Blood Lily Company - Afghanistan - Year 2

XXXVIII

We went out again. We must be reaching February, I think. It was freezing. In the morning we woke up with ice in our mustache, just under our nose, where our breath would freeze. Except those who, like Kris and Tito, could warm their nose in someone's neck (I'll let you guess who). And it was harder for the girls, as they had no hair there to get between the cold and their skin. Every night, Erk would do a little Healing for them.

Despite the balaclavas, despite the others' warmth, we were freezing our asses off. We had the super-duper thermal clothes, but our fingers, our noses...

We were always super happy to find an out-of-the-wind cave, when the temperature wasn't 0°C but 10 or 15 if we managed to get deep enough inside.

We found a true treasure, during one of those uninteresting patrols. It wasn't cashable. It was beautiful.

We were hunkered down in a cave, under a snowstorm. Well, according to the brothers, it wasn't a blizzard, just some wind and snow. Well, for us, it was still very impressive.

Anyways, around noon, the small flakes that were slowly falling had turned into big fat things that were falling faster and, above all, muffling all noise. Kris had asked us to tighten our patrol and to lower our visors, turn the infra-red vision on. He asked Tito to find a cave to hide in until it stopped and Quenotte to call base and tell them.

We finally found an open-sky crevice barely larger than Kris's shoulders. Erk had to walk sideways.

- Tito, Kris said, are you sure about this?

- Yes, according to the maps, there is a cave here. But I think you must earn it.

Yes, in truth, you had to earn it. We trudged a moment, then the crevice opened onto a micro-valley... If we had been in a forest, I would have said a clearing. And micro, because it was barely bigger than Lin's small room. There was thick snow on half of it and slightly less on the other one because of a spring that was misting in the ice-cold air.

- Hot water? I asked, surprised.

- Not really, Baby Jane said. According to my HUD, it's barely hotter than the snow.

- Then we won't drink it as is, then, Erk said. Too dangerous. Is it drinkable?

- We have disinfection tablets, Erk.

- Yes, JD, but ingest less of that is best for all of us.

During this exchange, Baby Jane took her combat tablet out of the sheath on her left sleeve and started an app that is super useful to us. She tilted the tablet so it caught a drop of water on the sleek top and pressed the green button. The tablet took a series of pictures, blinked then the background went through all the colors of the rainbow before stopping on green. The water was drinkable.

We all filled our canteens and we followed Tito into another crevice, a little larger and with a roof, this time.

Very quickly, we came into a nicely-sized cave, with a ground of sand and rock, some of them a little bigger.

It was almost warm in it, and I thought it was because we finally were out of the wind and the snow. Then I felt the ice on my upper lip melting. So I looked at my HUD: 17°C. Surprising when it was between -5 and 0 outside.

- Okay, guys, Erk said, we will set up in a pseudo-temporary way. Poncho on the ground, blanket on top. Nothing off, except the helmet. I want a sentry at the cave entrance.

- Before or after the crevice, Erk?

- Before, in the small valley.

- Bróðir, it would be better further out.