A Soldier’s Honest Gun (Preview)

Chapter One

Georgia, 1864

“And that was the moment I knew it was over.”

The voice carried from one campfire to the next, and a few men had stopped talking to listen to the story. To Jed Markum, it was a tale as old as time.

He gave a singular nod to the cook as the man scooped a ladle of stew onto his tin plate, then he sauntered over to the campfire where the voice had originated.

“Did you say anything?” Jack Morrison, another man at the fire, asked the speaker.

“What was there to say?” Carter, the speaker, replied. “She all but gave me the ultimatum. Either I would stay and be a farmer and marry her, or I would come fight in the war and leave her behind. If I did that, she wasn’t waiting for me.”

“What made you decide to fight?” Jed asked.

Both Carter and Jack looked up in surprise. Though they had been speaking freely right in the middle of camp during suppertime, it seemed that neither of them actually expected anyone else to listen in on the conversation. Or join in, for that matter.

“Markum,” Jack said with a nod. “Good to see you. After the way the march went yesterday, I wasn’t sure you’d stay with our unit.”

“What choice does any of us have?” Jed asked, squatting next to the fire beside the other two men. “I was assigned to this unit. To leave would have been cowardice.”

The day before had been rough. If Jed was being honest, he could rightfully say that the entire week before had been rough, and not just on him but on the entire company. Food had been scarce, and with the relentless battles breaking out between the two sides, many of the men in the camp were wounded.

The heat and the damp air wasn’t good for keeping the injuries dry or clean, and infection was running rampant.

Jed didn’t have any open wounds, which he was grateful for, but he’d hurt his leg a few days prior when his horse had been shot out from under him. He’d hit the ground hard, and while his leg wasn’t broken, it had been injured in the fall.

With horses scarce until they made it to the next camp, Jed had been forced to walk alongside most of the other men in the unit. His limp was prominent, though he wasn’t one to complain. Still, many of the men around him had assumed he would try to get out of staying with the rest of his unit if at all possible.

“Doesn’t stop a lot of men from doing it,” Carter replied. “There’s fighters, then there’s the rest of us. Shoot. Most men I know would rather live with being a coward than die a hero.”

“The rest of you? Cowards?” Jed asked as he raised an eyebrow. “From the sounds of what you were just saying, you chose to fight rather than stay and marry a pretty lady.”

Jack turned his attention back to Carter with a raised eyebrow, and Carter looked rather sheepish at the remark. The man turned his attention to his stew, taking his time scraping his spoon against the tin. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts, and Jed was fine with letting him take his time.

Jack, however, was more impatient.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t imagine choosing this over staying home if I had a pretty lady waiting for me. Sure, going to war is noble and all, but then, what’s the point of all this? Look around. No one is happy to be here, and more than that, most of us probably aren’t even going to make it home.”

Jed naturally looked around as Jack instructed, though he remained silent. He agreed with Jack. He likely wouldn’t have come to war, either, if he’d had a pretty lady waiting for him back home. But then, he’d heard plenty of men say that they had left someone special behind for the sake of fighting for their beliefs.

He didn’t know how much of it was true and how much of it was men just looking for sympathy, but then, most of the men who claimed such a thing didn’t get much sympathy.

“Susan was a pretty girl, to be sure,” Carter agreed with a nod. “But she has a temper on her. I would have married her, perhaps, if things were different. But I can imagine the poor sap who does settle down with her is signing up for a difficult life!”

Carter laughed at his own joke, but Jack just shook his head.

“I’d take a bossy wife over no wife,” he said.

“Ugly as you are, I bet you would!” Carter laughed again. Even Jed couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the joke.

“Shut up, and don’t you start!” Jack snapped, looking from Carter to Jed and back again. “It’s easy for the two of you to find a lady. Look at you.”

“I don’t have a lady at home,” Jed said with a shrug.

