes narrowed.
“You aren’t thinking that I should report to him, are you, LT?” he asked.
Lieutenant Kennedy thought for a moment before answering. “Sir, I have a question for you? Suppose you were the civilian in charge here, and I was in your place? Would you want me to report to you?”