This chapter opens with a flashback to the beginning of the novel, when the protagonist is a young boy in his early twenties. He is a member of the fire service, and his father is the chief of the company. He has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and he has been sent to fight in the Spanish Civil War against the Spanish army. He tells his father that he has come to fight for his freedom, but his father refuses to allow him to do so. When the protagonist asks his father what he should do, his father replies that he should kill all the Spaniards who oppose him. The protagonist, however, refuses to listen to his father's advice. Instead, he decides to go to the front and fight the Spanish forces.