“That so?” Jack asked, looking at him in a way that made Jed think Jack didn’t believe him. “You’re handsome enough. I’m surprised.”

Jed shrugged. He had been told he was handsome before, but he didn’t really see it. He was tall, and growing up on a ranch had made him muscular and strong. He had dark brown hair, but since coming to war, he’d let it grow longer than he ever had at home. His beard, too, was much longer than he’d ever allowed it to be back in Dry Gulch.

It was his blue eyes that had always garnered him the most attention, but such things didn’t feel important after he’d come to war. He’d seen horrors with those eyes that he’d never forget. Men doing terrible things to each other, and with each passing day, Jed felt less and less like it could be called good. War was a terrible thing, but yet there were still plenty of men who favored it. That was why he was where he was.

“Bet you have a mama at home,” Carter teased. “How’d she feel if you didn’t call her a lady?”

Jed grunted in reply.

He didn’t think of his parents often. The thought of them was painful. Neither had been happy with his decision to fight in the war, and though his mother wrote to him every now and then, he never heard from his father. His pa fundamentally disagreed with his fighting, but he’d chosen to go anyway.

He didn’t know how he’d be received when he returned home. If he returned, anyway.

“We all have a mama at home,” Jack broke into the conversation. “But you’re one of the fools to walk away from a woman who wanted to be your wife.”

“No matter,” Carter said as he waved off the comment with a brush of his hand. “I’ll find another. Just like you and Jed here will. What with all the men who are dying in this blasted war, the Good Lord knows we’ll have plenty of womenfolk to choose from when we get home!”

He laughed, and finally, Jack cracked a smile. Jed, however, remained focused on his meal.

He was nearly finished with the stew. Then it would be time to clean his weapon before turning in for the night. Days started before the sun, and he wanted to get as much rest as he could before the next morning.

It had been oddly quiet both that day and the day before, and it left Jed with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know exactly why, but he couldn’t ignore it.

The Union soldiers had been coming down hard on the Confederates lately, and it seemed they barely had the time to catch their breath between battles. The war had already been raging for three years, and with the way the North was seemingly getting stronger, Jed was starting to realize that the South was likely to lose.

It was a tough reality to face, and it drained the morale right out of him. The men he fought alongside were his brothers, and if the men in charge didn’t change something soon, then it was likely none of them would actually make it back home. The North seemed bent on eradicating the South if need be, and it seemed the Southern generals were just as bent on not giving in.

For the men who were actually doing the fighting, it felt like a true death sentence.

“Jed Markum!” Jack called, slapping Jed on the shoulder as he did. Jed jerked his head up, realizing that he’d gotten lost in his own thoughts.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I was just thinking.”

“Thinking is bad for you,” Carter told him. “It just brings back memories that are better left forgotten.”

“I don’t know about that,” Jed said. “Just thinking about home.”

“You think we’ll ever make it back there?” Jack asked. “Really?”

“I’d sure like to,” Carter said. “Well, I don’t know about going back home home. Might be hard facing Susan knowing she moved on to someone else.”

“She might change her mind when she sees your ugly face back home,” Jack said.

“Too late for that,” Carter said simply. “I don’t mean to be rude, but she made her decision. She didn’t want me to come fight and said if I did, then she was done with the engagement. Well, here I am, so what does that tell you?”

“You never know,” Jack said.

Carter looked like he wanted to argue, but Jed had heard enough. He finished his stew and offered to take the dishes from his two companions back to the wash basin.

“You got any tobacco?” Carter asked as he handed over his plate.

“Just a bit,” Jed said, pulling his pouch out of his pocket. “Help yourself.”

“Best not say that, or he’s going to finish it,” Jack warned.

“There’s enough there for both of you,” Jed said with a singular nod. He smiled to himself as he heard Jack and Carter start bickering between themselves over the tobacco.

