Chapter 6: Give Up

Alexis did not sleep well the following couple of days. Only Dom and herself were left in the guest tent, and she knew he could hear her tossing and turning late into the night, but he did not mention it.

The days were long and Alexis barely managed to keep herself entertained. On the second day, she stole more of the Colonel's Time magazines, and spent one whole morning making paper roses out of the outdated pages. She had given them all out by lunch time, and the Colonel did not seem the least bit suspicious as he took the paper rose from her. Oh well, she was doing him a favour of getting rid of the old magazines after all.

"Miss Devereaux?"

She was lying on her stomach on the grass, sketching the mountains again. But this time with the colour pencils she found in the Colonel's desk.

"Yeah?" she called out lazily without looking up.

The grass crunched under the man's feet as he walked closer, and Alexis tilted her head up to see a random officer.

To tell the truth, she couldn't really tell who was who, even though she had been here for three whole days. They looked pretty much the same in their uniforms.

"Joost," he said briskly, introducing himself. "Archer told me to keep an eye on you."

"Did he?" she deadpanned.

Joost nodded. "We're clearing out some of our jets tomorrow, there's a slot for your jet at 1600. If you miss it you'll have to wait for four more days."

Alexis nodded. "Awesome. Why don't you pass the message on to Dom?"

The officer sighed. "Miss, I'm not your secretary."

She did not reply, but took out a red pencil and started shading the foot of the hills till she heard him walk away with a disgruntled grumble.

"Any news of Archer?" she called out.

Joost stopped, then said, "No."

Alexis put the pencil down and licked her thumb, then brought it down to the rich red shades and rubbed it in.

It looked frighteningly like blood.

--

Dom was on the satellite phone with Tom, their pilot, on the other end of the line at lunch, while shoving his third slice of beans on toast into his already full mouth.

"Yeah, the guys said it's 1600. And Alex says bring her a box of water colour and Mars bars."

Alexis picked at the parched baked beans, wrinkling her nose in bored disgust. She turned to Joost, who had chosen to sit beside her, and asked, "Do you eat this for lunch every day?"

"Well, no, but we've run out of other food reserves and the road to our supplier was blown up the other day by the R.U.F., so I guess we're stuck with this for a few more days," he replied with a shrug.

Dom was nodding at something Tom was saying. "Yeah, yeah. Okay. See you in a few, yeah?"

"Everything going well?" asked Joost.

"Yeah, he should get here on time," said Dom.

"Awesome," commented Alex unsmilingly.

"You seem quite miserable for someone who's going home," remarked Joost.

"Quit staring, will you?" she retorted rudely.

"She's not in a good mood," explained Dom ruefully. "Been like that for the past few days."

"Ah," said Joost wisely, as if he understood.

Alex rolled her eyes, stood up, and proclaimed loudly. "Men are idiots."

Laughter rumbled throughout the cafeteria, and she rolled her eyes, headed for the exit when the door flung open and a soldier ran in with a satellite phone in one hand.

"Sir, it's Archer," he shouted, out of breath.

Alex held her breath and watched Joost leap out of his seat and grabbed the phone as if his life depended on it.

"Archer, you fucker, the Colonel's far from amused, I'll have you know," he fumed into the phone, then quieted for a few moments. "Alright. We'll send in an air strike at 1300. And you'd better be fucking serious, or you're good as dead."

The whole room was humming in silent anticipation, and Joost knew it. "Boys, we leave in 30."

Alex had to run to catch up with Joost, asking, "Where is he? Is he okay?"

Joost stopped and grabbed her arm. "Lady, I must ask you to keep out of my way. I don't have time for you and if you must know, Archer's still breathing."

"Will he be okay?" she asked.

He breathed through his nose and said, "I can't tell. It's a battlefield out there, okay?" He glanced at his watch. "I won't be here when you leave. Have a nice flight."

Dom walked up to her side, and they stood, watching the frenzied but certainly highly organized preparations going on.

"You can't wait for him, Alex," said Dom in a low voice.

She turned her head and stared solemnly at him, and spoke as if it were a promise. "I won't."

--

Alex stared and said, "A chopper."

Dom was waving fanatically, asking, "What's wrong with a chopper?"

"Ugh, I hate choppers," grumbled Alex, and began walking towards the landed aircraft.

