Rebel Red Hope

23

     The sound of hushed talk wakes me up from outside the tent,

     "I thought you were keeping Zed company?" a voice softly snaps at someone,

     Getting up to investigate, the sound of more panicked whispers emerges, "What's happening?" I ask stepping out of the tent,

     "Zed wasn't in his tent when we went to check on him," Sammy explains,

     "What do you mean he wasn't in his tent?" Athem erupts out of the tent behind me, her tone panicked, "I thought he was with you guys," she gestures to Zeik and Sammy.

     Athem immediately pushes past us making her way quickly to Zed's oversized tent as we all follow her quick steps after exchanging worried looks. Walking up to the tent, she throws open the flaps, "Zed?" she calls out, but no reply,

     "Shit," Zeik whispers, "I'll ask around", he immediately turns around, jogging away.

     Something catches my eye in the tent as the flap drops out of Athem's hand: a small pair of shoes carefully pull themselves back behind a crate under the table,

     "I need to ask around and get a group to help look for him," athem says, running an anxious hand through her hair.

     "I'm sure he'll be alright Ath, I'll help look, you go do what you need to." to this she nods a small thanks before walking off to ask around.

     After watching her walk out of sight, I carefully pull back the flap and let myself into the tent. carefully sliding myself under the table on the other side of the crate, my hand wanders up to give the crate a light knock while sitting, "Mind if I sit with you?",

     Zed straightens out his legs from the other side. There's a small bit of hesitation between the two of us sitting there,

     "Do you have anything in there with you?' i ask out of concern, and to my surprise, a pocket knife is thrown out, the blade sticking into the ground upon impact, "Ok," taking a deep breath, I ask another question, "Do I need to go grab some bandages?",

     "No," Zed's tone is soft, like he's been crying for a long while, "I didn't do anything this time," he almost sounds regretful,

     "do you want to talk about it?" I ask, unsure what to do

     Silence.

     We sit there for a little bit, the sound of his gentle breathy sobs and shaky breath hurts to hear. he's gone through so much at such a young age.

     "She would have been 13 today," he says suddenly after calming himself a little, just enough to talk clearly,

     "It's her birthday?" I ask, unsure of who he's talking about,

     "Yeah."

     "What was her name?"

     "Emlly," his voice tightens as he takes in a shaky breath, "She would have loved it out here,"

     "You must miss her," my head nods in understanding as Athem appears in the tent entry,

     "Is Zed there?" she mouths to me pointing to his shoes still poking out. Giving her a small nod, Zed starts talking again, unaware of Athem in the doorway,

     "I can't get her screams out of my head," he chokes out, "or the way she-" Zed's voice trails off into soft sobs. I can see Athem's face turn a bit pale before she gesture to the pocket knife still wedged in the ground to which I shrug,