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How much longer was he going to have to keep this up? McNabb wondered while he picked at the edge of an aluminum food tray, letting it clatter back to the table. They were supposed to be getting coffee, not serving it. The two girls were serving coffee to the enlisted, and it must have been good, because they were willing to waste their fifteen minute mess break just waiting in line for an eight ounce cup. But he did think the two blond girls would be able to work faster if they weren’t trying to teach Aubrey how to use the machine. She was panicking about the dials.

The mastermind of all this, Roger sat across from him looking smug… or bored, he really couldn’t be sure. He was flicking the tab on his empty beer can and looking about. “Roger,” McNabb said. He leaned over his empty tray. “What are you doing?” He knew this couldn’t go on. The men around him walked past looking apologetic as they drank their coffee.

“What do you want?” Roger said. “We’re stuck in this ruddy bunker with a horde of man-eating beasts out there. Let the girls have a little fun.” He didn’t sound convinced though, and he kept looking back at the door. He too looked around and just noticed who else was missing: those damn dogs. Both of them were underfoot when they headed here, but he couldn’t place seeing them in the mess hall.

“Roger, where are the dogs?”

The Scotsmen looked up surprised, or at least he pretended to be. McNabb could tell he wasn’t being sincere. “Dogs? What do you mean?” He looked down under the table.

“I’m not stupid Roger, there were two dogs with you. If you can’t tell yet, I’m surrounded by my men now. Even with your crazy barista, you wouldn’t stand a chance. I’m trying to show you, we want to help you. What happened in the trucks was unfortunate, but I was misled.”

Roger sat back up looking serious, or perhaps less aloof was more accurate. “You put a man that’d turned on us in the same truck with a teenage girl and thought it was the right thing to do?”

“No,” he rubbed at the back of his neck. He felt warm, embarrassed by being called out like this. Mistakes were not something he did… Usually did, it was becoming more frequent since he met this crew. “It’s not a secret, you’d kidnapped the girl, and Jackson said he could get her to turn. He told me they’d connected before.”

“Well I hope you’ve seen the error of your ways,” Roger said in a cold voice.

McNabb wasn’t sure what he should say to that, but he was rescued from having to by a single bark. The shepherd called “Spot” came into the mess hall with his jaunty trot on display. Behind him, dressed in his men’s fatigues was the rest of

Roger’s crazy crew. He didn’t want to know how they got them. With a squeal Junie called out, “Elliott you found us! Thank god! I was so worried.”

Elliott looked tired, but unharmed. “You really look it. Aren’t you even going to come out from behind that machine?”

Fipps walked past shaking his head, knocked knuckles with Roger and was rewarded when Roger passed him a fresh beer.

“I-I could, but I’m kind of steaming milk and this thing is reeeealy slow. It takes a lot of effort,” Junie said not even bothering to look up any longer. She was lost to the cause again.

“Right,” Elliott didn’t seem bothered or surprised. He walked to the table eyeing McNabb warily. “Roger, Spot found us, thanks.”

So that’s where the blasted dog was.

“Aye, my boy. Glad you found us, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could make this work,” Roger nodded his head at McNabb.

“But I think we have an understanding. And the crew is all here.”

“Ahh, yeah, cool. Where’s Shavian? I’m starting to go through withdrawals from not being chastised.” Elliott looked to Aubrey, but quickly realized it wasn’t her.

“Yeeeah, you might want to sit down for this one,” Roger cracked another can open.

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