Chapter 21

    “Aiden?” I asked.

            “Yeah?” he answered.

            “Thank you… Shouldn’t we get inside?”

            “What?!” he yelled over the wind.

            “Shouldn’t we get inside?!”

            “Yeah, hold onto my hand. I’ll take us back the way I came from!”

            His hand gripped mine tightly but I couldn’t even see his hand. Aiden began to move and I was led by the direction he pulled my arm. A couple minutes later he swung me next to him and my free hand latched onto the gate.

            “Find the opening!” he let go of my hand and I began longing for it. My hands felt around for the opening but I only felt the fence going on forever. God, I called out in my mind, if you are really there please show me the door opening. Either he wasn’t listening or he wasn’t real because I still couldn’t find the opening. My hands fumbled around and made the fence slam against the poles. Someone called out. The voice sounded like it belonged to the commander.

            “Is anyone there?” I heard.

            “Sir! It’s Kristina! Aiden is down a little ways!” I followed the sound of his voice.

            “Cox?! Wright isn’t with you?!”

            “No! Maybe you can help me find him!”

            “First, I need to get you inside! Just follow my voice!”

            I did and after a couple minutes, I found the opening and our commander gripped my elbow.

            “Follow the fence again on this side and find him! I’ll stay here in case you get lost!”

            “Yes, sir!”

            I followed the fence as I called out for Aiden. I heard a fence bumping and making a ton of noise but that may have been caused by the wind. My fingers latched onto the fence corner and I called out again. Someone’s fingers grabbed mine from the other side of the fence.

            “Kit?!” the voiced yelled over the wind.

            “Aiden! Follow me! I will show you how to get in!” I walked down a little ways and called out to him. He made it to me but he wanted to make sure I was there by finding my fingers. Every time, until we reached the opening, I moved down, called out and Aiden would come and find my fingers. When we reached the opening we hugged each other. The commander told us to follow him to the Cafeteria, which we did gratefully. Everyone in the Cafeteria looked up at us as we entered. Once we sat down at our table, I looked at Aiden. Dirt was crusted on his face and arms. His hair had a light brown coat of dirt on it. I suspected that I looked the same and smiled. He laughed and it was if everything had been a big joke. Harriett and Evie kept asking questions but we didn’t answer any of them. Oh, Evie, I thought to myself, I wish you would just smile. You're so kind but afraid of showing happiness for some reason. You and Harriett... You both need to smile and forget the thought of war.

                Aiden put his arms around me and I leaned into him as we laughed. The entire cafeteria was staring at us but we could have cared less. Our smiles showed dirt on our teeth but that only made us smile wider. What an adventure that had been. Instead of going to the gym, my group went to our room and took turns showering; girls first, then boys. I had heard that at the actual army base there would be showers, which is a luxury that past armies didn’t receive. The only the only bad thing about the showers that I could think of was that they were freezing cold. I rinsed out my hair, washed my face, arms, and legs. The dirt streamed down my back and front to the drain at my feet. There weren’t any blow driers so everyone had to go to bed with wet hair.

Author's Note

More coming soon!