January 12th, 2011
10:54:09 am
England International Airport
London, England
Cpl. Valerie 'Blaze' Foster
I stood at the front of the line, waiting for my baggage. The flight had made me slightly tired, so that resulted with me stumbling across other irritated people who were either on business trips, moving here, or visiting family. Too bad I wasn't here for any of those reasons. First off, I don't have any related family that I know of. Of course I have Bubby, my adopted mother. She was a tiny, sweet Mexican woman who ran the Hope for All orphanage in New York. She had long dark red hair, and grey eyes. She made tons of food for other orphans, and took care of them like they were her own children. Her own children were caught in a fire.
Secondly, my job wasn't considered a "business", for it had people who were willing to give their lives for strangers instead of snooty old people who talk on their phone all day as if they were better than anyone else. Lastly, it wasn't really as if I were moving here, for I hadn't chosen a home, or planned anything out.
At last, my bag appeared on the list. I slowly walked towards it, grabbed it, and pressed the button that released the small wheels on the bottom. After a thorough check from the security guards, I walked slowly out of the airport to be welcomed by a heavy shower of hard rain. Since I was still under the safety of the roof, it wasn't bothering me, but it would when I walked to my ride. Speaking of my ride, where was it? Captain Mactavish specifically said 700 hours, and here it was, 7:12. I was told that whoever was picking me up was going to be obvious.
Suddenly, a large army truck swerved into the loop. As the brakes screeched, it literally tipped to a 30 degree angle, to the right before balancing enough for a small man to crawl out of the trunk. Obviously dizzy, he staggered onto the ground before holding up a sign that said in big print:
Corporal Blaze
Yippee. pulled out my blue umbrella out of my coat, opened it, and stepped out into the rain. I walked toward the truck, listening to the clinking of my dog tags. Before I reached the truck, a familiar face popped out of the truck. Captain Mactavish I thought to myself. Cool. My Captain had brown hair that was cut into a Mohawk, a strong looking build, and deep blue eyes, like me.
"Blaze! Sorry for the driving, Ghost just woke up, but either way he was never really good at driving a truck or any other mobile vehicle." The Captain joked. I snickered just a little. The other truck door opened to release a man wearing a nicely fitted smiling skull balaclava mask. He was wearing a plan black shirt, and a pair of denim jeans. "Hey! It wasn't my fault Meat's pranks have interfered with my job!" he complained. I soon began to tire from listening to the Captain and Ghost argue about ridiculous things that have happened in the past. "Well, are you two ladies finished? Oh, and Ghost." I said. He nodded at me to finish. "I'm driving since you suck." Then I just walked to the truck, put my luggage in the truck, and hopped into the front seat. I revved the engine, signaling the Captain to hurry up and get in. Ghost then hopped into the passenger seat, and set a GPS on the dashboard. "Okay, just follow whatever this bloody American thing does." As I thought, he was British.
I put the truck in drive, and slowly drove out of the loop. The loud noise coming from the back was really irritating. Considering the fact that you had about four lives in your hands, and you were driving an unstable truck. I was driving without a mistake for a while. Until my phone rang.
