Alicia woke to the sounds of her fellow marksmen getting ready for a day of training. She rolled over groggily, although she had spent years training as a mercenary, it hadn't made her any more of a morning person. She pulled her pillow over her head, only to feel something hit her in the back moments later.
"Wakey-wakey Ms. Land-Down-Under!" Her energetic bunkmate joked, "I'm not about to let you be late to a promotion like this one." Alicia groaned as she peaked out from under her pillow, "Five more minutes..."
"Um, no." The bunkmate grabbed her blankets and pulled them off, "If you're getting to be on the A-team, you gotta get used to tight schedules." "Fine, I'm up. I'm up." She stumbled out of the bottom bunk to get ready.
"Have you even packed?" Her bunkmate asked, reminding Alicia why she'd quickly donned the nickname 'Chatterbox'. Alicia just shot her bunkmate a glare as she grabbed her old duffle bag, but shaking it out turned the air thick with seven years worth of dust. It had barely been touched since she arrived here since she usually took the bare minimum with her on missions. She walked over to her chest of drawers and pushed whatever was on the top into the bag. Before she started on the clothing drawers, she set out something to change into: the usual red t-shirt, loose and sturdy pants and her athletic shoes. Alicia pulled it all on and saw her bunkmate holding her ammo vest. Seeing the other woman looking so wistful was like a punch in the gut.
The first day as B-tier marksmen had tested them all. Evaluations, assessments and appraisals took place that would determine their ranking in the company. This was the only time in their career where female marksmen and male snipers were put together. Alicia was ranked as one of the best at the time, and that's when she had been paired with her bunkmate, Liu Mei. Native to Beijing, Mei's perseverance and critical eye had also placed her at the top with Alicia. When they were first put together for practice missions, Alicia honestly found her a little annoying. But, after a while, a strong friendship bloomed between the two that stood solidly through those seven long years. A friendship that would last past the team split.
"Mei. Don't look at me like that." Alicia said as she zipped the last of her stuff into her bag. Mei took a deep breath.
"Good luck, but it's not like you're gonna need it." She smiled, "Just don't die on me. 'Kay?" She held out Alicia's vest.
"You too." Alicia nodded as she grabbed her aviators, bandana, and finally vest.
"I have to go to breakfast." Mei said quietly. Alicia slung her bag over her shoulder and pulled Mei into a hug. As soon as they released, Alicia was on her way to the door. Before she left, she threw a look back at Mei and quickly took in the entirely of the bunk room she was about to leave behind.
"We've had a good seven years." She mumbled. And then she was gone. She just had to make one stop before she got in that car and left the base for good - The Armoury.
"Are we there yet?" A Bostonian groan came from the luggage pile in the van.
"Scout, for ze fifth time, we 'aven't even left yet." The Spy said, trying not to let the venomous annoyance seep into his voice. The other eight men were finishing up with putting the last of their bags in Sniper's van.
"If leetle man help, will be on road faster." Heavy said as he set one of his gun crates down. Scout sat up beside the crate.
"What if this is just'a joke?" He said as he propped himself up a little. Sniper just shrugged from the front seat. Scout threw himself back on the floor of the van, as if a response would come from him being more dramatic.
"Why us? Why our team? Why me?" He moaned, warranting eye-rolls from just about every man around him. "Plus, I thought they pulled us off the promotion list after that incident with Pyro." Scout added and shuddered at the memory of New Year's Eve party thrown by their supervisor. The stray fireworks were an honest mistake, but the resulting explosions and complete destruction of said supervisor's home was a hard case to argue.
Slowly, the rest of the men finished putting their luggage in the camper-van and squeezed themselves into the back of the vehicle. Being the smallest, Scout ended up crouched on the floor, Sniper had claimed the drivers seat since it was in fact his van, and Medic claimed the other front seat (The "I save all of your lives on almost a daily basis." Excuse was getting a little old in Scout's opinion), which left the other seven men to figure out who sat where. Once everyone was settled, they left the main base for good.
Even though they had said their last goodbyes to the main base, they never really made it close to the highway for a while. First, Pyro started to panic about something, and after a drawn-out game of charades they realized he had forgotten his beloved lighter. That was trip back number one. After about six other trips, four of those for items that were just hidden, they were finally on the road.
"WE NEED ONE MOR-" Soldier started to yell.
"Solly." The Medic said from the front, an edge of annoyance in his voice, "Ve are all in ze car, ve can all hear you."
"We have to return one more time. I have not located my launcher."
"Did you check ze back?" There was the sound of boxes being shoved around.
"I located it." The Soldier said as he returned to his spot. As they got on the highway, the nine fell back into silence. Scout sat up and looked out the window and only saw desert. He could almost feel the noon sun beating down on him. The coloured sand held so many years, so many stories.