He didn’t blame them. Tobacco had become scarce in the camp, but he didn’t mind giving away what little he had left. Carter and Jack were the closest thing he had to friends, and with how miserable the past few days had been on everyone, he didn’t mind doing something small to brighten their situation, if only a little.

“Good stew,” Jed muttered as he dropped the dishes into the wash basin. The cook merely grunted as he always did, and Jed didn’t stick around to make small talk. Instead, he limped in the direction of where the men were laying out bedrolls for the night, already looking forward to getting a few hours of sleep before having to get up and moving again.

Still, the thought of sleeping brought with it an underlying feeling of terror. Closing one’s eyes out in those woods could easily be a death sentence, and with the Union soldiers potentially attacking them at any moment, he’d never be able to fully relax.

The distant sound of a cannon caused him to bristle, and he looked toward the scouts to ensure they didn’t seem worried about the noise. It was difficult to place his life in their hands, even after spending the past few years at war.

But he didn’t have a choice. He couldn’t stay awake forever, though he wished he could. Even his dreams were far from peaceful, often drawing terrible memories back to the forefront of his mind.

Another cannon sounded, and as Jed laid down, he realized he was exhausted, but wide awake. With the fighting close enough to hear, there was no way he’d be able to fall asleep. Instead, he felt poised to grab his gun and join in the fight at any second, ready to do as he was asked.

The conversation around the camp took a quieter tone, though it was obvious that most of the other men felt the same way Jed himself did. Everyone was ready to fight at any second, they just had to hear the order.

That was the life of a soldier. He was constantly on the fight, constantly ready to kill.

If he didn’t, then he’d be the one to die.

Though some days, that didn’t sound like such a bad thing.

Chapter Two

“You hear that, boys? We’re moving out!” Jack said triumphantly as he squatted next to Jed and Carter.

“’Bout time,” Carter mumbled, shoveling a bite of eggs into his mouth. “I’m sick of sitting around doing nothing. We’re basically targets here.”

“Now we get to be targets on the move!” Jack replied, and Jed smiled.

He’d already heard the rumor passing through the ranks that they were going to move out. Like the rest of the men, he hoped that meant they would be moving toward civilization. He was tired of wandering around in the trees and swamps, and the thought of more civilized living sounded heavenly.

Of course, even if they did make their way toward a town, they weren’t going to necessarily enter the place. But still, being that close could mean that they’d send men into the town for supplies. And Jed had a mental list as long as his arm of things he wanted.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Carter told Jack. “Odds are we’re going to move from this swamp into another. Nothing too exciting.”

“Don’t think that way,” Jack said briskly. “Right, Jed? We’re moving toward a town. I can feel it in my bones. And you know what that means?”

“Tobacco,” Jed said.

“Whiskey,” Carter replied.

“Soiled doves was what I was thinking,” Jack said with a smirk. “Women. Ladies of the evening.”

Carter shook his head, and Jed did the same. Even without a pretty lady waiting for him at home, he didn’t really want to find a prostitute to entertain, either. He didn’t have money for such things, nor did he feel very attractive after walking around in swamps for so long.

“I feel sorry for the lady you hire,” Carter told Jack. “Might as well do the decency of taking a bath first.”

“Depends on how much those cost.” Jack laughed. “I’ll splash off in the creek. It’s better than nothing.”

“Bold of you to assume that the men in charge will even let us have the time off,” Jed added. “You know the way the general is. We’ll likely be stuck in camp itself with only one or two men going into town with a list for supplies.”

“I’ll sneak out if I have to,” Jack said.

“Bold statement. You’ll get hanged for desertion.” Carter wrinkled his nose.

“I’ll be back,” Jack shot back.

“Pack up! Move out!”

The order resounded through the camp, and Jed finished the rest of his breakfast alongside his companions. They had to move quickly, and even as they did, they barely had enough time to throw their dishes in the wash basin before they were being shouted at to hurry up.

