Jimmie took a final look behind him, the tank looming up in the distance. The further away they had walked, the more bodies they’d discovered, but to their dismay, only that one alien. Jimmie wondered how the dead soldiers must have felt, moments before their death. Did they feel fear? Were they angry? Maybe they felt hopeless? Jimmie’s stare lingered, then it slowly moved to look at Dick, and his brows furrowed with resent. Then Chris spoke up and took his attention away.

“You ok?” A worried expression looking up at Jimmie.

Jimmie tilted his head to the side to see Chris, he noted how small and frail he looked. He might have the advantage of being small, but how could he manage the strenuous trecks and journeys of a soldier? Even now Jimmie could tell that Chris were sweating from exertion, he hadn’t complained as far as Jimmie knew, but it was just a matter of time until he slowed them down.

Chris turned away, awkwardly scratching at the top of his helmet, gun loosely held in the other hand. Jimmie felt repelled at the sight, Chris was weak, not like Dick-

Jimmie shook his head quickly, banishing the thought as soon as it entered his head. He wouldn’t think like that, not about Dick. Dick was still, a dick.

Jimmie turned forward, looking out over the still desolate landscape. He sighed slowly, knew that yet more hours of marching would be ahead. He strapped the gun to the front of his body, fastened his pants and straightened his jacket, then marched on.

And the hours went on.

On the fourth hour, Piernov spoke up.

“Chris, do you know any jokes?”

Chris, shook awake from his thoughts, turning hastily towards Piernov, pondering.

“Uhm, well.. Not any good ones”

“That’s too bad” Piernov said, nodding apologetically towards Chris, turning back to look forward. Chris seemed taken aback, stuttering out.

“A-a, uuh. I know a bad one”

“Why?”

Chris looked at Piernov weirdly, a split between uncertainty and confusion.

“Uuuh, I dont know”

“Hrmpf” Piernov grunted in response. Jimmie, who knew more about Piernov, understood that this was just his way of saying “ok”. But Chris seemed to take it at face value, flustered as he quickly said

“I-I can st-still say the joke!”

“Ok” Chris stumbled after Piernov’s quick response, picking himself up swiftly as he huffed out a meager “sorry”, going silent for a moment.

And as the moment lingered, Chris noticed that Jimmie and Piernov was waiting for him.

“Uuh, uh. Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Piernov’s face lit up, almost inhumanly fast turning to Chris as he almost squealed.

“I KNOW! It's both! Because the poop and alien smells like shit!” His face absolutely beaming with joy, staring down at Chris, then to Jimmie.

Jimmie had to turn away for a second, his own smile creeping to surface, but quickly coughed it away, looking back to see Chris utterly bewildered, opening and closing his mouth in rhythm to his quickly blinking eyes.

A few nods from Piernov’s happy face shook Chris out of it, and he asked.

“W-what?”

To which Piernov’s smile vanished within seconds, tilting his head to the side as he asked.

“What, what?”

Chris still looked dumbfounded, but soon after his stare faltered as Piernov’s own drilled into his, he turned away to stare at his marching feet.

“Sorry, nothing”

To which Piernov responded with a simple “Hrmpf”. And Jimmie found himself very bothered. Piernov didn’t bother him, Piernov was how he was, but Chris did. Chris just felt so, weak, Jimmie couldn’t put a finger on why he felt like that, but he just did, and it made him despise Chris.

Then, to Jimmie’s great surprise, Chris walked a little closer to Jimmie, leaning his head as he asked.

“Did I make Piernov mad?” Jimmie glanced down at him, annoyed by the question, even more annoyed by Chris pleading look. He answered back, not even trying to hide his annoyance while taking his eyes away from him.

“Ask him” The hostility in his voice making Chris take a step away, then look down in shame. Jimmie scoffed. He’s supposed to give me orders? Glancing back down at Chris, Jimmie noticed that Chris seemed to breathe rather hard, almost as if he was hyperventilating. Jimmie groaned inwardly, but continued to watch him. The breathing got harder and harder, even Piernov seemed to notice it as he turned his head fully to look. Then Chris calmed down and quickly turned towards Piernov.

“Are you mad at me?”

“No”

“Oh” Looking up at Piernov with a stupid expression, then smiling wide, looking down at his boots as his face turned a little more red. Piernov looked confused, but merely “Hrmpf’d” and kept marching. Jimmie felt a little strange. But quickly shunned the feeling and shook it away, he didn’t need another person to dwell on, he already had enough with Dick.

And day turned to dusk.

Chris held his hand up in a stop-motion, gesturing for Piernov and Jimmie to sit down, which they did. Then he held a finger towards his ear and responded on the radio. A second later, he turned to us.

“We’re setting up camp here for the night.”

And immidietly sat down with a groan, almost throwing his backpack off. Piernov nodded, then also took his backpack off, searching hastily after something. A moment later, he pulled out a ration bar that he promptly started nibbling at. Jimmie sat down himself, letting the weight of the backpack fall off on its own, then drinking the last of his water, assuming that it would fill up on its own during the night. Chris noticed the other two picking through their bags, and mimicked, taking out his own ration bar. He then poured water on it, looking around and noticing Jimmie’s stare, attempting an explanation.

“I find it easier to eat them when you drench them in water” Chris supplied. An answer Jimmie wasn’t looking for.

“You can use spit for that,” Piernov said loudly, taking Chris attention from Jimmie.

