“What was that?” Luke asked me, looking right at me with a shocked, yet angered expression as I stood before him.
“I said I’m going,” I told him with a stern tone. Luke only rolled his eyes. It was obvious to him that I was joking.
“You’ve gotta kidding me,” he said as he chuckled.
“I’m not joking,” I told him, hands balling into fists as I spoke to him. “No one else is willing to go on this “suicide mission”, so I’m going. If this is our last and only chance to go back to how things were, then I’m going for it.” Luke looked at me as he contemplated the thought of me going.
“And what can a seventeen-year-old girl do against an army? Huh?” Luke asked me, looking at me curiously.
“It’s true,” I begin to say, “I am only one girl. But, apparently, I’m braver than any of these other people here.” I motion towards our group that diminishes by the day as I look to Luke, our little “group leader”, with narrow eyes. Luke only chuckled at me as he crossed his arms over his chest. Then, he suddenly sighed.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow you to go Scarlett,” he said, looking at me with an emotionless expression.
“What?! But I—“ I begin to say with anger, but Luke cut me off by holding a hand up.
“I can’t allow you to go by yourself,” he said as he put his hand down. “I’m going with you.” My angered tone and attitude began to slowly fade after he said those words. I relax my hands and take a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” I say to him as I sit back down. But, I start to rethink my decision as soon as I do. I just signed up for a suicide mission. What the hell was I thinking?! I’m going to die. There’s no way around it. I should’ve just kept my mouth shut. I’m so stupid.
“No,” Luke said through my self-criticism. “Thank you, Scarlett.” I look up at Luke and see his gratitude through an appreciative grin. It was clear he wanted the power back on more than anyone else at this point. All I could do was give a small smile in return.
“I’m going too,” a voice said to my right. My head snapped up with curiosity as I looked to see who spoke.
“Name?” Luke asked as he saw the next person who volunteered.
“Peter,” he replied. “Peter Preston.”
“Welcome aboard Peter,” Luke said with an approving nod. “Anyone else?” At first no one stood up after him, but a few moments passed and about six more people stood up. That would make nine of us included in this little “rescue/suicide mission” leaving thirty people to hold the temporary fort.
“Alright then,” Luke began as everyone sat back down, “prepare to gear up. Get some rest. We’re leaving early tomorrow morning.” Most everyone nodded that was included in the mission. Me, I didn’t do much of anything. I rose up from my seat and began to head to my tent with my equipment before someone grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“You do know you’re going to die right?” a woman said with a concerned expression. “Either that or captured and treated as one of their slaves. And you know what they do to their women—“
“I know,” I snapped, not looking down at the woman. “But, I’ll just have to take that risk if it means saving us all.” I looked down to the woman from the corner of my eye with an annoyed look.
“I’m just trying to look out for you,” she said, still holding onto me.
“Well, why didn’t you volunteer?” I asked her, looking directly at her. She began to say something, but dismissed the thought and let go of my hand. “Thank you,” I told her as I rubbed my wrist and headed back toward my tent, equipment in hand.
Sighing, I sit down on my excuse for a bed, which is one of those old time medical beds from World War II, and place my equipment down beside me. My mind wants to go to why I made the decision again, but I don’t let it. I’m here now. Can’t back out now. I grab my crossbow and load it with an arrow. It’s more of a military grade crossbow, as well as the arrows. I set that aside and grab my sword. Taking it out of its sheathe, I look it over and see if there’s any dents or cracks in the blade. Thinking it’s good enough, I place it back in its sheathe and set it down beside the crossbow. Taking the handgun from the holster on my thigh, I check the bullets in the clip load the chamber, put the safety on, the place it back in my holster.
After an hour or so we’re gathered to have dinner. Possibly the last dinner the nine of us will have with our group. So, in a way, it’s like our last supper. Although all we had was a can of beans and potted meat. How can those soldiers live off of this on a regular basis? How can we live off of this on a regular basis? We were all gathered around a fire seeing as the sun was beginning to set. And, though all of us were gathered, we didn’t speak a word, but I know what everyone was thinking. They were either thinking about how we’ll all die on the rescue mission, or how they’ll all die by the time we get back. If we ever do come back. Since no one started a conversation, I decided to take my “meal” and head back to my tent.
“Where are you going?” Luke asked me when he saw me stand to my feet.
“My tent,” I reply as I turn to walk away.
