A Flight Away.
Chap. 1
The plane was touching down. The butterflies in her stomach were going to make her sick. She touched her dog tags out of nervous habit. Will they be there? She hoped not. She didn't feel like causing a spectacle in the airport. She adjusted her cover while she tucked loose strands of hair that had fallen out of her bun. Her brown eyes looked at the fellow passengers, everyone looked happy. All except her. She should be thrilled to be back state side, but she'd have rather stayed in the war zone. What she was coming home to was worse than the war. She tucked her tags into her uniform and wiggled her toes in her boots. Her family had been pissed when she was drafted. Little Annie Fae Foster, one of 100 experimental test subjects sent through boot camp in a classified operation ironically called 'Young Guns'.
She had been through Marine Corps Scout Sniper training, survived 15 months deployment in Iraq...and watching her partner killed. She felt the plane come to a stop and they let off all the passengers. She was getting lots of odd looks, cause she looked her age. She had just celebrated her 17th birthday two weeks previous. She was only 5 ft 2. She was short, but she was very fast on her feet. Annie had depended on her speed to save her life more than once. They had been told if someone asked about her service or age, to lie. Thats exactly what she'd done. As her boots padded against the tiled floor of the Terminal, she was greeted by dozens of stranger's eyes. Annie shyly made her way through the crowd and went to fetch her bags off the conveyor belt.
"Welcome home." A cold voice said from behind her, she turned and saw her mom. She was a pretty woman, except for the cold glare in her eyes. "Hey Momma." She said, in her slight country accent. The red head rolled her eyes and frowned. "Don't Momma me! I'm here only to tell you that your not coming home." Annie's eyes got huge. "What?" Her heart was pounding, she didn't want to go home...but she didn't have anywhere else. "You didn't come home when your father died, I don't want you in my house!" Her mother snapped, pointing her long red tacky nails at her. "You didn't want to come home! So you don't have one!" She glared at her and walked off. "I don't have a daughter anymore!" She called behind her, leaving Annie in tears. Yes, it was true...but she couldn't very well leave Scott there by himself! They had trained together!
Annie sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Now what?" She asked herself as her hand went into her pocket, then felt a piece of paper. She furrowed her eyebrows and pulled it out, opening it up. There was a name and a number on it. Angel Mercer.. She smiled. Mercer! He'd been a big brother while she was stationed over sea's, he'd saved her ass too. He had told her once she was stateside to give him a call to make sure she was alright. Then she got nervous. Would he remember her? Annie wiped her eyes again and pulled out a few quarters and went to a pay phone. She put the money in and dialed the number. It rang a few times and a gruffy man's voice answered. She cursed at herself, its the middle of the damn night! "Um, hello Sir, is there an Angel Mercer at this residence?" She grunted and she had to hold the phone away from her ear as the man yelled "ANGEL!"
It got quiet for a minuet and she heard the two talking. "Who is it?" a voice asked, the guy who answered made a noise. "Fuck if I know!" Annie was biting her lip. "Yo, who is it?" She heard the familiar voice and she smiled, relieved. "Mercer! Its Annie Foster, do you remember me?" She waited, he made a noise...he did that when he was thinking she remembered. "Annie Foster?" She grinned, letting a few tears fall down her face. "Yeah, we were stationed together in the shit. It's the classified piece of Jailbait..." This triggered something cause he made an 'Oh shit!' Noise. "Foster? Holy shit girl! Whats up little sis?" She broke down then, not being able to control herself, there was a god! "Foster, you okay?" She 'mm hmm'd. "I just got off my plane...remember when my dad died and I didn't go home? Well, Mom wont let me come back home. She left me here."
She heard his wrestling something around. "Okay baby girl, where you at?" she rolled her eyes. "I'm in Maryland. Where you at?" Angel sighed. "I'm in Detroit..." He paused and spoke again. "Can you catch a flight to Jersey and I'll meet you there okay?" She nodded and sniffled. "I'm sorry. I just, don't have anyone else...Scott was killed." his voice got low. "I'm sorry. Its no big deal, we're family girl. Go get the ticket and call me back." She nodded. "Okay, talk to ya in a minuet." She went to the desk and bought a one way ticket to the Jersey Airport. She got out another dollar in quarters and redialed the number. "Hey." He answered. "I leave in thirty minuets, she said I'd be there around 5 this morning. Its 1 now." "Alright, I'll be there Foster. Take care till then." She smiled. "Thanks Mercer." She laughed. "Anytime. Bye." She hung up and got ready for another flight.