This Is War

fifteen

I knew I should've gone in with her. I knew it! Now she was gone forever.

When Hal had come running out of the ruined building carrying her tiny, blonde, bloody form, something in me died. Pope, Maggie, my dad, Weaver, James, Adam, and Anthony came out, leading at least fifteen harnessed kids. I could see fire in the rooms they were leaving behind. I grabbed Dion's little brothers and caught up with the group.

"What happened? Why is Dion hurt?"

Nobody responded. Hal just glanced at me, huffed and sped up.

"Somebody! Is she dead?"

Tom put his hand on my shoulder, "We don't know, Ben. But we'll explain at camp. Now we just have to evacuate."

Our now significantly larger group jogged the rest of the way to camp.

When we got there, Weaver directed a civilian to alert Dr. Glass that we had a wounded soldier. In two minutes, Anne Glass had Dion on a table. The doctor tried her best to get the bullet out and to stop the bleeding. And she did very well, but I still refused to leave Dion's side.

Hal, Tom, and Weaver stayed for a half hour to explain how Dion had jumped in front of her friend to save him from the stray bullet.

For six hours, I sat in a plastic chair, waiting for Dion to wake up. I fell asleep for a couple hours, ate some bread and beans, and finally, Dion cracked her eyes open. It was obvious that she was in pain. I didn't leave my seat, but yelled for Anne. The sudden yells startled Dion and she rolled over, facing me. She opened her green eyes and looked straight into my own. I was so happy she was awake, that meant she was going to survive. She was going to live! I don't know if I could go through another Jimmy. Dion fell back asleep. By the time Dr. Glass was there, she was in the same position as before.

The next day, Matt came to the tent. Behind him, walked Dion's brothers, and her two friends, their backs were all harness-free. I stood and found them all chairs. We didn't talk long. Conrad and Leven were obviously exhausted, so they passed out fast enough, but the girl, Shona I think was the name Dion yelled that day we found them, stayed awake long enough to interrogate me about my friendship with Dion. Then she said thank you to me, for helping save her, Kendrick, Conrad, and Leven, and fell asleep, faintly snoring. Matt left to go eat something. Kendrick was the last to fall asleep. We sat there for a few minutes without saying anything.

"Who are you?" He asked abruptly. I started, I forgot they didn't know me yet.

"Ben Mason. I'm part of the 2nd Mass, which-"

"Yeah, yeah. I know what the 2nd Mass is." He waved a hand absentmindedly. "How did you find Dion?"

I scratched the back of my neck nervously, giving me an excuse to avoid his eyes, "We- uh- kinda hit her with a car. . ."

"You what?! She could've died!" He sat straight up and glared at me.

"I didn't run over her! The Commander did! I wasn't even at camp until she was up and walking around." I defended myself.

Sitting back, he kept shooting daggers at me.

I decided to take a risky move, "Let me guess, you're Dion's boyfriend? From her life before the attack?"

The glare let up, "No," he sighed. "I'm just a good friend. I mean, she told me once that she had a crush on me, but that was a looong time ago. I don't know anymore."

"Oh."

He didn't talk for a while. Then he fell asleep. My eyelids started to grow heavy. No, I have to stay awake, to make sure Dion's okay. Have. . . To. . . Stay. . . Zzzzzzzzz.