Jed tried to focus on the fact they were moving out. It was meant to be a good thing, even if he was more inclined to see things the way Carter did. He hardly dared hope they would be moving out of the woods, but there was always that chance.

At the same time, it was nice to see Jack enjoying himself as he packed his things. Jack was barely old enough to join the war, hardly eighteen. He was ten years younger than both Carter and Jed, and it showed. Jed tried to relax around the boy and give him hope things would get better, though internally he was just as bitter as Carter.

He gathered his things and hoisted his pack over his shoulder. He ignored the pain in his leg as he stepped forward, eager to catch up with Carter and Jack. It was a dangerous thing to form close bonds with other men during war. The Good Lord already knew that he’d lost some friends. But still, he couldn’t help it with those two.

Talking to them made the day pass quickly, and Jed was glad for the distraction, even if it was slight.

Men shouted to each other as they packed up, though they quickly fell quiet as they marched out of the camp and onto the road. Jed never liked the tension that settled over the group as they marched from one place to the next. To him, it felt as though the entire unit was holding its breath, just waiting for the attack to come.

There were plenty of times when they made it from one spot to the next without incident. Most of the time that was the case. But neither he nor the rest of the men could ignore the fact that there were times when they didn’t make the trip safely.

Each of them had endured battle at some point in the past three years, and even if they’d only gone through it one time, it was enough to scar a man for life.

Conversations still took place, but they were hushed. It was as though no one wanted to speak above a whisper for fear they’d draw the enemy to them.

“How far you think they’re going to march us?” Jack asked after they’d been moving for a few hours.

“Probably all day,” Carter said.

“That’s how long, not how far,” Jack groaned.

“Guess it depends on how far we make it in a day’s march then,” Carter grumbled.

Jack rolled his eyes and Jed had to hide his smirk. Carter wasn’t being outright rude to Jack, but Jed could sense Carter’s tension. Everyone was on edge, but it was clear it wouldn’t take much for Carter to snap.

“Easy,” Jed said in a low voice. “No need to get worked up.”

“Worked up?” Carter growled. “You’re starting to sound like the men making these decisions.”

“Wish I was,” Jed said, not taking the remark personally. “Then we might do something that actually makes a bit of sense.”

“Like ending this damned war,” Carter muttered.

Jed nodded but said nothing. There was nothing he could say that would ease the tension. It was just a matter of reaching the next place they’d make camp, then they’d wait for more orders to move out.

“It’s a boring life,” Jack commented, as though guessing Jed’s thoughts.

“It’s just a cycle. We do the same thing until the day we get ourselves killed, and for what?” Carter continued.

“Easy,” Jed said again. He wasn’t really talking to Carter, but he wasn’t really addressing Jack, either. If he was being honest with himself, he realized he might very well be reminding himself to stay calm, too.

He couldn’t quite place his finger on why he felt so tense, other than the fact they were on the move, but that wasn’t enough reason to feel so agitated. Then again, there was a lot of frustration with the generals, and he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

His two companions fell silent as the three of them marched along, senses sharp.

Any little sound coming from the woods caught their attention, and any movement from among the trees caused Jed’s heart to skip a beat then race in his chest. He forced himself to remain calm and collected on the surface, but internally, he was on edge.

It wouldn’t take much to cause him to snap, either, and that wasn’t good. As a soldier, he had to be in control of himself, even when he was scared. He couldn’t let his fear get the better of him, or he could make mistakes, and any mistake could be deadly.

Finally, Jed decided to lighten the mood. They couldn’t be too loud, but he could direct the conversation to something lighter. Something that would take his companions’ minds off the tension of what they were doing.

He turned to Jack to crack a joke when, suddenly, a gunshot rang out.

Jed’s expression froze in horror as he saw a red hole appear between Jack’s eyes, and the boy fell back on the road. Jack was dead before he even hit the ground, but that didn’t stop the pain that ran through Jed’s chest at the sight.

