Air force one (part one)

What the American generals had planned as a quick rescue mission to help an ally against the common enemy rapidly evolved into an all-out battle with maximum commitment on both sides. It ended in the what proved to be the most devastating single defeat of the United States during the War.

It was at the end of the catastrophic battle that Americans first learned that General Walker had no interest whatsoever in taking or maintaining prisoners of war. He would not be bound by the gentlemanly treaties and solemn international accords that belonged to the world that he had come to sweep away.

Forty-five thousand United States troops had gone into battle. Two thousand returned.

"They rounded us all up, what was left, at Anjou," the trucker continues. "They had these big places fenced off where they put us. It was just eight foot chain-link fence, but nobody tried to climb it after the first couple of days. There just wasn’t noplace to go. The rivers on two sides, and FC on the third."

He stops to drink from his mug, and the sound of it returning to the table, unnoticeable at any normal time in the Wolverine, now seems disturbingly loud.

"It was the third day that they decided to start having fun with some of the kids. You know, a lot of the recruits were just teenagers. Underage, some of ‘em." He frowns. "You know, even at the start the Guard wasn't being real picky."

"So some of them were talking to this one kid by the fence, and saying like 'You want to go home to your Ma' and shit like that. And then one of the FC guys starts telling him like, 'Come on, man, if you can climb the fence you can go home!'"

The trucker reaches toward his beer again, but his hand stops short of it, resting on the table. His gray eyes are no longer registering any sights but those of one long-ago autumn day in Canada. Perhaps the span of time since then is not terribly long as measured in years, but that day nevertheless belongs to a previous age of the world.

"So the kid goes up there, real slow. Some of our guys are yelling at him to get back, but the FC guys just keep telling him 'Come on, boy, don't you want to go home?' So he finally gets there, and he touches the fence like 'What's the catch?' Like it was gonna be electric or something. But no, it’s OK. So he finally gets up his nerve and starts to climb, but he’s watching those FC guys every second.

"So, you know, by now everybody around there is in on the act —watching and yelling one way or the other. Everybody crowding around to watch.

"So they let him get halfway up there — and then this one guy just hauls off and nails him real good with his rifle butt right in the hand. He hit him hard enough so that the kid kind of smacked himself in the face with the back of his hand. It must have broke some of his fingers probably, and his nose.

"So he hits the ground yelling and he's got blood on his face and everything. And I thought 'Well that's the end of that,' but damned if they don't keep right after the kid just like before. Like, you know, this time we really will let you go.