❘❙❚ ISSUE #09 ░░░░ VOL. 2
❛ THE ESCAPISTS ❜ ┆🌹
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If only Rosie knew how to feel after the kiss, she might have rested better that night. If only she had a person to go to when difficulties came up or just to ask questions about life and people, Rosie wouldn't be rolling over in bed. The stories were fantastic and the best example of outside life, she could get a mere idea of what friendship and love, hate and greed meant. Rosie wished she could open a book, ask a question, and have the answer appear in writing. But, unfortunately, that kind of magic didn't exist.
"How was your first kiss?" She asked Robin shyly as they walked to her room after kissing Ben. It was the first time she had spoken to her after she knew her name.
The girl paused for a few seconds to continue walking, looked at her quizzically and then opened her eyes in realization.
"You just had your first kiss! "She exclaimed softly" "With Soldier Boy?
"Ben," she murmured. His name was Ben, not Soldier Boy. "How should I feel?"
"Well," she rambled with a giggle, suddenly looking like Nancy with her bushy eyelashes and a tender blush on her cheeks. "My first kiss was with a boy, after we had a picnic in the woods. It was unpleasant, to this day I asked myself why I let it happen. The boy didn't even like me, he kept talking with his mouth full of food and when he kissed me, I swear I swallowed a piece of ham. Horrible" Robin laughed like a broken pipe. "Don't let that get you down, then I've met a person who makes me feel the butterflies in my stomach when we kiss... heck, this person doesn't even have to kiss me to make my legs go weak. How do you feel?"
That was the problem, she didn't have a clue. Rosie had felt something beautiful blossom inside her, something that might resemble butterflies fluttering around her stomach. Ben was a physically attractive boy and that was what people looked for to want to kiss someone. Ben had said so himself. So, on that side, she should be feeling a crush of happiness, and yet, something wasn't right. From the depths of her mind came a message that was impossible to ignore. She needed more, something different. The physical contact she thought was lost with people without powers —she felt them like weak stalks brushing against her skin—was returned with Ben. She was sure he didn't know how strong his movements were, everything he did was strong, of course, because he perceived the outside world as a flower. But Rosie had perfectly felt his lips against hers and his hand buried in her hair. She listened to her body the way she listened to nature when confessed the secret to her, and happiness appeared as they kissed. A day later she still felt the warmth of his lips and every time she thought of him her face turned red. What was the problem? Why did she feel incomplete?
Ever since they were injected with Compound N, Rosie had been on a journey to hell. It wasn't just the fact that her ability was eating her up and, in a few years, would leave her sick. She had lost the love of nature. Rosie had nothing of her own before her powers showed up, there was nothing to give her a little love. Nature came to change that. Nature invited her into their home to join the family as the ultimate guardian. She understood her, they formed a loyal and fundamental connection. Nature gave her everything she lacked: a family, a home and a reason. They adopted her as a part of them. They had been so kind and helpful.
The breakup had left Rosie unmotivated. By taking away her control of her ability, she also lost that connection. She was doing atrocities to nature. They haunted her as if she had never really been welcomed into the family, like a bad plant. Rosie was left alone, wishing that happiness would return. Her behavior had been more than good. She was a good, godly, helpful girl. She didn't raise her voice, didn't encourage violence and certainly didn't throw punches when things didn't go her way. She was patient and tried to please everyone. Why was she being punished like that? It was everything Mary wanted in a child.
Had Ben seen her like that, had he been thinking about that when he decided he should kiss her?
As they kissed, Rosie didn't just think about how green his eyes looked, which still retained a little sparkle from childhood, plus the freckles around his nose made him look adorable and didn't bring out the ruggedness of his features. She pushed away thoughts of how big his arms had become and the torso that when he breathed looked like a concrete wall, impenetrable. Rosie thought of other things she liked about Ben, like his loyalty and desire to become the best soldier. She thought about how scared he was that day he couldn't stop punching and yet he saved her from her own plants. Rosie had seen beyond his physique. She needed that. Had Ben seen beyond her ginger hair and the freckles adorning her whole face? Did he think she was a godly, helpful good girl? What if he preferred her like modern women: more sociable, fun-loving and hard-working? Or maybe he preferred an army girl who knew about guns and warships? Would he have no problem with what Robin called the "masculinization of women"? In her essay Robin had said:
[...Some idiots with degrees in psychiatry had said that masculine women were virile lesbians, coined with the term dangerous and shameless woman-men, congenital perverts of masculine appearance and psyche. They determined that the emancipation of women had led to this masculinization that degenerated fecundity and perversion of sexuality (this referred to homosexuality). The answer to reassure the population and maintain feminine characteristics (grace, kindness and service) in work was to vindicate it with adjectives that complemented feminine work, such as thoroughness and dedication.... ]
What did Ben think of her? Nature sure didn't think she was bad, not if she gave Rosie the key to her kingdom. Nature granted her the power and if there was one thing she was sure of, nature was wise.
