War Within Us

chapter 23. rather challenging

Vanessa - International Armed Forces - Kaden Base - Afternoon

It was harder than I expected to focus on anything else other than what had happened moments ago but I somehow managed to get myself back together.

The little coffee break was over, everyone was back in their seats and the meeting went on for more hours.

It was the colonel's turn to do most of the talking as he also gave us an update on their advances around the city.

I wanted to trust his words of confidence that told us they were making big advancements but I would only believe him when Hadi could ride his bike around the village comfortably without being scared of getting beaten up.

Only when the women could go wash their clothes in the river without being scared of getting kidnapped and raped.

It would all be over when men went to sleep without any sort of weapon tucked under their pillows in hopes of protecting their families.

Still, I forced myself to have a more positive outlook on things. The city centre was being rebuild. Kids were getting education.

For a split second, I let my eyes close and took a deep breath. As I released all the air in my lungs and opened my eyes at the same time, I tried to focus on the conversatiın in front of me.

With that, I managed to get to the end of the meeting.

The clock read 5 p.m. and I had a massive headache. On a second thought, it was not difficult to guess that probably everyone in the room needed a good nap and a painkiller but unfortunately for us, we didn't have that kind of time in our hands.

As soon as we all shook hands with the colonel and ended the meeting, Haven was once again by myself with Maroon.

Despite his attempts to look fine, I saw how he ever so slightly moved his injured shoulder, wanting to stretch and get rif of the stiffness.

My eyes were on his shoulder as they reached me and he snapped his finger in front of my face.

"Quit looking at it Nessa. You are going to give people the wrong idea." He added with a subtle smirk on his face.

I didn't even try to stop my eye roll. "You wish Haven." Maroon's quiet chuckle barely reached my ear while Haven gave a "hmph" but kept up his playful spirit.

"I was just thinking how stiff it must feel." I said, making sure no one was near enough to hear it.

Faking a yawn, he quickly looked around and upon seeing the almost empty room, he moved his shoulder in different ways to warm up the muscles.

" It's getting better but I have to remember to stretch it every now and then. I wake up every morning with a stick as an arm."

I looked at him with sympathy but all he did was smile and shake his head as to tell me to not worry about it.

Maroon was waiting on my right side while Haven pointed towards the door and stayed on my left side. "We should probably get going. After dinner, you have a tight schedule."

"Brit and Cap?" I asked as we walked out of the room that I was very much happy to leave behind.

"They are not as lucky as us." I didn't question further as we walked through the corridors to what I hoped would be my room.

In silence, we arrived at my temporary room.

"Take a rest Vanessa. I'll pick you up in a while for dinner."

"In a while?" He didn't miss a beat as he answered.

"40 if you are lucky but worst case scenario, you still have a solid 30 minutes."