Operation Diamond

By Louise Miller

Jack gave a loud cough and a spurt of glittering liquid spat from his open mouth.

'So he says to me "Kid, do you even know how to use that thing?" so I shot him in the legs and he lay rolling on the ground, groaning and clutching his legs. It was so funny.'

Taking another gulp from the khaki water bottle he wiped his mouth with a small hand and offered his companion a drink. She accepted, grasping the vessel for dear life as if her lifeblood lay within it.

'So did you finish him off?'

'Nah, a tank was crawling up the street so I thought it would have been best to get out of there.' His friend looked sceptical much to his disgust. 'Oh what would you have done? I doubt you would you have stayed.'

It was a blistering hot day as usual. The sun, unguarded by clouds, reigned in the early midday sky just above the ivory fields of buildings that stretched as far as the eye could see. Stationed high in the framework of an unused electric tower the two sat, their combat clad legs dangling dangerously over the edge. Every so often light would ricochet off of the vigorously polished boots sending a flash into the horizon. Jack's hair had become bleached in such a light; every strand was now almost pure white while his friend's blonde hair seemed to have become even more golden.

'What a day huh?' His friend stretched out her thin yet slightly muscular arms. To Jack it seemed majestic, like how a butterfly would spread its delicate wings just before flight. He only hoped that she was not leaving him yet. 'Us up here, sitting getting sun burnt while he's down there getting all the action with all the new recruits. I tell you Jack, I'm so sick of being put because of some little frickin' 10 year old who can barely go to the toilet let alone hold a pistol.'

The blonde sat and listened tentatively. It was all he could do. When she went off in one of her raging sermons about the younger members of the squads and SA-80's there was little he could do to stop her. As she continued on he took in every detail of her round, pretty face - the piercing, cold blue eyes, the small crevices in her lips to the fine locks of gold that spilled like ink upon her shoulders. There was something about her that sucked him in to another place. Another place where he and all his squad members just weren't killing men twice their age but doing something else like...'Not killing' his mind thought. Jack's thought processes were mostly simply when not caught up with military ops or exercises. It really was all he knew. He knew that his best friend was the same.

'I mean they really can't...'

'Soren,' he interrupted her mid-sentence. She turned to him casting a glance with those orbs once again.

'Why do you have a guy's name if you're a girl?'

Her visage hardened slightly as her brow folded into sullen creases. 'Its to make us look stronger. It's just a code name, he didn't want people thinking we had girls in the army 'cause then they'd get cocky.'

Jack nodded. He could feel the unbearable strength of the sun's heat beginning to sink in; his head throbbed with a thud like thunder echoing in his skull. His eyes had also begun to blur.

'My real name is Helena,' Soren answered with a toothy grin that had been remade dozens of times. Whereas Jack kept breaking bones, she lost teeth by the handful. 'Hurry up we ambush the governor tonight. Remember?'

With that she turned away and descended the frame, running westward towards the city of white.