There had been so much shouting outside their walls. Commands. Tramp of boots. Sounds of running feet. They had heard the guns. The volley of shots. Went on ceaselessly. Would they ever stop firing?

It seemed a lifetime ago. Alice now smelt the odour of death. Rank. Foetid. Like rotting vegetation. They lay there, clumps of them, their bodies spreadeagled on the earth. Men. Bodies. A mirror of light flickered across her gaze with their distortions, black specks, rust coloured streaks—chiaroscuric images that almost stoned her eyeballs.

She knew she had to go among them. How else would she find Sena? He had to be there. He had to, unless … but could he have had a chance of escaping, in the dark? No, there must have been flashlights. The darkness violated by those coruscating beams. At least if she could find him …. She was a woman who needed certainty. The certainty of truth. It had to be one way or the other. She had never deceived Seela. Nor had she deceived herself. At this moment she did not want the comfort of any human being. This would be her final test, her trial. And Sena, if he still had some life in him, even if he was barely breathing, perhaps he could gasp out a word, perhaps she could even drag him out of this welter of bodies.

She looked at them, almost dispassionately. They were finished. There was nothing more left for them. Their women would have to fend for themselves now. The women were strong enough. And they had their children. They couldn’t give up at this stage.

She wiped her face with the edge of her towel. The towel was damp with morning dew. Her face chill and sharp like the edge of a keen blade.

Death walk. That’s what this is, she thought. I’ll have to turn them over. I have to see the faces. How else can I recognize them? How can I recognize Sena? Men who had belonged to other women. I would never have touched them at any other time.

Her bare feet slid cautiously through the huddle of bodies. They felt so soft. Even the sinewy ones.

She bent over, turned up face after face. All she recognized were the empty faces of men. Men who were all akin, all brothers, husbands, fathers. All gone. To leave life in so unfinished, so haphazard a manner.