NOVEL NEXT Chapter 17: Chapter Seventeen: Home by Harvest
[0442 HOURS - LANDING CRAFT CHARLIE-184 - MAP GRID EK-274891]
Private James Miller checked his wallet photo one last time. Sarah's last letter had mentioned the garden was doing well, but he still couldn't picture their small Minnesota home with tomatoes growing out back.
[0443 HOURS]
"Hey Miller, you think we'll make it home for harvest?"
"Sure thing, Peterson. Sarah says-"
[0444 HOURS]
Landing Craft Charlie-184 disappeared in a precisely calculated explosion. No debris larger than six inches reached the shore. The mathematical probability of survivors was zero.
[0516 HOURS - BEACH SECTOR SEVEN - MAP GRID EK-274895]
Sergeant David Cohen had pieces of hard candy in his pocket. He'd been saving them since the transport ship, planning to eat one when they hit the beach, one when they took their objective, and one when...
[0517 HOURS]
Some of the candy melted in his pocket as a white phosphorus shell landed exactly where battalion calculations had indicated maximum personnel density would occur. His last thought wasn't about candy.
[0531 HOURS - SEAWALL APPROACH - MAP GRID EK-274897]
"Listen up," Lieutenant Rodriguez whispered to his men in the relative cover of a shell crater. "My kid's birthday is next week. I promised Maria I'd make it back for-"
[0532 HOURS]
Statistical models had predicted an 87% probability of officers using shell craters for impromptu briefings. The pre-ranged mortar strike achieved 91% efficiency.
[0548 HOURS - BEACH OBSTACLE DELTA-7 - MAP GRID EK-274892]
Private First Class Tommy Chen was thinking about his mother's dumplings when his boot caught on a wire. He'd been so careful, watching every step like training taught him. He'd promised her he'd be careful.
[0549 HOURS]
The mine's detonation parameters perfectly matched testing data from three weeks of optimization trials. The efficiency rating was noted for future reference.
[0557 HOURS - DRAINAGE CULVERT 23 - MAP GRID EK-274899]
"When we get home," Corporal Wilson told his buddy while they waited for the next push, "first thing I'm doing is taking Jenny to that new dance hall in-"
[0558 HOURS]
The defensive fire pattern had been calibrated to eliminate 98% of personnel seeking cover in obvious drainage channels. It achieved 99% efficiency.
[0615 HOURS - ARTILLERY IMPACT ZONE B - MAP GRID EK-274896]
Private George Williams had just remembered he'd left the stove on in his apartment back in Brooklyn. It seemed funny, somehow. All this, and he was worried about-
[0616 HOURS]
Shell dispersal patterns matched theoretical models within 0.3% margin of error.
[0634 HOURS - BEACH APPROACH VECTOR 12 - MAP GRID EK-274893]
"Hey, after this is over, you guys want to-"
[0635 HOURS]
Statistical models had not predicted the exact content of interrupted conversations. Only their frequency and duration as targeting metrics.
[0649 HOURS - CASUALTY COLLECTION POINT 7 - MAP GRID EK-274898]
Private Robert Martinez was still breathing when they tagged him. The morphine almost masked the pain. He tried to tell the medic about his dog back home, but-
[0650 HOURS]
Casualty processing efficiency exceeded projected parameters by 2.7%.
[0651 HOURS - COMMAND DATA UPDATE]
Total casualties reformatted to statistical notation. Individual names deleted to conserve signal bandwidth. Personal effects collected for processing according to standard procedures.
[0652 HOURS - MAP GRID EK-274893]
The precise machinery of human hopes encountered the perfect efficiency of statistical inevitability.
In Minnesota, a garden grew. In Brooklyn, a stove burned. In a hundred homes, a thousand memories waited for returns that spreadsheets had already calculated would never happen. Numbers replaced names. Statistics absorbed stories. The machinery of necessity continued its efficient operation.
No one noticed the three pieces of unmelted candy that washed up two weeks later. They were statistically insignificant.