Suddenly three knocks on the door gave her a great fright that made her jump out of her bed. Was she sure she heard knocks? It was one o'clock in the night, who would be knocking on her door? For a second she was convinced she imagined it, only to hear them again. She approached the door oddly, leaned her ear against it. She wasn't going to talk, she was supposed to be asleep.
"Rosie?" Oh my God! No, no, no...
"Ben?" she exclaimed incredulously and nervously. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in your room. Someone can see you, run to your room."
"I'm going to open the door."
He completely ignored her concerns and how monumentally inappropriate this was. Ben with a sleazy shove smashed the door open.
"You're crazy!" Rosie began to panic. This was so wrong, the doctors would find out what Ben had done and punish them both, do something bad to them. "Oh my God Ben, you broke my door, how am I going to fix it so they won't notice? Oh my God..."
And in the blink of an eye, she could no longer continue her sentence. Ben grabbed her cheeks and kissed her. A kiss as strong and vivid as the first, endless and sweet. When he released her, Ben watched her for a few seconds, his almond eyes smiling, but as soon as he saw behind her, she was no longer the center.
"Is this your room?" Ben walked in as if he owned the board, his boots dirtying the pink carpet. He walked until the room overwhelmed him. He surveyed every nook and cranny, from the wainscoted walls, to the canopied bed, to the flower-filled watering cans she once made. He gave the dolls a wry glance and let out a snort when he reached the green table with the two chairs and a chessboard on which she practiced what she learned from the book. "You've had this forever and you have the nerve to say you want to leave? "
Rosie arranged the door as best she could to disguise that it was broken. Ben's imposing presence and tone had gone from a sweet kiss to a fervent anger shifted the girl to a corner of her own room, leaving her in the position of other of her furniture. She just nodded hoping Ben wouldn't wreck anything. Why was he angry?
"Is this a bathroom?" Ben opened the door, almost breaking it. "Is this your room? I have a bed, a closet, and the bathroom in a square half of this. And you have some dolls hanging, and you want to leave? I thought you had the same as me."
"Isn't that what soldiers' rooms are like?" she quickly thought of an answer that would please him because Ben was getting really angry.
Luckily for her, it worked.
"Yes, you're right. This is what a woman should have, it keeps you happy, doesn't it? It's delicate and pretty, just like you, isn't it? That's why they gave you this and me something that wouldn't make me a sissy."
Rosie nodded in relief, got Ben to calm down. She couldn't help but focus on those two words: delicate and pretty.
"What are you doing here?" she asked now that she could do it without him tearing the room apart.
"Are you still wanting to escape?"
She had noticed a large earth brown military backpack perched on Ben's back. Rosie's heart raced so fast she feared she might faint. Oh God! Ben would one of these days rip her heart out, rip it to shreds from fear. That boy had —possibly— broken the door to his room without bothering to arrange it so the patrolling soldiers wouldn't notice. They could be looking for him right now. They would sound the alarms. There would be a commotion that would not end well for them.
"Ben, please tell me that no one knows you're here, the soldiers..."
"I'm not stupid Rosie" he interrupted her by taking the backpack off and set it down on her bed which, before doing so, he had tested by sinking his hands into the mattress. His brow furrowed again, "So you chickened out?"
"No, I want to escape," she admitted with her hands beginning to sweat, her whole body was sweating. "But now?"
"Yes, put everything you need here."
The girl stood petrified in her place watching Ben inspect the bed more closely causing anxiety in Rosie who didn't want him to discover Robin's essay and Nancy's book. She diverted her attention to the vines, grabbed one of her pillows and squeezed it, tossed a stuffed teddy on the floor which caught her attention because of the warm fuzzy rug. He noticed that Rosie was barefoot and his boots had left mucky footprints. Their eyes met for a second and, with a simple nod of his head, he encouraged her to grab her things.
"Are you sure you know how to escape?"
She walked over to her closet built into the wall and camouflaged with the same wallpaper. She tried to keep Ben from being interested in her clothes, but failed as soon as she opened the closet. He walked over to her and stared at her dresses. How was she going to get her underwear out with him in there, and where would she keep them? Rosie encouraged herself to touch his torso and push him away.
"Let's go out by the patio area," she resumed the conversation by sitting down on the bed. "It's the closest to the forest and overlooks the opening to the mountains, we're going to have to run and find the road by following the trail of tanks going in and out. We have to be quick, although getting out of the military's sights is not going to be permanent. They're going to look for us and they're going to find us and come back, but, hey, we're going to go to a diner and have some delicious cake."
Rosie came up with the wonderful idea of using one of Dr. Lang's gift bags to discreetly set aside her inner romper. Then, she grabbed a pair of dresses and pantyhose. She went back to the bathroom and in the same underwear bag she tucked a couple of tampons in case her period came. It would be too embarrassing if it happened in front of Ben. Finally, she put on her shoes. She thought about the book and the essay, should she take it with her, what if they searched the room for clues? She had made a promise, she would not compromise Robin and Nancy's work. She took the folio made of plants and put everything in Ben's backpack.
