The Soldier that Saved Me (ON HOLD)

Medals

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived." -George S. Patton Jr.

~~~~~~~~~~~

We continued our trek through the prairie, Jeb constantly thinking of new pick up lines. I laughed but Eliaphaz stayed as serious as ever.

"Eli...." I said after a while, poking him on his back, getting bored and tired of walking. I continued to poke until finally he stopped walking, making Jeb and I slam into each other.

"Jeez Mr. Man! Couldn't you give us a heads-up before stopping?" Jeb exclaimed, rubbing his nose. 

"Ocean, what the heck do you want?" Phaz asked, ignoring him.

"Nothing really. I'm just bored!"

"Well think of something to do or just let Jeb hit you up with his ridiculous lines."

"Hey! My lines are amazing. They're a great catch." The Jamaican man said, putting his hands on his hips.

"At least we're trying to have some fun here! All you do is march around being bossy and keeping silent!" I shot back.

"I don't have time for bratty girls like you--"

Suddenly Eliaphaz stopped talking when he saw a laser pointed at his chest.

"GET DOWN EVERYONE!" He whipped out his gun and started to fire;shots rang from both directions.

I cowered in the grass, shivering. What were we going to do?! I was about to die! Suddenly, I saw another beam pointed at Phaz's hat. I breathed heavily then grabbed a rock and flung it in that direction, just in time to distract the enemy.

"Over there!!" I yelled.

A strong hairy arm grabbed me in a choke hold. "Nobody move. Any shooting, this girl dies."

             "Alright, alright man." Eliaphaz slowly put down his gun as his grey eyes blazed in a fire I never saw before.

I felt the world starting to spin as the man's hold got tighter.  With the last amount of strength left in me and bit down hard on his skin, causing him to yell, giving enough time for Phaz to grab his pistol in his pocket and shoot the man, barely missing me. 

I fell to the ground and Jeb quickly ran over to me as he held on to my arm.

"Ocean, are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. That was extremely scary though."

The soldier looked at the distance, a grim look on his face. 

"It's rare for this enemy to be alone. They must have a camp ahead. If we want to avoid it...our trip will be extended by two days at least."

"No way!" We exclaimed.

"However, we can use this to our advantage. Jeb, you might be less able to, but I can teach you how to use a knife. Ocean..."

I blinked. "With your small stature and quick reflexes, I can teach you basic field training." He stated.

"Wait! To actually use hand-to-hand combat?!" 

"No, to train you to play with the prairie chickens. Of course combat!"

I pouted at his sarcastic response and looked away. The thought of fighting...this would be an interesting life ahead of me.

What would my parents think of me? Mom told me to be like a wave. To never be brought down. Would she be proud of how weak I was before? 

I want to show her that I could do it. My life of surviving a bombing and maybe more to come was just beginning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, again!"

"Seriously! You're going too fast for me!"

"Honestly, do you think you'll get good in two hours? It takes years to perfect this. I want you to drop down and give me twenty. I'd probably make you do forty if we weren't on a time restriction.

"That's like, double!!"

"Do you want to live? Stop gabbing!"

I wanted to shout at him but I obeyed. Next time I'll definitely give him twenty, but it won't be push-ups. I thought evilly in my mind.

Though he was incredibly handsome, he was a devil from the depths of the underworld. So what they say in the cliches of teen fiction were actually true! What happened to manners of guys?!

Well, I knew one person that had it. But he was gone. 

I shook my head and got up. No time to sob about my past. The past is in the past. I needed to let it go.

"Done, sir!" I saluted him. Eliaphaz didn't seem to get my joke but Jeb chuckled as he started a fire.

It was almost night and we were just going to settle down. Jeb had another chicken roasting on the fire and the tent set up. Though he wasn't able to walk that much, he was handy with the small things that needed to be done.

"Ocean, come over here." A deep voice called.

"Yes?" I walked over to Phaz who was near a shrub of bushes. He had the first-aid box out.

"That bruise must hurt, doesn't it?" He pointed to my neck, which was left from the enemy's hold.

"Oh this?" I lightly touched the mark. I didn't notice from all the work I had to do. "It's nothing, really. You don't need to do anything."

"Just come over here." He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him, our noses almost touching. If I got onto my knees, I could kiss him.

As he started applying the cream, I looked at his badges to keep myself from blushing so hard.

"This is like before, you know?" 

Phaz's voice startled me. This was exactly like two days ago; our almost kiss.

"Yeah...hey, what's this one for?" I fingered the bright medal pin.

"That one? It's a gold Lifesaving medal."

"It's beautiful." 

For the first time, I saw him smile, a proud smile. It was amazing. He wrapped the last bandage around my neck then got up.

"Ready for dinner?"

"Yes, I love having chicken with a side of chicken and a dessert of chicken!"

He laughed, a beautiful deep sound from his throat. "I might have some chocolate in the backpack."

"You should have said that earlier!!!"

"Only to celebrate your first taking down an enemy. Pre-take down to be exact."

"That works!"