Behind Enemy Lines

Everyone always says they have those gut feels when things are going to turn awry and go wrong. I was one of those people that didn't like to pay attention to this feeling. Not because I hated when things went wrong but because I liked to let things happen as they may.

Nothing in life is supposed to be certain. It was one of the lessons I learned at a very young age. I still consider myself to be quite young seeing as I am only about to exit out of NYU in a few months. However this doesn't mean I haven't aged in another retrospect. My mind has always been a bit more knowing than my physical self.

It's why on a set day two weeks before the assignment is supposed to technically have reached it's end that I start to panick. There hasn't been an exchange between Lt. Caine and I for the past nine weeks.

The last letter was the one I sent to him. I had begun to second guess the things I said to him in it. Not because I wanted to take them back, no I never regret what comes from my mind. I was merely me worried that he took it the wrong way. I know I don't know Cameron but it's in my nature to care for people if they treat me the right way.

It's just how I am.

I had started helping a young group of freshmen around the campus recently as a side project to go along with my communications class. My professor was using it as a mentoring program and a tad bit of extra credit if things didn't go well with the assignment with Cameron. At least I had that to fall back on.

In the group there were three new faces. Two girls and one boy, their names were Alyssa, Ryan and Marge. The girls were sisters, twins at that and one was mute while the other was deaf. Ryan was alone in the sense that he was an only sibling and he was often plugged into the music on his mp3 player.

Most would have a challenge with this group but I wasn't one to back down at the hardships. I was quite capable of steering each of them in their right direction. It helped that I had worked with other people like this. I had self taught myself back in elementary and middle school how to read and use sign language and I wasn't lost when it came to braille either. It was easier than most people think. It's just a matter of not getting mixed up or flustered if you messed up a sign or mixed the feel of two words when feeling braille.

Ryan was most attentive when he was around me I learned. He set his (head)phones around his neck whenever I was talking and quietly walked with me and spoke a little if he had something to say.

It was upon this day that there had been a bit of trouble in both this group and my situation with no communication with the missing Leutiant.

I had decided to meet the group in the park to just eat lunch and see how they were doing so far as they were from the early acceptance portion of the freshmen year class. They had only been here about a month so it was time to see how this was helping.

We were discussing which classes they liked the most and which ones they were having a difficult time grasping when Ryan decided to ask me a question. "I heard that you are mentoring us as a part of a class, this that true?"

"Partly. I've done a bit of mentoring before and my professor suggested it to me as a little side project. Is that a problem?" I had to then proceed to sign what I had said as Alyssa was looking confused after her sister had signed what Ryan had asked. Both girls just shook their head a moment later after sharing a look. There was a small moment of fear on my part as I turned to Ryan. "What about you?"

He just looked at me before stating that he was curious if it was true, he didn't want to upset the balance. I think it was good that he wasn't afraid to make inquiries about matters. It would serve him good in the future.

My phone beeped a moment later as we all went back to our own meals. I chose to ignore it at first because I didn't want to have to leave the table for very long. However, a few moments later two more beeps came indicating that this might be important.

I slid off the bench at the table we were sitting at and excused myself as I grabbed my small bag that had a few of my things in it. I walked a few feet away and pulled my phone out. It was a smart phone but I didn't really use it for what it was worth. I did most of my things on my computer as far as designing went. It was only really used to talk to a few people.

The notification I noticed was a little unfamiliar. I pulled it down from the top of the screen and saw that it came from the IM app that I used sometimes when I was away from the computer. I had forgotten that I had logged back into it a few days ago. It also showed that there were two unread and unresponded to messages from camcaine23.

I turned back to the trio that were sitting not that far away from where I stood now. They seemed to be discussing something as I turned back to my phone. I selected the notification and waited for the conversation to load. One was a bit of text and the other seemed to be some sort of multimedia message like a photo or a video. Before I messed with that I went ahead and read what the first part said.

camcaine23: hey celeste. I've got a little message for you. I hope you are well. :) - CC

I stared at the message confused for a moment as I fished out my headphones and plugged them in before selecting the icon for the multimedia message, I had a feeling it was a video.

I wasn't dissapointed there either. It was a little grainy as the pixels fixed around the image of the soldier who I had been talking to off and on for the past couple months. He was currently in his gear and looked to be posted behind a makeshift wall. It was very sandy. I could see what looked to be a gun, I'm not great with weaponry but I had seen some before in the news of soldiers shooting before. It made me wonder if he was currently in a safe spot waiting to fire at the enemy.

I couldn't see his hair for it was covered by his helmet but his green eyes were quite visible. I focused on what he was saying. He was murmuring it low as if it was a secret. That in itself made me realize that my suspicions earlier may be true.

His voice was both light and heavy at the same time. It sounded quite as you'd expect if you were looking at him. "Celeste. Hi. This probably isn't the greatest of times to be sending you this and I could probably get in trouble for it or worse but I just wanted to get something to you to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you or the assignment. It's been hard to find time to write out a response. I'm not upset or anything, it's just been a little hectic here." He paused a moment as I heard a bunch of loud noises in the background. It was a mixture of gunfire and yelling. He spoke quickly from that point on.

"There should be something coming in a few days. I wrote something down last night and I wanted to let you know. Thank you by the way, you're words have been quite helpful. I'll talk to you soon."

Before the frame flickered off his face there was an explosion and I could vaguely see him move out the way before the screen went back to the message screen. I stood there for a moment before placing my phone away and returning back to the younger group. They all seemed to have questions in their eyes.

I decided that it was okay to tell them what I had seen. "I finally got word from my soldier. He's okay, I think."

They all looked at each other before placing their hands on top of mine on the table. I think my mind was still trying to catch up with what happened. It almost didn't seem real but I knew that it was.

Another letter was coming but would another follow it. That was my main focus now but I smiled out of appreciation at the kind gesture the three kids had chose to do without thinking.

Our lunch was coming to a close and for the first time I was thinking of not going to my graphic design class. I couldn't work like this. Everything had just become a swirly uncertain mess and I needed to know: Was Cameron okay? Did he move out of the way in time? Most of all, why did it feel like my world would crumble if he didn't reach out to me again in letters or otherwise?