DAMN IT! I screamed in my head. Pumped up kicks by Foster the People was playing, and suddenly, the truck got quiet. I reached into my back pocket, and grabbed my iphone. I hit the green button. "Hello?" I said, trying not to sound annoyed. "OHHHH! MY LITTLE CHUPPA BABY!" a thick Mexican voice said. "Hello, Bubby." I reply, trying not to show disappointment. I love Bubby, I really do, but sometimes, she can call at the most ridiculous times and embarrass the hell out of you. "My little baby. How are you doing baby?" Bubby asked. I swerved again. Ghost then took the phone out of my hand, put it on speaker, and placed it on the dash board. "Thanks" I mouth to him, and he nods. "Umm, I'm driving." I reply in a serious voice. Bubby doesn't seem to mind, for when she replies, she sounds very cheery. "Oh, well I have news for you! Oh! You remember how you said you couldn't find your shampoo? Well I found it in the kitchen!" Honestly, I distinctly remember telling Bubby that I wanted to leave it there incase I return and I forget to bring mine. I wished I could take a bullet to the brain right there, right then. "Bubby, I told you I wanted to leave it there, so when I visit, I don't have to bring my own." I say trying to push the annoyance out of my voice. It was hard not to break her heart when she was embarrassing me in front of my co workers. "Oh baby, I understand. Well, I got to cook enchiladas for my little babys! Buh Bye! Tell me if you meet any cute boys!" My mouth drops open. "BUBBY!" I scream in desperation. I hang up. I focus on driving for a while until the annoying female voice tells me to make a right. Ghost breaks the silence. "Who the bloody hell was that?" I laugh at how ridiculous his voice sounds. "Um, that was my adopted mom. She is bound to make you look like an idiot. My adopted sister hauled ass out of the door when she turned 18, and she still gets these ridiculous calls." I joke. Even the Captain laughs at the joke. Then the GPS says "YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION", and everyone climbs out of the truck.
I pull the keys out of the hole, and go to the trunk to receive my luggage, but when I get there, Ghost is already holding it. "Since there are no more rooms open, you get to share with me. Everyone shares a room in pairs of two, so I'm the only one who doesn't have a roomy." Ghost explains as we walk through the rain. "Neat. So do we have bunks, or…" I inquire. "No, we each have a twin sized bed that we can add sheets to. Cool, eh?" he replies. We reach the barracks, and like a gentleman, Ghost opens the door for me. When I walk inside, it's nothing like I would expect a top secret army base would be.
There is a large hallway that has a smaller hallway on each side that lead to the rooms. The recreation room is just ahead, and to the right is the mess hall. "This way, Blaze." And with that, Ghost leads me down the hallway to the left. On top of each door, is a nametag for each person occupying the room. There is a total of 6 doors in this hallway(I counted). We reach the last door, and Ghost sets my blue suitcase down gently. He pulls a key out of his back pocket, and sticks it in the keyhole, and turns it to the right. "Oh, I forgot. Here's your room key." He puts his hey back in his pocket, and pulls out a different key, and gives it to me. He opens the door, and turns on the light. I step inside. It's fairly large, and on each side, there's a window. A twin size bed stands a yard from the wall on each side, and there's a nightstand toward the center of the room for each bed. A brown chest rests at the foot of each bed. My side is obviously the empty side, so I set my suitcase on the bed, and began to unpack. "When you're ready, go ahead and go to the rec room. Everyone else is dying to meet you. Oh, and don't forget to lock the door on your way out. Don't want anybody to jack your stuff." When he finished speaking, he added a sly wink. He walks casually out of the door, and shuts it gently.
I set open my suitcase and pull out my 5 pairs of uniforms. I set them inside of my chest, and add a few more personal items before setting some items in my nightstand. I put my journals, books, shampoo, and my cell phone in the top drawer, and put my casual clothes in the bottom drawer. Before I leave, I set my extra boots, and my casual shoes under my bed. After turning out the light, and locking the door, I walk down the long hallway and make my way into the rec room. 3 men are playing an Xbox 360, and another 4 are sitting around a poker table playing Black Jack. Before I even walk in, some idiot says, "THERE'S BLAZE!" No shit Sherlock, who else would I be?
Everyone stops what their doing, (except the dudes playing Xbox) and comes to exam me. "Hey there, I'm Toad." The poor scrawny kid who was holding the sign for me says. "Hey Lady, I'm Meat." A big bulky man says. Damn, someone takes steroids I think silently. At least 15 more men come to greet me, and I think their names are Archer, Toad, Royce, Rocket, Meat, Chemo, Ozone, Scarecrow, Worm, and a bunch of other names I can't remember. Turns out the guys playing the Xbox were Meat, Royce, and Worm, and they invited me to play the kinect. "Oh, um, what are we playing?" I asked warily. The last time I was invited to play a kinect game, it resulted with me being the laughing stock of the school.
