Dreams

The heart beats
Darkness
The dull sounds of violence

Blink

Darkness
The jagged shapes of a shattered room
Clear!
Swing out
Hall
The thump of explosives
Door
Hand signals
Boot
Crash
A woman steps into the room and kneels
Staring over her head across the sights of an assault riffle
Darkness
Dust and shadows
Into an apartment
Distant gunfire, muffled by layers of concrete wall and floor
Into a kitchen
Clear! the woman shouts

Catherine Vaughn watches the pantry door slowly move
She wants to open her mouth
Yell out to Jun Lau where she kneels
Time seems to move so slowly
Sound rumbles through the apartment
Dust and debris float as if in a still-calm
In the gloom of the pantry there is a teenage girl
Eyes wide
Face shifting between sheer terror and pure hate
She clutches something in her hands
Vaughn’s eyes widen
She begins to shout
Lau begins to turn her head
The girl in the pantry leans forward
In her hands she holds a wooden cross, about the size of a riffle
She swings

Crunch

The dull sound of impact against Lau’s face
Her body begins to crumple
Vaughn raises her riffle
The girl turns to her and screams
Trigger click

Thap

A hole appears in the girl’s forehead
Blood sprays across the kitchen
— Captain?
Their eyes meet, life and death
Some final trace of desperation in the girl’s face
— Captain…
The deafening sound of war
— Captain,
– Ah!
Staring up at Lieutenant Lau
— Captain are you alright?
– Lau?
— Yeah, I heard a noise, ma’am. Just wanted to make sure you were alright, if you’ll beg my pardon.
– No you’re alright, thank you. God.
Sitting up
– Bad dreams.
— Ma’am?
She looks at the scar across Lau’s cheekbone, raises her arm briefly to point at it
– I was dreaming of that.
— You too?
– What do you mean?
— Well ma’am, I haven’t been able to sleep tonight, some of the others in my platoon. I didn’t want to disturb you with it but it seems you’ve been dreaming too.
– Maybe it’s because we’re on manoeuvres again. No use in trying to sleep.
— Ma’am I was thinking as long as some of the troops weren’t sleeping anyway that we could congregate in the mess-tent so as not to wake the others.
Vaughn nods
— I’ll see to it.
– Wait, Lau – is Howells still up?
— Yes ma’am, never went to sleep.
She yawns, rubs at one eye
– Alright, go to it, I’ll see you there in a while.
— Ma’am.