Caro's Descent

Chapter Seven - The Devil Dome

They packed us so tightly in the back of the cargo truck that I struggled to breathe. The soldiers on my left and right practically sat on top of me. Nobody else seemed to tremble as I did. Almost everyone carried on casual conversations, mostly about girls. Men love to boast about the women they've conquered. I sat silent, as I had nothing to contribute to those conversations.

As I gazed through the darkness, a shadow flickered across the large soldier on my right, who asked, "You gonna make it, man? You look like you bout'a shit yourself." His voice was playful and mischievous, with an accent I couldn't quite place at the time.

"Yeah, I'm just a little nervous," I answered, my voice vibrating with each bump along the ride.

"Where you from?" the soldier asked. His eyes narrowed as if searching for something familiar within me.

"Massachusetts," I said. "My name's Caro."

"James." The shadow around him shifted as he cocked his arm sideways and shook my hand. "I'm from Texas! I don't know why you's so nervous, Caro. I ain't fittn'a let these Drill Searnts' scare me."

I had never heard a Texas accent. "You ain't what, to let these Drill Sergeants scare you?"

"I ain't fittn'a," James repeated, as if testing my understanding of a language I'd never heard.

"What the hell does fitna mean," I asked.

James laughed. "Oh, that's right, y'all northerners talk all proper. Fittn'a, you know, fixing to."

Fixing to still wasn't a term I had been accustomed to hearing, but since I arrived in reception two weeks prior, I had heard it used a few times. "You mean you're not about to let them scare you?"

"Damn, man! Ain't you listnin'? That what I said."

"Sorry, I've never been down south before." It was as if we hailed from two different worlds.

"You ain't lying, Caro. You don't talk like anyone I ever met, neither."

"So, you're not nervous at all?" I asked.

"Hell, Nah! I ain't scared a nothin'. Say, Caro, you got a gal back home?"

I thought about Heather briefly, but she was never my girlfriend. I was ashamed to admit I had never had an actual girlfriend. "No one serious," I answered. "How about you?"

James almost seemed offended. His words were fast-paced and direct: "Me? Tied down to one gal? You mus be crazy. That why I joined the Army. I wanna travel the world and hook up with gals from every country."

At first, he shocked me. Then I remembered how Sergeant Bennett convinced me to join. The pull of adventure, the unknown, and its promises had always been stronger than any mortal tether. "You joined the Army just to meet women?"

A smile beamed across James's face, and he appeared pleased with himself. "Hell yeah! Where else can you travel the world for free and meet gals from all over?"

"You're crazy." The shadows around the truck seemed to lean in closer as if listening.

James's head snapped toward me, his words as fast as earlier, "I ain't crazy. You crazy. You say no one serious. I say Jody got that gal you ain't so serious 'bout. These hoes be creepin' every chance they get; you can b'lieve dat."

I understood what he meant. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience."

"Shit, man. You don't know me. Don't presume to know my past, neither."

We both lowered our heads and sat silent for a few seconds. Then I asked, "Who the hell is Jody, anyway?"

James stared at me as if I were an alien. "Man, you never heard'a Jody? What the heck y'all be talkin' bout up there in the north?"