Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Resistance

14) Soldier

Instead of running, I walk with Steven towards Carli and the soldier who I see has a gun. He is definitely a soldier. As we get closer, the soldier raises his gun ever so slightly, but Carli pulls his arm down. Carli hesitates and then takes off in a dead run straight for us, all the while screaming in incoherent phrases in excitement. I start to run too. When I reach her, Carli, who is about my size, but a couple of inches taller, grabs me and picks me up and twirls me around in a circle. I am usually the stoic, no emotion kind of person, but I bust out in giggles. I am so glad to see someone who is glad to see me. Someone who is family. Someone who is alive and well and happy that I am alive and well too.

Steven joins our family reunion and is hugging and kissing and whooping and hollering, and soon we are all in a pile on the ground.

The soldier looks down at us smiling. "Family reunion?" he asks.

I have never heard another British accent in person other than Torin's. It is funny how that damn accent can get you every time. It immediately disarms and charms. All of a sudden, you think you are talking to someone more sophisticated and intelligent and twice as handsome as they might normally be. Even I know that this fellow is quite handsome without the accent because he is the spitting image of Torin.

Just like that, my guard is down. Just a little.

Jack Taylor is a soldier. The man, and I say man, because while he is not much older than me, maybe 24 or a little older, he is a man. All swagger and cockiness and masculinity that announces with each step - here comes your man. He has seen better days. He's dusty and looks hungry and thirsty, but you just know that he will never ask, he will just take what he needs, or you will offer it. While he bears a remarkable physical resemblance to his cousin, if it is possible, Jack seems even more self-assured and arrogant than Torin. Something about that look he gives me tells me right away that he has a hardness that Torin does not possess. Here's a man who will do what needs to be done, no matter who gets hurt. He reminds me a little of my father, a man with no hesitation. Jack Taylor will do what no one else wants to do, but must be done.

Jack reaches down with a hand to help us all up, and I note that this is a man who I saw steal my Torin and my guard goes back up. I don't trust Mr. Jack Taylor, cousin to the Prince and chief bodyguard, one bit. After all, Torin was under his watch when the world ended and look what happened. And, the last time I saw him, Jack Taylor was with my old neighbor and traitor, Mr. Thomas and the One Nation Army. How did he get away?

Jack Taylor may be a soldier, but is he like my Patrick and the other soldiers - a casualty of war? Or, is he like Mr. Thomas - a traitor to the cause? I'll have to find out because, his cause, is my cause now. Even though I am still upset at Torin, I will claw Jack Taylor's eyes out if he is here to hurt my prince.