They were cold and exhausted and hungry, but for tonight at least, they were in a house.
For 3 days they’d been trying to get back to the squad. Three days of hiding, dodging, running and as Sil nodded off, Wesley began to feel hopeless. He didn’t know where the rest of his squad had gone, or if they’d even survived the ambush.
But when the dust had settled, Sil was dragging him through the dirt and they were alone.
The small bedroom had just a mattress on the floor with exposed springs suspicious stains, but it felt like heaven compared to anywhere they’d become used to sleeping. His eyes fell heavy, and it seem like he’d only allowed them to shut for a moment when he felt a tug at his arm and heard Sil whispering.
“Boss. Wake up man. We’re fucked.”
Welsey rose, tried to jump up, but Sil pulled him down and said, “dude. quiet. “
Then Wesley heard them. Boots stomping. Doors opening and closing. They were going room to room and cleaning.
Wesley remember when they got here sil saying, “let’s sleep here. Last room they’d clear.”
Welsey was trying to devise a plan when Sil broke it.
“Boss. Gimmie your pistol.” Sil might have said, “give me a piece of gum.”
He was always so casual. So calm. Wesley handed his sidearm over with no hesitation.
Sil gave him a nod and a thin smile.
Then, as the voices gathered in the connecting room, and their boots began to close in, he walked to the door, swung it open, and fired five shots.
Then silence.
Wesley hadn’t moved. His ears rang from the gunshots and he was still processing what he’d just been a part of when Sil walked over, handed his pistol and said, “we should probably find a new place to sleep.”
They were settling in under a bridge outside of town.
They hadn’t spoken since they left the house. Sil broke the silence with “night boss.”
“Are we having a sleep over?” Wesley muttered.
Sill sat up, “huh? What’s up?”
Then Welsey blurted out the thought he hadn’t meant to say aloud, “whats wrong with you man?”
Sil cocked his head. He looked wounded. And Welsey tried to clarify “i mean, your just..”
Sil interrupted. “I know what I am. I’m a killer.”
They sat quiet for a moment wearing those words like a blanket.
Sil spoke again, “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with me. But you can’t tell the others. When I’m done. If you wanna leave me here. I’ll understand.”
Wesley didn’t reply. He just…waited.
Sil began to speak but never looked at Wesley as he did.
“I was 5. My dad was enlisted in the CCA. He enlisted me. They gave me a gun and told me to shoot. I did. I was good. At 7 they gave me a dog. A white one with curly hair. I named her Cotton.
I taught her to sit. Stay. Speak. She went everywhere with me. Drills. School. She wasn’t gun shy. She wasn’t afraid of anything.
On my tenth birthday I was told to report to my commanding officer. He said, “congratulations merit Officer Sil Army.” He pinned my collar and handed me a pistol….at that rank you get to Cary a side arm….. I was one of the youngest ever.
Then. He said it.
“Shoot the dog.”
I didn’t want to. I tried to not hear it. I froze.”
Wesley saw a tear fall down his face. But his voice never cracked as he continued.
“He smacked me hard and yelled it again. Shoot the dog boy!”
I did.
I shot her.
And he smiled.
Then he said, “I knew it. A killer.”
I was sent to a recon team two months later.
By 16 I was in Alpha unit. At 17…I was given my first solo assignment. “
My dad was in the room because he was part of the intel unit. Him saluting me as his superior was weird.
When they gave me my assignment; infiltrate and kill the governor of a free city called Dodge City, my dad stood. He protested. He said “please, don’t send my son on this suicide mission.”
Captain Thorne was nobody to mess with. He said “your son? This soldier is CCA property”
He continued his protest and didn’t notice the general walk a behind him.
Captain Thorne told him to sit.
He told him to stop.
My father refused, he got loud, he slammed his fist.
The General shot him on the spot.
Thorne said. “Good then. Captain Silvius Alpha. Complete your mission and report back.”
I saluted. I walk out of the room and had to step over my dads body and pretend it was normal; that it was ok.
The carriage I brokered from the weirdest man I ever met, This skinny man with blue eyes…it stopped in Lincoln. He was supposed to take me on but was gone in the morning and just…never left.
That’s where I met you 2 years later.
If you want to leave me here, i get it.”
Wesley walked to the person he’d forgotten was still just a teenager, put one hand on his shoulder, and said “I’ve never been more proud to have you here with me.”
