"Dead?" Standing on the open ground at the entrance to the village, the platoon leader frowned as he watched his soldiers carry the breathless, and in some cases stiff, bodies of women to a secluded spot for burial. "Were they killed by a woman with a rock?" he asked the squad leader who walked over.
The squad leader nodded, gave the platoon leader a cigarette, lit one for himself, and then snapped his lighter shut, exhaling a cloud of smoke: "Bashed to death with a stone. The flesh was a mess... hard to look at without feeling queasy."
"We don't need to bother with that damned bastard anymore; our mission is to eliminate all the bandits we encounter," he said as he watched two soldiers, with the help of the locals, carry a body out of the village.
From within the raincoat wrapping the body, a dirt-covered arm dangled down, trembling slightly with the steps of the soldiers.
