The gunshots rang painfully in Dave’s head, almost muffling the sound of wounded men screaming in pain. He tried not to look, not to focus on the carnage that was surrounding him as their final defense line fell. The enemies were flocking in full force and they were left with only two options: die while fleeing or die clinging to the barrel of their battle-worn rifles, cursing the inadequacies of the government supply line. 

As shameful as he knew it was, Dave belonged to the former of the two categories. The bitter, iron-scented winter wind tore through his lungs as he gasped for breath, but he didn’t slow. He couldn’t stop. Not until he reached her. 

“Madilyn!” He cried as the medical tent came into view. Please still be alive. He prayed to every god he could think of that the one woman he’d come to love in his life would have miraculously survived the breach. A gust whipped at the thin tan colored cloth, making it difficult for Dave’s frost-bitten fingers to undo the zipper for the thin sheet that made up the door.

“Dave? I’m here!” her melodic voice whispered from the other side. 

That encouragement was all he needed to will his uncooperative fingers into action. Once he’d made a small gap in the fabric, he crawled through it and lunged at Madilyn to wrap her frail body in his arms. “Thank the heavens you're alive. We have to get out of here before the Dorns find us. There might still be a few mines hidden in the dead zone between the lines, but most of the enemies have already passed that point, and none of us have any ammo to fend them off. I think almost everyone else is... ”

“It’s okay.” 

Madilyn brushed her soft fingers over his dirt crusted face, and it was only then that Dave realized tears had started to fall. He shook his head, reining in his emotions before his brown eyes met her sky blue. “Right. Let’s go.”

Hand in hand, they exited the tent cautiously. The area, which had been thunderously loud with gunfire and explosions had gone oddly quiet, with only faint echoes in the distance. The two nodded to each other, acknowledging that now was as good of time as any to make a break for it.

Though not having any specific destination, their general aim was for the mountains that marked the empire’s eastern border with the small nation of Ohilde. Dornin would conquer Byrind by nightfall, and neither of them wanted to be in this country when it fell. 

“D-Dave. I can’t -”

Behind him, Dave felt Madilyn’s hand leave his, and as he turned, he saw her knees hit the ground. Her arms covered her chest as she gasped for breath. “I’m sorry. Take a minute to rest.” He’d been so preoccupied with his own thoughts, he had failed to notice that she was slowing down. As a nurse on the battlefield, by no means was Madilyn out of shape, but an uphill sprint in below freezing temperatures would be strenuous for anyone. 

“Did you hear that?” Her words were the barest traces of a whisper, and Dave could just barely make it out through lip-reading. 

He shook his head, but focused his senses more sharply on the surroundings. There. The soft crunching of the snow. Grabbing Madilyn’s hand, he shifted her toward one of the scattered bits of shrubbery and held his breath.

“Da ya see anythin’ o’er dere?”

“Nah. I coulda sworn I ‘eard somemin’ dough.”

The heavily accented voices of two Dorns came from just under the ridge. If they climbed the rest of the way up, they would find both Dave and Madilyn easily. The shrub might’ve hidden them from a distance, but it wouldn’t fool anyone who came within several feet. 

“If ya don’ see anythin’, den come on.”

The sound of their retreat was brief, and after several minutes of silence, Dave dared to speak once again. “Can you keep going?”

Madilyn nodded, and once again they started toward the distant mountains at a brisk jog. Have we… made it? Dave almost dared to dream that they would escape from this nightmare. Once in Ohilde, they could settle down in one of the more remote towns and start a bakery. They would have to adapt to the culture and the language, but those were inconsequential problems compared to surviving five years in this forsaken war. 

He felt Madilyn jerk behind him, and instinctively he started to turn around. Halfway through the motion, the echo of a gunshot met his ears. He froze, knowing in the back of his mind what he’d find when his eyes saw her body. No… no it can’t be. Not like this. We were so close!

The hot red liquid met the snow, melting it before the chill of the ice overcame the heat of the blood and froze it to the surface like a gaping scar on the mountain. 

“D-Dave.”

Her beautiful songbird-like voice came out choked and brittle. Every emotion that Dave could think of, and many that he couldn’t put a name to, flew through his body in a hot rush. A part of him wanted nothing more than to charge at the two silhouettes he could make out in the distance. If he was lucky, he might be able to take one of them with him before he fell. The second half couldn’t bear to waste one precious moment with his beloved. It was the latter half that he caved in to. 

