Wes took our big water bag, a three-liter thing that had been empty since yesterday, along with the straw and a little pump from his pack over to the edge of the lake to fill them up. I took the time to observe the water, and I felt my heart catch again at the beauty as the mid-morning sun glinted on the water.
Wesley
After I finished filling the water bag, I turned around to see Robin still awestruck by the natural beauty of the wilderness we were in. She was standing still, her knit cap halfway off of her head, just watching peacefully as nature unfurled in front of her. It was the look I had hoped to put on her face when I had invited her to come out here with me. I swear, I had no intentions of trying to seduce her. It just happened, although I’m glad that it did.
I let her watch the lake for another few minutes while I filled both of our canteens and put them back in our bags. We now had five liters of water, but more importantly we were right next to hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh lake water, glacier fed and icy cold. The lake would lead us to another, and another, and another, until we eventually reached somebody who could help us. Even better, it was now almost impossible to get lost; all we had to do was follow the shoreline to our destination.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked after strapping in the last bottle and finding her still staring out at the lake. “You look a bit stunned.”
Robin nodded, pulling her knit cap the rest of the way off to hold in her gloved hand. “This is beautiful, Wes. I can see why you like coming out here when you can.”
She reached out to take my hands, and we stood side by side, watching. “I guess I started because I thought about what made me happy in the military,” I said, for the first time unburdening myself of the things I’d carried inside for years. “And I realized, regardless of whether I was in Kabul, Mosul, or back in North Carolina, the thing I loved most was the nature. The Earth doesn’t really care about us, as arrogant as we are. Nature’s masterpieces make anything any human artists created look amateur and silly. All we seem to be able to do is destroy, not create.”
Robin blinked and turned away from the vista to look at me, her black eyes deep and accepting, knowing I had something more to say. “Tell me what happened.”
“It was my last deployment, when I was in Iraq,” I said, feeling my mind going back into time. “We were in the Green Zone, ironically, supposedly in the safe area where we could at least partially relax. Pete Townsend and I were doing a simple buddy patrol of the streets along with one of the Baghdad cops. Pete was my squad leader, and was one of those guys you just knew was going to end up on TV for either doing something stupidly heroic, or just plain stupid and getting court martialed. Pete was single, thank God, because no woman could put up with his shit for too long, but with us guys, he was awesome. He broke rules, and the Lieutenant was constantly on his ass, but Pete was a good guy and had a good heart.”
“Anyway, we were walking down the street when this little kid—couldn’t have been older than maybe nine or ten—comes up to Pete. Pete was a sucker for kids, and always had some candy or something for them. It kind of became a trademark of his. This kid, though, pulled a pistol from under his shirt and shot Pete. We were wearing body armor, so he should have been fine, but this kid was so weak he couldn’t control his aim, and his second shot hit Pete right in the femoral artery. I couldn’t even get my damn field bandage out before he bled out on me. Meanwhile, the Iraqi cop we were working with unloaded on the kid, blowing him away. It was then that I just knew I had to get away. When my time for re-enlistment came up a month later, I turned them down.”
Robin watched me for a few seconds, then in a move that totally surprised me, she pulled me in for a deep kiss. Her tongue was soft and supple in my mouth, nowhere near as demanding as when we first made love, but just as arousing, if only because it was so tender. We kissed for what seemed like ages before she broke contact, her arms around my neck, her forehead against mine. “Whatever it was, whatever has happened, I love you and am glad you are here with me now.”
We kissed again, more passionately than before, and suddenly we were pulling at each other’s clothes, finding zippers and buttons and opening them. It was still too cool for us to strip totally naked, but I didn’t care, I needed Robin then and badly. My lips found her neck, kissing and licking the tangy sweat from her skin, relishing the slightly salty flavor. We were both dirty, but we didn’t care. I pulled her to the soft forest floor, relishing the soft weight of her breasts in my hands. Rubbing my thumbs over her nipples, I grinned as she squirmed.