"Oh, we wanted to play Just Dance 3." Meat said mischievously. That game wasn't too bad. I remember playing with my best friend Victoria when we were in the seventh grade. "Fine, but what song did you have in mind?" I give in cautiously. "Do you like Taio Cruz's 'Dynomite'?" Royce says. I nod. "Well, we're going to see what you're made of." Royce said jokingly. To be honest, this was my favorite, and best song I knew on this game. Meat put the disk in, and set the game up. It didn't bother me that my co workers wanted to bond with me. The only part that irked be, was that practically the whole base was watching us. Somehow, everyone had gathered in the rec room without me knowing. What. The. Hell.
Soon, it was Meat, Royce, Worm, and I standing a fair length apart. I took off my jacket, and tossed it onto the couch where a few guys were sitting. That left me with my white tank top, and a pair of blue jeans, and black converse. Meat was the blue one, I was red, Royce was purple, and Worm was green. After a moment, Royce started the game.
"I-I-I came to dance, dance, dance, dance, I hit the floor 'cause that's my plans, plans, plans, plans, I'm wearing all my favorite brands, brands, brands, brands, give me some space for both my hands, hands, hands, hands, yeah, yeah" We all sang along, but as the song went on, everyone's scores started rolling to shit. Royce all of a sudden couldn't keep up, Meat was tiring, and Worm looked like a dead person. It was only I who kept getting perfect scores.
"I'm gonna take it allll, like, I'm gonna be the last one standing, I'm alone and allll I, I'm gonna be the last one standing, 'cause I-I-I, believe it, 'cause I-I-I, I just want it all, I just want it all, I'm gonna put my hands in the air, hands-hands in the air, put your hands in the air-air-air-air-air-air-air-air….." Everyone in the rec room cheered for me. Even Captain Mactavish.
"'I wanna celebrate, and live my life, saying ayyyyy-ohhhhh, baby let's go. 'Cause we gon' rock this club, we gon' go all night, we gon' light this up, like its dynamite, 'cause I told you once, how I told you twice, we gon' light this up, like its dynamite!"
When we finished, everybody went crazy. Everyone was screaming my name. we looked at the screen to see my scores, and I scored 5 effing stars! That made everyone go nuts.
After the crowd died down, everyone went back to whatever they were doing before someone told them about our little game. "Good gaming, woman." Meat said before going outside. I began to grow tired, usually, I would have been training with other teammates, but that's why I was here. I was the best of the best. An FNG to the Task Force 141. "Hey Blaze. I've seen your records, and it says your minimum time in The Pit is 15.6. Would you like to show these blokes who's boss around here, eh?" 'Tavish said. "Yeah, who holds the record here?" I asked. By the look he gave me, I already knew who did. "Ghost holds the record 18.3. Think ya can beat him?" I didn't catch his last sentence because of his Scottish accent. I nod. "Well, lass, you best go get your gear on before everyone comes to see you do The Pit." I walked quickly to my room, and unlocked the door. "OI! Ever hear of knocking?" Ghost was standing on his side of the room with his shirt off. I couldn't stop looking at his abs. They looked hard, and firm on his light skin. "S-Sorry, Ghost. 'Tavish wanted me to get ready to do The Pit." I stammered. Man, he looked very strong. "Oh, well next time knock. I might not have my pants on if you barge in like that again." I won't mind next time I think to myself. I open my chest, and grab one uniform. I face the opposite direction so that Ghost won't be able to see me. As I remove my tank top, I can't help but feel a pair of blue eyes watching me.
I put the tan undershirt on, and slide the pants on. I hear a zipper zip as I finish lacing up my boots. Quickly putting my coat on, I put my blonde hair into a low ponytail, and slide my hat on. Ready to go.