No one could run anywhere.
The tank crew cut down both trade-school boys with automatic-rifle bursts. The rest dropped wherever they could.
I pressed myself into the sand. My head pounded: «can’tbe! can’tbe! can’tbe!» Before my eyes flashed the trade-school boys, falling into the sand like marionettes, boneless dolls.
This is death.
For the first time in my life I was witnessing a murder. A mix of horror and denial wrapped around my mind. My insides twisted and lurched upward in a knot. I choked back a wave — no, a tsunami — of nausea. The first swell was followed by a second, weaker one. Then a third, moderate. A fourth barely registered, just a burp.
Words from my uncle’s favorite song crept into my head: «They’ll cut the puppets from their long strings, and, dusted with mothballs, fold them like rags into trunks.»
I raised my head, forced my eyes to focus.
The tank crew stood by their machine. Across from them, four naked women shifted their weight from foot to foot. A little further off, three men huddled, still dressed.
The commander got down to business. Working himself with one hand, he walked up to one of the women, nodded — go on, get down. The woman lay on a rag, bent her knees, and spread them wide. The tank driver, still stroking himself, stood over her. About a minute later he stopped. He held himself out to the side, half-erect, more or less ready for entry into someone else’s flesh. He dropped into a push-up position, settled against her, and, shifting like a dog, began thrusting.
He thrust away briskly. The woman moved back and forth across the rag with a remarkable amplitude, moaning. A minute later she put her arms around her rapist, which set off a storm of emotion among the tank crew. Gesturing and guffawing, they threw a cartridge at his backside. Then a second one.
Some two minutes later the copulating pair finished, their mutual moans rousing enthusiasm in the soldiers and stupefaction in the captives. I shifted my gaze to the grenade in my hand. Pull the pin, the way we were taught in basic military training class, and hurl it at the enemy? Would it help?
