In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, who began to plan the Insurgence.

I am, of course, indebted to Stephanie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.

Chapter 25 – the Medal, and story of my first op

(Bella's POV)

The next morning, Leah came back to say good-bye before returning home. She had managed to convince Rodrigo to wait to leave until after I got up. Rodrigo and the boys stayed out on the patio, exchanging threatening stances with Jasper, Emmett, and Garrett.

I rolled my eyes and talked to Leah. Carlisle stayed next to me, and Eleazar casually placed himself between the Carlisle and the door.

Alice and Rosalie managed to take all of the DeNali coven ladies shopping, so Esme was the only vampress left in the house.

Leah lipped to me that she wanted to ask me about my medal. I motioned it was OK to talk.

"So, did you really get a medal while you were in the resistance?" Leah asked me.

"I kind of got it after I got kicked out. It was just before I went to Chicago," I replied.

The word "medal" got Rodrigo's attention, so he and Jasper made some kind of temporary truce, and all seven vampires came trooping into the living room from the patio.

"Yeah, tell us about that medal," Rodrigo said. "Luther told me you got one, but wouldn't go into the story. All he would say was that you got the only medal that had been awarded by the Human Council during the war to date."

I smiled and bit the inside of my cheek for a minute, thinking. "I hear it started with a toast that the freedom fighters came up with in my honor. They would say the toast, raise their shot glasses, drink, then toss their glasses into the fire."

Jasper rolled his eyes.

"The toast apparently went: To Girls Who Shoot Vampires in the…" I left the final word off.

"You did what?" asked Emmett with a chuckle.

I settled in to tell them my story.

"It started with my first true op. My C.O. (commanding officer) had called, and reported that a hunter had captured an entire colony, and the resistance had located his lodge. Freedom fighters were being dispatched for a liberation mission. If I could get to the location on time, he would tell them they had to take me on the mission.

'Now, be aware,' he warned me, 'they won't want to take you. Not only are you a girl, but you're too young. But I'm going to order them to take you along. I want you to observe and give me your impressions of the mission and tactics. Please don't make me regret sending you,' he said solemnly over the phone.

So I stole a truck, and got to the location as fast as I could. It was only a six hour drive; I arrived at about 4:00 in the afternoon. Apparently the rescue party was composed of specialists from several teams, so they had just begun to assemble when I arrived. The leader of the freedom fighters was a veteran of the last human war before the event. He had been in hiding since 2020, working to build the resistance army by training the colony members and other men who had eluded vampire custody on military tactics ever since. This was going to be my first experience with a trained military group. After all the months of traveling through the wild, I felt I had finally made it. I would be going out on a true mission as a freedom fighter.

The colony members were trying to give their food to the freedom fighters, and the freedom fighters were trying to give the colonies their MRE's (Meals, Ready to Eat, which were the field rations put out by the U.S. military for troops). The two groups eventually settled on an exchange of food, and they all sat down to eat together. The colony members ate the MRE's, the fighters ate the colony's beans and soup. After everyone had exchanged pleasantries, they started getting down to business.

The colony leader gave the freedom fighters the location of the hunter's lodge, which was believed to be where the people captured during the vampire's raid had been taken. It was in a densely wooded area surrounded by rolling hills, not far from our location.

The colony leader turned to look at me as I entered the gathering, and the freedom fighter leader shook his head slightly. My C.O. had been right, they didn't want me there. But, one of the men came over to me and started putting camouflage paint on my face.

I asked if I could have a mirror, so that I would know how to do my own paint in the future. The man stopped, smirked at me, said, 'You're not going to the prom, sweetie," and then continued with his work. I stifled the smart reply I wanted to shoot back at him and sat still for a few minutes. After he was done, he stood back to review his work.

'Do we know if vampires can smell the paint?' I asked.

''We don't hang around with vampires, asking them questions. We kill them,' snapped the same guy, to low snickers from the rest of the group. Just as well, I thought. If they knew how my scent attracted vampires like the ringing of a dinner bell, they would have legitimate reasons to oppose my inclusion in their little rescue operation.

