Billy didn't think there would be a blank cartridge in a squad that small, in a war that old

Billy closed that one eye, saw in his memory of the future poor old Edgar Derby in front of a firing squad in the ruins of Dresden. There were only four men in that squad. Billy had heard that one man in each firing squad was customarily given a rifle loaded with a blank cartridge. Billy didn't think there would be a blank cartridge in a squad that small, in a war that old.

K. Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5 (1969), 86