Buck

“So, the little girl who just fought off a giant spider monster thinks she can keep other monsters from attacking us,” Buck summarized Tanaka’s translation of that conversation for the surrounding recruits while Tanaka translated Buck’s orders to Autumn. 

“Did she say how she’d do that?” Jader asked, adding, “Sergeant?”

Buck could only shake his head. He knew what it looked like, but what it looked like was flatly impossible. He nodded for Tanaka to speak. She was the one who could talk to the girl, after all.

“I am not absolutely certain,” Tanaka answered for him. “There’s a lot of times I think she’s scrambling for the right word and just coming up with her best guess,” Tanaka said. “And, well, I’m doing the same thing? So...” Tanaka shrugged. She looked over at Autumn, who was patiently studying the weird fog stuff. “So I’m not sure but I think she means magic. I mean. She shot lightning out of her hand, Sergeant. If it’s not magic then what else could it be?”

Buck nodded. “Yeah. That sure did look like magic to me too, Recruit.” 

The gathered recruits traded confused and stunned looks. Their Sergeant was supposed to be a living wall of military bearing and confident certainty. He wasn’t supposed to believe in magic. But this was a new situation and Buck did not have all the answers. Usually, that realization hit sometime after they graduated Basic, but it looked like these recruits were gonna learn the tough lessons early.

 Buck knelt down next to Miller. The kid looked okay, all things considered. He had the weird magic girl to thank for that.

“You holding it together, Recruit Miller?” Buck asked.

“I think so, Sergeant.” Miller looked up at the girl. “Who is she?”

“Says she’s here to help,” Buck replied. “Calls herself Autumn.”

“Sergeant, she looks like a kid,” Miller said.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Buck sighed. “But right now she’s the only person around who seems to know what’s going on.”

“She saved my life,” Miller said. 

“That she did,” Buck agreed. “You can thank her later. Or have Tanaka thank her for you.”

Miller nodded. “I will. I. That thing was gonna eat me, wasn’t it?”

“Try not to think too hard about that,” Buck advised. “It didn’t happen and that’s the important part. You’ll tie yourself up in knots if you think too hard about the things that didn’t happen.”

“I did try to fire,” Miller said.

“Recruit?”

“At the... the spider thing. I tried to shoot it. But it ate my gun before I could. I swear I tried.”

“I know, Recruit. I know.” Buck rested a hand on his shoulder. “You did the best anyone could be expected to do against a giant ass spider.”

Miller nodded slowly.

Buck turned around and realized that all of his recruits had arrived and were staring at him. Which meant no one was guarding the rest of the base.

“What’re you gawking at?” he demanded. “You lot act like you’ve never seen a, uh, civilian contractor before! She’s gonna do her thing, keep these monsters out. You lot get back to your posts so they don’t sneak through while she’s doing it!”

They scattered, except Nguyen who helped Miller into the barracks more slowly, and Tanaka who had to stay close so the girl could communicate. 

Autumn twisted to watch the proceedings. Buck studied her for a moment. Damn, but she was young. He’d wager fifteen at the most. And she’d run right into the maw of a giant monster spider like it was nothing.

He needed answers. Right now it looked like that little girl was his only source of those answers. Buck just had to be patient. Contrary to many recruits’ beliefs, Buck excelled at patience. Although the constant game of telephone as he asked, Tanaka translated, Autumn answered, and Tanaka translated again, with a better than average chance that every one of those steps was losing information was certainly straining that patience. Like right now.

“What is she doing now?” Buck asked, as the girl apparently decided the border between his base and that weird fog stuff was a tightrope she aimed to walk every inch of.

“I’m not sure, Sergeant,” Tanaka said.

“Well, ask.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Tanaka walked over to the girl, stopped, and stood at parade rest. The girl looked over at Tanaka and listened to her question. She explained something. Tanaka nodded slowly and returned to Buck’s side.

“She says she’s walking the perimeter to set the boundaries of the shield,” Tanaka said.

“Any idea what that means when it’s at home, Recruit?”

“I think... I think I have no idea, Sergeant. But adding one more person to the perimeter guard can’t hurt, right?”

“Good point, Recruit. Let’s see what she does.”

“Yes, Sergeant.”

Buck and Tanaka followed along as the young girl jogged lightly around the whole base, stopping at odd intervals to do... something that involved a little hand waving, a little muttering under her breath, and some shuffling her feet. Maybe she was taking measurements? It kind of looked like she was trying to measure something. Should he offer her a tape measure? They had those in abundance. He wasn’t sure what bright spark had stored two hundred compact tape measures in the basement of the women’s dorm, but they were there. 

They circled the entire base, well, what there was of it. It didn’t take long. It was only as big as a couple football fields really. Once they reached the point where the girl had started her patrol, she stopped. She held one hand out against the fog, as though touching a surface. She chanted something in a language that sounded like honey and traced another symbol with her other hand. 

How was she doing that? Some kind of holographic technology? Was that any more realistic than accepting her answer of magic? 

Autumn stepped back and rested her hands on her hips, head tilted as she studied whatever she’d just done. It didn’t look any different to Buck.

He went closer to the border between where the world sort of made sense, and where utter madness reigned. He reached out and poked at the fog. Instead of going right through, his hand brushed against something. It felt like glass, smooth and cool to the touch.

Autumn spoke. Buck glanced at Tanaka.

“She said usually these barriers are solid only from the outside, but because she fears one of us becoming lost she sealed it entirely.”

“Oh. Probably a good idea. Why does it tingle?” Buck asked.

That exchange took a minute. Probably because they had to figure out an antique Japanese term for “tingle.”

The girl seemed mildly surprised. She spoke, paused, poked at the invisible wall, and spoke again. Tanaka asked a question. Autumn answered slowly. 

“Recruit?” Buck asked when neither of them said anything else. “Am I having a stroke and neither of you wants to tell me?”

“No, Sergeant. She said, um. The effect? The tingle, I guess, is something some people feel and some don’t.” Tanaka reached out and rested her hand on the barrier. “It just feels cold to me, Sergeant.”

“Okay, then. What is it?”

“I don’t think she has the words to say.”

“Fair enough,” Buck said. “But this’ll hold out the giant spiders and the blobs and whatever the hell else?”

Tanaka turned to translate that for Autumn. She nodded quickly and spoke a few words.

Tanaka said, “She seems really confident that it will, Sergeant.”

“I guess that’s the best we’re going to get.”

The girl spoke again. Tanaka turned to her, repeated what she’d said, and at the girl’s nod turned to Buck.

“What did she say, Recruit?” Buck asked.

“She, uh, she asked for a rock, Sergeant.”

“A rock?”

“Yes Sergeant.”

“Did she say why?”

“No, Sergeant.” Tanaka paused. “But, Sergeant. So far she’s tried to answer our questions, she fought off a giant monster to save one of my squad mates, and she’s put up this shield to protect us. If she wants a rock, I think our actual question is how big should the rock be.”

“Right you are, Recruit. Ask her that.”

Tanaka asked. The girl waved one hand and held up two fingers a little apart, indicating a palm sized rock. Buck waved off Tanaka’s translation. 

“I got that,” Buck said. He spotted several more recruits watching. “I’ll get a rock.”