The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 30 Guns

Samuel was as good as his word and he helped Katka with the washing up. He chatted away to Katka in a calculatedly casual and inconsequential way, as she washed everything and handed it to him for drying. As each item was ready, he dried them all using the cleanest corner of the blanket, or more often,  handed  the item back for further cleaning, chuckling softly. It occurred Samuel that the two of them were probably putting more bacteria back onto everything, than the washing was removing, but the process itself seemed therapeutic for Katka. Katka for her part noted that Samuel had the same slow considered method for examining the drying as he did for eating. But he was in the process of cleaning the last mess tin when he stopped and looked pained.

"Are you OK?" Katka asked.

"I feel the presence of real malevolence and evil." Samuel said.

"I had that too... it was something that I ate." Katka said.

"No Katka." Samuel corrected. "It is an evil man!"

Katka looked around herself once again expecting to see spectres in the mine. "So there are ghosts in mine after all?"

"No! No! Not in the mine Katka! Outside!" Samuel stated, "and this particular evil is a living human being and not any phantasm."

"What can we do?" Katka asked.

"We must use what ever resources that are available to us. There are even some guns inside the mine," Samuel said, "I think that it's about time I got a couple of them ready. I don't like the idea... but sometimes... one has to fight evil. The Dalai Lama said, 'If someone has a gun and is trying to shoot you then it is reasonable to shoot back with your own gun!'"

"Yes but guns..." Katka said but could not frame her objections into a concrete statement.

"They only kill when you aim accurately and fire them Katka!" Samuel stated. "Everything on Earth has the potential for good or evil. A small bowl of water can save the life of a man who is dying of thirst or drown a baby!"

Katka gave him a despairing look. "but it's difficult to kill room full of people with one bowl of water!" She observed.

"But given enough water you can drown a whole gallery of miners!" Samuel suggested.

"Thanks for reminding me about ghosts." Katka said, "I had almost forgotten.

Samuel disappeared into the mine and brought back two guns and several magazines of ammunition back with him from the store.

"Have you ever fired a gun?" He asked Katka.

"No of course I haven't!" She replied, as if it were obvious. It shocked her that someone who seemed so gentle, could be even considering using of something as lethal as a gun.

"Why of course?" Samuel asked, "I knew lots of ladies that fired guns. The Slavik President had a full squad of body guards who were female... all trained by the navy."

"How do you know so much about guns?" Katka asked, making it sound more like an accusation than a question.

"Basic training! We were all taught how to use these very guns in the Navy!" Samuel added turning the gun around in his hand. "I had to do my fair share of marching around carrying one... Buttons polished looking macho!" Samuel paused and laughed and then coughed, "but for the rest of the time guns aren't much help for mending helicopters. That was years before I became Mík of course."

"Oh!" Katka said distantly, it was quite obvious that she had other things to think of. "What were you in prison for Samuel?"

"Oh I was not in a prison exactly, it only looked like one," Samuel said. "I was in Madam's secret dungeon."

At least this sparked Katka's imagination.

"Who was this Madam?"

"She was the wife of the commandant and she liked young men in uniform." Samuel admitted. "She was punishing me for non compliance. She liked punishing people. It made her feel... powerful."

Katka sensed that he was withholding something embarrassing but she decided not to press him as to what the non compliance had been. In any case she was more interested in dispelling a lingering doubt that she had.

"So you weren't criminal then?" Katka asked tentatively. For some reason Samuel felt that there was more invested in the question than he could find a rational explanation for. But then he sometimes found that what women found important, differed substantially to his own priorities.

"I had committed no crime and I wasn't sentenced by any court or legal procedure, if that's what you mean." Samuel said simply. "But criminality all depends which way you look at it." Samuel said simply, "And who it is making the laws and dishing out the so called justice. The Zeli Corporation probably considers you a criminal for running away."

"I never thought of that." Katka admitted.

"I could explain more but not here and not now!" Samuel said. "Not with that terrible man on the hillside."

He inserted a magazine into one of the guns with a satisfying click and set it to fire single shots but he didn't disengage the safety catch. He handed the gun to Katka.

"You would trust me with gun?" Katka said amazed. "You don't know me. I could shoot you!"

She handed back the gun and he removed the magazine.

"Believe me I know you. But if you did shoot me then all my troubles would be over wouldn't they?" Samuel said, and then after some consideration, "depending on where you hit me that is!"

"You're strange one!" Katka laughed. "you have funny way of looking things!" She eyed the gun dubiously and seemed afraid of it.

"It wouldn't fire until you cocked it Katka and on this model it's impossible to do that by accident," Samuel said.

"I don't want it!" Katka said and turned her back on Samuel to underline the point.

After a few moments of rather pregnant silence Samuel said.

"Let's see if we can find some clothes or at least the materials to make clothes." Samuel said, "We can leave the guns here if they make you feel so uncomfortable."