You see, the thing they don’t tell you about in books and movies is the clean up. The clean up after battles, I mean. I say clean up because it makes me think of nice things, like putting on yellow rubber gloves and using antibacterial soap. No, this is nothing like that. This is terrible. The smell alone would make a grown man faint. I’m not a grown man. But I’m dealing, somehow. I just try not to look at them. The bodies, I mean. And again I say bodies because it hurts to say “I try not to look at my dead friends.” There’s something about being human that just won’t let you specify too much when your mind senses that it may be too much for you. But I’m getting sidetracked. The smell of fresh blood is bad enough, coppery and sharp and unpleasant. But this blood is two days old, and it’s attracting flies. The flies are the worst part. Whenever you get near a huge swarm of them - the sound, it’s the worst sound in the world. Buzz, buzz doesn’t begin to describe it. It hits you like a wave and you tense up. And as you get nearer the buzzing gets faster, more frantic. The sound of death is a swarm of flies.

They’re hauling more of them away now. I don’t suppose I’m being much of a help, just standing here. But it’s such a nice day. I think I’ll sit down. Yeah, this is pretty nice. Besides the smell and the sound, you know. But the grasses are tall, and the wind is doing its part. It’s not blowing toward me, at any rate. I always liked tall grass waving in the wind. Gives you a sense of peace. War’s going on, but the grasses still have time to wave. Peace and simplicity. Sky’s blue, the clouds are nice and big and white. Over in the distance to the right, though. Those look like storm clouds. Yeah, before sundown it’ll be raining pretty heavy. We’re not even half done here. I hope the rain doesn’t make the smell worse, but I have this bad feeling. At least I’m not going crazy, because then I’d be freaked that the hills would start running with blood. Or maybe that will happen, who knows. Who really knows? But right now it’s real nice out. Such a pity I woke up this morning just to clean up the field. That’s another thing they don’t tell you. The winner gets the clean up. A new twist on winning isn’t everything. It sure as hell ain’t. I don’t know why we don’t just burn the whole fucking field and the bodies in it. Vinnie wanted to be cremated, at least. Don’t know about Justin and Stacy. And Kelly and Andy and Diego and Marie and Jase and... Yeah, well. Maybe I’ll take the rest of the day off.