The Academy

Rewritten work from the past. Abbey Winters goes rogue only to run into trouble ...

“The enemy has been spotted approximately 500 yards from your current location,” Tenord’s voice crackled through my ear piece, “stay hidden until I can join you.”

“How many?”

“Two,” she answered, then in a rush added, “Don’t get any ideas; we need to work as a team.”

            Sure I could wait for Tenord to turn up; hope the enemy didn’t spot me before I spotted them, but why take the risk?  I reached up and removed my communication device, cutting all contact with my thirteen man squad. 

            I leant back against a tree, its rough bark barely registering.  That was the problem with these exercises; nothing felt real except the clothes you were wearing and the weapon in your hand. Everything else was a pale shadow of its real world equivalent.  A flash of lightening streaked across the night sky, followed by a clap of thunder.  As usual, there was no rain.  If this was the real mission I craved, I’d be soaked by now.

            Only three more years of training and I could finally kiss goodbye to these simulated assignments.

            The sound of earth being disturbed brought me back to the matter in hand.  Tightening my grip on my SA80, I leapt out of the shadows and into the path of Sedric and Bailey.  Both clumsily reached for their weapons but I got the drop first.

            I couldn’t help laughing as I aimed my rifle at Bailey chest.  “Freeze loser.”

            He did.  Sedric, however, edged slightly to the left of me.  From the corner of my eye, I saw his hands were still edging towards his weapon.

“Put your hands high in the air Sedric, or Bailey is out of the game.”

            Sedric muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like ‘b***h’.  Sure enough his hands went up.  As long as I didn’t give Bailey a hard time, they’d stay there.  Too bad taunting Bailey was a favourite past time of mine.

“Damn it, Abbey.  You’re so mean.” Bailey grumbled.  What was he, 12?

I shrugged, “Just playing the game, whinge bag.  It’s not my fault you suck.”

“You always target me!”

            I didn’t have to look at Sedric to know he was in agreement; I could feel his glare.  I turned my head to meet that daggered stare head on.

             I may target Bailey a lot but in my defence, he was constantly giving me opportunities.  Take now for instance; he hadn’t even noticed that despite my gun being pointed at him, most of my attention was on Sedric. 

Sedric was the danger, not Bailey.  Bailey was just the tool I needed to exploit to keep the upper hand.  Trouble was Sedric was too unpredictable for me to be sure I’d keep it.  He had a tendency to go off without warning; especially when Bailey was threatened.  If I didn’t remove him, there’d be a chance he’d try to take me out, even though he wasn’t supposed to.  

I was not ready to be out of this game yet.

            Turning my attention back to Bailey, I tilted my rifle to the left and pulled the trigger.  I couldn’t help but smile at his disbelief.  After two long years, this move shouldn’t be a surprise to him.

I heard Sedric mutter, “Oh nuts.” Then there was a flash of light, this time not caused by the computerised weather.

            I didn’t need the flash to tell me my aim had been on the mark.  Bailey’s hyperventilating was more than enough to tell me all I needed to know. 

It took him a total of seven seconds to regain enough of his composure to speak, “I can’t believe you did that!”

I sighed, “That’s the game, freckles.”

“No, the game was to work as a team and capture the enemy, not go all Rambo and kill!” 

“Would a horde of blood lusting vamps surrender?  Would a gang of ghouls even understand the concept?  My way is more realistic.”

“But we’re not battling a horde of vampires or gang of ghouls,” Bailey pointed out, “We are in an Academy training simulation.  We’re supposed to -”

“My way is more realistic,” I repeated slowly, “Fact.”

“Get fucked, Abbey.”

            I was surprised by Bailey’s use of the F-word.  He almost never swore. Obviously he didn’t see it my way. It took my entire self-restraint not to laugh at his beetroot face.   God bless Bailey.  He was like a book you know you should put down but couldn’t quite do so. 

“If I hadn’t done it, he would have wasted me.”

“Only because you were being mean.”

I rolled my eyes, “And we’re back to that.  Either get a thesaurus or grow a pair!”  Bailey opened his mouth but I got in there first, “If you say ‘you’re so mean’ one more time, I swear I’m going to pop you instead of taking you back to base.”

Bailey looked past me.  A sly smile broke out on his face as he relaxed. “But you’re alone.”

            I narrowed my eyes at his new demeanour.  He was trying to trick me.  No one would help him, even if they saw this show down.  Not that anyone would help me either if the tables were turned but that would never happen.  I wasn’t some idiot who could get caught unawa -

            The unmistakable feel of a gun being pressed against the back of my head told me Bailey hadn’t been bluffing.  I felt like kicking myself for not being my usual paranoid self.

