Nail - 4

 When Han woke up, they were already at the outskirts of Saho. Shimmering lights from the city were slowly fading away. The vehicle was drifting through a broad bridge. Han was quite familiar with the bridge, but the height always made her shudder. Most people seemed to not care, but Han thought that that is simply because they are so busy talking or playing trivial pastimes that they do not pay attention to how enormous is this concrete structure. This bridge, among many bridges which formed the Continental highway, was not built to cross bodies of water; instead, it was built over large tectonic structures like valleys such that, by their sheer size and the roughness of the terrain, normal vehicles could not pass. They were probably driving over eastern Moru mountains, Han thought. She had some passion in her job, at least before she joined the military. She looked over the tall chainlink fence, which ensured Han a little bit of safety every time she had to drive through the bridge alone, but nothing was visible below them. The bridge should be at least a kilometer higher than the ground, and the moon was not there to help them. Han had to ask the driver where they are. He would have been already fallen asleep, relying on autopilot, if it had not been occasional armored vehicles patrolling by, spiling blinding headlights on them. The driver blinked his eyes several times, examined the screen of the vehicle computer for some time, and then answered.

"Still about an hour to go, ma'am."

Han glanced at the dashboard. They were at the vehicle's max speed. Han was glad that at least the highway's speed limit nor the traffic jam that always troubled her during rush hours did not slow them anymore.

All road lights were fiercely radiant, probably to spot potential intruders. The stars were still visible though since they were passing through the middle of nowhere, notably far from any human habitat. Patrolling soldiers were seemingly grudged with that; they were cold and drowsy, but any shelters other than their cramped and poorly heated cars were literally beyond the horizon. They spend time sitting around camping tables, talking and drinking hot chocolate. Watching the starry sky through gaps between massive steel bridge cables that ran parallel infinitely as far as her sight could reach, Han appreciated the solitude that she scarcely had since she joined the military. It was nigh unbelievable that the part of the world could be as peaceful as this, while in some other part of it something assumably nasty was going on. It was obvious that Kim was not much of a talker, but even for him what he is experiencing now was questionable.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry for bothering you, but may I ask you what is going on right now?"

Han could not help but smile.

"Unfortunately I have no idea. As you would already know, I'm not credible in any ongoing operations than a random civilian walking by."

"Thanks, I appreciate your answer."

No, you don't, Han thought, and smirked silently. This guy was taking her rank and the situation overly seriously, way more than she was.

"Kim, take it easy. Nobody's dead yet."

"Yes, ma'am."

As the Corporal answered mechanically, his eyes were fixed at a dismembered lumps of flesh splattered over some portion of the road in front of them, surrounded by a dozen of panicked soldiers. Obviously their loaded rifled did not save them. As they stopped the car, Han finally looked out and realized that she was bad at jokes as always.