Chapter 1

"Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey you, and to do your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen" I lower my hands that I had so tightly held in front of me whilst I prayed and left my eyes closed a moment longer as if savoring my last moments of peace before hearing the Major shove intelligence down our throats like we haven't gone over it before. I rise from my kneeling position and slowly make my way on to the steel death trap known as the vertibird. "Alright everyone, listen up!" The Major barks out. Everyone puts down whatever they were doing at that time, as the Major slowly scanned over the sea of multi colored eyes that are piercing with determination. "We got information from an informant that works for the enemy; the enemy's headquarters is located inside the old vault tech building in downtown D.C." The pilot made a quick movement for the Major to come to him. I continue cleaning my gun even though I know this will be a quickly over, I can hear the Major screaming into the radio. The major walks towards us again, he looks very angry at something but I know better than to ask. "I just got word that we won't have any reinforcements during the raid, our headquarters is under attack but they want us to finish this here and now." Everyone's eyes filled with sorrow, each and everyone one of them including me knew what this meant. "We might die during this raid" I say aloud. My best friend had tears swelling in her eyes when I said this; I look at her with tears in my eyes as well. "Sophia, its okay to cry but I promise to everyone that I will make sure we will all get out of this alive." Even though in the back of my mind I knew this was almost impossible to do, but I had to comfort her somehow. I'm even scared myself but I can't let anyone see that, I am second in command after all. "Lieutenant Audrey Normandy! I will not have you making unnecessary sacrifices during this raid" Barked the Major! "Sir Yes Sir! I was just making everyone feel relaxed sir!" What a Major you are, you dunce. I was trying to help everyone out with moral and you had to shoot it down, I yell in my thoughts. The pilot yells something at the Major about landing soon. "It's time everyone, we'll go over the formation one more time, Audrey, I want you on the third floor of the building across the street and provide sniper cover, take Sophia with you, she'll watch your back while your scoped in" The Major says in a monotone as he continues with the battle plan. My thoughts start racing and my body starts heating up as my nerves run wild. The raid is so close but yet so far from now, but at least I have Sophia watching back instead of that pig Brian who always stares at my cleavage. I look at Sophia and give her a quick little smile when I catch her eyes. The vertibird bounces a little when it touches down. I pick up my rifle and lock eyes with Sophia, we both make a mad dash in our suits of armor towards the building the Major had mentioned. I quickly reach the door and slam my back up against the wall next to the door; I make eye contact with Sophia and slowly open the door and taking a few steps in. I motion for her to follow me inside, we make our way to the to the staircase when I start to hear voices up those same stairs, as the seconds tick by I hear them grow louder and louder as each footstep sounds like the final footstep of life for me. I make my first and last mistake at this moment; five super mutants look down at the door, a total of 7 shots ring, and a mixture of screams penetrate my ears. My eyes quickly shut as I look at Sophia; her blood is splattered across the floor and up my leg. I quickly drop not feeling the pain in my shins as I hit the hard floor. My screams were a mix of agony, fear, regret, and tears. I feel a hand light clasp my own hand, she was still moving. "Audrey, you promised you would get us out alive, you promised to marry me when we got back from this raid." I start saying sorry over and over to her as I see the light of her eyes fade from this world. Her grip starts to go limp, my tears are falling onto her face slowly, and Sophia's hand reaches towards my face and slowly wipes my tears. "I know it's not your fault, we all knew what was at stake when we decided to attack the enemy headquarters. I am sorry, but this is goodbye, I love you always." My eyes are now bloodshot and my voice is hoarse from all the screaming and crying. I whisper to myself a small little prayer for her safe travels into the lord's arms. I pick up her limp body and carry her in my arms, I tuck her so nice and neatly in the corner next to the window I am perched at. I turn on my headset, "Major, she's dead…. Sophia is dead." I choke at the last three words not wanting to believe it that the love of her life is gone from this cruel and cold world. "I know Audrey, Sophia's headset was on the entire time of the ordeal. Just know that it wasn't your fault, no one on the team blames you for what happened." Everyone chimes in from the team saying their goodbyes. "Sir I want to say one thing, everyone let's complete this without any more losses for Sophia" My voice chokes on her name as I finish the sentence. But before anyone can say anything in return, the building explodes as a vertibird crashes into our vertibird. The blast knocked me into a whole that reaches all the way down to the first floor. On the way down I try to catch myself but only end up cutting my face all the way from my eye to the chin. When I land on the floor, I could only lay on the ground and think of reasons why I am still alive. I slowly crawl my way over to the desk that's close by and lift myself up to a steady standing position as I survey my area, only to find out that building is falling down on top of me. Adrenaline kicking in, disregarding all wounds on my body, along with my body aching. I manage to pick up a sprint out of the building as in collapses behind me. I quickly stop in my tracks and turn around, "SOPHIA NO!" I had completely forgotten about her body with all the mass confusion. After only realizing that I had stopped moving, the adrenaline that was coursing through my body had started to dissipate from my body. After a mere couple of seconds I was on the floor passed out with no help coming and no way to contact anyone. I was stranded inside downtown D.C. All the way behind enemy lines and defenseless, today was only the first for my downfall.