Lyrics: Rise Against - The Dirt Whispered

As I've said before, thank you for the support and reviews I'm getting! Since people have written and told me that they're enjoying the story since themselves been to the army, I feel the need to add that ... well I haven't. Sweden has never been to any war and I most definitely know nothing about the military other than the billion movies, series and documentaries I've watched, research I've done and books I've read, and my favorites - the newspapers from WW2 that my grandma kept in a suitcase. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that, I know nothing about this from experience and if things really doesn't add up, please feel free to poke me!

Chapter 10 – Wandering

She got down on hands and knees,
One ear against the ground,
Holding her breath to hear something,
But the dirt made not a sound tonight

.

"Is that seriously going to work?" Kelly asked, her voice filled with dread and distrust as she watched Sabrina with one eyebrow up.

"I have no idea, but we've gotta try, right? Do you have a better idea?"

"Not at the moment. Let's start with finding out where she is. Then let's talk about how to proceed to get her out."

Both Kelly and Sabrina nodded to each other as they kept walking, Kelly holding onto Bano's reins as she pulled Kris on the bed behind her. They had walked for over an hour, both of the wandering angels were tired and exhausted and couldn't do more than pray that they were at least walking in the right direction. They hadn't seen a single person on all the way, and they were fearing that they were walking right off to nothing. They had headed towards the direction where the attackers had run off with Jill, but even though Sabrina nor Kelly had loudly raised their thoughts, they had both been thinking the same thing. What if those guys had just turned one direction and then changed to confuse them? Kelly had gulped at the thought of wandering aimlessly for hours until finding Jill already dead.

They both knew the fact that she could be dead by now was totally possible, there had been several hours since Jill was kidnapped, and those people didn't seem at least interested in feeding her grapes and wining her with 1787 Chateau Lafite.

A sound from behind made both of them twirl around, looking towards Kris who was moving around on the makeshift bed that Sabrina had made. Both Kelly and Sabrina moved back towards the bed and Kelly carefully sat down next to Kris who was on her back, stuffed up on various soft things to try and keep her comfortable. Kelly grabbed onto the wet piece of cloth that was covering Kris' forehead, noticing it was drying up. Grabbing her water can she carefully poured some water into the cloth before placing it back onto Kris' forehead. Kris smiled weakly towards her and Kelly grabbed onto her hand, squeezing it gently.

"How are you feeling sweetie?"

Kris blinked a few times before giving Kelly a small smile.

"Slightly better actually."

Kelly smiled widely as she brushed Kris' arm up and down with her free hand, feeling relief pour out of her.

"That makes me happy. You just keep resting and we're gonna go and get Jill back."

Kris looked around for a second and realized she was lying on something, and she looked up at Kelly with confused eyes.

"What is this?"

"Sabrina built a makeshift bed, you're tied to Bano the camel and she's pulling you. We need to find Jill, but Bri and I have a plan on how to get her back. We're gonna make it, you just rest, okay?"

Kris nodded slightly as she closed her eyes again, exhaustion washing over her once again as she drifted off to sleep. Kelly smiled as she looked at her, but the worry still remained inside, Kris was still not good, still not healthy enough for Kelly's worry to go away completely.

Kelly looked over her shoulder as she heard Sabrina qualm behind her, and she turned around and observed her tall friend who was leaning with one hand against a tree, the other hand on her knee as she bent over and retched violently. Kelly winced as she watched her, the sun was so strong, the light was burning through their clothes, and Kelly could literally feel the sweat roll off from every part of her body in tiny drops. Kelly walked over to Sabrina and put her hand onto her back, rubbing her upper back slightly to let Sabrina know that she was there, to comfort her. Sabrina straightened her back and happily accepted the bottle of water from Kelly, drinking just a few sips from they. She sealed the bottle after her, making sure none of the life saving water was wasted.

They were running out of the clear and wonderful liquid.

Kelly put her hand onto Sabrina's shoulder as Sabrina leaned towards the tree for support, her entire body was complaining in agony as she removed her helmet for a bit to wipe the streaming sweat away from her eyes. The drips were annoyingly stubborn and kept dropping down onto her eyelids, getting stuck on her eyelashes. She felt like she was melting, this sun was nowhere near merciful.

"How are you doing?" Kelly asked as she rubbed Sabrina's shoulder, watching over her pale friend who looked like she was on the erge of breaking.

"Headache, tired, nausea, dizzy, so thirsty, everything hurts." Sabrina whispered as she took a few deep breaths before looking up towards Kelly who looked at her with compassionate eyes.

