The gunshots were still going on outside; the rifle and machine-gun fire were almost continuous, and the ground would shudder intermittently with the blasts of tank cannons. I cuddled closer to Sean; the uniform I'd always thought he looked so sexy in was now my sign that he could protect me from this horrible place.
Whispering soft, calming words into my ear, he wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me into a tight embrace. "It'll be all right, Jack. It's gonna be all right."
Pressing my face to his chest, I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think that the rebels would fall back any minute, retreat to their nearest camp, and leave us time to escape. But I knew, and the gunshots continued to remind me, that this safehouse was our only hope right now.
With obvious reluctance he slumped me to one side, to check his rifle magazine. I couldn't see how much was left, but Sean looked disappointed. "Not good?" I mumbled.
He shook his head. "You shouldn't even be out here, baby; it's not your fight."
I kissed him on the neck, almost patronizing, and pointed lazily to my video camera in the corner. "You know that old bit about the pen and the sword, don't you?"
"But love..." And the building shook; the tank fire was getting closer.
And then hit me; somehow I knew we were not going to make it out of this alive. "I couldn't let you die without me, baby."
Sean grit his teeth, almost angry, himself reminded of our odds of survival. He tried to say something, but shouting and firing outside drowned him out.
Sighing in defeat, he dropped his rifle and huddled closer to me. Tightly we embraced, wrapping our arms around each other until it hurt, hoping that somehow our very contact would protect us, that the love we shared in this touch would shield us from the world falling down around us.
"The dying get a last request, don't they?" I whispered to him.
He nodded, a tear forming in his eye. We weren't even yet twenty-one, and something in the air, something deeper than the smoke that burned our eyes, told us that we would never be.