Chapter 11

Surprisingly, the blow didn't knock me out.

Carey let out a cackling laugh, " I thought you were smarter than this…You didn't actually think that I would follow along with idiots, did you? Wait, let me answer that for you. Lemme guess, you never were able to trust anybody in fear that they were going to betray you? Because I was girl you thought I'd be better than everyone else? Well guess what? You were WRONG!" She threw back her head and let out another laugh.

She pointed her gun at my chest and said, " hmm… where to start? I could make it short and painless, or long and painful. Which one, oh , which one…? I think I'll go with the second,"-she gave a grim little smile-, "that one seems funnier…Okay Pinez, I'll give you and your little boyfriend here a headstart before I fire. Got it? Good…"

I turned to David. "when I say 'duck', you duck."

Carey cleared her throat and I turned back to her. She lifted up her gun, "DUCK!" I screamed as I phased into panther. Carey stumbled back as a burst of gunfire crackled from her gun. As she fell I jumped on top of her and threw the gun to the side. I swung my heavy feline head and hit her in the temple. Carey mumble a few words and went silent.

I motioned for David to help me carry her as soon as I phased human again. "c'mon. She's not that heavy." We picked her up and carried her back into camp. "Just lay her down in the center. Someone'll find her…" and we went back into the tents and fell asleep.

The first week wasn't really that bad. Most of the guys really liked me, some even said that I remind them of family.

During some real hard times, like when a member of the squad died, they would come sit next to me and just talk. It really softened me up. I wasn't my usual hard self.

I was writing my first letter to Zach when David came and sat next to me. "We got our first mission…" he told me glumly.

"When?" I asked.

"Tomorrow," he said.

"We are clearing out a bunch of desert. An old highway if I heard right. It's supposed to be pretty bad."

I nodded and got back to my letter. David got up and left to his own cot at the other side of the tent. Writing a letter is way harder than any of you thought, I'm sure. You just can't fit everything that's happened in one piece of paper.

Around of one in the morning I gave up the letter and pulled out a book.

Two hours later I heard crying. I looked across the way at Evan. His body was being racked with sobs.

I silently got up and tip-toed over to his cot. On the ground was a letter. The writing was all loopy, so I guessed it was from his girlfriend back home.

Dear Evan,

How is everything over there? I'm just going to guess that you're not dead if you're reading this letter. I just want to let you know that we are no longer together. Thank you for the diamond necklace you sent me for my birthday, but since we are no longer seeing each other, I have enclosed it back in this letter again. I have been seeing somebody else of the past month. I guess that I am pretty happy that you had him over so many times to watch the games on television. Jake actually listens to me, unlike you EVER did.

Good luck with staying alive, Michelle

The first thought that came to my mind was that if she knew how to sign a letter. But then that was intercepted by, whoa, was this Jake dude like his best friend or something? I shook my thoughts away and set the letter down.

I walked back over to my cot and fell asleep.

I woke up at 5 to get suited up. Soon everybody else got up and followed. I packed and repacked everything. My stomach was twisted into knots, if I did one thing wrong, I could everyone in my squad. I could get myself killed. I had absolutely no idea what I would be getting myself into, boy would I be surprised.