Refuge

Chapter 9

I awoke to the sound of banging metal once again, much to my distaste. I opened my eyes and realized that with two of us in the bed, the only way to get out for me was to pretty much fall out purposely.

I awkwardly rolled off the bed and landed on my hands and knees. Katie much more gracefully planted her feet next to me and remained sitting. I got up from the floor and sat next to her. Here there were no bowls in sight.

There was a similar tap and bathroom setup though. The banging stopped and at this point, most people were either sitting up, standing, or silently begging for 5 more minutes.

I sat down next to Katie on our bed and three men came in with trays of bowls. They entered without a word and stood firm in a line. "Line and forward!" The guard that has been in here for a while yelled.

Most of us assumed that they wanted us to line up and come forward, so me and Katie joined them. "Faster!" he yelled, cocking his gun. Those that hadn't already made it here scrambled into place. I gripped Katie's hand from behind me and they ushered us outside. We were forced to run through the door and I almost stumbled twice on the stairs. They forced us to run along grassy paths into a large clearing.

They commanded us to get into a line together facing them. The man walked by us one by one handing us a light brown card that read: Food.

The card was filled with small blue dots around the edges. It was probably a punch card that they would use to know if we had collected whatever "food" they were offering. I shoved it in my bra to prevent losing it and so did Katie.

He the circled around and stopped at others one by one. He would then tell them something and they would walk off towards a solder behind them. Then he arrived at Katie.

He held a laminated paper up to her hair and held up his hand. I hadn't noticed before but he was signaling the men behind him something about Katie. He quietly demanded, "Two"

She looked backward and saw a man with a sign reading 2.

Oh crap. If he doesn't tell me two we might not be together again! Come on, God, please keep us together. Please. I begged. I mean hey, it gave me enough karma or whatever later time.

He held the card up to my hair and tried to say, "on-"

but was interrupted by another soldier running up behind him saying, "Code M, code M! You go!"

He saluted the man and the other did the same. He then began running off in the way the other had come but before he left he handed the card to the other man.

The new man held it up to my hair again but he was slower to make his decision. He then demanded me, "Two" and he went to the next in line. I can't believe it! I excitedly, yet reserved, turned around and made my way over to the place where Katie was.

"Jessie! They let you come!" she exclaims attempting to hug me. As soon as she got close I pushed her away. She didn't seem phased as that was our constant thing. It probably wouldn't hurt to hug her every now and then, but she's so clingy. If I hugged her once it'd never stop. Day after day she'd try to hug me like a teddy bear and it would hurt her if I pushed her away even once after I allowed a singular hug. Nope. No way am I becoming her teddy bear.

She stood by me and looked around evaluating her surroundings. I did the same but much less obviously. The yard that we were in was filled with clay cabins and grassy trails. The trails all eventually lead to an end in an end to rows of buildings to a grassy field. The fields were full of green grass and were surrounded by a fence with barbed wire at the top. I'd like to find out if they're electric or non-electric I guess is the word for it.

Because as nice as it is living with a free meal, I don't like being constantly threatened. Or held against my will. Or forced to do things. Of being attached to an 81-pound skip-it. You know what, escaping sounds great, but if we did manage to escape, what then? Would we starve? Would we get caught and be killed? Staying on that hand sounds great too.

Ugh! Shy am I faced with such difficult situations?!