Chapter 13
Somehow we make it back to the camp. I
remember Tomas holding me, my head against his chest and my eyes
squeezed shut against the vertigo spinning through my body. I
remember the faint smell of his cologne, dim but still there, still
clinging to him, and I remember clenching his dog tags in my hands
until the thin aluminum turned warm beneath my fingers. I remember
hearing him laugh at something Alden said, the sound bubbling
beneath me, cutting through the deafening noise of the chopper like
an angel’s voice. I never thought I’d hear that wondrous laugh
again. I want it to fill my world and never disappear.
I fight the soldiers who try to take
him from me when we land. “I’ll be okay,” Tomas tells me, kissing
the tears from my cheeks. I hold onto his hand where it t