The face painter and I returned to the main group. They were in a tent, bent over a map spread across a portable table, so I walked over to look at what they were doing. They were looking at a topographic map, showing the terrain around the hunter's house. I've never seen one of these in use, so I was fascinated. The leader looked up, and noticed the rapt look on my face.

'You're to stay with the group,' he ordered. 'We will need to move fast when it comes to the fight, so you will stay with the equipment, either outside or inside the lodge, wherever I deem the safest place. There will be no talking, no asking questions once we are on the road. Do you understand these directions?' he asked me.

I nodded. No use ticking them off, if I was going to join them, I would have to show I could take directions.

'We leave in 5 minutes,' said the leader to the group.

This startled me. 'We're going now? We'll be entering the woods at twilight,' I commented.

'That's correct. We have information on their schedule: they are having an event, and we want to arrive while they are distracted,' the leader answered. 'Only one of us knows the details of their event, so if they have a mind-reader, they won't be able to get as much information from us if the op doesn't go as planned.'

'But the breeze picks up at twilight; it will blow our scent ahead of us…' I began.

'Are you coming or not?' asked the leader. 'If you have any doubts, you should stay here, and let us handle this. We have experience in these matters.'

Well, I was going, so I just shook my head.

We loaded into the cars and drove as close to the house as we could. Then we left the cars on the side of the road, to walk the rest of the way. Since by their own admission these men didn't talk to vampires, they didn't know about my scent. I decided to slip off and go around the hills, so I would arrive at the house upwind instead of downwind. No use giving away our presence by my scent. The noise those men were making while they were moving through the woods, supposedly sneaking up on the house, seemed very loud to me. I was used to moving quietly, alone, and these men carrying all this equipment sounded rather loud to me.

I motioned I needed to go to the bathroom, and the rescue party stopped. As soon as I was out of sight, I slipped off my heavy gear, and took off down the hill.

I could hear some rustling behind me as one of the men tried to follow me, but I was faster and quicker than they were, so I lost them.

As I walked, circling to come back up another hill, I thought I heard something moving in the brush under the trees. I stopped and positioned myself next to a tree so that there was a small open space in front of me. Whatever it was, it was a large animal, but it wasn't a vampire, because there were still animal noises around me. When there was a vampire, all animal noises stopped. The only sound would be the rustling of the breeze in the trees.

Whatever this animal was, it was big. I didn't think it was a bear, as it wasn't making enough noise. It was too big large be a cougar, though. Suddenly, something huge stepped out from between the trees, and into the moonlit space in front of me. It was an enormous cat, and it had stripes. I was looking at a tiger.

'Great,' I thought, 'what's more rare, a human or a tiger? Should I let this beautiful animal kill me? Beat the vampires by letting a mortal predator end my life?'

We stared at one another, and then the tiger crouched slightly and leaned towards me. It moved its head to look to the left. I reached out slowly and touched its fur. It was soft. I leaned forward and put my head against its chest. The tiger turned to glance at me and then went back to looking over its shoulder. For just an instant, I could hear its breathing and heartbeat. It was an amazing sensation. Then the tiger leapt away.

I later learned that the hunter had pulled a 'vampire mine' at the Berlin Zoo. He had seen this tiger and decided he wanted it. So, he just took it with him when he left the zoo. He chartered a plane to fly it back across the Atlantic Ocean to his retreat in Ohio. He let the tiger out at night, just as if it were a housecat, and then chased it down at dawn each day. It never came with him willingly; it always fought him, growling and trying to tear at his body with its huge paws. But the vampire just carried it home, and held it between his legs while he brushed the tiger's coat.

And of course, when I leaned against the tiger, I had smeared the camouflage paint on my face, so I went to a stream and scrubbed it off the rest off as best I could without a mirror or soap. I later found that while I had managed to clean most of it off, there were bits and dabs of the green and brown paint left around the periphery of my face and on the side of my nose.

I kept walking after washing my face, and I eventually came upon to the house. It was huge, a kind of alpine lodge set in midst of these woods, far from any other houses or city. Whoever had originally built it must have been looking for isolation. It had a well paved road leading to the front of the house, circling the back as well.

