Free Prairie Fire by E. K. Johnston Page B

Hannah’s work was so good.
    â€œThere are a few of us to take care of,” Annie pointed out. “Plus all of the guns.”
    He sighed, “It’s not really the same thing.”
    â€œWe didn’t bring any backups,” Owen reminded him. “You’ll get to make those.”
    Aarons brightened and returned to making sketches, while Courtney looked over his shoulder and made suggestions. As our combat engineer, Courtney was the third most important person in the squad after Owen and Annie. Technically, the foreman’s job had the higher rank, but it was also a great deal more straightforward. Courtney had taken over most of the logistics and was better at setting people to tasks they were good at. In the end, Annie and Courtney reached an agreement on the hierarchy, and I wondered if this was what Lottie had meant when she’d said that the Oil Watch ran differently from the regular Forces.
    Laura, who was one of the tiniest people I had ever met, and who somehow managed to carry her own body weight in gear anyway, was doing a crossword puzzle. She was actually from Saskatchewan, so the prairies were less alluring to her than they were to the rest of us. Gratton leaned across her to look out the window, and she kept smacking him with the pen every time he got too close.
    â€œLook!” Gratton said. “There it is.”
    We couldn’t see the mountains yet, but on the ruddy yellow horizon there stood what looked like a row of metal teeth stretching up into the air. During the day, this was the first part of Fort Calgary you could see, though at night you could see the lights from much farther away. The metal teeth were the tops of stylized totem poles, taller than the California Redwoods on which they were modeled, and thrusting jagged steel into the bright prairie sunset. Though most of the poles were around the wall of the fort, they were also scattered throughout the city itself, to prevent the dragons from dive-bombing any of the buildings. It was dramatic and, according to several European pseudo-scientists, entirely unnecessary, but since Fort Calgary was the last real stronghold between the rest of Canada and Kamloops, BC, on the other side of the John A–Zuò Tunnel, no one complained. We watched as we drew closer to the fort, though Laura kept poking at her crossword as if to spite the fact that the rest of us were Easterners.
    â€œIt’s beautiful,” said Aarons, who knew how to get use from metal.
    â€œThey’re probably covered with bird crap up close,” Parker pointed out.
    The train slowed, and a steward came to let us know that we’d be met upon our arrival. We scrambled to pack everything back into our kits, and Annie did my zippers and buckles while I folded up the berth that she and Dorsey had been sitting on. The train slowed as it passed underneath the metal branches, and I watched Aarons drag himself away from the window. We’d have plenty of time to admire the sights later, so I didn’t feel too bad for him. Courtney pushed his pack at him and winked at me while Owen helped me get my own bag settled on my shoulders.
    â€œI really hope this doesn’t suck,” I said, quiet enough that only he heard it.
    â€œWe’ll be fine,” he told me. “Maybe they thought we’d done so much work already, we needed a break.”
    â€œOh, please,” I said. “Not even I am that naive.”
    â€œAll right,” Owen said to everyone as he pushed his way to the front of the car. “I guess we should line up. Courtney, Annie?”
    They joined him at the front, and I fell back to let them. I had my bugle, one final gift from Trondheim, in my gear. I hadn’t had time to play it since we’d arrived at Gagetown, but I had practiced for months before that and knew that I was as good as I was going to be. We still hadn’t heard if I was going to be required to play, or if they would just find