He cried out, though in his emotion he wasn’t able to form any words. Instead, he clutched his gun, whipping around in the road as he tried to locate where the shot had come from. Carter, too, had witnessed the death of their friend, and he reacted just as strongly as Jed.

“Shoot, men, shoot!” one of the generals shouted as he rode alongside the company, pointing into the woods as he did. He fell from his horse as another shot rang out, but Jed didn’t have time to see where the man had been hit, or if he was even still alive.

At that moment, the woods themselves seemed to come alive with soldiers, and they were all taking aim at Jed and the men with him.

They were under attack.

And the only option he had was to fight like he’d never fought before.

Chapter Three

“Jed! Watch out!”

The warning came not a second too soon. Jed barely had the time to leap out of the way as a grenade hit the ground directly in front of him. Though he was able to escape without being injured, he felt the heat of the blast as it exploded, sending dirt and debris into the air.

Men all around him were panicking, some falling back and racing into the woods while others seemed to shoot randomly. Fear was a powerful weapon, and it seemed the Union soldiers used it to their advantage every chance they got.

“Carter!” Jed shouted, realizing that he’d lost sight of his friend. It was nearly impossible to stay together during a battle, but with the loss of Jack right in front of him, he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to make sure Carter was alright.

Another grenade exploded, tipping a wagon over. The horses broke free and whinnied in panic before surging ahead, dragging the driver behind them. The man clung to the reins, refusing to let go as the animals rushed into the woods, disappearing into the foliage.

“Carter!” Jed shouted again.

“I’m here!” Carter’s voice came from below, and Jed looked down to realize that Carter had been standing behind the wagon when the grenade went off. His friend had gotten out of the way a little but hadn’t been able to escape the blast entirely.

The wagon was on its side, pinning Carter to the ground.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Jed cried, dropping his gun and grabbing Carter beneath the arms. “Come on.”

“Leave me,” Carter told him. “There’s no way you can get me out in time.”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” Jed said through gritted teeth. “You’d never do that to me.”

“And you wouldn’t let me get myself killed trying to save you, neither!” Carter shouted, shoving Jed off him. “There’s too many of them, and they’re coming! Get out while you still can!”

Another explosion blew nearby, causing both men to recoil from the heat and debris.

“I’ve already lost Jack, I’m not losing you, too,” Jed said through gritted teeth. He returned to Carter and once more started yanking on his arms, trying to free his legs from beneath the wagon.

“It’s no good,” Carter shot back. “I can’t feel my legs, Jed. You get me out of here, and you’re still going to have to carry me all the way. There’s no time!”

Jed tried to answer, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of gunshots. He looked up to see a new wave of Union soldiers emerging from the woods.

They looked almost surreal as they appeared in the dust and grime. Smoke filled the air, making them seem like apparitions. Their faces were streaked with the same soot and blood that Jed and his men’s faces were, and they looked just as tired.

Still, they moved with the same, machine-like energy that Jed had just moments before. There would be no stopping them. They’d keep coming until Jed and his men were dead, and then they’d still come. They’d keep going until the war was over, and it seemed that wasn’t going to happen until all the Confederates were gone.

War had a real way of creating monsters—men who stopped behaving as men and instead operated as though they were controlled by some unseen force. No thinking. No feeling. Just mindless actions that resulted in death and destruction.

Jed reached for his gun, pulling it up to his eye to take aim. He gasped as his finger fell on the trigger. His gun had been lying close to the fire of a nearby blast, and the heat of it was enough to burn his finger. Still, he gritted his teeth and fought through the pain, refusing to give in as he took aim. He couldn’t. This was a moment of life or death.

He pulled the trigger again and again. Each shot rang true, and more of the enemy fell to the ground. He tried not to think of all the lives he was taking. Instead, he focused on the fact that he had to help Carter.

Once he ran out of bullets, he threw his gun back down. Men were running and shouting all around him. Some were fighting back; others were fleeing for their lives. It was impossible to see whether the Confederates were making any progress standing up against the Union as the men kept pouring out of the trees.

