[u]Amir Jones[/u]

Petra began to open up a bit, to the point where Amir could see that she had built a façade borne from her position as a leader – one which required a serious face and an unwavering, dominant personality. In many ways, she appeared to be the reverse of Amir. Years ago, he had subdued his own ambitious drive for the calm, supporting man that his role as a doctor demanded. But that hadn’t always been him, and in the past Amir often thought that had it not been Doctor Robert who rescued him but another member of Lasthope, he might have turned out leading a scouting troop on this expedition, or more. 
“Your people, you’ve taught them well,” he said, laying off his joking tone from earlier as he looked around at Petra’s teamsters. “And Patton was right about not fearing death, and most everything else – well, except in diagnosing PTSD amongst his soldiers. In that he was clueless.”

Amir gave a smile, then returned to his original point: “Just remember, there is a difference between having no fear for death, and forgetting the dead. The only thing we keep when the living pass on is their memories; the dirt and the monsters take the rest from us. And while we’re quoting, what’s that Márquez quote? “What matters in life is not what happens to you but when you remember and how you remember it”? That’s it.

He sat down on a nearby stump, keeping his gaze with the teamster. “Don’t forget to remember, Petra,” he said, grinning. “Oh, and speaking bluntly is just fine with me. Hell, I’m a doctor in the apocalypse – if I hadn’t gotten good at telling people they’re screwed, I probably wouldn’t still have this job.”

[@RumikoOhara]