“Hominy grits? Yea,” Tristan answered. “We do what we can to have all the food we need right here at camp. We get sweet corn at the end of the season, but it doesn’t keep for long. The field corn can be treated and made into flour—or grits like those.” Tristan pointed to her plate. “We don’t make bread. Found sourdough starter didn’t keep with a bunch of soldiers tending it. Most of us don’t come from LPD.”
“LPD?” Lottie wasn’t sure which branch of the military he was referring to.
“Logistical Provision Distribution. Tristan just means a chef,” Jules answered.
“Oh, cafeteria soldiers.” She stabbed at it with her fork and tasted it. It wasn’t bad, kind of mushy, and bland in flavor. Could use milk. She mixed up a bite with some eggs and it made the grits taste better. It didn’t take long for Lottie to clear her plate.
She felt guilty at her own lack of self-control. Only two meals provided by Casey and his squad and she was already dreading cooking for herself. Before she ran away, she’d stolen a book on identifying edible plants and had kept it with her for over a year. She lost it while trying to escape the other draft dodgers and had to be more careful on what she collected to eat. She made herself sick once, and she didn’t want to do that again.
“Here, let me take that from you. You too, Tristan,” Jules said and reached for her cleared plate.
“You’re going to volunteer to do dishes?” Tristan asked, his eyebrow quirked in question.
“Fuck no. I’m going to give them to Javier,” he replied with a wink to Lottie. “He’s a dick and he deserves it.”
“He’s also quick enough to drop your punk ass, so be careful not to piss him off too much.”
“Thanks, Director Tristan. Might be fun, though. A nice challenge for a change. Unlike you,” Jules replied as he stood and moved away from Lottie’s side.
She watched as he made his way over to a black man Tristan had been joking with while making eggs, and dropped the stack of plates next to him. The man, she assumed was Javier, sneered and said something to Jules that she couldn’t quite hear. Jules laughed in response and clapped him on the shoulder.
The moving bodies distracted her, and she looked around the clearing. The volume of noise from all the men was starting to hurt her ears, and Lottie felt sweat trickle down her shoulder blades. She struggled to keep her breathing even as she scanned the crowd. Jules and Tristan had distracted her while she ate, and she hadn’t noticed all of the soldiers arriving. But now that they were there, she felt uncomfortable in their presence and longed to escape. Most of the soldiers returned her gaze. Some men were openly hostile, a few—like Jules and Tristan—were smiling, but most stared at her with neutral expressions. It made her uncomfortable, even open hostility was preferable to not knowing what they were thinking.
A figure hopping on a stump caught her, and everyone else’s attention.
“A few quick things,” Casey said to them. “I have posted the new rotation roster. Please be advised your teams have changed and I have adjusted everyone’s duties effective immediately.” His eyes panned across the soldiers looking up at him. His gaze fixed on her hers. “As you are all aware, we have a draft dodger in our midst. Lincoln and I brought her in last night. She will be with us until she delivers and then my superiors will reassess her status amongst us.” He again looked at all of the soldiers assembled. “She has proven herself to be a flight risk.”
Lottie felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment.
“You are authorized to use force—within reason—in the event she tries to escape. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your meal,” Casey told the group and stepped down from the stump.
One of the soldiers stopped him and said something. He laughed in response and looked her in the eyes. It made her think the joke was at her expense. She shivered at his cool assessing gaze. Lottie didn’t see any hostility, but that didn’t reassure her.
“Hey, you all right Momma?” Tristan asked with a nudge.
She swallowed hard.
No.
Her mouth was dry and her stomach flip-flopped. She was unable to answer him, so she nodded.
“Do you need something? You look a bit pale,” Tristan pressed. “You’re not going to puke on me are you?”
With a struggle, Lottie finally found her voice. “No. I’m fine.” She looked down at her arms curled around her abdomen and had to force her hands away. She couldn’t remember wrapping them around herself. “I could use a drink of water. Where am I to get it?”
“Don’t move. I’ll get it for you.”
“Okay,” she said, irritated to find her voice wavered as she spoke.
Tristan got up and Lottie watched where he went. He stopped at the command building. Under the extended roof were covered barrels. He took a dipper off a peg on the wall and filled a mug before turning and heading back toward her.
As he walked back, he passed Jules, Lincoln, and another soldier. He said something to them and Jules laughed.
Casey’s voice startled her and she snapped her head to look at him when he called out, “Don’t everyone get up at once!” A few of the men chuckled at his joke before tucking back into their meal. He looked down at her and then sat on the log next to her.
