all god's orphans
Chapter 52

Grey had found that evading conversation or questions about what he was doing was not difficult. The people in this camp seemed to keep to themselves as they went about their duties. They just assumed that whatever he was up to was something he’d been told to do. Scarcely anybody even gave him a second look. He was just one more guy walking around in a camouflage army uniform. After the general’s speech, he feared someone might realize he was an outsider, but that too had been a blessing. With so many new faces arriving with the general, he was able to slide under the radar.

When he walked, he tried to do so with an air of importance, or at least, purpose. His steps were quick, but not too quick and he kept his head up, scanning the place for what Millie had told him to look for. He had already determined that Sarah was nowhere to be found. There were only a few girls there and none of them were her age. From outside the fence, they looked younger, but Grey soon saw that they were nearer to twenty than ten. Millie was not going to like that. On the other hand, it would make his escape that much easier, if he ever found the letter.

He had concocted a circuit that took him from point to point around the camp but that looked more meandering to anyone watching him. He didn’t want to just make a beeline around the perimeter, as that would look suspicious. He’d been doing this for about three hours, stopping only once to speak to Carla when he saw her near the laundry tent, when he finally spotted what he’d been looking for.

In the cluster of office trailers, one of them suddenly sprouted two guards at its door. That was the general’s office. He sighed with relief but it only lasted a moment. His next order of business was to get inside it and replace the letter, but he still had not come up with a plan for how to accomplish that feat. The guards were tall and muscular, like actual soldiers, unlike the portly dough balls that inhabited the uniforms inside the camp. The general only surrounded himself with the type of men who looked like they could really do some damage, not just carry a fancy looking gun.

Grey was careful not to pass too closely or too often as he made his way around the camp trying to look busy. They wore the standard balaclava and had no nametags on their uniform, so it was difficult to tell when their shift ended and new guards took their place. As he paced the place, he tried to think of ways to get inside that trailer. The windows were small and set high up off the ground. To even reach them, he would need someone to help hold him up and if they were locked, which they almost certainly were, it wouldn’t do any good anyway. There was another door at the rear of the trailer, but the outside was secured by a severe looking padlock, so that wouldn’t work. He hoped that once the general left for the day that the guards would accompany him, but as night began falling, they stayed put.

The approaching night brought another problem for Grey as he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t just stay awake all night walking around the camp. When dinner was served, he blended into the crowd and filed into the mess tent where he was given a tray with meatloaf, potatoes, and some peas still steaming. In that moment he understood why someone would want to stay here. Each bite of warm, succulence sent waves of endorphins through his body and he thought of Kite and Millie with their camping rations sitting in the cold just a hundred feet away. He savored every scrumptious moment of his meal and sat in a bit of a daze letting it hit his stomach. Around him, conversations were happening and he chanced to overhear two soldiers behind him complaining.

“So now I have to do two shifts of sentry duty per day since they pulled so many out of my platoon for this special mission.”

“Yeah, me too. I mean, it’s nice that’s there’s going to be more room in the tents for the next few days, but this extra work is going to suck.”

“Where do you think they’re going?”

“I dunno. I hear it’s pretty far away. It could be days or even a week before they get back.”

“That’s gonna suck.”

“Yeah.”

Grey began formulating a plan and when everyone had been served, he melted back into the scenery and watched. Almost everyone packed themselves into one particular tent which only made Grey want to stay the Hell away from it. From inside, he could hear someone speaking in angry spikes of volume, but he didn’t want to get close enough to discern individual words. Instead, he drifted towards the men’s barrack tents and slipped inside one of them. He found two rows of cots lining the walls with an aisle through the middle. There were fifteen beds on each side, all of which were empty except for one that held a sleeping soldier assigned to night duty. Most of the cots had various items stacked beside or under them, but several had nothing. He hoped these were the ones that had been previously occupied by men now assigned to the general’s medicine raid. He chose one as close to the opening of the tent as was possible and lay down. He covered his eyes with his arm and tried to relax. If someone came, he would just apologize and claim he was so tired he’d gone into the wrong tent.

He must have been more exhausted than he realized because the next thing he knew, he was being woken by the incoming shuffle of feet. He heard someone passing by his bed mumbling.

“Great. More people.” But no one said anything directly to him. He stayed as still as he could and listened to them speak. They had words they used over and over, words that sounded strange to his ear. They said things like “fellowship”, “secular”, “righteous” but he was unable to infer their meaning from the context of the conversations. After a while of this strange talk, the soldiers began again to complain in the way that all soldiers eventually do when left alone.

“So we had to guard the general’s office today.”

“Was he in there?” Grey could tell the second voice was younger than the first and his question was filled with expectant awe, as though he was jealous that anybody would get to stand that close to such a great man.

“Naw, of course not. If he’d been in there, he’d have his own guys guarding it. Have you seen those guys? They’re freakin’ massive.”

“Yeah.” Agreed the younger guy. “I hear they’re all special forces guys sworn to protect him.”

“Where’d you hear that nonsense?” Asked the older soldier.

“Just, y’know, from people.” The older one seemed to think this over.

“Well I don’t know about all that.” He said by way of assessment. “But this one guy walks up. Never seen him before. And I ask him his name and he just goes, ‘Get out of my way.’”

“What a jerk.” Confirmed the younger one. “So what did you do?”

“I stepped aside. What do you think I did?” The older one chuckled. “You think I’m going to start some nonsense with one of the general’s guys?”

“How do you know he was with the general?” Asked the younger one.

“Well I ain’t never seen him before, so where else would he have come from?” The younger one seemed to think this was a good enough answer and then they turned their conversation to women, but Grey had stopped listening. He wondered if he had the balls to pull off the plan his mind was now forming. Pretty soon, he was going to have to replace out.