Enjoy...and leave a review. Thanks to those who have reviewed already!
Kelly choked back another sob and tried to wriggle out of the bastard's grip. She didn't want to watch this. The tangy smell of blood filled the air. Around her the screams of the villagers soared into the night sky. The man holding her was a common soldier. There was nothing special about him, except that he worked for Stryker and was abnormally large. And he was apparently emotionless as Wilson, David and Victor tore into the small village they had left a year ago.
She closed her eyes and felt more tears slip down her face. She tried to control the sobs building up. She tried to think about something else, but the moment she opened her eyes he struggling started anew. And this time she got away.
She wormed her hands around so she could get a good grip on the soldier's hands. If he had any idea of what she was doing, he wasn't too concerned about it. She concentrated hard on collecting only a few memories, and most of them were times he was in serious pain, and reverted it back to him. She intensified the pain he remembered and that he was feeling it all over his body. A moment later he gasped and stumbled back from her.
Her body now her own again and usable to herself, she sprinted straight down the street. Straight towards Wilson. Kelly felt like she wasn't really getting anywhere. Like the harder she ran, the further they seemed to go. He had a gun in his hand. He apparently didn't feel like cutting children up, not that it mattered; he was already covered in the blood of innocents. The shots rang out clearest to her and she froze, mid step and nearly tumble over.
The three small bodies thudded to the ground. She remembered them. They were the ones who had told her the land was sacred. She just stood there, she couldn't move, she couldn't think, she couldn't breath.
The sudden silence was so pressing it was hard to believe it was ever even disgruntled by sound. The stars twinkled deceptively above them. The streets showed the truth. Blood seeped out of houses where people were killed in the door. It run down the street from bodies left there. People covered the expanse of the village in various assortments of fatal wounds. Some were cut up, other was shot and many of them were gutted. Whether they were kids or not, again Victor had gone and done what he enjoyed most: slowly and torturously killing people.
She heard the soft thudding of people walking on the sanded streets and snapped back to reality. She didn't really want to be in reality. Not at all, but she was going to be damned to hell before they caught her unaware. She spun around. Behind her were two houses and a small alley. To her right were Stryker and the ignorant bastard, who seemed to be still remembering a pain he's never felt. She felt a twisted satisfaction. In front of her was David and about two or three meters to David's right was Victor. To her left was Wilson. "We do not have all night, Kelly. I'd like to get to the clearing now." Stryker said flatly, his tone so damn casual that it could almost have been pretended that he didn't just order three men to kill a whole village.
She laughed. Hysteria. She was hysterical. For the first time in her whole life she had become hysterical. Her day had been hell before it even started. Chris had left and she remembered every word she said to him.
One-thirty AM:
The door creaked open. It normally never creaked. It was the first sign of something bad going to happen. It was also what woke her. When she saw Chris's small silhouette she knew though.
Six months after James left, John just wasn't at the breakfast table anymore. Two months later Fred was also gone. Stryker never looked for them. He never questioned their decisions. He just went along with it. The fact that Chris even thought of staying, much less actually staying as long as he did, surprised her. She knew it was because of her. If he left, there was no one she'd actually talk to. There wasn't anyone she'd even think of taking into her confidence. The rest of them scared the hell out of her. The one was a murderous bastard – no, that's incorrect, they're all murderous bastards.
Chris should've gotten out a long time ago. Ages ago. But he didn't because of her. She guessed everything Stryker made them do now was harder to deal with and making it even harder to stay. She sat up because he always knew when she was pretending. He smiled sadly at her in the dim light he created with the light bulb. "I can't stay, you get that right?" She almost laughed, but caught herself at the last moment and nodded slowly. "You need to get out too. Now. You can come with me. By the time they figure out we'd be long gone and you can start looking for James." She's wanted to go looking for James since he had left, but she never really got down to it.
She shook her head. "I'll be fine. If we all leave so right on each other, Stryker's going to get all weird about it. Just go." She said waving her hand in the doors direction.
He nodded slowly and smiled sadly again. "If you ever need me. I'll be at some carnival. With a lot of lights." He said.
She almost laughed again. "Yeah. I'll find you one day." She said with a determined nod.
He walked up to the bed and kissed the top of her head. "You've been the best kid sister anyone could want." He said as he ruffled her hair and walked to the door. He stopped there. "Carter would've been proud of you." He was gone before she could reply.
The bulb above her head flickered brightly and then died down. She sat on the bed for a long time. How long she, wasn't sure. She just sat there.
Present:
"You want the clearing?" She said between laughs. "Find it yourself. I'm done. It's over. I quit."
Stryker sighed and looked annoyed. "Armstrong." He had a warning in her tone.
"This is what you deem punishment?!" She screamed. She pointed to Victor and Wilson. They were covered in blood. "They were innocent! They had nothing to do with this! I chose not to tell you and you wipe out a whole village! No." She backed towards the alley. Her vision blurring with tears. "I won't help you. You all can go rot in hell." She spun around and started running. In the year she's been working for this bastard, running had become like a second nature.
