They kept talking, but what they said was beyond Roland’s interest. He was busy listening as the prison convoy drove off. Now that he knew the sound of the prisoner transport APC, aurally tracing it back to its origin point was child’s play.

“Aaron,” Manny’s voice jerked his attention back to the conversation happening in front of him.

“We should probably go,” Manny said. “The buses will leave soon.”

“Oh, shi– uh, sh…surely. Right. Surely right. We should go.”

Roland smiled at Sasha, “It was lovely to meet you. Good evening.”

He put a hand on Manny’s shoulder and, together, they headed off to the buses. Manny only stopped twice to cry.

Manny didn’t say much the rest of the night. Roland was proud of him for holding back his tears during the bus ride and the walk to the barracks. The kid broke down as soon as he got into bed, of course, but he kept his sobs silent and Roland was pretty sure none of the other recruits noticed. It helped that they were all exhausted at the end of the day.

Roland puked up, then popped, a handful of Ambien and Percocets and washed them down with a tall glass of the beer he’d brewed in his own guts. He offered Manny some but the boy declined. So Roland had a second glass. And then a third. It wasn’t enough to get him wasted, but the cocktail of drugs did a tolerable job of leading him to unconsciousness. He drifted off to sleep an hour or so after the rest of the men in the barracks.

The next day was more army-style bullshit. Push-ups and windsprints and a big dumb obstacle course. Roland had to be real careful to act challenged as the day went on. He instructed his body to elevate his blood pressure and temperature, to flush his face red with blood and to send enough sweat from his pores to make a passable imitation of exertion. It was tedious and he hated it. But the first half of the day went by pretty fast.

Then it was time for a close-quarters firefight drill. The men were given actual rifles, sans ammunition, and divided up into assault teams. They spent the next five hours taking turns defending or attacking different rooms in an old apartment complex that had been commandeered by the Heavenly Kingdom. There was a lot of shouting from instructors who sure as shit wanted the recruits to think they knew more about urban warfare than they did.