War Within Us

chapter 17 . a familiar face

I was very much relieved and glad to see a familiar face staring back at me.

Even though Brit would not be my first choice of companion, due to our obvious lack of prior interaction, it was still so much better than any other stranger.

His rigid expression loosened a tad bit after he recognized me as a familiar face. His face didn't turn back to its rigid state but his eyes stayed cautious.

He stretched his hand towards me and waited for me to pick it up. I was a little taken aback by this unexpected gesture but I realized that I had to get past my prejudice that kept on messing with my manner.

"Thank you." I breathed as I got up to my feet with his help.

"You're welcome." He shook my hand and continued. "It is nice to see you again Ms Lown."

"Please call me Vanessa, it is nice to see you too Brit." I offered him a smile, deciding to be a little more friendly towards him.

We stood there for a short moment before Brit got us out of the awkward silence by showing me the way that led to the car he came here with.

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The walk to the car was silent for the most part. He asked me questions, initiating small talks like how many stops did I make along the way, which path I followed and the items that I had in my backpack.

I gave short and quick answers to his quesitons, not wanting to bore him with unnecessarily long answers.

Somehow, I was not entirely terrified of Brit despite his large built and cold expression.

I didn't know why but something told me that it would be easy for us to get along but even if I felt this was, it didn't stop our current situation to feel a little awkward. Having casual conversations with him was still in the far future.

When we finally reached the car though, I saw someone else inside which made me take a small step closer to Brit that he noticed but didn't comment on it.

As I expected, there were no chitchats, they just knew what they were doing and didn't have to go over it.

I tried to come up with a joke about my situation to calm my nerves but my inner Esther was long lost and my mind remained as silent as my lips.

Brit was on the driver's seat, driving in the rocky land with ease as the strong shaking of the car didn't affect him.

So I quietly looked out of the window to see that it was nearly time for the twilight while I kept thinking about the day that was awaiting me.

*-*

Ten short minutes later, the other soldier get out of the car in the middle nowhere but with the amount of confidence and stability he carried with him, I was sure he would be just fine.

I waited for a while as my body and mind relaxed from the stranger's departure and a question popped in my head. Even though I was hesitant about Brit's response, thinking this could be the only time I had before we arrived the base, I decided to ask what was bothering my curiosity.

"Can I ask you a question?"

His eyes never left the road but he nodded for me to continue.

I looked around the car suspiciously to see if there were any visible listening devices that would mean that we were being listened. Despite knowing very well that if it was hidden, my eyes wouldn't be able to detect it, I still wanted to be cautious to not be the person that revealed it.