"Dehydration?" Kelly asked, whereupon Sabrina nodded without doubt.

"Definitely. We need more water Kelly, it's too hot, we've walked too far. All of us need more water."

"I know, and you can see just as well as me that there is a city up ahead. A city means shade and it means water. We will find out where Jill is and set our plan in motion, then we will seek shelter and rest. I know we can do it, and so do you. Come on now. It's not that far to go, and we made it so far, right?"

"Kelly, how can you hold up so well?" Sabrina asked as she grabbed onto her shoulder and walked up to Bano along with her, the gang began walking towards the city they spotted in the distance.

"I don't know, but I keep telling myself that we have to get Jill to be able to leave this place. When we get her, we can rest. We can go home. I'm not sure how we will get home, but we will. All of us will come out of this alive, I promise you all that, no matter what it takes. Let's just push ourselves a little longer. We're almost there."

"What if Jill's not there?"

"Then we'll get some food and water and keep walking." Kelly said determined as she pushed her sore feet and legs to take one more step. One more step. One more step.

One more step.

They had walked the entire day. Kelly couldn't for sure tell for how long they had been walking, but it was turning into night again so she knew it was more than 12 hours already. They had taken a few stops at different oasis and deserted villages without meeting a single person along the way, but at least been able to cool off and drink something. How clean the water was, they had no idea, but when you're so thirsty you seriously think you're going to fall on your knees and die – you'd drink pretty much anything. Clear water from a small pond seems like heaving. And they had been drinking, they had been drinking a lot at the different stops, and filled all their bottles with water, but by now they were almost out of it again, they had some left but gave as much as they could to Kris since she was in the worst condition and they figured she needed it more. Having an infection and high fever already, Sabrina and Kelly were afraid that dehydration could be lethal for the weak angel on the bed.

As the day had passed on, Kris had been more and more awake, and both Sabrina and Kelly, who had been keeping their eyes on her all the time, could tell that she was already improving. She was only awake a few minutes at the time, but the heat radiating from her body was cooling down and the constant shivering had stopped. Now she was sleeping peacefully on the bed, knowing that with Kelly and Sabrina watching over her, she was as safe as a girl can be. She knew neither one of them, especially not Kelly, would ever let anything happen to her, she was going to stand over her on the bed and fight if she had to. Kelly was not physically the strongest one in the group, but her mental power was mightier than a god. Even if she didn't have an ounce of strength left in her body, she could in some magically way force her sore and tired muscles to work harder, just for a little longer.

Echoes of songs still lurk on distant foreign shores,
Where we danced just to please the gods that only ask for more,
So it goes

.

Kris was half asleep as she laid on her stomach on the bed, having turned around due to the wound in her back was too painful to rest on. She had heard Sabrina and Kelly talk but the last hour both of them had been quiet and all that could be heard was the wind, the movement of the camels moving, the strong and beautiful animal that could walk for what seemed like forever without water. Both Bano and her child had been drinking at the last pond, but Kris knew that a camel can drink about 26 gallons of water at one stop and then go on that for 6 months as long as it doesn't have to work hard. Kris smiled to herself, amazing. A human can last two days and they call us the developed species?

Yeah right.

Kris closed her eyes hard as she heard one of her friends retch violently again. She didn't know which one of the two it was that was sick this time, but she knew both of them needed water. They had been riding Bano on and off, switched places, but with all the gear and wandering in the sun all day, they were both dehydrated and ready to drop at any second. She was so mad at herself for getting hurt, she was supposed to be here to help out, to help Kelly and Jill out as they were sent off. And first day on the mission she manages to hurt ribs and get shot. Kris felt like rolling the eyes towards herself, she was a complete failure. They had to work extra hard to take care of her. Not only were they one man short, but they had to take care of her all the time too which made them all more vulnerable.

Kris wanted nothing more than to stand up and walk next to them, to heal and to fight along their side. She was going to help to end this war, she was not going to let Kelly and Sabrina – nor her sister – die because she managed to get hurt immediately.

The problem, however, was that every time she even thought of moving, her entire body screamed loudly in pain. The ribcage she had hurt when the truck twirled around was swollen, dark blue and purple and hurt like insane, and every time she breathed, not only did she feel pain by her ribs, her back was absolutely killing her. The pain had gone down from the bullet wound the last day, but it was still excruciating and told her very firmly to keep as still as possible. She didn't have Kelly's strength, which she wished she could some day possess. The power, the strength, the backbone to be able to keep fighting even though you've lost your will to do it. Even though you're hurting to much you can't even feel your own body anymore, even though you've lost more blood than you thought you had inside of you, with both legs broken – Kris was sure that as long as you have the mental force inside of you, you can do wonders and miracles.