As if he cared about that.
He sat back down as the team's Engineer asked, "Now, do y'all know where you're goin'?" The others looked at each other.
"Maybe Hawaii? Some'a my buddies back at main base said our new one would be there!" Scout offered hopefully.
Spy snorted, "As if. We wouldn't be driving zere, if zat were the case." "Whadda 'bout LA?" Scout suggested, "Alotta fine women there." He paused for a second.
Medic took the opportunity to speak, "Or, they could be taking us out to remove us from the program. Permanently."
"God man, do NOT start that now." Scout said, shuddering a little, "Plus, they wouldn't have told us about the A-team spot if that were the case." The Medic just shrugged in response.
"Now, that's all fine and dandy, but where is it actually." The Engineer reiterated.
"Well, I had some wee co-ordinates scribbled a'tha bottom o' my letter." Demoman said as he pulled his promotion letter. The Spy snatched the letter quickly and looked at it. Without saying a word, he pulled out a map from his pocket.
"We just need to find a way to get from 'ere to zere." He laid the map and coordinates down, "And we need a navigator for zat. Does anyone know how to navigate?" Spy said, trying to remain as patient as he possibly could. The team looked among each other and waited for someone else to respond. Pyro's hand shot up with an almost ungodly enthusiasm.
"And by navigate I mean without setting ze map on fire." Spy sighed, any semblance of patience gone. The enthusiasm quickly left as Pyro pulled his hand back like a wilting flower.
"Aye." The Demo nodded as Spy looked on sceptically.
"Zere is no way we, or should I say I, am letting you near zat map. You probably can't even see straight you're so drunk."
"I'll ha'e you know I'm one of the best navigators in the Eastern Hemisphere-"
"We are in ze Western Hemisphere."
"Wassat supposed to mean?"
"It means zat you are not going to be navigating. I guess that leaves zhe job pour moi." The Spy picked up the map and started to figure out the new location.
Ilse, or 'Doctor' as her team called her, grabbed a box full of her supplies. She surveyed the new base she was going to have to call home. It seemed to be smaller than the main base, but not by much. From the sound of the letter, it had facilities for each of them. The Doctor was skeptical, even if there was room for all of them, it still seemed like too much. She brushed that off and kept unloading her luggage from the car. Next to her, the Technician grabbed her two toolboxes and turned toward the medical professional (ish).
"You ready for this, Doc?" Amy smiled up to her, "I can't remember the last time I had a garage to myself."
"I can't even remember having my own office." The German woman sighed; she sat a stack of boxes down. "Veronika, could you help me?" The Doctor called over to the large Russian woman; the team's Tank.
Veronika picked up about half the stack and carried it to the front porch.
"It iz not much to get excited about." The French accent carried through the air. The voice belonged to Colette, the espionage expert of the team and a very difficult person to please.
"Are you kidding? This house could fit my ENTIRE family!" Their little Lookout, Nicole, responded with a low whistle. Ilse and Veronika came up behind the two with the boxes. The house definitely was big and grand. Ilse again thought that it was probably too much for just nine of them.
"Is door unlocked?" Tank asked.
"No, we were told to wait for our new supervisor." Their Bomber sat by the door and took a swig of whatever she kept brewing in that bottle.
"WHICH WAS DETAILED TO US IN THE LETTER." The Fighter, Virginia May, yelled.
"Vell, vhy aren't zhey here yet?" The Doctor asked as the team's Firebug ran to the porch with a flaming branch. Alicia followed quietly behind and put out any little flames caused by the branch.
"Maybe zis iz not ze whole group." Colette said then took a long drag of her cigarette.
"Now, frenchie. This isn't this time for your surveillance bullshit," Nicole said as she leaned against the wall with her bags and baseball bat, " 'Cuz I counted nine'a us and, fun fact, there's only supposed ta be nine'a us." As she finished what she was saying, two other cars pulled up in the desert dirt driveway.
Ms. Pauling pulled into the new base right behind a van and she assumed it was one of the other teams. As soon as the other van had stopped, the men were out and unloading their stuff. She mentally counted nine then glanced over to the porch, where she saw the female team and counted nine more. She opened the door of her car and got out. The female team noticed her, their looks of relief and delight were priceless. Those expressions melted away to a completely different reation when they noticed the male team. That's what worried Ms. Pauling.
*Again, thank you SO MUCH to The Archimedes Complex for betaing this chapter!
You should go check out their stories while you're at it!
Ps. For any confusion, here are the female class names:
Sniper - Marksmen
Engineer - Technicien
Spy - Espionage
Medic - Doctor
Pyro - Firebug
Demo - Bomber
Soldier - Fighter
Heavy - Tank
Scout - Lookout