War Paint

Missing Pieces

Seeing my expression, Camillo puts his hands up. "Don't get too worked up - it's nothing major."

But my mind whirls anyways, cannot helping to think of the worst possible scenarios possible. Andres couldn't be fatally harmed from his injuries from before... could he? Unless there was more to it than I original thought.

I should have checked myself - I shouldn't have taken Andres' word for it when he said Kade took care of his injuries.

"Take me to him."

Camillo nods, leading me quickly back to our temporary camp. Inside my brother's tent, I disregard the fact that I hadn't brought any of the firewood I collected with me, the only thing mattering being the condition of Andres.

"What is wrong, brother?"

Kade looks up as I enter, frowning. "He fainted a few minutes ago, probably from fatigue. I don't know what happened."

I glance at my brother, who is laying on the ground with a half-full canteen of water next to him. He looks pale - why didn't he say anything? Why didn't he ask to take a break sooner while we were walking? I give him an exasperated look, but he stays quiet.

Considering the other boys' presence, Andres doesn't say anything to me just yet. He has always been shy, and probably doesn't want to say what is wrong in front of Camillo and Kade.

Understanding what his look is getting at, I kindly ask Camilo and Kade to leave as I sit next to Andres.

"They're gone. Now please tell me what is wrong."

I help Andres sit up, and he takes off his camouflage uniform jacket. "It-Its bothering me again, and I don't know why. I wasn't going to say anything before because I thought it would be fine, but..."

He doesn't need to say anything else to complete the sentence for me to understand. Sucking in a sharp breath, I see that the cuts that littered my brother's arms before while being cornered by Other soldiers has taken on a new life, yellow pus and irritated scratches enhancing how bad they looked before. Surely, Andres' wounds are infected.

I should have checked them sooner, should have changed the original bandages.

"My God, Andres. Why didn't you tell me!" I rush, reaching for my restocked medical kit that Kade probably brought into the tent moments earlier.

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal - I didn't know this would happen."

"Well now it's infected, and it's going to hurt. Bite on this," I order.

I'd give him a painkiller, but there are none. The Maulie army base we came from was waiting on a fresh supply of medicine in a few days, which means they weren't able to give me some. So as Andres bites down hard on the piece of cloth I hand him, I ready myself to hear him scream.

"Arghhh!" He muffles, digging the piece of material into his face.

Cringing, I wipe the angry cuts on his arms with an alcohol cotton pad, wrapping a particularly nasty one on his forearm with a bandage as soon as possible. Thankfully, the infection is rather small, and has only affected the cuts on his upper biceps. Now the only thing to worry about is making sure the fever goes down.

"Go to sleep," I coo into his ear once I am finished disinfecting his wounds, hoping that my voice helps to put him at ease. I let Andres lay back down on the ground since he is clearly tired.

Head in my lap, his ocean eyes slide closed, his mind drifting off to a dreamer's place. I kiss the top of his head, thoughtful.

It is definitely ironic that for someone who has a terrible history with sickness, I have become a nurse voluntarily. Somehow, someway, I feel like I was meant to heal and protect those who can't themselves.