ustxtxb_obs_1985_10_25_50_00018-00000_000.pdf

.’,t1 and Associates E 1117 West 5th Street Austin, Texas 78703 REALTOR 61′ Representing all types of properties In Austin and Central Texas Interesting & unusual property a specialty. 477-3651 basic manual distributed to the population of Chajul, we now see things like the following: PROTECTION AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS Close your eyes and do not look toward the site of the explosion in order to protect your eyes from the luminous radiation. If there is a fortified location nearby \(a refuge, a shelter, a trench, yourself on the ground. You can also use ditches, the sides of hills opposite from the site of the explosion, structures \(solid buildings and othlarge boulders, tree trunks, or battle or transport vehicles. If you are in a flat area lacking any , of these barriers, you should throw yourself to the ground face down with your head in the opposite direction from the nuclear explosion. Cover your eyes with your hands, placing your palms on the ground, and press your insteps to the ground. PROTECTION AGAINST CHEMICAL WEAPONS The following signs may indicate that the enemy has begun to employ toxic substances or that these exist on the ground or in the air: A cloud issuing from the rear of an enemy plane, or a dark strip which disperses little by little and descends towards the earth. The weak sound of an explosion or projectiles, mines, aerial bombs, STAY ONE NIGHT AND THE NEXT NIGHT IS HALF-PRICE except Friday & Saturday P.O. Box 8 Port Aransas, TX 78373 and the appearance of white smoke or droplets of some kind of liquid in the area of the explosion. Greasy patches on plants and on the leaves of trees, on the ground, and on material objects. Reduced vision caused by the contraction of the pupils and other symptoms, indicating the effect of the chemical substances on yourself or on your companions. Movement of smoke or clouds made of other substances from posi tions occupied by the enemy towards your own. PROTECTION AGAINST, BIOLOGICAL WEAP-ONS The following signs indicate that the enemy has begun to use biological weapons in the area: The appearance of illness among your comrades, especially if it is not a common illness in the country. The presence of a great quantity of insects, rodents, or other pests in unusual areas. The existence of many dead or sick animals. The launching of containers or or from weapons transports. And for our defense, we now speak of the measurement of angles, internal ballistics, external ballistics, the alignment of aiming instruments, the dispersion of projectiles during firing, of triangulation. Not to speak of other aspects, like the launching of hand grenades, the sharpshooters’ lairs, frontline attacks, combat far beyond the defensive line, camouflage, maps and estimating distances, trenches and communication ditches, etc. NOW I only have; like the deep shadow of the distant past, the memory of the lances \(whose lances, of how we explored new territory with cavalry soldiers grouped in threes, how the infantry, archers, and musketeers advanced behind us in closed ranks, and how we introduced the smaller cannons with bronze shot, the culverins, falconets, Moorish guns, pasavolantes, arquebuses, muskets, shotguns, pistolets. I was young when I learned to use all of those. I am amazed by all the things that happened over these many centuries, and at the fact that I Can still handle those weapons today. The skill of something learned in one’s youth always returns like the echo of songs of lost loves. NEVERTHELESS, my forte was always the sword, my destiny that of a swordsman, my sword the ceremoniosa. With her in my hand, I had no reason to envy either Tizona nor Colada, neither Durandan nor Frambergd, neither la Ar’ondight nor Balmung, not even the Excalibur, possessor of a kingdom as hazy as it was enchanting. The ceremoniosa was in a different category. With her in one hand and in the other a resinous torch flaming like a comet with a black tail, I engaged in my first night battle in full daylight, so many were the vultures that assailed us, oppressing our best instincts. I attacked with the sword unsheathed, striking at the shields with all my might cutting swaths so large that if a head got in the way it would be lopped off, helmet and all, demolishing and killing the enemy as if they were helpless animals. Then I marched off quickly so I would not see them anymore, filled with anguish by all the dead, in mourning for all that killing and more killing, and still not winning that interminable battle in spite of so much killing, to the point of thinking that I had nothing left, that to kill anymore just wasn’t possible. My muscles resenting the weight of the armor, weak and dizzy, my eyes clouded and irritated by the dust, not hearing anything anymore except that deafening roar between my helmet and my brain. And to have to continue killing because if I didn’t kill, the dead one would be me. The ceremoniosa protected me only as long as I was moving, as long as it continued striking with its two silvery blades. And while I continued to slash away, I barely noticed at the peak of midday how the vultures began to pick away at the guts of the fallen who covered the entire valley so densely that it was no longer possible to keep watch out for the approaching enemy because you had to keep your eyes on the ground in order not to trip over a corpse. The vultures lowered their heads and then stretched their necks toward the sky, one pulling out a thread of intestines with its beak, while a colleague perforated an eye socket with a well-aimed jab. I could no longer lift my arm for the fatigue, but since the ceremoniosa required perpetual movement, I continued to slash away at the dead, over and w 18 OCTOBER 25, 1985