Chapter 22
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The weather got colder near the end of 2067. Our intel suggested that Etocles and Polyneises would attack in winter. They did however keep one route safe, promised that civilians who left this way would be guaranteed safe passage. I think they figured that at least half of them would freeze to death without having to even fire a single shot. It also wasn't a bad way to encourage dessertions. The aliens also gave our soldiers pamplets, telling us how we could shoot ourselves in the leg without having this leg amputated. I did indeed see some soldiers, from both sides, with suspicious limps. As the weather got colder, that became a double edged sword. I did fear the upcoming battle, and it seemed unlikely that the aliens would attack the disabled first. But, if they did take Milwaukee, would they waste resources on caring for a wounded enemy soldier? Probably not, and I wouldn't be able to defend myself when they came to euthanize me. Around Christmas time the christian churches were full. Some aliens had converted by this point, but mainly they just wanted to pray for peace. Sadly, these prayers went unanswered.
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I am not entirely certain what date the shelling began. I went to sleep on December 27th, and was woken up by the bombs, I'm not sure if it was after midnight or not. At any rate, I knew what this meant. Baldwin had assigned me and David to begin loading refugees into the trains out of town when the siege came. Despite the fear of a siege, comparitively few people had tried to leave by December. As with the blitz in New York, it was mainly the poor who wanted to stay. Now, it was a mad scramble to get to the trains and buses. There was still the question of whether they'd freeze to death in refugee camps. But if they couldn't survive the shelling, than that question became irrelevant. The official protocol was to load children, the elderly, and caretakers first. But most militia members put their own families on first. My mother and sister were safe on another continent, me and David got his grandmother on a bus, then we stayed to help with the evacuation. Others had similar attitudes, not just for family. I remember two militia people talking. One said "That cook at the restaurant we like, we should get him and his family out." The other responded "Yeah, and that tailor who made those suits for us." There were rumors of desperate people offering money, food, even sex to get on those trains. But for the most part, it was more about "Who do you know?" The crowds were intense, the gates only did so much. For better or worse some escaped merely because they were good fence jumpers when it really mattered. I saw one young couple with a baby. Someone yelled at them "Why bring the baby? It will die anyway. If your husband lives he can give you another baby." The american military did what they could in this week. But in war, a lot of the time, there's just no substitute for large numbers. Palmer and his units were rationing their artillery, and reusing the same soiled bandages in field hospitals. After Palmer was killed, we knew that any chance of defending the city was gone. A lot of soldiers were burning their uniforms. Bear in mind that this was the beginning of January, and people were walking around in their underwear. That was how afraid of the aliens they were, they didn't want them to know they had been american military. I had no uniform to burn, I just stayed with Baldwin's militia and helped with the evacuation. Hopefully they wouldn't attack this area just yet, that would discourage dessertions. But we all feared they'd come for us sooner or later.
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One day, after a food run, me and David were returning to the departure point. We saw an alien squad, murdering a small child. They believed that the child had been a hybrid, and we quickly hid from them. We didn't want to take the chance that they'd get the wrong idea about us, so we hid. Then we saw something we did not expect, Etocles himself. He was angry at these men, his bodyguards apparently. He wasn't angry about them murdering an innocent child, but rather that their actions could give away their position. It seemed he had been the first to set foot in Milwaukee, Polyneises would have to pay up. Me and David had our rifles, and we both hated this man for what he had done to the city. There were five of them, including Etocles. They had us outnumbered, but we were hidden, and we had the element of surprise. David and I just looked at each other, and nodded, we both knew what had to be done. We shot at them with our rifles, killing Etocles and three of these bodyguards. The last bodyguard escaped. This action wouldn't end the war, but it felt like justice.
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By the end of January we hadn't yet been caught for killing Etocles. Polyneises issued a statement, mourning his "friend." But this being a war, nobody was looking too hard for which sniper might have specifically killed him. It seemed like everyone who wanted to leave was gone. Those who were staying feared alien occupation less that the freezing refugee camps. Baldwin said we could leave, rejoin our respective units or find our families, that was our choice. David planned to find his grandmother, make sure she was okay. I found myself wondering if colonel Palmer had told anyone of my role as his informant, or would I be charged with dessertion. At any rate, I did feel a duty to return to my unit, or any unit. The war would almost certainly be over within a year. But before we left, David and I shared our first kiss. I hoped it wouldn't be our last, but I couldn't be sure.