Monster Planet(8)

'I'm in command now, of course. I have some work to do before I can take the girls out again, though. I've got to rebuild the unit with half the soldiers I used to have,' Fathia said, as if she wanted Sarah's input. Sarah knew she did not. 'That's alright, we'll be faster. Smarter. I can't see a use for you in that structure so I'm restricting you to camp duties,' Fathia said, rinsing her mouth out with non-potable water and spitting on the ground. 'I hope that will be acceptable.'

She shoved her hands in her pockets. 'Actually' Ayaan always felt I should be out in the field, that that was where my talent was really useful.' Sarah's stomach rumbled with a bad presentiment. If she couldn't go out with the soldiers, her usefulness to Fathia would be distinctly curtailed. In the Egyptian encampment one rule had always held: the most useful people ate first. Those who couldn't do anything valuable, those who were seen as dead weight, went hungry.

She looked again at the boy under the table. She could count his ribs, but his belly stuck out like a swollen gourd. Had he been crying? It could help with the pangs of hunger. She remembered how it helped. He would have earned a bite of jelly, maybe, for running Fathia's message. He probably begged for the chance.

Fathia clucked her tongue and Sarah looked back at the soldier hurriedly, embarrassed she had broken eye contact even for a moment. 'Hmm. Yes, Ayaan did say that. Of course,' Fathia said, 'Ayaan is no longer here to make those kind of decisions. I hope you won't have trouble accepting my orders. I know that obedience isn't your strength.'

The only thing worse than being dead weight was being insubordinate. 'No, ma'am, that'll be no problem. You're the boss.'

'I suppose I am,' Fathia said, looking up in mock surprise. 'Well, let's put your' talent to some real use. I need warm bodies to stand extra watch tonight. That mixed group of dead and living we saw could be here as early as midnight. Let's put those magic eyes to use.'

It meant staying up all night, mercilessly pinching her legs every time she started to nod off. It meant being up in the wind and the sand and spitting out dust for days afterward. She didn't complain. It meant she wouldn't be dead weight, at least not for that day.

If she didn't get to sleep that night at least she wasn't alone. As the sun sank over the western desert the camp was lit up with oil lamps and sporadic electric lights. The fuel for both was precious and it was never burnt just because someone had trouble sleeping. Both helicopters were kept on stand-by, Osman and the other pilots being allowed to sleep in their cockpits, while armed soldiers patrolled the streets of the encampment looking for anything out of order. They shouted gossip back and forth'nothings, empty statements, assurances that all was as it should be. The need for that affirmation hung in the air like a seagull flying into a breeze.

The camp wanted to know what happened next. Even those who could no longer lift a rifle or thrust a bayonet had to know, had to get the news. Were they all about to die? Would they be overrun that night? For twelve years each of them had somehow managed to stay alive while the darkness crowded with monsters waiting to take them apart. They had survived even when they knew that so many others had died, they had survived. They could only wait and ask themselves if this was the night that changed. Up in her observation post, a bare platform of wooden planking high in a dead palm tree, Sarah could only watch the horizon and wonder herself. Always before when she'd stood watch up in the air like that she'd felt pretty safe. The dead didn't climb trees and the occasional ghoul who tried to attack the camp would never get through the palisade of barbed wire. Now they were facing living opponents armed with rifles, however. She was a sitting duck up there, only the dark color of her hooded sweatshirt protecting her from snipers. Maybe that was why Fathia wanted her up there. She knew that Fathia didn't trust her because of her ability to see the energy of the dead. She knew the soldiers spoke about her behind her back, talked about how spooky she was. Now that Ayaan wasn't around to protect her did they want to put her in harm's way, did they want to kill her off?

The thought kept her alert most of the night, though she never saw any sign of the marching army. She got to the point of expecting them, of hoping they would come just to end her watch. They didn't come. The encampment must not have been their target. Just before dawn she dozed a little, her eyelids fluttering up and down, her chin jerking spasmodically every time she nearly but not quite fell asleep. Nothing had happened. Nothing was going to happen.