Caliber

today's work for Serene and meeting some new characters. Hope you enjoy.

It was a shallow day that was ahead of me, darkness clouded the thoughts that filled my head. I opened my eyes, I was alone in a grey room with a stone bed mad out of the wall. Over in the corner was a lit up shelf with gear hung and resting upon it. This was my room, dark, just the way I like it. There was only a single light and it hung in the middle of the celling only lighting a portion of the room. I laid on the stone bed looking up at nothing, pitch black, not even my breath made a sound for I had no breath. My hands lay folded on my stomach as I lay on my back with no blankets or pillow, just stone is all I require. Slowly kifting my torso up and moving so that my legs dangled ov the edge placing my feet flat on the floor below me, hearing the sound of someone walking down the stairs to get to my sealed off room. I stood up walking over to the shelf that held all my gear and weapons and got dressed pulling the leather up each leg to my waistline covering my pale lavender skin. Taking the leather jacket I seeped my arms through the sleeves and zipped it up in the front going all the way up to basically my chin. Next was the weapons belt which I placed securely around my waist buckling it in the front, then I strapped on my dual twin blades around my back, tightening the straps in the front. Sliding daggers and throwing knives in empty slots along with ammunition for my two desert eagles and my 22 magnum. Lastly I grabbed my helmet, it kept people from sewing what I was and kept my secret side from breaking out when coming in contact with 'the infected'. Sliding it over my head slowly until it rested at my shoulders, hearing a click sound when it was locked in place, the screen turned on and flashing lights appeared on it. It stated the activity here was zero and the heat from bodies was at zero degrees as well until a vibrant red appeared on the screen. It beeped twice letting me know it was a regular and I pressed the side of the helmet to turn it off. It gave me all the information about the organism like their occupation, if they were lying, or if they were dead. 

   The door opened as I was standing patiently, it was my mother, or adoptive mother and she was carrying a tray with what looked to be blood bags. My daily dose to keep the other side of me calm.

"Here you go sweetheart. Are you ready?" She was polite, she knew what I was but yet remained kind to me, why?

I nodded my head contently walking over to her in a few short steps seeing how since I grew, I was towering over her.. seems that her age caught up to her. I turned around slowly and sitting on the stone bed which my mother hated so much because she though I deserved more than to sleep like this.

She grabbed a blood bag putting a tube to its opening and hooking it up to the transmitter in my suit in between my shoulders. I could hear her fragile heart beat, I lowered my head disappointed for what I was.. how could I live? This wasn't right. The blood from the blood bag pumped through my body warming it and making my senses heighten. My mother shut off the machine pumping the remainder off the blood through my system before removing the tube from my back letting me stand and shrug my shoulders. 

It was hard knowing that she didn't choose this life and as much as I hated to admit it to myself, I was thankful. You see ever since I was born I had visions of what happened, I couldn't comprehend so I took a vow of silence so I couldn't express how I feel. My mother turned around and place a hand on my helmet as if she were to be touching my face. The smile on her face was fake but I didn't want to compromise it, so I didn't move. She sighed and walked out of my room and I followed.

"Serene, we have news of a group forming just eastward from here, said to be 15 of em'." A man was sitting in a white chair, soon standing once I entered the room. "We could use your skill to take them out, you know of them better than anyone."

As I took the last step up to the ground level floor, because I was basically living in a basement, I turned my head slowly to he man which had spoken. My screen on the helmet collected all his data, his skill in the field, his plans, and his pulse ratings. The helmet beeped when it gathered all the information, reading through it I accepted his offer in a breif nod. 

The man nodded back walking to the door opening it, the world outside was grey from what I could see from my distance to the door. I walked by my mother placing my hand on her shoulder then walking out the front door as the man shut it behind himself walking behind me. 

There was a large helicopter waiting on the plat from in front of my house, I walked beside the man in a hurried motion as he staggered to keep up with me. Once reaching the side of the open sided helicopter he stopped me.

"These are just minor ones but we have newbies and I'd like them to learn from you!" He tried yelling over the sound of the engine and wings going on the helicopter. "They need someone experienced! You know what to do!" 

He strecthed out his arm mentioning for me to get in at which I did, there were already five men sitting wih their seat belts buckled around them. I looked at them all collecting their information. Two of the men were brothers and they looked scared, the Corey twins Jackson and Jake and it was their first time going to war with the monsters lurking outside. The other three men were Dylan Manchester, David O'bryan, and Andrew J. Shield, they held trait faces then were talking to each other through the mics. They were very cocky and I wouldn't seemed surprised if they died to be honest. 