Finally, he managed to pull Carter out from under the wagon. Carter was very pale, and he’d stopped talking. It was then that Jed realized just how badly his friend had been hurt.

It appeared as though Carter had been shot twice before he’d been pinned beneath the wagon. Both shots were in his legs, so Jed didn’t know if Carter hadn’t mentioned the injury to spare Jed knowing about it, or if Carter himself hadn’t been aware that he’d been shot. Carter had said he couldn’t feel his legs, so there was a chance that he didn’t know.

As Jed pulled Carter, he realized Carter was unconscious. It made it difficult to move him, but Jed refused to give up. He wasn’t going to leave his friend behind. He didn’t care if he died trying to save him.

Another grenade exploded, sending both Jed and Carter into the air. Jed landed on the ground hard, but the adrenaline of the moment prevented him from feeling much pain. He was too determined to keep fighting to let it slow him down. He started to crawl toward Carter, but another soldier grabbed him and pushed him toward the trees.

“Run, fool!” the man shouted. “Going back will get you killed!”

“I’ve got to get Carter!” Jed shot back.

“He’s gone! He’s already gone!” the soldier shouted, shoving Jed toward the trees.

Jed pulled himself away, refusing to believe it. The soldier quickly gave up, running toward the trees as fast as he could. Jed turned back to get Carter. But that was when he realized that the soldier had said was true.

The grenade blast had thrown both men apart, but it was clear when Jed saw Carter that there was no way Carter was alive. The only thing that brought Jed any sort of comfort was that it looked like Carter was asleep there on the road. There was a look of peace on his face despite the chaos unfolding around them, and a lump formed in his throat.

He didn’t have time to grieve just then, however. He had to get to safety. He couldn’t save Carter, but he wouldn’t let Carter’s death be in vain. Carter had wanted him to get away, and he would do just that.

Jed turned and ran toward the trees, anger pulsing through him. He couldn’t believe his friends were both gone, and he swore he would do something to avenge them. He had to.

Then a searing pain ran through his leg. He looked down to see he’d been shot in the thigh. The bullet had passed clean through, but it was enough to pull him to the ground just the same. He cried out as he tried to push himself back to his feet, determined to get away from those soldiers.

The trees weren’t too far ahead, and if he could just rally his strength enough, he could push through and disappear in the foliage before they’d have the chance to catch him. The only way they were going to stop him was to shoot him dead.

He surged forward, but as soon as he put any weight on his leg, he fell to the ground once more. He looked up just as a tree just ahead of him exploded. Jed threw his arm over his face to protect himself, but he wasn’t fast enough. Shards of the tree embedded themselves into his skin, and he screamed in both pain and fear as he rolled onto his back. The world around him was spinning, and he couldn’t think straight.

He tried to move, but his body felt heavy and dull. He tried to open his mouth, but nothing would respond. Panic seized him. Was he dying?

Then, everything went black.

Chapter Four

Ten Months Later

“Can you believe it? We’re finally going home!”

“Keep your head down, Billy. We ain’t out of here yet.”

“You heard what they said. They’re pulling the rest of us out by the end of the week. That was on Monday, and this here is Friday!”

“I don’t believe a thing these Yankees say. They’re just as apt to lie to you and stick a knife in your back as they are to do anything upstanding or moral.”

Jed said nothing as he listened to the conversation around him. There were sixteen men crammed into the small prison tent, making it difficult to do much of anything but sit and wait.

He ought to be grateful that he was actually in a tent. The Good Lord knew he had been subjected to all kinds of inhumane conditions over the past year. But, being a prisoner of war, he hadn’t expected anything different. Each day, he survived he was one of the lucky men who weren’t killed by their captors—either directly or through mistreatment.

But that didn’t take away from the discomfort of the cramped conditions. He sat silently with his arms folded over his chest, waiting for something to happen.

