As Adaime walked to return to her car, where Steve should have been waiting, he walked past her, not saying a word as he did.

She tried to turn quickly to catch him, but she felt sure he saw her anyway. “What is that boy thinking?” she whispered to herself as she saw him walking in the direction of Mr. Kirland.

“Good morning, Colonel!” said Steve in his cheeriest voice.

“Sergeant Cortan!” exclaimed Colonel Kirland, a large smile spreading across his leathery face. “I see you’ve come to help with the sand bags?”

“Sorry, but no sir, but I would like to talk to you about that. See, these sandbags aren’t going to be working against a river. They’re going to be working against a big wave of seawater.” Steve pantomimed a wave crashing into and breaking down a wall.

“Ohh, I see, so these really would be useless to send down there, eh?”

“Yeah, I think the best thing we could do is to escort the people at risk to safety.”

“Mhm” Mr. Kirland turned to those filling sand bags. “Alright, people, that’s enough!”