I stood in the chopper holding on the top rail for balance and that's all, the men were all snickering as I could tell this was going to be a 'quick lesson learned' event. 

"Hey lady, why don't you buckle up and be safe for me huh?" One of them shot out a quick, witty comment at which I paid no attention to still having my back faced to them. 

The men were giving 'Ooos' and laughing at what appeared to be David O'bryan making the snarky comments at me. He was crossing my line of ignorance. I was pissed. At the same moment I felt a hand placed on my hip. Red flag. 

Turning around at such speed that a human couldn't lifting my leg and feeling my boot smack his face, maybe his nose too. I placed a hand on his throat pulling out one of my dual blade swords and putting the tip at his chest where his heart was. All the men in the helicopter were sitting in silence as they watched a full grown man with years of physical training on his side be put down in under 15 seconds. Their mouths formed an 'O' wondering if I was going to kill him. 

"Hey now, you'll need them for this mission. Don't do it." The man ordered.

I felt David squirm then still under my grasp, he was frightened by my blade obviously from his gasps and pants of fear. I drew back my weapon and seethed it using my index finger and swaying it side to side in a 'No'. 

David nodded putting his hands up in submission, I let go of my grasp on his neck and stood up and going back to just standing with my back turned to them and with my hand on the rail. There were few shuffle sounds to David climbing back in his seat quickly and whipping away the blood from his nose. 

"David, son you'll be alright. Finish whipping the blood away soldier and man up! I take no excuses!" The man walked away waving his arm in a circle and soon the helicopter lifted and flew away.

The flight there was silent, the guys didn't dare talk which was nice for me. I looked out and saw the city and how it looked horrible. Gray smoke filled the air from fire and dust from fallen buildings swarmed the area. There were no survivors excluding the one's that may have made it out alive by luck. There were rusted cars and wrecked ones from when the infection spread through New York, it was like this everywhere. Dark and gloomy, a part of me like this.. the world was destroyed and it felt great but the good side of me knew this was wrong, sad even. 

When we landed,I hoped out walking forward not caring about the others; I could handle this on my own, but the quickly unbuckled themselves grabbing their guns and rushing out behind me. Not minding them I searched the area as my screen detected no presence from living or non living organisms. 

I walked into a caved in tunnel figuring there must be another way in, climbing up the broken building pieces which took little to no effort on my part but the group behind me seemed to be already panting, I could hear their heart beats picking up as they climbed and tried to keep up. 

"Would you care to wait up?" One of them hollered but I blocked out the sound of the voice.

Continuing my way up the trail only to find a small hole much more like a crack than anything but still a way in. By the time the men reached me they wanted to catch there breath from climbing up a 5 story building, at least what was left of it. I wasted no time walking over to the one closest to me, grabbing his gun from his grasp and going over to stand over the hole. I fired the gun in a circle around me at least 4 times around before I heard a large crack. Throwing away the gun to Andrew's feet I looked up and they were already wearing harnesses with cable strapped to the back of them.

Jake, one of the Corey twins was holding out a harness to me, I didn't care stomping my right foot to the ground below me, then I submerged into darkness. I slammed on the ground knowing I broke my legs, I heard a loud splash as well, the water came up to about my knees. Looking up to estimate how far down I had dropped it seemed around 20 ft at the most, I then looked down at my legs knowing the were healed by now. 

I looked up and saw the guys lowering themselves down slowly, being cautious which I thought was stupid but after all, I was the one who didn't give a sh*t. Wadding through the water my screen turned to a heat simulator showing me anywhere there were signs of heat from a body or organism. I heard a smack sound and turn my head to glance behind me only seeing one of the men had fallen down while he was walking backwards. 

They formed a back-to-back formation but in a circled way, their guns ready and pointed in all directions. The men wore night vision goggles in the darkness trying to have my back but i didn't need any help. 

"Serene you need to hold back and let us through, we need to do our jobs." David shouted but I held up my hand for them to stop walking. I sensed something around the corner when there were two ways to go, right or left. 

I looked around the corner reaching my hands behind me to grab my twin sword and waited, then the sound of guns firing filled the tunnel with echoes.