The wait was only about ten minutes, though, with the thudding artillery at their back, each of those minutes felt like an hour. But soon they stood face-to-mask with one of the armored militiafolks. Reggie went stiff at once, his pupils the size of dinner plates. He had never seen powered armor up close before. Manny couldn’t blame the man for being unnerved. The reflective, bug-eyed ballistic glass of the helmets and inhumanly broad shoulder armor made the wearers look like Cronenbergian gorilla/mantis hybrids.

The shortest armored soldier was well over seven feet tall and almost as broad as two men. Their gender was impossible to discern. But a feminine voice leapt from the speakers.

“State your business,” she said. “If you’re looking for shelter, you’ll have to head to North Park Center; we don’t have room for you.”

“I’m Emmanuel Sanchez. Major Peron should have my friend and I on your list.”

The woman was silent for a little while as she called up the list. She clucked her tongue between her teeth, and the high-fidelity mic in her suit made it sound like she’d done it next to his ear.

“Well, hell, there you are.”

Her helmeted head bobbed at them.

“Alright, you’re in. Come through quick. You stop being my fuckin’ problem as soon as you’re inside.”

They made their way toward the actual front gate of the firebase, passing squads of militia struggling with Hescos and setting up firing positions behind the Stihlglass palisade. Manny and Reggie walked past it all and to the firebase’s front gate. They were let in without any fuss, which surprised Manny a bit, but he wasn’t about to question it.

On the other side of the gate they found themselves adrift, unescorted and surrounded by pure chaos. There were other civilians inside the walls, huddled in small groups around piles of backpacks. They sat, wide-eyed and shaking, and waited for whatever deliverance the SDF could provide. Soldiers rushed through the clots of humanity in groups of two or three. Often their arms were filled with machinery, or paper, or even crates of munitions. Everyone’s eyes were wide and full of fear.

For a while, Reggie and Manny milled around with no real aim, unable to enter any of the buildings. Manny found them an unclaimed place to sit that looked like it would be easy for Mr. Peron to find. And then they just sat there. At one point Reggie offered him a protein bar. Manny tried to eat it, but three bites in he accepted that his appetite just wasn’t there.