A rather cute young soldier was at the bottom of the stairs, and he saluted her as she got on. "Safe flight, miss."

Alex faked a coy smile and blew him a kiss, snickering as his face flamed up, then ran all the way up to the chopper.

"Tom!" she said cheerfully, leaning over to give the pilot a peck on the cheek. "You brought a chopper! Fuck you."

Tom, an old friend in his thirties, grinned and handed her a box of water colours. "Your art supplies as required, and your Mars bars."

"Don't think you can get away with this Tom," she warned with a grin. "But thanks for picking me up anyway."

"Tom! How are you, pal?"

The two exchanged manly pats on the back. "Hey Dom, glad to see you alive and kicking."

Dom slid into the empty seat next to the pilot, and buckled up. "You and me both."

Tom turned around in his seat and asked, "All set to go?"

Alex glanced out of the small window while putting on her seatbelt, and nodded firmly, "More than ever."

All other sounds were drowned out by the propellers as they lifted off the runway, and Alex stared pensively as the hills on her right, which she had sketched numerous times these few days, slowly slip out of sight.

"Tom?" she yelled over the noise of the chopper.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"Can you pull over to those mountains? I want to paint them."

Tom gave her a stern look over his shoulder.

"Pleeease?" she pleaded, putting on a puppy face that worked every single time.

Tom shook his head. "I really shouldn't spoil you, should I?"

Alexis grinned and carefully made her way to the back of the chopper, where there was a slightly larger window on the lower side of the wall which was installed to let passengers see what went on down there.

She sat on the floor with her legs crossed and turned over to a new page of the sketchbook Tom kept with him at all times to keep her from moaning in boredom. She found a half empty bottle of water on the floor, and ripped off a piece of paper to use as a palette.

Rich greens and brownish reds and clear blues and pure whites stained her fingers as she painted the beautiful scene below with her hands, since Tom was stupid enough to forget her brushes. She reveled at the cool paint on her skin, and the scent of pastels she had not smelled for a long time.

She suddenly stopped and just stared at the green hills stained in darkening red for a long time. Alex was not the one to be sentimental, but damn, it might be the last time she would ever look upon these hills.

And she knew he was in there. Somewhere.

She jumped when her satellite phone rang, and picking it up from the throng of random things she left on the floor, she pressed the green button. "Hello?"

"Alex? Is that you?"

For a moment, she thought it was her mother's voice. "Yeah. What's up?"

"It's Archer."

Only then did she recognize Maddy's voice. "Archer? What's wrong?"

"He's hurt, he just called me, I think he's dying."

"Fuck," swore Alexis, panic blooming in her chest. "Fuck it! Do you know where he is?"

"He called on his satellite phone, I have his coordinates."

"Wait." Alex scrambled up to her feet and scurried to Tom's side, shoving the phone into his hand. "We have to go somewhere. She has the coordinates."

Dom grabbed her hand, and she spun around wildly, disconcerted. "Alex. Alex, look at me. What happened?"

Her voice was coarse. "It's Archer. He's hurt."

She was thrown off balance when Tom swung the chopper around sharply. "Sit down, Alex."

She did. "Where is he?"

"I know where he is. I've seen a strip there, we should be able to land." Tom turned to her and met her eyes briefly. "I just hope we get there in time."

--

Red. His blood on the red earth.

You'll never leave, Danny.

He would never leave, not now.

The sun was red. It shone brilliantly in his eyes.

You're African to the bone.

Yes, he was.

Ah, a cynic. Why don't you sit down and make me miserable?

Brown curls, and those eyes.

Listen-

No, you listen.

Maybe in another life.

It hurt so bad. He couldn't breathe.

Find yourself a good man Maddy. You deserve to be happy.

He wasn't a good man. He tried, but he wasn't one.

I think you're in love with her.

Yeah, he was.

He couldn't hear anything. Only noise. White noise.

You should get on the plane.

Green eyes.

So should you.

No. Not him.

He was slipping.

So death felt like this.

Hands. Hands on his face.

Archer.

In case you change your mind.

I doubt it, but thanks.

Archer.

He smiled and closed his eyes.

He gave up.

--

My dedicated readers, I apologise for disappearing like that! I've been so busy with university applications it's not even funny. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've written up the next couple so hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.