3. Battlefield
When she had just returned from the war, she had heard the sound of bells, dimly; children were being released from school somewhere in the town, a laughing and innocent group of pale and arrogant boys and girls.
In her numbness (she was so tired that she was leaning, heavily, against Roy's side, that his arm was about her waist, supporting her), she thought that she was still in the desert, that those screams of joy were really just the sounds of someone else dying, and the bells only a minor reprieve—as if the soldiers on the hill ahead had only run out of guns, for a moment.
It began to rain; beside her it was Roy's turn to sag, and the two of them together could not muster the strength to move towards shelter. They stood there, drenched and lost, until Maes came upon them, carrying an umbrella, and led them back to the company barracks.