Lottie went to shift away from him, but Tristan sat next to her before she could move.
“Here,” he said and handed her the mug. She couldn’t still the shake in her hand as she took it from him. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.
“Tristan. Get out of my spot,” Jules called as he came closer. “I have fifteen minutes left on my watch with Chica here, and I intend to do it sitting down next to her. Don’t worry, your turn is at sixteen hundred. Now scram old man. Oh, and get me some of that coffee while you’re at it.”
Tristan stood and clapped Jules on the back, unsettling him. “Remember, I’m still bigger.”
“Bug off. Right, Chica?”
Tristan started to walk toward the command shed but turned for one last statement. “Get your own damn coffee, pup!” He laughed and continued away from them.
Lottie wrapped her other hand around her mug to steady its shaking.
Jules dropped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her close. “Relax,” he said when he felt her tense.
She could feel her cheeks warming again. How could she explain that being surrounded by fourteen men who are all bigger and stronger than her, was scary and intimidating? He’d never understand. Lottie gripped the mug tighter. Jules’s arm was uncomfortable around her and she tried to shrug him off.
At first, Lottie thought the tug on her hair was due to her trying to remove Jules’s arm, but when Tristan spoke, she knew it was his hand doing the tugging.
“You want a basic perimeter walk or something more in depth?” Tristan asked.
“Perimeter is fine. Check the crops while you’re out there. Let me know if they need maintenance,” Casey confirmed.
She finally succeeded in slipping from Jules’s embrace, and he stood.
“Will do Case,” Tristan replied. Calling to someone Lottie couldn’t see, he said, “Wu? Let’s roll.”
Before Tristan’s yell had finished, Jules was asking, “You see where Ty went?”
“No,” Casey answered.
“Is the meal plan posted?”
“Yea. The new one is up,” Casey replied.
“I guess I’ll go prep for lunch.” Jules looked to the command shed before turning back to Lottie. “You’re all mine tomorrow, Chica. Later Case.” Lottie watched as he walked away.
She wasn’t sure what to think. Jules tone had been light and playful, but she still didn’t like how he talked about her.
“He’s an all right kid,” Casey said.
“I guess so. Seems a little too friendly.”
“You can never have too friendly.”
She did not agree. She took a shaky breath and scooted away from Casey as she turned to look at him.
“Am I to work while I am here?” It wasn’t like she really wanted to work in his camp, but she was capable of helping out if it was needed.
“No.”
“Then what will you expect me to do?”
“Stay out of everyone’s way, sweetness. Don’t be a pest. Don’t run. And for God’s sake, deliver safely. I am not equipped to handle a problem labor.”
Casey stood drawing Lottie’s eyes upward to watch him.
“Ethan, Teo,” he said to someone who stood behind her. “She can go anywhere within an hour’s walk from this clearing. Make sure she is back for meals and has plenty to drink. Don’t want our femme fatale here to get dehydrated and go into preterm labor.” He dug into one of his cargo pockets and pulled out her sling, handing it to her. “She’s even allowed to hunt if it keeps her entertained. Maybe she can bag some rabbit, squirrel or mink.”
“And if she runs?” one of them asked.
“She won’t. But if she does, you can use whatever you need to, to bring her back. She hides something with her silence, so be ready for anything.”
“Sure thing, Case.”
“Oh, and devushka?” He turned his gaze to hers. “You will be back by nightfall and you will be in my tent to sleep. Understood?”
How could I forget?
“Yes.”
“She has a pretty voice,” the second soldier said.
“It’s not the only thing that’s pretty on her,” the first man agreed. His words sending a chill down Lottie’s spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
He doesn’t mean anything by it, she chanted to herself.
Casey gave her a pointed look. His expression not hinting at his reaction to what his soldiers were saying behind her. “I’m on patrol again, so you’ll be in the tent by yourself tonight.” He glared at her. “That doesn’t mean you won’t be watched. I expect you to behave for Lincoln and Hong. If they even breath a word to me that you gave them grief I will put you on camp arrest. Understood?”
Lottie gulped. “I understand,” she answered.
“Now, I have work to do. I’ll see you later, Bean.” He nodded to her and then the soldiers behind her before moving off down the hill toward the command building and shouting for Javier to meet him there.
“It’s so hot in that building. I don’t know how he stands it.”
“He doesn’t. During the day, he’ll move whatever paperwork he needs to do outside,” the second man answered. “Haven’t you ever seen him at that small table near the smokehouse?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You need to be more observant. Didn’t they teach you that in basic, Ethan?”
