Chapter 17
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For the second time, I had made the, somewhat foolhardy, decision to fight in the war against the aliens. A part of me just wanted to go home, but I knew my old home was gone. I kept this a secret from my mother, but she feared I might leave again. The israeli government was doing what it could to discourage people like Abe. The media claimed that those who left Israel to fight in America, none were ever heard from again. If a large number of people go off to war, obviously some are going to die, that unavoidable. And even those who were still alive, it would be difficult for them to contact friends and family back home. The government seemed to believe that it was a trap, that we were being led to certain death, a part of me wondered if that were true. But, for better or worse, the total population was just under 11 billion. Less than one billion deaths to go before the planet reached a sustainable number. I had hoped the war would be over relatively soon, but being killed was still a very real possibility. I nevertheless wanted to go back, felt it was my place. In January 2066 Abe told us the plan. It was simple enough, to quietly board a plane one night, and fly back to Canada. From there we would sneak back across the american border, and hook up with the nearest american unit. My mother and Willow were asleep, and I left another note. It was the second time I left and just left a note. One way or another I hoped it would be my last.
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Flying back was dangerous, even in what appeared to be a civilian jet. Both sides had used this trick, to look like a civilian plane, and drop bombs on areas held by the other side. Both sides would sometimes panic and shoot down an unknown plane. And some fanatics were willing to shoot down any plane, just to reduce the world population quicker. Thus the flight to Canada was nerve racking. I actually slept a little, having gotten little sleep this night. There were about 100 of us volunteers here. We also ate, even played cards. One young man was fidigiting. He probably was no more scared than i was, I just did a better job of hiding my fear. He said "How can you play cards, when we could get blown up any minute?" Abe said to him "It's true we could get blown up. But do you have any reason to believe that could be altered by whether or not we play cards?" That silenced him. Our plane landed safely in the mountains, away from any populated areas. The we split up into groups of ten, I was lucky enough to be in Abe's group. It was certainly a possibility that some of us wouldn't make it back to America, it was winter after all. But splitting up made it more likely that some of us would make it. The hike was brutal, and cold. We tried to avoid populated areas, it was difficult to say which side was near. But after three days we ran into others, and they were aliens. To my shock, one of them was David.
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I had never expected to see David again, and neither of our units had anticipated running into each other like this. It was just a freak accident, which can happen in a war. There had been recent fighting in the area, these ten aliens got seperated from their unit. They weren't sure which side now controlled this general area. Abe and David agreed to a truce. Our two groups would work together in the woods. We would hunt together for food, and we would help them repair their radio. Then we would send out a general distress signal. It was impossible to say which side came for us. Half us us would become P.O.W.s, the other half would return to the fight. It was agreed that, whichever half became P.O.W.s, the other half would vouch for them. Would admit that they helped them to survive. I had already been a P.O.W. Returning to Camp Leningrad wasn't exactly plan A, but I knew I could handle myself if I had to. So for another 3 days we worked together. This was probably my first instance of actually working alongside any aliens. Even here, we slept in shifts. Always at least four of us awake, two from each side, just in case anyone got any bright ideas while their enemy slept. But I trusted David, felt somewhat safer when he was one of the people watching me sleep. He and I went hunting together a few times, brought back what food we could for the group. But we tried not to talk too much about our home, our families. His planet was dead, I knew that, and on some lever David knew that his people had destroyed my home. One day, as we were returning back to camp with a few rabbits, we saw from a distance that the troops had arrived. They were clearly canadian, human. Abe was talking with their C.O., the other aliens were being taken into a truck in handcuffs. Evidently my side had won this recent battle. David resigned himself to becoming a P.O.W. But I remembered how he had saved my life, and our recent bonding. I told him to go east, quickly. I would tell Abe and the others how he left me and fled west. David was grateful, and quickly took off. When he was out of sight, I came back to Abe. I kept my word and said that David had fled west. But within a few hours David was captured. He backed up my story, said he had fled west and then doubled back to fool me. I guess my superiors believed him since no charges were brought against me.
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I was welcomed back, sort of. The canadian officer congragulated us. Said how so many jews were deserting but we came back, even risked arrest, to fight the aliens. Abe said that a lot of people were fleeing to Israel, and they weren't all jews. Some were just cowards. Abe said that Israel got America's deserters and cowards, America got Israel's bravest. Seemed like America got the better end of that deal. At any rate I was back in the fight, and David was a P.O.W. Not too long ago our situations had been reversed. But once again, who got the better end of the deal was up for debate.