The Soldier

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX JACOB

 June slowly rustles and sits up, resting on her elbows. Her long, thick eyelashes flutter, trying to wake the sleep from her eyes.

I hand her skewered squirrel meat, fish, and half of a toasted biscuit.

"Thank you." She says, moving closer to me. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Four hours since your night watch. Should be ten-o'clock in the morning."

She nibbles on the fish, her dark, golden brown eyes lingering on me. "You should've woken me up sooner."

"I know." I say. "But you hardly get enough sleep as it is, anyways."

"I know." June interrupts, slowly twisting the shish kabob around in her palms.

She doesn't want me to mention Leslie, I know. That's the reason why she hasn't even tried to get that much rest. Neither have I.

June stands up, staring at me. "Jacob,"

"Hmm," I take a bite of fire smoked fish.

"Can you hold me?"

I only stare at her for a moment before I open my arms wide for her. Welcoming her into my embrace. She sits in my lap, resting her head on my chest.

"We've been on the run for five days. They haven't even found us yet. Still, we need to take another trail. Pretty soon, I 'm pretty sure they'll start looking on this one." she says.

"We're almost to the Northern colonies. Just five more days." I reply.

Looking up at the sky, I take a look around. The clouds are gray, a sunset the color of orange is on the horizon, giving it a surreal landscape. Trees surround our hideout by the river, their forest evergreen leaves giving us camouflage. We have got to find shelter before it starts to rain.

June places a piece of squirrel to my mouth, staring straight into my eyes. I take a bite, staring straight back into hers. The squirrel is juicy and tender, filling my mouth with a sweet and smoky juice. I do the same to her, giving a bite of mine to hers. She licks her lips and holds my head to hers, closing her eyes. I give her what she asks for.

I bring her lips to mine, tasting the sweet softness of her tongue. She brings a hand up my back, giving me shiver that run up my spine. June does the same when I run my hands through the tangles of her fizzy hair. When we break apart, we're laughing and kissing each other again.

That's when it starts to rain.

"Oops." She says, as the rain starts from a low drizzle, into a needle-stinging down pour.

The fire goes out as we hastily gather our bags, and afterwards, running into the further midst of the trees.

We don't stop running until, suddenly and abruptly, it stops raining.

We're soaking wet in the middle of the woods as we come upon a house.

It look abandoned, with the broken glass and all, but that doesn't mean a thing. This could be a trap. But, the both of us are soaking wet, we'll need to get dry before we catch pneumonia.

June steps inside first after we've checked around the outside premises.

The house on the inside looks fairly nice. - Six bedrooms. Three on the first floor, three on the second. The windows are covered by dark green curtains, each window in a shape of a circle, with white window panes to bring the sunlight through. If someone was here before us, they probably only left two weeks ago. There is still food left in the refrigerator. Both June and I don't touch it, though. It may be poisoned.

We sit in a room, finishing our skewered fish and squirrel, sitting up and alert. June kisses me again, not breathing until she parts away to kiss my cheek, then my neck. "Gosh, I love you, Jacob."

I stare at her hand. Not out of anger, but just to ... really... look at her. She's so small, but I can notice the wiry muscles showing through her brown shirt. Her lips; kissable, but small and round. But that's not what makes me love her. It's her strength to keep moving forward that does. Her majestic will and stubborn defiance.

Before I know it, I'm pressing her down onto the bed, watching how her dark, long locks spray against the tan colored bed sheets. I bring her my nose against her neck, noticing her stiffness. I pause and just kiss her lips gently, then her forehead. She's just staring at me.

"I love you too, June. You're so beautiful, I would hate it if you died; if you left me. My world would come tumbling down."

"That's how I feel about you, too, Jacob." She kisses me back, this time on the chin.

+ + +

"You know Jon?" she says.

"Yeah." I say.

We're beside one another, holding each other's hand tight.

"We were good friends when after I moved. We were best buds. Being in each other's class until we turned twelve. That's when my father and his ran against each other for the presidential election. Jon started spreading rumors about me, saying that my uncle Raius did not commit suicide, and that my father instead ordered his assassination because he voted for Jon's father instead of his own brother. Which, I know wasn't true. He and his brother were fine not always getting along, especially since, Father's first election, he voted against him as well. Coincidence, I think not. As if that wasn't enough, Jon and his father, Vice-President Hitman also spread rumors about my father abusing my mother, saying that's the reason that her baby might not survive. None believed the rumors at first, but then I stopped talking to Jon and the rest of my old friends." June tells me. "I began to isolate myself, just going to school and getting through. That's when the rumors about me started. I learned that I really can't call them friends, because friends don't treat friends like they're nothing. Jon and Lindy, the other girl you trained back at Camp One, they teamed up together, telling everyone that our family had alliances with the South. Just like every other time, the whole school believed it. None of it ever really bothered me because I knew they were just rumors. Well, except my father's alliances with the South; which I've found out recently that that's true by you. But, the one thing that broke me, I don't even know why I let it, Cassandra, another of my old friends, took me to the cafeteria on my seventeenth birthday. There, she stood up on the table in front of everyone to call their attention, and asked the nearest people to hold me down so Jon could slice my arm with a metal kitchen knife seventeen times as a 'birthday gift". They were pinning me down, laughing along with the leaders of the group who started this, trying to keep me from screaming for the school officials. Thankfully, Rachel was able to stop them by grabbing the nearest school Primors. That day, I never saw her again. She was sent to Camp Two, but didn't pass her Test. She was sent Home, as I later found out from her parents."

It begins to pour down rain, lighting and thunder rumbling through the quake of the forest. When lightning flashes, it illuminates June's face in the dark. She runs her hands through her hair, slinging it over her shoulder as she crunches up into a ball.

We both are quiet, holding each other tight through the night.

An hour later, she says, "Jacob, I promise you that... after this war, I will let you have be entirely. I just need some time."

I kiss her forehead and the top of her head. "I promise. It's going to be alright. Then I pull her head to my chest, letting her warm body rest against mine. "I won't let anything happen to you again." I say.

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