"I decided to go to the front door, as no one would expect that. I automatically reached out to knock on the door, before catching myself. I quietly tried the front door, finding it wasn't locked. So I opened the door and entered the three story house. I looked around, stifling my impulse to hide behind a huge coatrack in the entry. No one seemed to be downstairs, but I could hear the murmur of voices and quiet laughter coming from upstairs. So I went up the huge winding staircase to see what was on the second floor."

I eventually found the room, following the sound of voices. I took a deep breath, went to the door, and opened it.

I immediately caught the room's attention. A vampire who sat at the end of a long table, playing host, began to rise. Simultaneously a huge vampire sped to my side. I remembered my training, 'watch your doors', and decided the hallway was my vulnerable spot. So I entered the room completely and shut the door behind me.

The room went completely silent after I shut the door. Then I saw what, or rather who was on the table. It was a girl in a blue dress, strapped to the table, with bloody bite marks from where I must have had interrupted their "dinner".

I pulled out my weapon and started on whoever came close to me. I didn't care how many vampires there were, and I didn't count. When I fought, I existed in the moment. I just killed whoever stood between me and the people I had come to rescue. The next thing I remember, I was standing at the girl's head, cutting through her leather restraints.

'Kill me,' she whispered.

'No, I killed them. You're supposed to live,' I replied. I pulled her upright, and cut down a curtain to cover her up with. She hugged her knees and rubbed her wrists as I looked around."

There were human bodies thoughout the room, some lying on the floor, others leaned against the walls. All had blood running from incisions on their throats, wrists, and other places on their bodies. I took a silver goblet from the table and went from body to body, holding it in front of their mouths to see if anyone was still breathing. Most were already dead, so I covered their bodies with pieces from the drapes I cut down as I circled the room. Those few whose breath still showed on the silver goblet, however faint, I moved to more comfortable positions, leaving their faces exposed.

As I was moving through the bodies, there was a loud noise. The Freedom Fighters had arrived. They came banging through the door and took in the scene. They looked surprised, of course, to see me moving among the vampire and human bodies. 'Thanks for joining me,' I said sweetly. 'Maybe you can help me with the survivors?'

They started checking the colony members whose faces I had left uncovered; some had already died in the few minutes that had passed. They tallied the dead, both vampire and human, and began removing the identity papers from the vampire bodies. 'It appears the C.O. didn't give us all the information about you,' began the leader.

I just shrugged, and went back to the girl lying on the table. She was so weakened by blood loss she was laying down again. I told them I was taking her with us.

'No, we can't help her. We're going to move the other survivors,' I was told.

'That's bullshit and you know it,' I snapped at the leader. 'We're here to rescue these people, and she's going with me". I picked the girl up, and carried her to the garage. There was a midnight blue Masarati Gran Cabrio convertible next to the other sedans and light trucks. I put her in the passenger seat, and took off. Her pulse was falling, and her eyes were closed. I zoomed back to the camp.

When I got to the camp, I pulled the car up in front the freedom fighters tent. I knew they brought a doctor and medical supplies, including blood, with them. These were brought both to help the injured people they were rescuing and for themselves in case they were wounded. I jumped out of the car and carried the girl into the tent."

The doctor turned to see me come in. 'I need blood for her,' I said. 'I don't know her type, so just give me O negative.'

The doctor looked at the girl in my arms, and said that most of the blood supply was tagged for the fighters. They had each brought a few pints of their own blood type.

I replied that the fighters were all just fine, they had sustained no injuries as they hadn't done any fighting. I repeated that I needed some of the universal blood type, O negative.

He answered that there was no guarantee it would help her, and as blood was in such short supply, he couldn't give it to me.

I pulled my gun and put it against one of the bags of O negative blood. 'This goes blood either goes into her, or it goes onto the wall', I replied. 'She may have only a 40% chance of survival with this since we can't type her, but she has a 0% chance without it.' My argument convinced someone though, as a woman walked up with tubing, gloves, and gauze. She motioned me to set the girl on a cot, cleaned her arm, and started an I.V. line.

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