Two of the men, Billy and an old, grizzled fellow who was missing an eye, were debating each day whether it was time to be released. Each night, the older fellow was happy to point out to Billy that he’d been right, but it never seemed to deter Billy from hoping the next day would be the day.

Jed didn’t blame him. A lot of things about Billy reminded Jed of Jack, though he never spoke of the boy. He also refused to allow himself to get to know Billy on any level. He’d done that with all the men who were held prisoner with him. There was no reason to form any sort of alliance to any of them, or any kind of bond, for that matter.

They would either be killed or they would be released. Regardless of which it happened to be, they would never see each other again, and therefore he didn’t feel any need to get to know anyone.

“Will you both shut up?” a third prisoner demanded, breaking into the conversation between Billy and the one-eyed man. “Talking about it isn’t going to make it happen any quicker, and we’re sick of hearing you bicker!”

“The boy’s just excited is all,” a fourth man spoke up. “Can’t imagine having that kind of optimism after everything, but that’s what being young does, I reckon.”

“Shut up in there!”

That time, it was one of the Union guards who spoke. He waved a baton at the group as he spoke, causing them to fall silent.

“Bastards,” the one-eyed man muttered, though he spoke too low for the guard to hear.

“I’ll be glad to be out of here, that’s for sure,” Billy said.

“Shut up before you get us all in trouble,” a man hissed, causing the whole tent to fall silent.

Jed didn’t respond to anything. He, too, held onto hope that they’d be released that day, but he wasn’t going to let himself think about it too much. It was far more likely they would be stuck there for days more, even with the war officially over.

The awful truth was that prisoners could be held for months after a war was ended, and they were already going on the first month being done. Though all the Union soldiers had been ordered to release prisoners, that didn’t mean they would do so quickly. And plenty had yet to receive the directive.

Just because his camp had been told to release the men didn’t mean the guards would obey quickly, so there was little point to getting excited.

The hours passed and with each one, Jed held less and less hope they would be leaving that day. He wasn’t overly disappointed. Once they were released, they would be sent away with few, if any, supplies. He didn’t much like the idea of being thrown out into the woods at night without any food or way to make shelter.

But freedom would be better than being stuck in that tent with all those men, once more lined on the floor with no room but to lie down for the night.

“Alright, let’s move!” a guard suddenly said as he appeared in the doorway of the tent.

“Are we being released?” Billy cried, but he was quickly backhanded by the guard.

“Shut up, boy!” the man snapped. “I said let’s move!”

The men were silent and compliant as they rose to their feet and formed a line, making their way first to the doorway of the tent, then farther through the camp. There hadn’t been any windows in their holding space, so Jed was surprised to see that there were as many as six other tents with men filing out.

They all looked just as gaunt and worn as he himself did. His large frame had withered into being tall and skinny, and he could only imagine what his face looked like after having the large splinters of that tree embed themselves into him. He didn’t have to wear a bandage over his face out of necessity, but he still kept an old bandage just for the sake of hiding himself from view.

Though all the prisoners bore the marks of war on their bodies, he couldn’t bring himself to leave the bandage behind. Not yet, anyway.

He walked slowly, as none of the lines were moving very fast. They merged into a single line ahead of him, and it appeared as though the men walked through one final tent before they were released on the other side. His heart leaped to his throat as he realized what was really happening, and for the first time in months, something of a smile played at the corners of his lips.

It was late in the afternoon, but there were still several hours until dark. That would give him more than enough time to gather wood for a fire, which was all he really needed for the night.

He could sleep on the ground under the wide-open sky, a free man at last.

Shouting drew his attention back to the camp, and he winced as he saw another guard strike one of the men ahead of him. He wanted to yell at the man and tell him to leave everyone alone. The war was over, and they were done with the fighting. But that would just bring the wrath of even more soldiers upon him.

