She didn't want to think about that, though.
She changed the subject. "You guys should head back and get some chow and a little rest."
Seth scowled at her. "Reuel said two men on, two off. You cannot take guard duty alone. I will stay and Niles can return to camp."
Niles glared at him. "I will stay and you can return."
"Will you guys knock it off?" Danika snapped.
Seth sent her a look of surprise, shrugged, and belted Niles in the mouth.
Danika sucked in a sharp breath. "What the hell ...?"
Niles worked his jaw. "She did not say that you should knock my head off!"
"I didn't say either of you should!" she snapped, narrowing her eyes at Seth. "And I don't believe you misunderstood me!"
Seth tried to look innocent. "He is injured now. He should return and I will stay."
"That did not hurt at all!" Niles disputed.
Seth punched him again, hard enough that time to send him jogging backwards in an effort to catch his balance. Niles uttered a snarl of rage.
"If you two don't cut it out I'm going to send both of you back! The damned savages will hear you a mile away!"
They exchanged a speaking glance. "The order was to guard to be sure the primitives did not sneak into camp. They cannot expect to if they know we are here," Seth said reasonably. "It serves no purpose, therefore, for us to concern ourselves with making noise. They will try another place and very likely those on guard there will have ammunition. We have nothing but the spears from the savages we killed."
"I have ammunition," Danika pointed out. "And it'll be better for me to stand watch now, while it's still daylight. I can't see as well as you guys at night."
Seth snatched her rifle from her hand and examined it. "You have twelve rounds," he said, ignoring her look of outrage as he handed it back. "You can only shoot twelve--if you do not miss at all. And they attacked each time in the daylight. It is not reasonable to suggest we return to camp now and leave you alone given the fact that each previous attack was during the daytime."
That part was inarguable--not that Danika wasn't inclined to argue anyway--or order them straight out to head back. But she'd had plenty of time to discover that they only obeyed orders from her when it suited them and there didn't seem to be much point in challenging them now. They weren't 'regular' army anymore. Despite the fact that Reuel had made her a captain inhisarmy, they had no homeland or government to sanction them as an army. "Fine. Suit yourselves, but Reuel's going to be pissed off if any of the savages break through our sector because you two were fighting and not paying attention, or asleep because you were too tired to stay awake."
They sat in silence for a while, swatting at the annoying insects that buzzed them. Presently, however, Danika recalled the thoughts that had occupied her on her way back to the guard station. She looked at Seth and Niles speculatively for a few minutes, trying to decide how to broach the subject.
"I don't suppose you guys have given any thought to what you want to do now that we aren't in the army anymore?"
Both men looked surprised. "We are in Reuel's army," Niles responded after a few moments.
That seemed to answer her question, but she wasn't inclined to drop it. "It isn't like we were sworn in or anything--or asked if we wanted to join."
"We were not asked before or sworn in either," Seth pointed out.
Good point! Danika thought that over for a few minutes. "You know, technically, you guys aren't deserters."
"They will shoot us anyway when they find us," Niles responded.
"Yes, but, technically, you can't be a deserter when you didn't join to start with."
Seth shrugged.
Given their responses to her tentative 'feelers' Danika wasn't sure she wanted to discuss the lame-brained idea she'd concocted in the hope of lifting Dane's spirits. She'd thought at the time that it was something thatwouldlift his spirits because she thought it might be what he wanted.
Reuel had suggested something along the same lines and no one had seemed against the idea. Well, it wasn't like they'd cheered or acted excited either, but then again, they were all pretty cool and laid back.
Most of the time, she added when she recalled the argument.
Then again, they all tended to calculate the odds on everything. Maybe they'd thought the odds were against them having any chance of a life and they'd simply dismissed it?
