Born 01 - Born

"Dislocated. No biggie. Still sore but at least it's back in the socket." I gag. She laughs.
    Jake leans in and whispers, "Did you really miss both of us or just me?"
    I give him a shove.
    "We leave today."
    Will looks at me and stare for a second. "You sure?"
    I nod. He looks at Jake. "Get a couple backpacks ready." He looks at Anna. "Go see Lisa at the big tent over there and find out if they have anything they need brought up with us." He looks at Sarah last and smiles. "You find out if any other kids need to come too, okay? Ask Marg at the far side."
    Everyone looks at each other and leaves.
    He looks at me. "You need to put some clothes on."
    I look down. "I need to clean up a bit."
    He takes my hand and starts leading me through the crowds of people. I see people looking at me when they talk. I feel my face flush. His hand has eaten mine up. My arm burns slightly where he pulls it. We get to a tent with pails and a small hose coiled around the floor. He takes a white sheet and holds it up. "Okay, go hard."
    I raise an eyebrow.
    "The buckets on the right are clean water. Scrub yourself and I'll hold the sheet up so no one sees you."
    "I don’t want you to see me."
    He grins. "I won't peek. I swear." I don’t trust the glint in his eyes.
    I hesitate for a second and decide I care less about him seeing me than I do about having the remnants of the garbage truck on me.
    I wince when I lift a small pale of water. It's cold but I can see straight to the bottom. It's clean. I pick up the soap off the shelf where it's dried. I can smell the lye. It stings my skin as I lather and start to scrub.
    "How bad was it?"
    I am trying not to fall over as I peel the bandages off my feet. The sores looked mostly healed. I scrub everything.
    "Bad." The lye stings the blisters on my feet. My eyes water. I rinse my feet quickly to get the soap off.
    "How bad?"
    "What did Anna say?"
    He peeks over the sheet. "Nothing. Why the hell do you think I'm asking you?"
    I blush. "Hey, turn away." I sigh and start scrubbing my arms and chest. I have to keep rinsing the soap because it gets caked easily in blood and filth.
    "It was scary bad. The place is so white that you feel like a ball of dust and dirt walking in there. The nurses and doctors are all shiny and clean. Like the fall never happened. They glisten and seem like they want to help you. The rooms are clean, and the food is amazing."
    "Doesn’t sound too bad."
    I peek over the cloth. "It's not real. It's an illusion. They're fattening you for the slaughter. They get you pregnant three times and then they kill you. We rode out in body bags in a garbage truck full of dead women and girls."
    I watch his face. His lip curls into a sneer. "You're positive?"
    I nod. "The bags tore when we were scrambling in the truck trying to get away."
    His mouth betrays very little emotion but his eyes are full of it. I pour a pail over my body and rinse off. I don’t get my face wet and when I rinse my hair, I tilt my head back. My arms tire easily from the scrubbing. I'm not looking forward to making the trip to the other camp. I force myself to focus on Leo and Meg.
    "Can you get Anna? I need my back cleaned." I don’t normally wash it, but I want every bit of the garbage truck off of me.
    "No. I'll do it." I want to argue but I don’t. I'm not sure why.
    I just try not to think as he bends and picks up the soap and a pail. I close my eyes. His hands drag the soap softly along my back and then the soap is gone. His fingers are creating heat trails up and down my spine where he touches me, bare skin to bare skin. His strong hands knead my shoulders, relaxing me.
    "Relax," he whispers into the tent. I don’t look at him. I ignore him and enjoy the feeling of another person touching me. I imagine my Granny cleaning me.
    The cold water is shocking where he has touched my back. He tilts my head and rinses my hair again. My hands don’t move. They cover my breasts. I'm frozen like a statue.
    His huge hands stroke the long locks. I can feel myself thinking things, things I've read about.
    He squeezes my hair. "Emma, what happened before with you and Jake?"
    My stomach clenches.
    I feel a towel wrap around my hair and twist up.
    I don’t turn and face him.
    He wraps a thick towel around my shoulders. I wrap myself quickly.
    He turns my shoulders. "Is that what you want? Do you want to be with my brother?"
    I shake my head and his eyes light up. I open my mouth to speak but he bends and presses his