“Yeah, but that means you must sniff it for an extended time. I’d rather not”

“Yeah” Piernov answered back, unhelpfully closing the conversation. But Chris didn’t seem bothered, merely smiling. A minute later, the rest of the group joined up, the commander nodding to each man, then turned to wait for Bill, who looked absolutely drenched.

As Rick came into camp, he immediately jogged to Chris, sitting down next to him while asking hushed questions. Jimmie didn’t care for him; he was peeking up at Dick through his dark glasses. Dick didn’t look back, instead stood beside the commander as they waited for Bill.

Soon enough, Bill huffed into camp, Dick moving close to slap a strong hand at Bill’s back. Bill didn’t avoid it, letting its force push him to the ground with a heavy thump, to the enjoyment of the group which laughed tiredly. Bill spoke up with his face in the ground.

“I’d rather eat a cock than walk another day with this shit on my back,” Sounding tired, Bill still managed a smile, and the group laughed with him. Dick walked up to him and bent down next to him.

“I’ve got the biggest cock round here, eat up buddy” Pointing towards his crotch while pushing it close to Bill’s face, Bill tried to shuffle away, but the weight of his pack and his awkward posture made it impossible. Dick shuffled closer and closer, the group laughing at the circus. But as Dick got to close, Bill lashed out and pushed Dick to the side. Dick fell promply on his ass with a soft bump, laughing his guts out at Bill’s absolutely terrified face. The group imitating. Bill tried to look angry after pushing Dick, but his facade ended promptly as Rick pointed at the ground that Bill had lay on, wet by his sweat, and he joined the boisterous laughter. It kept the company lighthearted as the dusk moved on, night coming up and talk turning more tired. Even the commander seemed to have enjoyed the spectacle, flashing a very rare smile.

Eventually, the group turned quiet, Piernov yawning at the side. The commander spoke up.

“If you haven’t eaten your ration bar, eat it now. Drink up and we’ll rotate look out. I’ll start, then I’ll wake up the next. Do this every hour until dawn” He nodded to his own orders and sat down, gun slung out, laying against his crossed legs. The rest of the group followed his order, using their packs as makeshift pillows.

Dick, Piernov and Bill, fell asleep almost immediately. Chris and Rick whispered for a while, but fell asleep soon after, the day’s exhaustion keeping eyelids heavy.

But Jimmie was awake, he was staring up at the stars, glittering and shimmering. He knew that this constellation differed from home, but it didn’t look like it, his monkey brain conquering his logical side. He stared at it, nostalgia welling up from inside, his mind bringing back memories. He felt tired, but his mind was filled with too many thoughts to sleep. But Jimmie didn’t want to think about home, nor his past, it wasn’t worth it. So instead, Jimmie tried to think about something else, his mind wandered. And slowly, it wandered to the events of today. It brought back feelings of fear. Images of blood and guts, brain splattered around, floating in space. He imagined himself floating around in the stars, but instead of stars, it was body parts. And the darkness was blood. He started shivering; he didn’t feel cold. In his mind, he saw a black-hole, but it wasn’t a black-hole. No, the hole had been replaced with a face, blue and cold, staring at him with unmoving eyes.

“Hard time sleeping?”

Roused from his thoughts, he swiftly let his head fall to the side, looking for the one talking. Seeing Dick.

Jimmie’s brows furrowed when he recognised him, then rolled to the side, away from Dick. Dick laughed seeing that, but it sounded fake and hollow.

Jimmie closed his eye’s, trying, forcefuly, to make himself sleep. Only succeeding at making himself less tired.

“I dont like you”

Dick suddenly said. And Jimmie agreed, he didn’t like Dick neither.

“I’ve not liked you since the very first day”

Me neither, fucking dick. Jimmie thought. Dick chuckled randomly, keeping it low but his bassy voice reverberating through Jimmie’s body.

“You’re such a fucking hassle. You could have died, you know that?”

Jimmie froze. Dick seemed to notice as he continued. '

“Yeah, you stupid cunt. It's good that you understand that at least, we can fix someone stupid. But If you were mentally retarded, there would have been no fixing that.”

Jimmie’s angered boiled up again, oh how Dick knew what buttons to press. It was as if Dick was made to anger Jimmie. But before Jimmie could speak up, Dick continued.

“You know, I knew someone like you once”

Jimmie’s eyes narrowed, his fist clenched.

“He never obeyed orders, stupid and weirdly talented” He paused for a second, shuffling around. Jimmie peaked over his shoulder, seeing that Dick had his back towards Jimmie. Jimmie wondered why Dick had done that, but only for a moment, his anger not caring enough about that. Then Dick continued talking.

“I had a hard time getting to know him, you could say it took me years. Hehehe”

The laughter seemed foreign, as if it hid its actual meaning. Then he stayed silent for a moment, letting Jimmie ponder on what the fuck Dick was talking about. Jimmie guessed that Dick was about to say something infuriating, and prepared to retaliate. Dick spoke again, but this time his voice was oddly cracked, and silent.

“You know, Jimmie. Sometimes it's good to be like that. All orders aren’t good orders”

Jimmie couldn’t help himself, he rolled over to look at Dick’s back. His face twisted into confusion, leaning against his arm. But dick remained silent, his big back moving slightly up and down from his deep breathing. Jimmie continued staring, waiting for, something.

Nothing.

The night blew a gentle breeze, and Dick shivered. Jimmie didn’t feel cold.

Jimmie slowly laid back down, closing his eyes and letting sleep take him over.