Walking away from the battered public phone, he looked over at the convenience store across the parking lot. For a moment, he entertained the notion of going in and buying something. A soda or maybe a hot dog that had been cooked on those heated rollers until every drop of moisture had been sucked out of it. Anything, Nathan thought, that would let him forget the plight of his platoon, if only for a second.

Turning his back on the small store and service station that sat on the fringe of civilization, Nathan started his long trek back into the brown, barren hills that towered above Boise. There was much to think of while he made his way along the narrow, twisting road. Few of the thoughts that ran through his mind were thrilling. Most concerned the soldiers in his platoon and what to do about the gawdawful predicament he had placed them in. Using skills the young platoon leader wished he could have remained ignorant of, members of his platoon were able to “procure” a radio and a supply of batteries for it. While Sergeant Gandulf passed it off as justifiable and necessary, the idea of stealing and pillaging from American civilians, even if they were in rebellion, was a hard pill for Nathan to swallow.

But swallow it he did. Soon he himself was joining in when it came time to find some civilian clothing. “Even with all my patches and insignia removed I have the feeling I wouldn’t blend in very well,” he explained.

The paratrooper who had led the raid to liberate the radio smiled and nodded. “I know exactly what you mean, sir.”

Nathan had given the man a hard look, one that soldier reveled in now that his platoon leader had come over to what his soldiers were calling the dark side of the force.

Kicking a stone as he walked along, Nathan fumed at the realization that their mini-crime wave would need to be expanded in a big way. With their rations all but gone he had no choice. It was either that or turn himself and his entire platoon in.

The sound of a truck making its way along the road brought Nathan to a stop. Instinctively he jumped into the ditch and flattened himself out. The red baseball cap, dark blue jacket, and blue jeans he’d fleeced didn’t exactly blend in to the tan and brown rocks around him. Though the ditch was deep and no one would be able to see him from the road, Nathan reached down and pulled a knife out of the ankle sheath one of his squad leaders had lent him.