Chipped Heartz & Broken Smilez

Weakest (4)

Outside my tent, soft yet compelling voices rippled across the campground. Fred's arm was around my waist, our naked bodies tucked into a sleeping bag. Sweat dried on my exposed skin. While he lay asleep, I dressed and left him by himself. The mutants had yet to attack. Beyond the line, we occasionally saw their scouts swinging from bough to bough, using ropes that dangled like snakes in the breeze. If I didn't know better, I would say they were waiting for the group to thin or for us to develop a false sense of security before attacking.

I walked around without looking for anything in particular but found Ivan taking a piss by the base of an oak tree. He yawned, revealing perfectly aligned white teeth, the mark of a good dentist. Sensing someone watching him, Ivan looked over his shoulder and saw me. He jerked and hurriedly put his penis away, yanking the zipper shut. "Um, morning."

"Morning."

His cheeks were pink from both the cold and embarrassment.

I tugged the strap of my rifle slung across my shoulder. "Want to walk with me?"

He nodded, washed his hands with a water bottle, and then winced, remembering it was winter. He stuffed his arms under his armpits. "C-could you give me a second to get ready?" Ivan asked, avoiding my gaze.

***

Ivan and I walked together, mixing with others after packing our supplies and starting another march. Some of the boys grew bored of the lack of confrontation from the people in Z and picked fights with each other.

With the lack of hygiene supplies and the fact that most girls from upper grids weren't used to using holes and buckets for their bathroom duties, the girls were also unhappy. My bag was no lighter than the first day and just as bulky, but the sky was clear today, a soft mint green blue.

Ivan and I didn't talk, but no one picked on us. They were too preoccupied with their petty conflicts to notice Ivan and me.

"Could you not walk next to me while you smell like shit?" one girl told another.

Up ahead, Fred broke apart two boys fighting over a gold coin they had found.

The platoon leaders passed nervous glances from one to the other. Some looked across the white line, an eager expression on their faces as if they were praying for an attack to befall them, so they wouldn't have to deal with their annoying subordinates and their stupid squabbles.

***

We finished our extended patrol without any contact with the enemy but bearing less patience with each other. Friendships that were once strong were now thin. Olivia, from my unit, had ceased to hang out with her old friends and kept to herself during breaks.

Now that she had isolated herself, they were whispers about her. Some said she had slept with multiple men and had no shortage of suitors but was waiting for someone from Grid A to propose to her. They called her an arrogant bitch who only cared about herself.

Someone pissed in her boots one morning, but whoever it was went undiscovered.

As we reclined on our beds during our free hour, Olivia and I spotted each other across the room. She smiled briefly at me, then returned to reading her book.

***

"Doesn't it bother you?" I asked her the next morning as we washed our hands by the bathroom's sinks.

"Why should it? I won't have to see any of these girls again in a little more than a year."

"But still, words hurt, you know."