Chapter 04: The Departure

While we waited for the wood to burn down to coals, Roger hauled a portable cooler-box out of the Land Rover and placed it on a table handy to the braai. "Steak, chops or wors?" he asked me.

"Chops and wors please."

"OK"

"Can you tell me more now?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Well ... everything I suppose."

Roger laughed. "OK, I can understand that. I will tell you a bit more about what is happening here, but most of if I am afraid you will have to learn once we are through the gate."

"OK, can I help with that?"

"Sure. You can put the grid on. It looks as if the coals are ready. I'll grab some drinks. Another Coke?"

"Yes please."

I put the grid onto the braai and accepted the Coke gratefully from Roger as he returned.

Roger busied himself with putting the meat on the braai and opening his beer, while I waited fairly patiently. I could see that he was gathering his thoughts and, I guessed, deciding what to tell me.

Eventually he started "I have been doing this a long time. I was already old when I got recruited. I had just turned 82 and was suffering tremendously from arthritis and had all the early indicators from Parkinsons. I was approached in a similar way by someone else and made the same choice that you have. War World sorted out all my medical issues and I have done quite well there. Those of us who do well are allowed to recruit other people to join us. I chose you because you seem to meet the criteria that I figured would do well on War World. I am what you would call a Platoon Commander, but I hope to get my own Company in the near future, and I need to have people I think will be able to advance and be a valuable part of my company.

"Just by the way, we don't call them platoons and companies on War World, I am just using the closest terms that you will be familiar with.

"You will find that things are really different on War World from what you know, but just remember to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut in the beginning and listen to everything that you are told. It is all important. More than that, listen to what the veterans have to say, but make up your own mind. A lot of them are doomed to repeating their mistakes and never progress.

"If you do well, then you will find that there are also a lot of things that will feel familiar to you. It turns out that being a soldier involves concepts that are pretty universal.

"What would you say that the most important skills are for a new soldier to master?"

I knew that this was a test, but I had no hesitation in saying "Sleep whenever you get a chance, eat everything you can lay your hands on and look after your feet and rifle."

Roger laughed. "You just confirmed my choice. That's it exactly. You have no idea how many 'soldiers' never learn those lessons?"

I kept quiet because I thought it was a rhetorical question, but when Roger gave me an interrogatory look, I ventured to guess "All the ones who don't survive?"

Roger just nodded, but he had a satisfied look on his face, so I figured he liked that answer too. While we were talking he had thrown my chops and his piece of steak on the grill. Now he added a big roll of boerewors. The smell of the meat braaing was starting to drive me crazy, as I realised I hadn't eaten at all the whole day.

"Could you take a look in the fridge and grab the potato salad there?" Roger asked me.

"Sure." I went into the small kitchen and fished the salad out of the fridge and grabbed some forks at the same time. While I was there, I heard the sound of some cars arriving. I carried the stuff outside to the picnic table near the braai, and watched as Roger greeted the new arrivals.

It was clear to me that the six people who had arrived had exactly the same relationship to each other as that between Roger and I; each pair was a combination of one person who had been to the War World and one who was newly recruited.

I watched for a while to see if I could justify that thought with something more concrete than a 'gut feeling' and eventually decided that it had something to do the the situational awareness that I had noted in Roger the first time I laid eyes on him. These people were aware of what was going on around them all the time. I decided wryly that sneaking up behind one of them and shouting 'BOO' would not be a good idea.

Roger turned to me and said "Cy, let me introduce you to some people. This is Ben, Gill and Rob. The people with them are John, Steven and Desrae. They will be going to War World with us in the morning."

I was surprised to see that there were women in the group. I don't know why, there had been no barrier to their entry to the army for at least ten years, but I suppose I was still a product of my experience. The three that Roger had introduced first, were the three that I had guessed had been to War World before. All three had a similar look; they were lean and wiry with an under-lying strength. Ben was tall; six foot 4 at a guess, Rob was around six foot; just slightly taller than me and Gill was about 5 foot 5. I couldn't judge their ages any closer than I had Roger's, and I already knew how unreliable that was. The other three were different. They felt like ordinary people I might have met anywhere ... John was young. I guessed around 23 or so. He was also tall but pretty seriously over-weight. Steven looked about my age, with a bit of a pot-belly and Desrae was a stereotypical grey-haired granny.