I almost shot a man once.  Not a man, just a kid, but you find out fast there's not much of a difference between the two; maybe we just invent this middle ground to inhabit...  Anyway, the story.  We had blocked the road, and and my job was to keep everyone coming down the road from going past me.  "Sit down, take a break, can't go down the road just yet," is what I told them. I hope I did, at any rate; our only common language was that of fear masked with anxiety and angry stares.

But I digress.  The story:  An hour or so goes by, and everyone is tired, angry and restless; they just want to go home after a hard day's work, you know?  Same as I did.  Anyway, after some time goes by I realize there's a kid missing, and I scan the distance looking for him.  He doesn't take long to find; he's just a kid, skinny and brown and running pell-mell across the dried-out river bed.

I'll never forget what a human looks like as a target.  But hey, I said I almost shot a man.  Instead, I let him go home for both of us.