The barracks building was dark and silent, save for the snoring. Hastings was stretched out on a lower bunk, not far from where Kenny and Diana lay. In the darkness beyond them, the Ballantine family slept on two bunk beds that had been pushed together, with Ballantine and his wife on the lower bunks and Curtis and Joshua on the uppers. The rest of the troops from 10th Mountain were nearby as well, scattered across five bunks. Every man had claimed a lower bunk to sleep on, with their gear laid out on the units above them. Slater and the civilians he had brought in were near the door, while Hastings and his party were closer to the latrine. Outside, Fort Indiantown Gap was mostly quiet—no helicopters, no moving equipment, no voices. The only sounds Hastings could discern were the distant thumps and booms as the CONEXes were lifted off railcars by crane and deposited on waiting lowboy trailers. Hastings stared at the underside of the bunk above him and listened to the distant symphony of men working through the night.
What do You think about These Dead Lands: Immolation?