The will just has to be strong enough. Kris knew Kelly fought for them, Kelly fought for her family, her friends, her coworkers, her soul mates, the people she loves with all her heart, people she can't live without. Kris knew Kelly would probably never forgive herself if they returned home one person fewer than they had arrived here with. Kelly had taken command without them asking or complaining about it, it had seen like the only natural thing for it all. Everyone around knew that Kelly had the strongest bullhead in the group and if anyone could get them through this, it was definitely her.

They depended on her – and Kelly knew it.

"We're here."

Kris opened her eyes as she heard Kelly speak, her voice filled with dread, and determination at the same time. Interesting combination Kris thought, and she had a bad feeling in her gut, telling her that the combination could easily put the entire situation out of hand.

Kelly was suddenly sitting next to Kris on the bed, stroking her hair, watching over the sick one.

"Sweetie? We're just outside this town, and, we're gonna have to leave you here. There's a creek here and I've filled up this bottle of water, I am going to leave it with you, okay? I've told Bano to stay here with you, she's already lying down."

Kris nodded towards Kelly. She didn't want to be left alone here but she knew she couldn't follow them inside the town. She would be in the way and she would definitely ruin their plans. Looking around she saw that she was among a lot of bushes, hidden in the shade of the vegetation. As long as she kept still and didn't make a sound no one would find her. As long as they didn't need to steal a camel though.

"Kris. If we're not back by dawn, I want you and Bano to get the hell out of here, to try to get back to the base and get your butt on the first plane home. If we're not back by dawn, don't go in and look for us. I don't want you killed."

"What about you?" Kris asked, carefully moving her hand up, placing it on Kelly's sunburned cheek, gently letting her fingers feel the profile of Kelly's absolutely perfectly shaped face. Kris smiled as she looked at Kelly, thinking for herself that there are no other face in the world that is just so perfect as Kelly's.

On cold nights
In a prayer for dawn
But the daylight
Isn't what she wants

The concrete
Calls my name again
I'm falling
Through the cracks I slip

.

"Don't worry about me. Whatever happens. I want you to leave if we're not back by dawn. Promise me that. You have so much ahead of you and I want to see you get married and have kids. I want you to keep living Kris because you have so much more to give than to die here. Promise me to go on?"

Kris swallowed hard as she shook her head, tears beginning to stream down her face.

"How can you even ask this of me? How can I possibly go on without you? And Jill? And Sabrina? I can't leave you guys here."

Kelly leaned down and kissed Kris' forehead, her eyes watering too. She knew they had to leave and they had to part now, otherwise Kris would convince her to either stay or to bring Kris with her. Which ever choice of those two she made, someone would get killed. If this plan was going to work, Sabrina and Kelly had to go in alone.

Kelly squeezed Kris' hand before she rose to her feet, waving for Sabrina to follow her and the two of them walked off towards the town, preparing for their major plan to be set in motion. They only had once try at it and they knew they had to do it perfectly to succeed.

They didn't have many other choices.

"You left Kris there?" Janet asked with her mouth hanging open as Kelly took a deep breath, pausing from the storytelling once more.

"They did." Kris pouted. "I don't think I've ever felt so very abandoned as I did then, but as you all understand, it was the only right thing to do. I was sick like a dog, and I had to stay or I would just be in the way. But I was so scared, and the night was creeping in so fast. I don't… I don't think I've ever felt so small, so pitiful and so vulnerable in my entire life. I prayed that everything would work as they were planned."

"Did they?" Kamili asked, so curious at how they got Jill out of this, all of them alive. It didn't sound like an easy task at all.

"Kelly, this is your story to tell." Kris smiled gently towards Kelly who was biting her lower lip while twirling her hair with one of her hands.

"Okay, I will tell you, but I have to use the ladies room first. I'll be right back and tell you everything." Kelly smiled as she excused herself and left the room.

Everyone sat quiet for a few seconds just looking at each other before Kamili swallowed hard, looking up at Kris.

"This is taking hard on Kelly, huh?"

Kris nodded slowly as she looked to her sister, then back at Kamili.

"It is. I think it's the first time she's told anyone anything about this, and believe me, the worst of the tale hasn't even begun."

A destination, a fading smile.
Another station, another mile.
Another day gone, I swore that I will.
Be there before dawn.
So be there, I will.