He just wanted to be set free and be done with the whole ordeal.

“Watch it!” a man shouted.

“Would you hurry it up? We don’t have all day!”

“Best get home now, boys—at least, if you have a home to go back to!”

“Sure they don’t know how bad the South got beat. There’s not even much you can call home anymore.”

“Serves them right for what they did.”

Jed ignored the snide remarks of the men who had gathered around. He had already endured almost a full year of mistreatment and humiliation; one last walk wouldn’t be enough to do him in. Each step he took was another step closer to the edge of the camp, and once he crossed that final line, he would be a free man.

He wasn’t sure what was happening in the large, final tent ahead. But as he drew near, he realized there were men standing on one side of a table, and the line of prisoners was walking along the other.

At first, he was too far away to see what they were doing. He saw that the men who were on the one side of the table were handing loaves of bread and canteens to the newly released prisoners.

At least there’s that bit of decency being shown to us. Not that I thought they were going to give us parting gifts, but at least we don’t have to leave entirely empty-handed.

It wasn’t until Jed was practically in front of the tables himself that he realized the bread they were being handed was barely edible, if edible at all. It was clearly stale, and most of it looked like it was moldy. But then, he couldn’t see much difference between it and the bread he’d been given for most of his meals for the past year. It would be enough to get him going, and that was all he really needed.

The canteen he was handed was also old and worn. It didn’t look like it could handle much more use without breaking open, but Jed didn’t need it for anything but water. Billy, for his own part, was elated by the whole situation, happy enough that he might have fooled Jed into thinking he was with a child on Christmas morning.

“Well, I suppose this is goodbye,” Jed said when he reached the outside of the camp. He grabbed Billy’s canteen and pulled it away from the boy’s lips. “You’d better save some of that. You don’t know how long it’ll be before you get more water.”

“Still some of the best water I’ve ever tasted,” the boy said as he dragged his sleeve over his lips. “Where you heading? You want to stick together a bit?”

One of the guards had told the prisoners there was a train a couple miles to the east waiting for prisoners to come out of the camps. It would take them south, but it was only going as far as Savannah. Though it would be nice to get away from the camp as quickly as possible, Jed didn’t want to go farther into Georgia.

“Texas,” Jed said. “Home. I’m going back to Dry Gulch, Texas.”

“Darn,” Billy said. “I’m heading back to Mississippi myself. I suppose we could go the same way for a while if you want, but you’re still being left with quite a bit to go on your own. Are you sure you want to go all the way back there?”

“Of course I do,” Jed said. “That’s home.”

“You’re lucky to still have a home to go back to,” another prisoner said as he passed the pair. “Me? I’m not going back. I’m moving forward. I’m going out West.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Billy said.

“What?” Jed looked at him in surprise. “I thought you were eager to get out so you could go home.”

“Well, sure,” the boy sheepishly replied. “But now that I’m free, I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to go back to all that. I might want to see the world now. Life’s never felt so big and free as it has right now.”

Jed nodded but turned to start walking.

“Where you going?” Billy cried.

“I already told you,” Jed said over his shoulder. “I’m going home.”

He heard the boy say something else, but he didn’t stop to have him repeat it. It didn’t matter one way or the other what any of the other prisoners did. Jed wanted to get back to Texas. He’d spent too long dreaming of the day when he’d get to go home, and that was before he had ever been captured.

Now, he just wanted to put the whole nasty business of war behind him once and for all. A large part of him didn’t exactly look forward to seeing his parents again, not after all he’d been through and knowing what they’d have to say about it.

But regardless of that, Dry Gulch was his home. He didn’t know what to expect waited for him back there, but he felt the drive to find out. The war had shaken the entire country to the core.

Even the places that hadn’t witnessed any of the fighting had still felt the effects of a world being torn apart. He could only imagine what life would be like for him once he got back to Texas. There might not even be a home for him to go back to.

He had been gone for too long, and he had to find out.