The rumbling of his concaved stomach was ignored by Heath Thompson as he huddled around the meager fire in front of him. There was no use complaining that he was hungry, everyone in Caterson was hungry. Those who weren't were usually dead or on the pay of the Rebs.
Heath was one of ten thousand men who were all contained on this 26 acres of land in Georgia. Heath could reach his hands out and touch at least ten other men around him. The area his tent was on was no bigger than a size of a grave.
"Heath?" came a voice from outside the meager tent. Heath pulled the flap back to find Nick outside. He held the flap a little wider to allow Nick to enter the tent and out of the fall chill. Nick settled down right next to Heath in front of the fire and held his hands over the tiny flames to warm them. Nick was still pretty new to Caterson, having just arrived two weeks ago but Heath could already see the mark left on everyone that entered Caterson. In the dark of the tent the light given from fire made the hollows of Nick's cheeks look deeper than they were, though there still was some fat left on his body.
Heath had saved Nick when a group of raiders had jumped him in broad daylight determined to strip the new arrival of everything of value he had on him. Heath had managed to fight them off the man and find clean water to dress the knife wound Nick had received in the skirmish. Ever since then the older soldier had deemed himself to be in Heath's debt and the two boys from California had entered an alliance.
But within days they grew to become close friends. Using both of their resources, they had managed to make a tent big enough for both of them to lay at night and shelter from the rain. The same tent they were huddled in tonight. On nights that it rained and it was too cold to sleep they would huddle close and Nick would fill the night with talk of his families ranch in California. Heath would lay there and take it all in, his mind imagining the wide open spaces and food that Nick described. Some nights Heath would return the favor and tell Nick stories of his home, the nicer memories that weren't tainted with people calling him a bastard. He talked of his Mother, his Aunt Rachel and Hannah, and how Strawberry was before the mines ran dry. The two men had many things in common, and as each day passed they grew closer. Until it seemed so natural that once Nick sat down, Heath moved closer so that their arms and knees were touching.
Nick gave him a soft smile before rifling around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a carrot. Heath mouth began to water at the sight of it and he watched with disbelief as Nick broke it in two. The crisp snap filled the tent with the earthy root and handed him a piece. Heath opened his mouth to refuse but shut it when Nick glared at him. "You eat that, no point of you dying of scurvy because you had a hard head." Heath couldn't believe it as he stared at the carrot that most men in Caterson would kill for.
Heath gingerly reached for the carrot, the first fresh vegetable he had seen in months. Before the war he couldn't stand the taste of the orange root, but now it tasted as fine as any four course supper. He forced himself to eat it slowly instead of shoving the whole thing in his mouth. "The sulter must have charge you quite a bit for this" he commented chewing slowly.
Nick grunted but did not offer any figure. Nick had been lucky, he managed to hold onto the money he had when he was captured through the multiple searches he had been subjected to. Now he used it to supplement the diet by buying goods from the sulters, though the high prices were a drain to his cash. Seeing Heath enjoy something so simple made Nick sad as he ate his own piece of the carrot. It was still so strange to fell full after eating something so meager, on days such as this Nick couldn't believe that he once had steaks as big as his face and an equal helping of potatoes and still fell hungry, when something like a carrot could fill him up now. Nick was drawn out of his musings as he felt a slight weight fall on his shoulder. Turning his head slightly he found that Heath had fallen asleep and his head had landed on his shoulder.
Nick smiled slightly but didn't move as he watched the small fire began to consume the last of the twigs that Heath had put on it. The older soldier didn't mind Heath falling asleep on him. It brought him a small amount of comfort to have him there, to not be alone in this hell on Earth. Nick had thought for sure that he would die when the Raiders jumped him. He had felt the cool metal of the knife across his chest and thought for sure that his throat would be cut within moments. He had thought of his Mother, Father, Jarrod, Eugene, and Audra and how sorry that he was that he wouldn't see them again. When the Raiders were suddenly gone and he was looking up into the worried face of a blonde boy who was more skeleton than man.
The boy had somehow found the strength and led/drag Nick back to his own tent where he somehow found clean water to flush out the wound made from the dirty knife. Nick knew that it was only because of this boy that the wound hadn't gotten infected and Nick being one of the hundreds loaded and buried in a mass grave outside the stockades wall. He was shocked to learn that the boy was only 16 and that he had been in the army for three years and one of those had been spent here in Caterson. Nick had only been there two weeks, he couldn't imagine what a year would do to him.
Nick longed to be back in Stockton working on the ranch with Father, back in California where the war had not touched. Every night when he closed his eyes he could see the house and his family and his heart longed to be there. But recently the dreams had brought a new addition to them. Nick knew that if he did survive this experience he would be bringing this scrawny kid with him. Though they both knew it was foolish to grow attached, when either one could die in a fight, disease, or breaking under the strain of prison life. Nick couldn't help but grow attached, maybe it was the blonde hair and blue eyes that reminded him so much of his little sister but he felt a brotherly fondness for the kid. Lord knows that Heath had no family waiting for him. Heath had explained that he had received a letter from his Aunt Rachel before his capture that his Mother had passed suddenly. Heath made no mention of a Father and Nick knew better than to ask. It didn't matter to him if Heath was a bastard or not, here at Caterson such things did not matter.
The only thing that mattered in Caterson was surviving from day to day. There was no garuntee that a person would live to see the morning. Except for those that made deals with the Confederate soldier. Nick could only feel disgust at his fellow soldiers who would rat out escape attempts. He had seen soldiers that had been marked at informants. Half their heads would be shorn and T cut in the scalp. These men were thought worse of then Raiders.
Yawning, Nick watched as the last of the twigs went out. The tent was now pitch black and the only sounds Nick heard were the groans of thousands of men. Caterson never was silent, there was always some sound. It drove Nick nuts the first few days, he couldn't sleep. The sounds of dying men haunted his dreams. But now two weeks later, it no longer bothered him anymore. And that worried him, he felt that he had lost a bit of his humanity and he was afraid of how much more he would lose the longer he stayed there. He wondered how Heath survived this for over a year, and yet he still had kindness and compassion?
Nick sighed, he knew that he would never find out the answer. He doubted Heath could give him a straight answer as to why he still had these traits. Heath couldn't even give Nick the reason why he helped him when the Raiders attacked him. Heath didn't need to risk his neck to help a stranger, but he did.
Nick shivered, the cool chill was invading the tent now that the fire had gone out. Nick pulled his jacket around his shoulders tighter and huddled next to Heath, trying to conserve body heat. Hoping that they both would wake in the morning.
So I recently wrote my 35 page senior thesis about comparing North and South prison camps during the Civil War. This story popped in my head from the result of that research. Hope you enjoyed and please review