Black Dove (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter Five

I sit there for a moment, my brain completely blank. Did he just kiss me, or was I dreaming? I must have been dreaming, for nobody had ever kissed me before. I shift a bit on the bench. No. It wasn’t a dream. His coat is still sitting beside me on the bench. I shake what feels like water out of my ears and try to remember my name. My name is Avalynne Southwood. I’m sixteen years old, and turning seventeen tomorrow. I just got kissed by Kane. What am I going to do about that? What was I going to do? I didn’t know what I thought of him, I’d never paid much attention.

            “Recruit!” The loud voice startles me, and I whip around to see Sarge standing, glaring at me with a mercilessly sharp glare.

            “Sa—Sarge.” My voice is very weak, but I am speaking again. Before he can do anything, I run off back to my barracks.

            “Southwood!” One of the girls in my battalion raises an eyebrow at me, “Where’ve you been? We’re moving out, like, now.” I throw on my uniform quickly, and run to the bathroom to dash some water on my face. I enter the cold, empty room and splash some water on my face, when I see something kneeling in the corner. It is hunched over, and making a strange moaning noise. I approach warily, holding my rifle. Then the thing looks up and I see a mop of messy hair tumbling out of a neat bun. Willison.

            “W—Willison?”

            She buries her face in her knees again, “I can’t go Avalynne. Not again. Please. PLEASE!” Her voice rises to a scream, reverberating off the tiled walls. I see red fingernail marks on her face. I cautiously kneel down beside her.

            ‘What’s the matter?’ I write out on my notebook, because my throat hurts from speaking so much.

            “I...I just can’t go out there again. I can’t. It’s too much.”

            I don’t know what to say to this, so I gently pull her off the bathroom floor. ‘Come with me. Please. You’ll get beaten otherwise. We can watch out for each other. Make sure things don’t get to bad.’

            She lifts her tear stained face to the light. “You have to promise. That it won’t happen again.”

            I glance out the window to see the battalion moving out. “Yes. I promise.” I don’t know what she’s talking about, but we need to move quickly. I don’t want to imagine the consequences if we don’t get there in time. “Now, c’mon, let’s go.” I yank her off the dirty floor and half lead, half drag her out of the bathroom.

            Across the misty fields we run, trying to catch up to our battalion. I manage to slip into my spot just as we arrive with the other battalions behind the mess hall.

            “Soldiers!” I snap to. Everyone else is so silent, you could hear a pin drop. Our breath hangs on the cold air like a cloud. Willison stands next to me, looking very pale and like she’s about to vomit. I slowly move my hand behind her in case she falls over.

            “Today is going to be a victorious day. You will make a charge across the plain, just a mile down the road. The UAF will be there, and won’t be prepared for you. Kill as many as possible and try to take the base. Ready? Move out.”

            We march. The clouds above break in a cold drizzle that has us soaked to the skin in minutes. Only Willison doesn’t seem to mind. She marches along, whispering to herself. I can’t help but wonder what happened to her. On minute, she’s mostly normal, the next, acting like a lunatic. And speaking of not normal…Kane. I hardly knew what to think of him as he tries to catch my eye. I steadfastly ignore him. I don’t want to think about that now, not now that we are seconds away from a battle. I simply clutch the dove paperweight in my pocket.