Teo—the man who answered Ethan—sat down next to her on the log in the spot Casey just vacated. Ethan sat on her other side. Lottie took a sip of her water and looked at each man quickly. She wanted names with faces. Teo reminded her of Jules in his complexion: dark black hair, dark tan skin. He even had a few dark freckles on his arms. The other man, Ethan, was young. Young like Jules, and he had clear blue eyes, reddish brown hair, and was covered in freckles. He flashed her a smile that bordered on a snarl.
“What do you think he does with all that paperwork?” Ethan asked.
“Don’t know. Don’t much care. I have no interest in being a Staff Sergeant. Looks like shit work. Worse than AHC.”
“Not much can be worse than AHC. Hell, I’d rather do LPD than AHC.”
“I’ve eaten your cooking. You’d be better in AHC.”
“Thanks,” Ethan said. His tone sarcastic. “Your meals aren’t that much better. I don’t know why they don’t deploy some LPD for the field.”
“They do,” Teo answered. “I don’t know how Case did it, but he managed to convince the brass that we don’t need LPD. That’s why none of them are here.”
“Shit. Why would he do that?”
“Dunno, you’ll have to ask him,” Teo answered. “You know you can do that right? He’s pretty open. I was assigned to his squad when he first made Staff Sergeant. I didn’t realize how lucky that was ‘til you hear some of the stories about that Kerner guy.”
“Kerner?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah, Staff Sergeant Kerner. Jackass all the way, apparently. He broke the pump for running water and ripped out the water heater and left it to rust. He’s the one to blame for us having to bathe in the river.”
“I wonder if she’d help us bathe in the river.”
“Nice thought but I think I’d rather watch her bathe in the river without you there to mar the show,” Teo answered.
Lottie gripped her cup tighter. Casey had told her she’d have space for personal needs. He hadn’t lied had he? She swallowed hard. Bile creeping up her throat.
“I guess with enough time one of us will be lucky enough to see it,” Teo continued. “Case won’t let her start to smell. At least not while she sleeps in his tent.”
“You think he gets to have some fun?”
“Dunno. She didn’t scream last night, that’s for sure. Adan did say she cried. So maybe,” Teo replied. “I don’t think so, though. He doesn’t seem the type to extract payment for room and board. And I’ve never heard a story saying he had, so...” Teo’s statement trailed off.
“I hope she runs. I know what force I’d use.”
“As if you—and half this squad—would know what to do. You’re what? All of eighteen? Do you even know what parts to stick it in?”
“I know what to—”
“Oh, that’s right. You learned it all from the mags that were passed around the dorms right? Did you even go to a communal sanctioned dance?” Teo asked. “It’s about the only place you could have got any play at your age.”
“Like you have that much experience.”
“Calm. I ain’t attacking you. I never said I’d know what to do either,” Teo responded.
“We could practice…”
She looked to Ethan. He was smirking at her, and then he looked past her to Teo. Lottie turned and Teo was grinning at Ethan before finally meeting her gaze. She looked back at Ethan.
“What?” his tone dripped false innocence. Lottie stood. She needed space. Ethan’s hand grabbed her arm. “You know beautiful,” Ethan said his voice forced smooth. His thumb brushed circles around her captured wrist. Goosebumps erupted in their wake, and Lottie thought she was going to throw up. “Every one of us has to pull double watch duty now because you are here. We finish a standard shift and then go directly to watching your sweet ass for another four hours. It’s good you’re cute, otherwise, it would be more of a chore.”
“Please let me go,” she asked and tugged her arm. Ethan’s grip tightened. She could feel the bones in her wrist grind together.
“Where do you think you’re going, gorgeous?”
“Just the bathroom. Please let go,” she pleaded. She had to get away from him. “I think I’m going to puke.”
Ethan dropped her arm and Lottie moved as fast as she could, tripping over her feet in her haste. She really did think she was about to lose her breakfast.
“You think Sergeant—”
“Case,” Teo interrupted.
“—Case will let us escort her back once she pops this kid?”
“Why would you want to do that job?” Teo asked. “She’d probably whine the whole time, and who wants to listen to a baby cry? I hated that part of the communals.”
“That’s all secondary.”
“Tell me then.”
“No one would notice if she’s used on the way back. That’s why I joined ARA. Why go to the trouble to capture and drag back evaders, if you don’t get to have fun with them while you’re at it?”
Lottie had heard enough. She clapped a hand over her mouth and stumbled to the closest tree and threw up behind it.
“Gross,” one of the soldiers said. And Lottie could care less which one.
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