"And how are we going to do with the pills?"
Ben took the backpack and opened one of the front pockets. Rosie saw several bottles of pills.
"I stole them all," he said with a triumphant laugh. "They should put a stronger lock on the doors, it doesn't take anything to open them," Oh dear God, the day had come, she felt like she was going to throw up. "Don't you have anything darker? Worst case scenario if they realize we are escaping, the darkness of the forest is the best we have, apart from the powers, we have to camouflage ourselves. Something black, brown or dark green?"
She saw her dress, she hadn't put on her pajamas. It was white, no flashy cutouts outlining her waist, nor was it bulky like the queens' dresses, it didn't even have buttons like Nancy and Robin's uniform. It was big on her and looked like a piece of cloud.
"No, just light colors."
"Okay," Ben rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a moss green jacket. "Put it on," he tossed it to her.
Ben had given her his uniform... Ben had given her his uniform! According to Robin's essay about the masculinization of women that was connected to her joining the army, men had abhorred the fact as sacrilege, a sin of women refusing to represent femininity. To Rosie it seemed a very foolish thing. Why would they be scandalized by women who wanted to help their country? Rosie was stronger than the best soldier and Ben told her she should be the strongest woman in the world, and yet when the doctors hadn't ruined them by injecting them with Compound N, they didn't agree to admit her as just another soldier. A Soldier Girl! They wanted her to make the soldiers' meals and chemicals. Rosie was more than willing to help in any way she could, she just found it unfair that her super strength was not considered on the battlefield when she was almost as strong as Ben and with him they built a whole history of the super soldier. But, between her hands she held a military jacket and, not just any jacket, that of the so called Soldier Boy.
She put it on and closed it. She looked up waiting for Ben to tell her something, good or bad. She would love to hear his opinion. She would like to talk about Robin's essay, maybe he had more good stuff inside that would give her butterflies in her stomach. Rosie approached Ben who was peeking through the crack in the door making sure no soldiers were getting through. Turning around, facing the girl, he gave her a small smile and wrapped his hands around her back, risking a short kiss.
There were the butterflies she needed.
"Here's the plan," he said, placing the backpack on her back, "You do everything I say without complaint, you follow me, and you don't take a step I don't tell you to take. Understand? I will always go first, in case a soldier sees us, I will knock him out. You're not going to be scared of that?"
"No," she felt it was the answer she wanted. "I'll do anything you tell me to do."
"Can you control the plants? It would help a lot in the forest."
"I can try, but sometimes they don't do what I want"
"More than enough."
The moment she had imagined all her life had arrived. The celebration of her heart was so euphoric on her part that she had flooded the room with the sensations of adrenaline. Rosie was a swirl of emotions sharing the same body: fear, excitement, happiness. She looked so excited and terrified that, her innate reaction was to cling to Ben's hand, beginning a shy and needy embrace, afraid of the possible rejection that would ruin everything. But it never came, Ben pressed his fingers against hers. Rosie felt it. Her emotions were an equal or worse tidal wave. In the end, Ben was only a few months older and they had grown up together, at the end of the line logic dictated that they should have something in common that transcended powers.
The teens ventured through the base facilities walking a path they had learned for as long as they could remember. The routine and restricted they had been to explore was the perfect incentive for Ben to turn to rebellion to investigate each soldier's position and the movements they made. His closeness with the soldiers and the other block, allowed him to learn how the outside surveillance worked, Rosie learned that Ben was an encyclopedia of military, an intelligence that was far better than the strength of his arms. He didn't need to employ it, Rosie had stopped him a couple of times before he'd jumped in to knock out a soldier instead of waiting in hiding for a few seconds until they were gone. They became a duo swinging at each other's weaknesses. They made it all the way to the outside. Things were a bit more complicated. They had made it through the first part victoriously.
"All right," said Ben, taking off his hand for the first time, "We're going to roll out to the gates, for situations like this, they have our area well guarded. Is it impossible for you to open the ground and escape through a tunnel? No?"
"Even if I could, the plants would betray me and we'd drown, it's a long way to the forest."
"Right," Ben licked his lips before continuing. "Rolling it will be, keep your head down and if they see us we'll run. They'll try to shoot us, the bullets won't do anything to us, don't be scared of that. Just try not to get hit in the eyes, that's where we are most sensitive and that's where they will aim."
They had come too far to cower.
With bullets, screams and alarms ringing throughout the military base, the teens managed to embark into the darkness of the forest.
💬！▬ author's note
some of you asked for it, so here you go.
I didn't make it clear in the previous one, I forgot hahahah. Rosie has the power to sense hormones and pheromones, she can create and manipulate them. sooo that's why she senses feelings. Hormones are linked to emotions.
so ben and rosie escaped holding hands, what will they do in their adventure around the world?
i am writing three stories in my spanish account: toxina; a book with dean winchester (Lilith) and another one with daryl dixon. I don't have much time to translate, but I'm grateful for the support that toxina has had <3