Ritual

The crisp cold air stung my face sharper than any blade as I ventured forth through the forest toward the base of the mountain, where my lover was waiting for me. I raced against the rising sun, hoping to get there before it started its painting across the almost blank canvas that was the night sky, stars poking holes and breaking up the singular colour of the dark navy blue. I emerged from the edge of the forest; the first thing to catch my eye was the insignificant silhouette of Hunter sitting at the boundary of the lake that was lying beneath a dormant behemoth of a snow-capped mountain, the sun slowly beginning to snake it’s tendrils from behind the giant. A conflicting feeling of fear and love gripping my heart; it was because of the love that the fear existed; knowing that in our current climate, the likelihood of loss was high.

This was our daily ritual, to race the sun to the mountain and watch it claim the sky for the day. It was the only time we could be in each other’s company as we truly wanted to; away from judging eyes and those that would condemn us for the love we shared. Yet here; only the sun, the mountain and the lake was their witness, and they did not judge. I sat down next to him, becoming a part of his silhouette, interlacing my fingers with his callous ones, and resting my head against his staunch shoulders. He returned the affection with a lasting kiss on my forehead. We sat in silence as we watched the sun begin its battle for the skies; sending out its platoon with squads of orange, red and yellow, warring the night with possession of the heavens. It was a brilliant display of dominance as it slowly claimed its territory. This was the one of two things I was grateful for with the waging of war; being able to watch this beautiful natural marvel; and the other was Hunter. Though as a pacifist soul, my list of things I was not grateful for vastly outnumbered that which I was grateful for. Hunter was better equipped for the wartime than I was, not quite modest with his muscles, wit and intelligence to think his way out of any situation, the drive and ability in combat and being fatally accurate with his M1 Rifle. It was his startling blue eyes that drew me to him to begin with though, and his daring smile he was not shy to flash at anyone to get his way, which usually worked. As the sun had just about finished its takeover, he pressed a thumb to my chin, and I obliged by lifting my face to meet his, those blue eyes sucking the breath from my lungs like they had the first time they’d pierced my soul. He tilted his head close, his hot breath on my mouth and soft lips brushing softly against mine. I pushed my lips against his, ceasing his teasing and forcing the kiss to happen. At that moment, I wanted time to stop; I wanted to live in that moment for eternity. The day started to provide a small amount of warmth, causing Hunter to begin to pull back and I whimpered in protest,

“They’ll start to notice,” he chuckled to me, his alluring voice making it even harder to pull away. Instead, he thankfully pulled me in for one last kiss. My heart twisted in my chest, and I felt too unbearably out of control of myself. He pulled away again, this time without going back, and ran his hand through his dishevelled blonde hair, biting his bottom lip as he looked at me, “alright, let’s go,” he stood and held his hand out to me, which I enthusiastically took. We held hands towards base for as long as we dared, and then a little bit longer, before we reluctantly parted ways. The forest wasn’t exactly thick, not even sure whether it could truly be called a forest, but the path that we were tasked to hold ran past the mountains and through the scatter of trees. We had set up camp alongside it, disguising our tents as part of the undergrowth, using branches and dropped leaves to camouflage the tents. We had done such a good job that the first time I tried to return to the camp after using the privy, I had walked right past camp and Hunter chased after me to bring me back, it was actually how we met beyond just staring at each other from a distance. I think everyone else was pretty content to let me keep walking and stay lost. Our squad was part of a larger platoon that was tasked with holding the road, which was a supply channel for the enemy. The previous squad had fought hard to hold it, with only one survivor; we were brought in to continue to maintain possession. I was merely a private, the lowest rank in the squad, conscripted with minimal skill and training as an attempt to replace those who had volunteered and died. Hunter was a volunteer, with the valour and bravery that was truly needed in a soldier. No one noticed our absence, though no one even noticed my presence, I was no more than a ghost that passed through; unseen, unheard. Invisible. It was quite the feat to have maintained the lack of acknowledgement amongst only eleven people, but it was the way I liked it. A superpower I had borne since before I was forced into this band of peculiar people, keeping to myself. I was one of those people that if I had died, no one would notice. A blip on a map of millions, that when I did get snuffed out, no one would know any different. And in any defence, if necessary, I made no attempt to learn my squad either. It was only Hunter that I had passively sought after; hoping that by staring at him it would magically make him talk to me. It seemed to have worked.

We slotted into the pandemonium of the camp as the day chores had begun; people cleaning weapons, getting breakfast sorted, conversing with other squads in the platoon over radio to discern any activity along other parts of the road, and other morning chores I didn’t take much interest in.

“Charlie!” Hunter yelled, waving and running off to join another private first class, grabbing him by the neck and holding him in a stronghold, ruffling his hair. I smiled to myself before being led by the stomach to breakfast. Our staff sergeant was on the radio, prattling off what I thought was useless information of the lack of activity through the night.

As I settled down to breakfast, only managing to shovel the first spoonful of the sorry excuse of food into my mouth when I heard the snap of a Karabiner 98K sniper rifle shatter the silence of the morning.

