Pain

Chapter 3 - Distance and Decisions

Chapter 3
Distance and Decisions

Within an hour the campsite looked as though we'd never left. The little clearing beneath the cliff was once again stuffed with camouflage tents and thick camouflage canopies providing protection from unwanted guests and the weather. We'd taken full advantage of the supplies that the General has gifted us, all ending up with more comfortable living arrangements.

I quite enjoyed making my little tent home. I was no longer sharing with anyone, given that Koby now shared with Karlo and all the other girls were either paired up with one of the guys or their friends. It was strange to be back here and being so alone, but I took advantage of my space, filling it with warm rugs and pillows that I'd gone to the effort of hauling down here.

With the sleeping arrangements sorted, Bella and I got to work rationing out the food supplies that we'd all bought back. Since we'd been up here, this was definitely the most food we'd had on hand and there were even more non-perishables back in Bailey's cellar when we ran out. While it would be hard adjusting back to the smaller portion sizes after our stay in New Guinea, at least we no longer had to risk our lives by stealing food from the farmhouses anymore.

We had quite a vegetarian dinner, with the obvious reason being that we couldn't bring meat over without risking it becoming spoiled. The only way we'd be eating meat would be if we caught it ourselves and with soldiers scouring the mountains that was going to be extremely risky.

"Well, after five-star room service, this is certainly going to take some getting used to," laughed Jimmy, looking gloomily at his plate.

"Hey, at least it's food," Nigel responded. "I'll eat it if you don't want to."

"Nigel," Jen tutted, slapping his arm playfully. "He needs to eat to keep his strength up, we all do. Who knows when you're going to decide we need to start the General's mission? Eat while you can, Jimmy."

"The General's mission," repeated Jacoby, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, since when did he become the boss of us," agreed Rocky.

"Since he could mean the difference between life and death," Bella responded. "Who knows guys, maybe if he thinks we've done a good job we could get out of here for good."

Everyone fell silent. I was sure that we'd all been thinking about it, but Bella saying it out loud just made it sound so much more unrealistic. We'd be here until the war ended, or until the war ended us. Jen was the one who finally broke the silence.

"We can dream," she smiled sincerely, reaching over and grabbing Bella's arm reassuringly. "We can dream."

Dinner was a pretty silent affair after that, with the only sounds after our depressing little conversation being the scraping of our new cutlery on our plates. After Brigid and Gerty deciding that they'd do dishes duty, the rest of us disappeared back into our tents. After the sound of dishwashing wore off, the only sounds in the campsite was soft snores and the sounds of night.

I snuggled down into my mound of blankets, slipping off into my usual night time attire of my underwear and a tank top. It often occurred to me that if soldiers came busting into the campsite in the middle of the night that I wouldn't be put in a very good position and when my tent unzipped from the outside I nearly died of fright. Thankfully Jamie's dark brown hair was the next thing I saw.

"Has it occurred to you that we're both staying in single tents when we could save space and resources by staying together?" he asked me, slipping into my spacious new sleeping bag and smirking at my attire.