Chapter Thirteen:
Tink felt like she was going to die. She fell to the ground on her knees and held her self up with her hands. She took in deep gulps of air through her mouth. Her wet hair clung to her neck and back from its ponytail. A towel was draped over her shoulders. She looked up from the sandy beach at Reaper who was standing over her in surfer shorts.
The team had gone to Santa Monica to a specialty-training course. Tink had started getting up extra early to go swimming and pushed herself until she nearly drowned she was so tired.
Tink looked at her watch. It was just six in the morning.
"You're up early." She ground out in between pants.
"Yeah, heard you get up." Tink looked at Reaper.
"You seem to do that a lot." He shot her a half smile before throwing himself on to the sand beside her.
"How was your swim?"
"Good," Tink answered dabbing her hair dry with the towel Reaper had given her.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Tink shook her head in response still trying to catch her breath. "Why are you in the forces?"
She looked at Reaper and pushed her hair out of her face. "Needed someone to look after me, I couldn't. Three squares…seemed a good deal."
"Seemed?" Reaper asked. Tink looked out over the horizon.
"Till Sarge I didn't have anywhere really. Most Sergeants' like soldier they can control. And anyway snipers aren't a big deal when you can smart bomb the shit out of anything. And the whole women on the front line is a touchy issues even after congress passed the bill." Tink sighed watching the sun come up. "Sarge believed I could do it, be on his team, when no one else thought I could do it. He is the only person who has ever done that for me…."
"So why Tink?" Tink looked over at Samantha who was on the other side of Reaper.
Samantha had given Reaper a shot of C24. He was now unconscious on the ground between them with his head on Tink's lap.
Tink looked up at Samantha and shrugged. She didn't feel like meaningless small talk while they waited for one of three things to happen, A) Reaper to wake up and be fine and super human, B) Reaper to start changing then kill them both unless either Samantha or Tink shot him, or C) the zombie alien humans to come through the barricaded door.
"We all have…had nicknames."
"Yeah but why Tink? You don't look like a Tink." Tink looked at Samantha. Tink hadn't ever been able to get along with other women well.
"Duke gave it to me. Victoria isn't convenient on a battlefield. He used to say I was like Tinkerbell, the only girl who fought with the lost boys…well until Wendy came along and things started to get complicated." Tink looked up at Samantha seeming startling similarities between the two stories that she didn't like to think about.
There was a bang at the barricaded door. Both women turned to look. Tink turned and looked back at Samantha and handed her the 9mil Reaper had given them. "Here take this and run through those corridor's, they should be clear."
Samantha took the gun nervously and looked at Tink then at Reaper. "What if-?"
"I won't let anything happen to him." Tink said honestly. "But if he wakes up and you aren't okay I am gonna have a lot of explaining to do."
"You think he is going to wake up?" For someone who insisted on the shot Samantha wasn't sounding all that confident as time rolled on by.
"Undoubtedly," Tink answered and she knew she was right.
Samantha got up and looked down at Reaper then back at Tink. "Go!" Tink insisted. Samantha nodded and turned and went down the corridor. Tink carefully put Reaper's head on the ground and got up. She pulled her 9mil out of her pants and sat down again beside the still unconscious Reaper. She glanced at him.
"Well, fine situation we are in right now, huh?" Tink looked at her combat boots. "Now I am talking to you…I am really insane." She looked at him. "Just wake up kay? I need you more then you know."