            Few recruits in my class could sneak up on me.  One is because I’m over competitive and the other is, like I said, I’m very paranoid.  Most of the ones who could were thankfully on my team but I knew one who wasn’t.  One who also spoke to Bailey on the odd occasion.  It made sense really, having the best trail the worst.  Oddly I didn’t feel like congratulating their strategy as I was at the mercy of it.

“Hello Connor.”  My voice shook slightly and I felt my whole body tighten.  I told myself it was from the outrage of being captured.  Yeah, right.

“Drop the weapon, Foster.” His low growl vibrated through my entire being. 

Ignore his voice!  This was the time to focus on turning the situation around, not that low, sensual voice.  It was also most definitely not the right time to think of the chiselled body I knew was beneath his uniform.  A body that could make any girl -

Snap out of it!

“Drop the weapon.”  His voice was even lower now, completely destroying my concentration. 

Damn him for being my favourite wet dream come true!  My inability to think past his voice was starting to piss me off. When I’m annoyed, I tend to do or say stupid things.

 “Why would I do that when I have your man in my sights?”  Even as I said it, I was cursing my stupidity.

Connor pressed his weapon harder against my head. “A smart person would have just taken the shot, not stood around gloating.” The know-it-all tone really riled me.  How dare he speak to me like I’m stupid!  “Now that you’ve told me, you’ll never make the shot before I take you out.”

            Knowing I was beat, I let go of my SA80 and raised my hands.  Connor demanded I lose the weapon completely, so I had no choice but to unclip the shoulder strap and leave my beloved rifle on the side of the road.   Bailey turned around and I ended up playing follow the loser while Connor brought up the rear.  I was ticked off at being held prisoner but kept moving like a good little captive.   I knew my every move was being watched.

“Good girl,” Connor said, “I knew you had a brain.  Too bad you don’t use it too often.”

            I heard Bailey curse as I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Conner to knock into me.   Lighting flashed and the thunder rolled as I slowly turned to face him.   If he had kept his sexy mouth shut, I would have sulked all the way to their base. However, his condescending tone made my hackles rise and I decided to fight.  I was unarmed but I still had my voice.   I was going to use it to score some points.

“You know what Connor, shove it!  You may be one of the sexiest males on earth-”

            “You think I’m sexy?”  Connor cut in.

 I could have kicked myself but instead I carried on as though my compliment was never uttered. “You’re also the most arrogant, conceited, egotistic b*****d that I know.  You think your all that, but you’re only as good as you are because of what you are.  If you were human, you’d be bottom of the pile.”

Connor raised his weapon to my chest. “Want me to show you how good I am with human weapons?”

            “Any monkey can work those things,” I laughed, “but no matter how well you can fire a gun, you’re still just a mangy mutt.”

Connor smiled and it was anything but friendly.  He slowly began to circle me, eventually stopping directly behind me.  For a while, he didn’t speak.  I knew what he was trying to do and it wasn’t going to work.  It took more than a bit of circling to unnerve me.  I was a monster hunter in the making, Goddamn it!  It was about time I started acting like it.   A monster hunter had complete control of their reactions. I kept my eyes straight ahead, face blank.

  He gave a soft chuckle, and then muttered into my ear,   “Better a mangy mutt than a bitter ice queen.”

Screw control!  I spun to face him; so gripped by rage, I couldn’t speak.  Ice queen was not a nickname I appreciated.  My fists clenched as I imagined punching him in his perfect face and breaking his nose.  He wisely backed away, pointing his rifle at my chest again. 

 “You arrogant, flea-ridden freak of nature!” I heard Bailey gasp but I was so past caring. “How dare you pass judgement on me when everyone knows you’re the product of a rogue werewolf.”  I stepped closer, causing his rifle to press against my chest, “And FYI, I’m just choosy, which is more than anyone can say for you!  I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t some pups of yours running around. More rogues in the making.”

 “What did you just say?” Connor snarled as he shoved his weapon even harder into my chest.

It was my turn to smile, “Genetics is powerful thing.  Or to put it in a way your dog brain can understand, like father like f*****g -”

The blast of his rifle echoed in my ears and my vision went black.  Unable to move or speak, I floated around the darkness, yearning to return to the world I’d been expelled from.    

For what seemed like an eternity, this was all I knew.  Then the blast faded and the voice of God sounded around the world of nothingness.

“Attention, you have been eliminated from exercise 314.  Please wait until your vision has corrected before you attempt to remove your helmet, gloves, weapon and suit.”

Damn it!