He cradled Madilyn in his arms, brushing away the trickle of blood that had flowed from her mouth. Even now, she was beautiful, an angel that glowed against the snowy backdrop. “I love you.” Dave spoke quietly, bending down to her lips. The first and last kiss he would ever give her. “Let’s meet on the other side.”

“Yes. I would like that.” She smiled up at him, and Dave felt a pain in his chest. His first thought was that the emotion was too much for his heart to bear, but when he looked down, he found a stain of red spreading across his torso. 

So, this was it. This was death. He was afraid. He was resentful. He was bitter. But even though he knew he felt all of these things, the emotional pain that they should have brought into his core was numbed, as if it were merely an echo lost to the snowy earth. 

As he gazed up, the mountains in the distance faded before him, replaced by a tan fabric that he’d become all too accustomed to seeing. So this is what they call life flashing before your eyes?  The thought passed by him like a leaf drifting in the breeze as he watched the scene that he’d replayed in his head so many times act itself out one last time.

“More wounded? I don’t have much space left. You can leave him in that last mat over there.” Madilyn waved her dainty hand toward the end of the long medical tent and Dave’s squad captain deposited him on the floor.

“Well you don’t look like you’ve been shot,” she commented, brushing a lock of her golden hair behind her ear as she knelt over Dave. “You do have a nasty fever though. Hold on.”

Delirious from the fever, Dave drifted in and out of consciousness for the next several days, and each time he woke up, he found Madilyn in his vision. It seemed to him that the heat under his skin lingered for an excessive amount of time, and every time he saw her, he felt it come back stronger.

“I think you’re fine,” Madilyn repeated for the upteenth time as she set the back of her hand against his forehead.

“I still feel hot,” he contradicted. 

“Well it’s certainly not a fever. Up and at ‘em Dave. You can’t stay here forever.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes I’m sure!”

That had ended his week in the medical tent, but every night from then on out, he found himself inexplicably drawn to the tent, just to watch Madilyn toil away at her duties. 

“When this war finally ends, what’s the first thing you want to do?” That night was the first quiet one they’d had in ages, and above them the stars twinkled against the abyss of the sky. 

“I want to start a bakery,” Madilyn answered. “My family was always on the poorer end, and we didn’t have much, but I loved it those few times when my mother came home with a bag of flour. We’d make sweet bread, sometimes with fruit mixed in and eat it for the next few days. Cooking with my mother was my favorite activity as a child. I’d like nothing more than to remember her by baking every single day. What about you Dave?”

“Me? Well… I,” he paused. Why was it that he could run through gunfire and not break a sweat, but the moment he was around her, his heart raced a mile a minute. His eyes met her imploring gaze. Maybe these feelings are what they call love? 

“Dave?”

“Ah,” he startled, broken from his trance by the sound of her voice. What were they talking about again? Oh right, what they wanted to do after the war. “I think I… would like to follow you and help make your dreams come true.”

She blinked, and slowly a blush rose to her cheeks. 

“I… I don’t mean that in a weird way! I just.. Um..” Dave stuttered as the weight of what he’d just said came crashing down upon his head. 

In the midst of his panic, Madilyn laughed. “You’re so kind. I think I would like that too.”

One month later, the brutality of winter had hit in full. One of the only places to escape was the medical tent - the largest tent owned by the squadron and the only one that possessed an oil-powered heater. It was comical to watch the group of thirty some odd guys pack themselves on top of each other as they fought for a space closest to the heat source. 

By his side, Madilyn chuckled. “They really are just like children aren’t they?” 

“You can say that again,” Dave nodded. He smiled too, but it was short-lived. The weight of their predicament was hitting him in full on this frozen night. “Madilyn…” he began, “I know you already know this, but the supply shipment we were supposed to be getting from the capital has been delayed again. Every day this week we’ve been fighting from dawn to dusk. We don’t have anything left to defend ourselves with. Tomorrow, our last defensive line will probably fall.”

Madilyn’s focus stayed on her hands as she twiddled her thumbs. “I had heard some of that, yes… It looks like I might be very busy soon.”

“Madilyn, when they breach the line, I want us to run. We might be able to escape to the east in the confusion. If we can climb the mountains, we can get away from this nightmare. There… there probably won’t be anyone left here for you to help anyway.”

“Do you think we’ll make it?”

“I don’t know, but it’s all we’ve got.”

“I trust you, and I’ll follow you no matter what.”

Dave nodded, resting his head against hers. “Likewise. Until death parts us, let’s stay together.”