“You will come back here,” he commanded. I stop in my tracks, annoyed, and turn to look back at him.
“Why? It’s not like we’re talking about something. We’re all just sitting here, sullen and sad about what’s going to happen. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to eat in my tent tonight.” I turn back around and begin to head for my tent once more.
“Well, if that’s the case,” Luke said, stopping me once more, “how about you begin the conversation.” I sigh and go back to my seat.
“Fine,” I said, placing my half eaten can of beans on the ground next to me. “What do you want me to talk about?” I ask with irritation.
“How about your past life when everything was in order?” Luke asked with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Why?” I asked defensively.
“Well, you never really talk about yourself or your past. I just want to know a little more about you,” he said with a grin.
“There’s nothing to tell,” I tell him, looking him in the eye.
“I don’t believe that. Come on, there’s got to be something you can tell us,” he said as he sat forward, placing his elbows on his knees.
“I stayed at home. Never went out. I was homeschooled through my VR Collar. The day I decided to go outside, this happened.” I look around the group, then back at Luke and said, “See, nothing.” Luke sat back and chuckled slightly.
“If you say so,” he told me. I got annoyed.
“I’m going to bed,” I told the group. I stood up, looked at the other eight people that were going along with me on this mission and nodded. Although, I just looked at Luke. I left my unfinished beans and potted meat and went to my tent. Sitting down on the “bed” once more I started to take my boots off and rub my feet. I sigh, once again, and look around my small tent for no real reason. I suppose it’s to prepare for tomorrow.
I grab my equipment and place them on the ground beside my bed and lay down. Crossing my hands on my stomach I close my eyes and begin to fall asleep. Through my sleeping I have a dream. It’s been a recurring dream that I can’t seem to figure out what it is or why I’m having this dream every night now. It starts out with me running away from a group of soldiers who’re shooting at me. I’m in some sort of building and running down a hallway. I see a door at the end and start sprinting as fast as I can to reach it. But, before I can, I feel a sharp pain in my back. I fall to the floor and then I—
“…Wake up,” I hear Luke said.
“Ugh,” I groan as I roll over.
“You wanted to do this, so get up and let’s get this thing done,” he says before walking out of my tent. I groan again and open my eyes. Sitting up, I stretch and yawn and wish I hadn’t signed up for this so I could sleep in. I scratch my head, mainly to rough my hair up a little, then swing my feet over the bed so I could put my boots back on. I walk over to a little rucksack I have in my tent to store clothes and other belongings and retrieve a set of clothes and a towel. There’s a river we use to wash since showers don’t exactly work anymore.
At the river, I strip down and walk into the cold, freezing water.
“Why did I decide to bathe this early in the morning?” I ask myself through chattering teeth. I walk in a little further and bend down to scoop up some water and run it over my body. After a couple of those I dive into the water for a moment and come back up, shaking my head as I do to get the water out of my face. My hair became one single braid if you will as it stuck together when the water hit it. A couple more minutes in the river and I walked out of it, grabbed the towel, and began to thoroughly dry myself off, followed by placing on my clothes, which consisted of a red top and jeans. I put my boots on and headed back to camp.
“Where’ve you been?” Luke asked me as soon as he saw me.
“I was bathing. Can’t a woman worry about her hygiene?” I asked him as I walked back to my tent.
“Hurry up. We’re leaving,” he responded in an irritated tone.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said under my breath as I placed my clothes and towel in the bag. I took my sword and placed it around my waist, opposite the handgun I wore on my thigh. I grabbed a black jacket I found while looking for more clothes some time ago and put it on over my red top. I slung my crossbow on my back with the strap attached to it, followed by my bag, its strap going the opposite direction across my chest.
Going back to the small group of us for the mission I notice there’s one more person standing with them ready to leave. It was the woman that grabbed onto my arm the day before.
“I thought—“ I begin to say, but she held her hand up and smiled.
“I know. I heard what you had to say, and you were right. So, I’m going to go with you all on this mission,” she said, still smiling. I was speechless.
“OK,” I say, giving her a small smile back. I take a look back at the camp and see all of the people looking at us. This could very well be the last time I see them. I’ll have to hold onto this memory.
“Let’s go,” Luke said to the nine of us. I turned to look at him and nod, then look back at the camp. Everyone waves at them and starts to leave. I take a moment to look at everyone one last time, wave, then follow the others on what could very well be the mission that changes everything.
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