Perfect Soldier

"Sound the alarm!" A burly man yelled from across the yard as we tried to put some distance between chaos and freedom. A red light begins flashing behind us, and then comes the noise blaring out of megaphones around the perimeter trying to keep us in. There isn't much time to waste; we need to get over that fence. I look to my partner; she is already two steps ahead of me and stops just before the metal bars. She puts her hands together making a holster for my foot. My heels dig into the ground as I propel myself forward; Alicia gives me a boost over the fence. Once I am at the top, I reach to give her a hand as well. We work as a team, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses; this is why we were chosen for this mission. Enter the prison unnoticed, retrieve the serum and ultimately expose Commander Viktor Petrov for his crimes. He thought he could create the perfect soldier with a chemically imbalanced serum which causes the participant to lose all motor skills and ability to make cognitive decisions. Basically, soldiers were being turned into robots and controlled like puppets.

"Izzy!" Alicia shouted at me, breaking my train of thought. "We need to keep moving. I picked up some movement just west of here. We need to get to the extraction point before sunset!"

I looked down at my watch, that's only fifteen minutes from now.

"Alright," I say to her and we continue moving east. Running through a green vast forest is a lot more difficult than you would think. The ground is slippery and uneven with the occasional drop-off. Running full speed away from someone is more unpredictable. You don't know if they are one step ahead of you and can cut you off from another direction. Alicia says she knows these woods like the back of her hand; she had studied the maps for weeks. Yet now the foliage has grown and trees fallen, familiar surroundings now just a glimmer of the past. Still, we keep moving forward, not daring to look behind us. The soldiers are smart, they know this terrain and could probably just catch us right now if they wanted to; but why hold back? There is too much thinking going on and not enough focus on moving forward. I look over to Alicia who doesn't even break a sweat, she was trained for this; taught how to maneuver though intense terrains and survive in extreme situations.

"You alright," she asks me.

"I will be if we ever get out of here!" I say back at her. She laughs, "Come on Izzy, the extraction point is just up that hill." Alicia points out. More like a mountain if you ask me, but hey, at least we are almost out of here.

Just as we got to the base of the hill, a bullet chipped the tree to my left, leaving the wood scarred. Shots were being fired at rapid rates from behind us. Alicia looked at me and signaled to break off to the right. We scaled the hill at a diagonal with bullets hitting the shadows of our feet. At the top of the hill, Alicia skidded to stop. There was a giant ravine with a river flowing through it. What do we do now? This wasn't on the maps we studied. In the few milliseconds Alicia and I look at each other and nodded. We turn around and face the woods from which we just ran through. Our hands rose, surrendering to whoever seeks us. Out from the foliage comes about thirty soldiers with guns raised ready to shoot at the slightest of movement. One of them mumbles something into a walkie talkie and waits for a response. In the meantime, I speak up. "What's your next move?" I shout, instigating I know, but we need a diversion. Two soldiers approach us, guns raised, telling us not to move. I looked over at Alicia, she gave me the wink. Once they were in front of us, at the same time Alicia and I grab the front of their weapons and twist them; turning them around so if the soldiers pulled the trigger, they would be the ones to be shot. With two soldiers now in our hands, guns pinned to their bodies, we have some leverage. Alicia speaks up this time, "If you want your men alive, you will not follow us," Her voice demanding the attention of everyone. The soldier with the walkie talkie signals the others to lower their weapons. As they were doing this, a voice came through the radio,

"Ah, I see you have them surrounded, yes? Over by the ravine?"

"Yes sir, what would you like us to do with them?" The soldier spoke into walkie talkie.

"Are they armed?" The voice asked.

"They have two of our men at gunpoint sir."

"….Let them go."

"But sir, they have the serum, they will alert the government and turn us in."

"Soldier! You will do as I say. Think of it as giving them a head start."

"Yes sir."

With those last few words exchanged, I couldn't believe my ears. There is no way in hell these guys are just going to let us walk out of here. The soldier with the walkie talkie approaches us, weapon still drawn, but not aiming in our direction. "That was the Commander, and as far as the serum is concerned I will not let you two escape with it. Hand it over or we will shoot."

"I don't think you see the gravity of the situation," Alicia snaps. "Two of your men will be killed if you try and kill us."

"You think I care about two soldiers when we have thousands at our disposal?" The soldier spat. "Now hand it over girl."

"There is no way that is going to happen!" I say in protest.

Alicia whistles and in that moment, we kick the two soldiers in front of us to the ground and fire warning shots next to them.

"You ready?" I say to Alicia.

"Hell yeah," she replies.

We turn to face the cliff, wrapping the strap of the gun around our backs. Then we jump, falling towards the rushing water which will allow us to escape and a head start from our enemies.