Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan, year 1

LXXIX

We joined the others, the little green dots on my head-up display, to take stock.

Erk explained that he had broken down, faced with these horrible deaths, that certain things that had happened to him had come up to the surface, added to all this, and that, therefore, he had broken down.

- Is that why you look like a teenage girl who watched a cheesy melodrama? Baby Jane asked.

- Kris would call that a silly romcom, but yes, that's why.

- And are you better now?

- I think I do, lovely lady.

- Then it's fine.

- Well, since we have Baby Jane's approval, I think we can move on, Kris said laughing.

He went to sit next to Kitty, who was still looking pale, and put an arm around her shoulders, to comfort her. Strangely enough, she is afraid of Erk, Nanny, or Dio, but not of Kris, who is yet taller than Nanny.

JD and the others had found one of the many caves in the area, and this one had a spring inside. Ice-cold water, but pure and perfectly drinkable.

- Alright guys, Kris said, Erik and I need your advice.

When the whole patrol had settled down, Kris started.

- It's simple, we would like your opinion on what to do now. We have two solutions: we continue the patrol in enemy territory, with this slaughter in our heads, or we turn around and go back.

- Whatever we choose, I think the villagers deserved their last rites, Kris.

- I'm fine with that, Erik, don't worry. We will pass through the village to finish burying them and say a prayer.

- But, Kris, said Kitty, they are Muslims, so a Christian prayer...

Kris looked at his brother. I had understood, with time, that Erk was much more religious, even mystical, than Kris. I thought him, therefore, a little fanatical. But his answer surprised me a lot.

- Kitty, whatever god we pray to, and as far as I'm concerned, it's the same, only his name changes, whatever it is, what matters is sincerity and intention. Whether you pray to Allah, Jehovah, God or Vishnu, Zeus or even Amon Ra, the one you pray to is the Creator, and the love put into the prayer that you dedicate to him is what matters. I don't know who said: "He who does evil in the name of God does it in the name of Satan, and he who does good in the name of Satan does it in the name of God". The name is not important. Again, it is the intention that counts.

Damn, if all the religious fanatics could hear him and follow his philosophy, surely the world would be a better place!

Kitty, American but raised outside the United States, had probably been made less stupid by religion than most of her compatriots. I don't remember what the world was like before the American withdrawal, I was too young, but it happened in my lifetime nonetheless.

The withdrawal had first been economic, then military, then diplomatic, which is a bit like putting the cart before the horse, if you ask me, but well. The last diplomats had been those stationed in Europe a decade ago, just after the Middle East, although some had stayed a little longer. What had decided the US to really withdraw their people had been the assassination of their ambassador in Kabul, about five years ago.

What I had learned was that the United States had turned into a religious democracy, strange as that sounds. If you were White and Protestant, you had access to everything. If you were Catholic, you were advised to recant and convert, or leave the country. There was, in addition, a surprising demographic. The South, from Baja California to Texas, was the territory of the Hispanos, the Blacks were found from Louisiana to Georgia and the Whites were found in the rest of the territory, with the major exception of New York City, which had the air of a no man's land, in the sense that everyone was there.