The Mies Divide (Tentative)

Chapter 9

It had been two weeks since I first kissed Lea, and I was overjoyed that we were now a couple. The thing was, though, I couldn't tell anyone - not that I had anyone to tell other than Rasul. I was never great at making friends and with Rasul as my guide still, I hadn't really had much time to try and make any. He could be spiteful and I wondered if a lot of the other soldiers actually hated him. Rasul did have friends, though, whom I was eating with in the mess hall. One was an intriguing thickly-muscled woman with cropped bright orange hair, who stood at least two heads higher than me.

"Hey, Rasul, how is your father?" The woman asked, I wasn't sure of her name yet, so I just referred to her as "Orange" in my head.

"Diona said he can come home t'day." and let a slight smile curl his lips. I smiled too and angled my head slightly to look at them. Another friend of Rasul's, a Nemian, approached the table and took a seat he wore heavy armored clothing, which looked very odd to me since every other Nemian I had seen wore loose fitting cloths. His eyes squinted slightly in a smile and he turned to look in my direction.

"What are you going to do with her?" The Nemian inquired, nodding toward me.

Rasul shrugged, "I don't think I have an option." He said and took a bite of his own mush. I spooned the last of my food into my mouth and slid my metal tray across the table. Soon, the others did, too. Rasul turned to look at me, his dark eyes were narrow and announced, "We'll see you guys later." Before leaving the mess all with me close behind.

We were halfway down an unfamiliar hallway that reminded me of when I was first picked up by Theia and spent a day or so in their medical unit, when Rasul announced, "We've got a change of plans today."

"I heard." I said, "What was wrong with your dad? Are we picking him up?"

"Yea, he had pneumonia." Rasul said, swiping his dark hair out of his face. He usually used some kind of hair product to tame it, but today it danced freely in a mess about his head. I actually thought he looked cuter with it messy. His mouth was drawn tight and I couldn't decipher whether he was worried, angry, or a billion other possibilities so I touched his arm gently and he jerked to a halt.

"Are you okay?" I asked, his eyes were glassy and his face flushed. He nodded slowly and I added, "You don't seem like it."

He exhaled sharply, "I think I may have said too much to General Atlas. He requested an audience with my father now that he's being released from the infirmary." He frowned before averting his eyes.

"It's important for Theia to get more information." I said in an attempt to be reassuring.

"Why the fuck don't they question you then? Not my sick dad." Rasul spat.

I frowned. "They likely will still. They have questioned me some, but not extensively yet. " Maybe they want to make sure that I feel that I can trust them, I thought.

Rasul shrugged, "I should have consulted him before opening my damned mouth. Stupid. I'm so stupid. If Theia exiles us, where will we go? My father is too old to go through this again." Rasul mumbled and turned to glower at me. I reached out to touch his arm again in what I had hoped to be a reassuring gesture, but he grabbed my wrist and twisted it painfully before he flicked it away.

I sucked in sharply and let the pain dull before I spoke, "I am sure that he will understand. It is for the best of your people."

"But...I still have family on Earth. What about them?" Rasul asked, his eyes had shifted down to his feet at some point and they slowly drifted from his feet up to my own eyes and locked onto them. I cringed. I had no response, what could I say to something like that? So, I remained silent as we walked slowly toward the infirmary.