I'll Bring A War

When I wake up again, I get up and ready for the day’s journey quickly. I don’t see Ashley until later in the day; I don’t want to make a habit of falling asleep with the guys. Aaron is as lively as ever and everyone mourns the death of Mandy before we leave, hauling her neatly wrapped body between us so we can hold a proper funeral when we arrive at the rebel camp. Mandy’s death means that her friends Joseph and Harrison can carry the bags that Jinxx and Andy were carrying so that they can carefully carry the body between them. Joseph and Harrison thank me thoroughly for staying with Mandy last night before we leave and then we set off in the same formation as the day before, only our numbers down to five people from the city and Mandy’s death leaving me the only female in the group. Andy announces that we will reach the camp at dusk as long as we don’t run into any trouble.

Ashley and I round up the back of the group, the same as the previous days and he takes this as an opportunity to discuss last night with me. “Kiera?”
“Yes?” I reply.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine thanks,” I assure him, “How about you? Are you enjoying your desert trek?” I laugh. He laughs back, however his tone turns serious once more as he says, “Kiera I heard you talking to Mandy last night. About Ali and that’s not even mentioning how you reacted when she died.” His chocolate brown eyes are full of concern as he looks at me and I mentally kick myself for wanting nothing more than to be in his arms like this morning. “No, it’s okay” I try to reassure him, “I just miss Ali, I never expected I’d be doing this without him. Then, of course, Mandy died and I don’t know what I was thinking I just didn’t want to believe she was gone. I was just tired that’s all, it was childish of me to think I could wake her up.” I find myself blinking back tears as I finish and I look at the ground.
“Kiera, it’s okay if you’re upset about all of this. You’ve lost a lot these past few days and honestly no one will think any less of you if you do get upset. We look after each other Kiera. Just like you look out for Aaron, how you looked out for Izzy and how Ali looks out for you.” My throat feels like it’s going to cave in with the massive lump that’s formed as Ashley finishes speaking and I take a couple of minutes to regain myself before speaking. “Honestly, Ash I’m okay. We don’t have time to hang around being upset, I don’t have time. We have to get to the base so we can start training and coming up with a strategy so that we can save all of the people that F.E.A.R have in their Temple.” I look up at him, my best fake smile plastered on my face as worry continues to cloud his face and I continue to long for his arms around me, to feel safe. As if hearing my thoughts, Ashley resituates his bag onto the opposite shoulder and takes my hand tightly into his own. I’d usually shrug away but something about Ashley makes me break this rule as I lean into him and intertwine our fingers. He’s looking a little less worried as a small smile, genuine this time, creeps onto my face as we brush shoulders whilst we walk. “I want to show you something when we get to the camp,” Ashley says after a while and I agree with him.

The journey passes quickly as conversation between Ashley and I picks up and Aaron runs about cheering everyone up. I doesn’t feel like much time has passed before the light blue sky fades into various shades of orange and pink, and following that a deep purple dusk falls upon the sky and the air turns bitter with cold. I give Edgar my black jumper to drape around him, as he needs the warmth to stay strong and shrink closer into Ashley’s body heat as we continue the journey. Soon after a series of small black dots appear in the distance varying in size and Ashley whispers in my ear that we are looking upon camp.

Notes