When Given a Lemon

Part 10

I woke again to Lemon nudging me, whispering that it was a couple hours before the pre-dawn twilight; and time to wake Merryl for their turn to watch. I groggily, and a little sore from curling into my muscles so tightly– stood up and shuffled over to Merryl, waking him with his name and a gentle tap on the shoulder before I returned to my previous–and still warm–spot to get a few more hours in. I should feel guilty for cheating since I was supposed to keep watching for longer, but even now my body only wanted more rest and less thought. Lemon curled up beside me, close enough that I could feel the warmth from their body. I scooted in even further, hoping my body heat would also help them to sleep a little better too; knowing none of us would enjoy a truly fulfilling sleep in this frigid environment.

The next morning we set out to return to our group, if we could find them. If we couldn't in a reasonable time, we all agreed we would go back to camp. Stomping our footprints into the unpacked snow, we threaded through a thinner part of the wood, careful of our footing so we didn't fall into any drifts, snowbanks, or wells– what Merryl called the the pits of empty space that sometimes hid next to bigger trees.

It was harder travel but uneventful until a little ways into our search, we came across the unmistakable stench of death. It was a new smell for me and one I didn't particularly appreciate. Soon our path turns and we see the whole area beyond is covered in red blood spattered everywhere.

“It could have been from an animal,” Merryl offered, but we all remember the growls and following screams the day before and we had been heading in that direction the whole time. A few steps further and we find proof that it wasn't from an animal. Even more blood surrounds the mangled remains that we walk up to. Even in daylight, it wasn't obvious who they were with the extent their body was mangled. If they hadn't been in uniform I might not have even recognized that they were an adult human. Lemon kneeled down and set to work digging through their shredded clothing.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” I gasp, but they pay me no mind, eventually pulling out a leather tag with the soldier's name and hometown marked on it from within the torn folds of their uniform. I wouldn't have thought to check for that. I would have relied on those three stupid initials embroidered into their chest, which wouldn't have given me anything more than guesses.

Lemon wiped their hand off in the snow and a red smear followed behind it like a tail. I had to turn away, physically bothered by the loss of someone that probably didn't even have a choice in enlisting, who died in such a gruesome way.

“Hey,” Merryl interrupted my thoughts, “let's keep going. We can't do anything else for them.” I nodded though I thought there should be something else that we could do for them or their family. Not that I knew what. We didn't have anything to carry them with and it was far too cold to bury them, not that we had the tools for that either.

We moved on then, leaving the broken corpse as it was, heading the same direction as before. For the rest of our trip, I'm sure we're all hoping that we wouldn't come across anymore mangled corpses. At least not anymore dead soldier ones. I'd appreciate it if they were able to catch the growling beast that likely caused the bloodbath though!

None of us speaks as we fight our way through the dense snow. If only it hadn't come down more this morning, then we would have been able to see the path the captain or the rest of the group might have taken. Instead we could only guess that we were heading in the right direction.

The low hanging sun spent more time hiding behind the trees than it did warming our faces. By the time it had passed halfway through the sky, we finally started to see the beginnings of traces of the trail the group had left yesterday.

“By the looks of these prints they had been running,” Lemon points out to me. Merryl hunches down to look for himself. “The question is though, were they chasing or being chased.”