Monk is a strange fish. He doesn’t talk much, isn’t prone to fits of emotion but it’s plain to me that he’s suffering, you can see it in his eyes. When I think about it; we are all a bit cold. I think that you have to be cold or detached from things to cope with what’s happening. We’ve been on the road for nearly four weeks since the Fall and I’ve not seen a single American other than the ones we brought with us. Where did they all go? Did we miss the extraction?
Yesterday we hooked up with a French NATO outfit on their way westwards. They’re all heading home and they’re a damn sight closer than the rest of us. The Colonel scrounged some gas from them and tried to get some ammunition but they weren’t about to give it up. I think we were very lucky they were so nice – they had superior numbers and firepower. On the other hand, we don’t have much they can loot so maybe that’s why we are still breathing. The Doc managed to get a bag of apples the French had pilfered from a orchard a few days earlier. She speaks fluent French, surprise surprise. The French commander saluted all of us as they pulled out this morning. He shouted Bon Chance as they rounded the corner and then we just could hear their engines in the distance and we felt even more alone.
His full name is Malcolm Clarence Onkel. When he was in Basic at Fort Leonard Wood, he was given a sticky name badge with his first initial and surname and from there the nickname stuck. He says he was involved in electrical stuff but we have him fixing up an old Russian off-roader. He carries around this tool kit wrapped in cloth that must weigh about forty pounds which has been put together from anything and everything he could lay his hands on. The way he treasures the tools makes me think he’d save them first from a burning building.
Monk says the first thing we will need to build is new tools. With new tools we can build just about anything. Cell phones, electric guitars, toaster ovens. We just need the right tools. I’m glad we have him with us to fix the UAZ. I’ve never felt more glad that we have an Army Engineer on the team.