“Contact!” I heard some yell in the distance, before a second snap broke through again, and we heard no more warnings. The camp erupted in chaos as they prepared for the oncoming battle, the staff sergeant barking orders while people ran around him, in between shouting phrases I didn’t quite understand, down the radio. It seemed our hidden camp was discovered, and they were more than happy to relieve us of our guard duty. I fell to my feet, grabbing for my M1 rifle that I had set down next to me while I ate. My whole body felt the shockwave that I would finally see the combat I’d hoped I would never see; for me, D-Day was here. I waited with bated breath, staring down the barrel of my virgin gun. We were positioned about the camp, waiting for a target to enter our sights. I wasn’t a killer yet, and I wasn’t sure I could become one.

A muzzle flash flickered in the distance, the bullet narrowly missing an unflinching Hunter, who answered back with his M1903 Springfield Sniper, apparently burying a bullet in the sniper as we saw no more of it. Then the enemy began its apprehensive approach, without the cover of the sniper to pick us off. The tranquillity of the forest erupted with the explosion of bullets from both sides. I was overwhelmed with the smell of smoke from weapons being discharged, and the sound of bullets imbedding themselves into flesh, so I dropped to the ground and crawled to the nearest tree, slamming my back against the trunk in an attempt to shield myself from the spray of bullets. I instinctively ducked every time I heard the bullets thwack into the tree. I whimpered, fear holding me captive where I sat.

“You can’t stay here!” Hunter called as he fell into me, pushing my chin up to look into his unwavering blue eyes, “we have to go!”

I felt too frozen; I was a prisoner to myself. He leant in and kissed me hard on my lips, snapping me out of my stupor, “I’m not going to let you die, let’s go,” he said softly, pulling me to my feet and pushing me ahead of him. Every so often he would turn and fire off bullets blindly into the trees to cover our retreat into the denser part of the forest. I heard footsteps pounding the ground behind us, catching my slow gait.

“Move,” Hunter grunted, spraying more bullets behind him, switching to his pistol as he ran out of ammunition for his rifle. Panic seized me and I tripped over my own feet in an attempt to add more speed. As I started to get up, I felt a weight falling on me and the sharp sting of a blade in the back of my neck before the weight was pulled easily off me. I ran forward, turning to see Hunter staring down at the smaller man who was holding the blade responsible for the trickle of blood down the back of my neck, waiting for the first move. I clumsily attempted to point my rifle at him, but it caught in my kit as I tried. The man threw himself at Hunter, who caught him and threw him aside. Hunter moved fluidly and freely in the combat, avoiding the sting of the blade and landing punches every now and again when he could. I watched helplessly as he fought for our very lives. He eventually managed to pin the man in a hold, pinning his knife wielding hand up in the air.

“Shoot!” He yelled at me as I freed the rifle; I stared down the barrel at his head and hesitated while I toed the line of becoming a killer, a fatal mistake. The man dropped the knife into his other hand and contorted his arm, penetrating Hunter through the eye. I let out a blood curdling scream through the stillness of the forest as I felt my world shatter around me, squeezing the trigger and the bullet miraculously finding its way into the enemy’s skull. They fell together to the ground, lifeless. I discarded my rifle to the side with violent antipathy and ran over to where they lay. I pulled Hunter away, kicking the other corpse as I did so. His blue eye stared lifelessly at me, the knife still protruding from his right eye. I tugged at it, freeing it from his eye socket; blood spurted out of it and coated my face and front. I made no attempt to clean it up, feeling completely numb. I threw the knife aside, casting the offensive object from my sight.  I leant down and kissed his still warm lips, breaking down into sobs as he didn’t return the kiss, my world falling around me all over again. The ground fell from beneath me and I felt myself collapse against him, crying uncontrollably; screaming and choking without a care as to whether it drew attention. Let them find me, I thought, and put me out of my misery, cease the pain that owned me so. I didn’t stop crying when my tears dried up, but as the energy was sapped from my body, I lay my head against his unmoving chest and closed my eyes, almost waiting for the whoosh of his breath to enter his lungs again. The day passed around me and I barely noticed, the sun ceasing its siege of the sky and allowing the moon to claim temporary possession of the heavens. A cold wind blew from the mountain, unfreezing me from where I lay, pulling the pistol from his pocket as I numbly clambered to my feet, leaving his body behind to chase his soul. I walked aimlessly, removing my kit as I did so, throwing it to the side like a trail of breadcrumbs to his body. Occasionally, I stumbled over another corpse along the way, not seeing who it was; it wasn’t enough to stop me in my endeavour. With the full moon sitting proud at its peak, I had found my way to the base of the mountain, and I stared into the lake, which bore the happy memories of love we had created together. I stared, hoping to see him standing next to me, with his wild smile and startling blue eyes staring back at me with all his devotion. I saw nothing but empty loneliness; the complete abandonment of his presence at my side. I pressed the barrel of the