"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you."

- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

"Artie, did you want to see me?" I asked, peering around the corner into his office. Artie looked up from his computer. "Remy? Yes, come in please." He said, motioning with his hand to have a seat.

I sat down and looked at him curiously. "is something wrong?" I asked worriedly. It was my second week at the warehouse. I was starting to get the hang of things, and I've grown attached to the old place and everybody in it. "No, not at all." Artie said quickly, sitting down himself. "I just want to give you your mission."

My eyes lit up. My first mission! As an apprentice, sure, but now at least I can get out in the field. I wondered what kind of mission this was. For some reason, I didn't want Artie to go easy on me.

I want it to be a little challenging at least. I'm not gonna let him down. This is my home now and I can't afford t-

"REMY!"

My mind was jerked back to reality. "Huh?" I said pathetically. Artie stared at me for a moment. Then he turned around and grabbed something out of his desk. "take these." He said, setting a bottle of prescription medication in front of me.

I picked it up and studied it. "…these are mine..." I said out loud. I looked at Artie. "how did you know I had…?" I asked. Artie sat down. "I noticed that you get distracted fairly easy. And even now, your shifting around in your seat like you want to get up and move around."

I didn't even know I was doing that until he told me. Yet I didn't stop. I couldn't.

Artie looked down at his hands. "Also, when Pete was talking last night… you seemed kind of offended.

I sighed. "… not all kids with it are bullies. But people are so focused on the ones who are that they cast out the ones who aren't." I explained. "I got bullied a lot for it. By my schoolmates, my foster family, even my physiatrists…" I muttered.

Artie grabbed my hand comfortingly. "hey, don't think of it as a burden. Some of the smartest people in the world have it! It's almost like it makes you smarter!" he chirped.

I chuckled a little. "everyone else calls it annoying and bitchy." I sighed again.

Artie looked me in the eye "but the scientific community calls it ADHD, and don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise!" he told me.

There was a pause before Artie let go of my hand. "Alright, once Steve and Claudia get here we're gonna go over the mission" he said.

We waited for about a half hour before we heard bickering coming from outside.

"That doesn't even make sense! If the chicken came first then where did it come from?" Steve argued.

"It was affected by the chemicals in the water or something! Anyway, the chicken had to come first so it could lay the egg!" Claudia snapped informatively.

"Steve, Claudia, get in here!" Artie snapped.
They both sat down and looked at Artie.

"Okay, the three of you are going to Nashville Tennessee." Artie announced, handing out the case folders. We opened them up and saw a picture of two teenagers. One of them had black hair and blue eyes and the other had blonde hair and gray eyes.

"Nicholas Miller and Jacob Wilson, both found dead on a private property."

"How is that odd?" Steve asked.

Artie pointed at a document. "Read the autopsy report."

I took a look at it and saw why Artie chose this one.

"No… this can't be right…" I muttered, taking the document from Steve. "What do you mean?"Claudia asked. I looked up from the document. "This says they were killed by toxic gas!" I exclaimed with surprise. Steve looked at me like I was crazy. "But I thought those were used in world wars one and two!"

I nodded. "They were…" I said. Steve sighed. "Aaaand THAT'S the weird part..." Claudia shrugged.

Artie nodded. "I want you to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible, understand? And Remy, this is only your first mission, so be careful" Artie advised.

I smiled. "I won't let you down"

"Jake and nick were good kids." said the man claiming to be Jake's older brother. He had blonde hair like Jake's, but his eyes were an icy blue color.

"Have they gotten into trouble before?"

"Not Jake, but I think Nick has a juvenile record."

"for what?"

"robbery. He went away for two years"

I sighed. We weren't getting anything out of this guy yet. And it was my first mission.

"we were going to move to South Dakota in a week, but now... I don't see the point..." he said sadly. He sat back in his chair and wiped his tear stained cheeks.

I sighed again. "I'm sorry... I know how you feel. I have a little sister and if anything happened to her..." I said softly.

Steve and Claudia looked at me funny. I don't think I told them about Kayla yet.

Kayla was my adopted sister. She was the only person in that cursed family that I actually wanted to be around. She would be around seven now. God, I missed her. She was the only thing that ruled out suicide while I was in the psych ward. I wonder what shes like now... Hopefully not like her parents...

"Remy?"

I jumped at the sound of Steve's voice."...you spaced out again..." he whispered in my ear.

"oh..." I muttered.

"so anyway..." Steve's words trailed off in my mind as I spaced right back out.

My hand went to my shoulder. I wonder if they knew about-

huh? what was that?

I thought I saw a blur zoom by the window.

Then I heard footsteps.

okay, let's see... where was he (or possibly she) headed...?

the footsteps ran to the side of the house and stopped.

The window.

"Rem, you alright?" Claudia asked, seeing the troubled expression on my face.

"something's not right..." I said in return. as soon as I looked at the Window I saw it.

A sniper.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed.