Chapter 4Days under the trees made Alison sweat from the extreme heat and nights left her shivering from the cold. It was now day 6 and the crate drops kept coming. Mostly full of crap but Jason and Steve who looked as if they'd bonded into a group by now packed their backpacks with random crap and headed off. Alison was too tired to fight for the supplies as the sound of crickets echoed loudly like a chant throughout the forest and flies that landed on her skin irritated her extremely.
Alison collected the remains of what was useful from the crate which was usually bottled water and more matches. However most of the stuff was crap, ammo clips which served no purpose as there were no guns and they were also forbidden to use them anyway.
For the first time in ages Alison wondered how dirty she was, her brown long hair was covered in dirt and was greasy as hell, it was a time like this where she would have killed for a bed, a hot shower and a hot meal. The days went by very slowly and the promise for people hunting them down had been short lived as no one had appeared to find them within the week that they had been there for and the sense of survival had faded after the first three days.
Day 14 was their last day in training, or it was Alison's last day in training as Jason and Steve had been hunted down and failed to gain the last marks for surviving the two whole weeks.
Alison stuck to hiding in bushes and the undergrowth when the squad that had been sent in three days earlier had been sent in.
Her ear-piece picked up her trainers last message before she had her grey T-shirt tight within her grasp.
"Your last task is to now find your grey T-shirt, which could be hidden anywhere. You have until sunset to find it. Out"
The ear-piece went silent for the last time.
"Well this should be fun" Alison told herself as her eyes scanned a huge, dense forest that she had until sunset to scan around for a T-shirt that determined if she had passed or miserably failed.
Leonid Aramov sat round a table with other heads of small terrorist groups, after he had gotten out of Mexico with the money that he made from selling the PGSLM missiles before the TFU had destroyed his plans along with the factory that was carrying out his orders. He escaped to Russia while using the news of his 'supposed' death to get through border patrols with fake I.D without the authorities batting an eyelid.
"Mr Aramov, I believe you still have the plans for this missile that you were in the process of constructing? Aleksei asked. He was heavily built and his muscles were huge which made him quite a formidable enemy if hostile.
"You believe right, I managed to save the plans about an hour before the facility was blow sky high by the American government." Leonid replied with a smug tone. Aleksei gave a small laugh and then stood while having his eyes glued on Leonid and his grin turned to quite a serious look.
"Being so smug might get you killed around here. I know you were feared back in Kyrgyzstan but you're no more than a street rat here, you ran one of the biggest smuggling organizations and you were brought down by your own family so you have nothing to be smug about Leonid!" Aleksei replied, his eyes narrowed on Leonid to show his hostility.
Leonid took that as a threat and immediately stood to stand his ground.
"Looks like I hit a nerve. Look, sit down. Or do I have to break your legs to make you" Aleksei added. Leonid was losing by now and was tempted to throw himself at Aleksei, however he didn't want to lose his chance to be big again by acting like a small child throwing a tantrum. Leonid took his seat again and continued while trying to hide his anger.
"Tamara shot me and believed that I was dead which got the TFU off of my back and gave me the chance to get out of Mexico with the plans and start anew. Now, I came here to ask you for the necessary funding for the facility to be re-built and to start production again." Leonid said, this time trying to not aggravate Aleksei again.
"What do I get out of this if I give you the funding for this?" Aleksei asked, desperate for his side of the bargain.
"Split it both ways. Fifty-fifty" Leonid replied.
Aleksei seemed happy with the bargain and complied with the offer. Aleksei rose from his seat and went to exit but turned to face Leonid.
"You fuck with me and it'll be the last thing you do" He said before disappearing into the corridor. The other leaders rose from their seats and began to exit but Leonid stayed and thought to himself 'Do I want to re-live my past?'
Alison found the grey T-shirt hanging from a branch high up in a tree; however the branch was right above where the squad of men had made camp. Alison stayed in a crouched stance and moved very slowly to avoid attention that she did not want to attract. She could hear them joking around with each other and seemed undetermined to even try to find their last victim. Alison had no idea if they knew that her T-shirt laid above them but if not it was very coincidental that they had made camp right under its location. Alison climbed the tree nearest to the T-shirt which was very risky as the squad could see her at any moment. Everything was going perfectly as she made her way over the branch and towards the T-shirt. She reached for it and got a slight grip of it as the branch began to crack. She had no time to recover as the branch snapped and she fell to the ground and right in the sight of the squad. She landed with a thud and her whole body ached and all the oxygen in her lungs was forced out as she hit the floor. The squad raised their guns to her but did nothing else.
"It's over young lady" One of them said.
"I think not" She said with a huge smile as she brought up the grey T-shirt in her grasp. "I think it's over for you though"