Chapter 1

A Chapter by ari

Throughout my life, I have been a scared girl, weak girl, always the one to give in first to temptation, always the first to wave a white flag, but as I grow older I have built my walls. Whether the walls be ones to a dungeon for my deepest desires or a thriving castle of facades I'm not sure. There is no telling how far I can and will push myself, my limits of living.

I stand here on a battlefield of corpses facing east, a man stands in the midst of his fallen brothers. He weeps for them but does not understand the necessity of death. I stride to the weeping man, he holds his gun up with shaking hands, gripping the handle with both hands. I kneel down to him, he whimpers and I reach out a hand to gently rest it upon his shoulder. His hands shake worse to the point where he drops his gun. I look him over, my robotic eye scanning him over for any fatal injuries. Surprisingly, he has none aside from a few broken ribs and a fractured collarbone.

“The battle is over, soldier. You’ve no need to resist or fight.” I say, the words echoing softly from beneath my mask. His face changes from one of complete terror to confusion and distrust.

I stand and offer a gloved hand to him, which he does not take and instead reaches for a concealed dagger at his hip. Before he can pull the weapon from its concealed sheath my hand snaps to his and twists it back, earning the satisfying snap and pop of bone breaking.

The man’s scream echoes throughout the field, bouncing off the trees and buildings surrounding us. My hand falls from his to my side as I hear my teammates through my earpiece, I give them my coordinates and stay put, not mentioning the man I’d found.

A few moments later, Red and Snowbird appeared in the distance. I looked down to the man and put my pistol to his head, murmuring a prayer before pulling the trigger.

Back at base, the huts were nearly deserted, most of our soldiers were dead or MIA. The few that survived were in the medical hut getting patched up.