Theodore Savage · Chapter 6 (2/2)

“Much what you’ve heard,” he said, and shrugged his shoulders. “There’s talk⁠—there always is⁠—plenty of it; but I don’t suppose I know any more than you do.⁠ ⁠… It stands to reason that someone must be trying to put an end to it⁠—but who’s trying to patch it up with who?⁠ ⁠… And what is there left to patch? Lord knows! They say the real trouble is that when governments have gone there’s no one to negotiate with. No responsible authority⁠—sometimes no authority at all. Nothing to get hold of. You can’t make terms with rabble; you can’t even find out what it wants⁠—and it’s rabble now, here, there, and everywhere. When there’s nothing else left, how do you get hold of it, treat with it? Who makes terms, who signs, who orders?⁠ ⁠… Meanwhile, we go on till we’re told to stop⁠—those of us that are left.⁠ ⁠… And I suppose they’re doing much the same⁠—keeping on because they don’t know how to stop.”

Theodore asked what he meant when he spoke of “no government.” “You can’t mean it literally? You can’t mean⁠ ⁠… ?”

“Why not?” said the pilot. “Is there any here?”⁠—and jerked his head, this time towards the road. Its long white ribbon was spotted with groups and single figures of vagrants⁠—scarecrow vagrants⁠—crawling onward they knew not whither.

“See that,” he said, “see that⁠—does anyone govern it? Make rules for it, defend it, keep it alive?⁠ ⁠… And that’s everywhere.”

Someone whispered back “Everywhere” under his breath; the rest stared in silence at the spotted white ribbon of road.

“You can’t mean⁠ ⁠… ?” said Theodore again.

The airman shrugged his shoulders and laughed roughly.

“I believe,” he said, “there are still some wretched people who call themselves a government, try to be a government⁠—at least, there were the other day.⁠ ⁠… Sometimes I wonder how they try, what they say to each other⁠—poor devils! How they look when the heads of what used to be departments bring them in the day’s report? Can’t you imagine their silly, ghastly faces?⁠ ⁠… Even if they’re still in existence, what in God’s name can they do⁠—except let us go on killing each other in the hope that something may turn up. If they give orders, sign papers, make laws, does anyone listen, pay any attention? Does it make any difference to that?” Again he jerked his head towards the road, and in the word as in the gesture was loathing, fear and contempt. “And in other parts of what used to be the civilized world⁠—where this sort of hell has been going on longer⁠—what do you suppose is happening?”

No one answered; he laughed again roughly, as if he were contemptuous of their hopes, and a man beside Theodore⁠—a corporal⁠—swung round on him, white-faced and snarling.

“Damn you!⁠ ⁠… I’ve got a girl.⁠ ⁠… I’ve got a girl!⁠ ⁠…”

He choked, moved away and stood rigid, staring at the road.

Theodore heard himself asking, “If there isn’t any government⁠—what is there?”

“What’s left of the army,” said the other, “that’s all that hangs together. Bits of it, here and there⁠—getting smaller, losing touch with the other bits; hanging on to its rations⁠—what’s left of ’em.⁠ ⁠… And we hold together just as long as we can fight back the rabble; not an hour, not a minute longer! When we’ve gnawed our way through the last of our rations⁠—what then?⁠ ⁠… You may do what you like, but I’m keeping a shot for myself. Whether we’re through with it or whether we’re not. Just stopping fighting won’t clear up this mess.⁠ ⁠… And I’ll die⁠—what I am. Not rabble!”

Whether after days or whether after weeks, there came a time when they ceased to have dealings with the world beyond their wire defences; when the store-sheds in the camp were all but emptied of their hoard of foodstuffs and such military authority as might still exist took no further interest in the doings of a useless garrison. Orders and communications, once frequent, grew fewer, and finally, as military authority crumbled, they were left to isolation, to their own defence and devices. Since no man any longer had need of them, they were cut off from intercourse with those other remnants of the life disciplined whence lorries had once arrived in search of rations; separated from such other bands of their fellows as still held together, they were no longer part of an army, were nothing but a band of armed men. Though their own daily rations were cut down to the barest necessities of life, there was little grumbling, since even the dullest knew the reason; as the airman had told them, they were living on their own fat, for so long as their own fat lasted. For all their isolation, their fears and daily perils kept them disciplined; they held together, obeyed orders and kept watch, not because they still felt themselves part of a nation or a military force, but because there remained in their common keeping the means to support bare life. It was not loyalty or patriotism, but the sense of their common danger, their common need of defence against the famished world outside their camp, that kept them comrades, obedient to a measure of discipline, and made them still a community.

There had been altercation of the fiercest before they were left to themselves⁠—when lorries drove up for food which was refused them, on the ground that the camp had not sufficient for its own needs. Disputes at the refusal were furious and violent; men, driven out forcibly, went off shouting threats that they would come back and take what was denied them⁠—would bring their machine-guns and take it. Those who yet had the wherewithal to keep life in their bodies knew the necessity that prompted the threat and lived thenceforth in a state of siege against men who had once been their comrades. With the giving out of military supplies and the consequent breaking of the bonds of discipline, bands of soldiers, scouring the countryside, were an added terror to their fellow-vagrants and, so long as their ammunition lasted, fared better than starvation unarmed.⁠ ⁠… If central authority existed it gave no sign; while military force that had once been united⁠—an army⁠—dissolved into its primitive elements: tribes of armed men, held together by their fear of a common enemy. In the wreck of civilization, of its systems, institutions and polity, there endured longest that form of order which had first evolved from the chaos of barbarism⁠—the disciplined strength of the soldier.⁠ ⁠… A people retracing its progress from chaos retraced it step by step.