She had also learned how to be faster than all of them, except most of the time Victor. Victor had the speed of a pretty fast animal, but he also had bulk. He was huge. And he wore a long black coat; it made him even heavier. David never went any where without his guns. He was light, built for speed, and that freakish ability to jump very high (not that she was one to judge, to each his own and all that nonsense), he was fast, but he always carried his guns, and there wasn't just one of them and bulletproof vests were heavy. Wilson was probably the worst of them all; he had somehow learned to run really fast with those guns and katana he carried.
But if she dropped the guns and clips and the vest she was supposed to wear, took of the slightly heavy camouflage jacket, she out ran them by a good start. She could out ran Victor if she had a head start and took him by surprise.
And she's ran in sand before. Lots of time. Her parents ranch had nothing but sand on it a couple of months before the horses were added and the sheep were added and the cattle and the artificial grass. Or more real grass rolled up in huge strips and then laid out. A centimeter in length, perfect for her father, and destroying her only method of actually becoming fit as it was the only thing she had done to even attempt it.
She dodged trees and dried out shrubs and ran like the Devil was on her heels. Kelly could almost imagine that being a good metaphor. Stryker and the rest of those noobs reminded her of the Devil. They'd fit quite nicely in hell, she was sure of that as well.
She didn't look back. She just knew they couldn't shoot her, gut her or cut her up. That would be stupid as she's seemingly the only one thinking further than her nose. She's seemingly the only one thinking about the archway that had been behind or next to or whatever, Wilson and Stryker and that man they had questioned so much. She also couldn't hear them. That might've been the result of hearing her heartbeat thickly in her ears.
She didn't know how long she ran, just that her muscles were protesting and that there was nothing around her as she finally sank to the hard ground. She was tired and sore and crying all over again. Or maybe she just never stopped. She couldn't close her eyes, not even to blink, because then she saw them and heard the screams. Fleeting when she blinked and long, hard, painful when she closed her eyes.
She could hear her own screams travel across the grounds and she could feel the sobs running through her body. Shaking her to the core. And she closed her eyes probably because she couldn't think of doing anything else. Probably because if she closed her eyes Stryker's idea of punishment worked. If she closed her eyes she could hear a smug little voice in her head. It sounded oddly enough a lot like Victor. She couldn't figure out why the hell she pictured him for it, but it was his voice. Him telling her that if she spoke up sooner no one would've had to die because of her. She could feel the moon over her and pain in her hands as she beat them down on the asphalt ground in front of her. She could feel her throat burning with pain as she eventually became hoarse from all the screaming and crying.
The eventual shadow that fell over her and only made it colder, didn't stop her. It was the strong arms wrapping around her and catching her hands before they could go down again. She didn't know what made her turn around and wrap her arms around his neck or even what made her bury her face into his chest. Or what made him stay. But in that moment all she really wanted was him. And it didn't matter that he was smart assed, arrogant little prick, it only mattered that he was there. And that he didn't just leave her. That he actually allowed her to cry until she was so tired she couldn't move. All that mattered was that he was holding her.
She sat outside of the archway, against the stoned wall, with her hands dangling over her knees and staring off into the distance. The sun was coming up. Streaks of pink and purple and orange and peach covered the sky and the clouds. The merging of night and day. She couldn't really think about anything the sunrise was making her think of. It was almost like it was the first time she ever saw the sun rise.
Wilson sat next to her. The blood had dried somewhere in running after her and catching up to her. He was, as was his favorite story, telling her about the day he ruined his ex-girlfriend's wedding with those things. In there somewhere he must've noticed her absence of mind and gazed out to where she was looking. "Ever seen a sunrise like that?" He asked. His tone suggested he's seen it a couple of times. She shook her head. No one could say that the sometimes barren lands of Africa wasn't beautiful. "Must be why you're staring at it. What is it with women and sunrises? It's just the sun coming up and announcing a new day."
She glanced at him. Past him she could see Stryker yelling at someone on a phone, cursing when he broke up and redialing and starting anew. Victor was scaring the soldiers who were picking up what of the meteor they could and digging the rest out of the ground. David stood like a statue overseeing business for Stryker. "Serenity." She answered.
"Serenity? Really. You find the sun rising serene? Don't tell me, it's got something to do with beauty and the good positive start of a new day." He said, his tone serious but his eyes glittering with mischief and amusement.
She sighed and shook her head. "I bet you've never even looked at a sunrise." She said carefully.
"I find women far more beautiful than the sun. But hey, that's just me." She didn't comment on that. "I mean they've got curves. What's a sunrise got? Nada. Curves and soft skin and…hey are you even listening to me?"
She shook her head slowly. "Nope. Women aren't exactly my idea of a good topic. But whatever ever floats your boat."
He laughed. "You'd rather have me interested in men?"
She grinned at him. "Sure, I think Victor has a serious thing for you." He made a gagging motion.
For a few moments it was silent. The type of silence you get right before a serious question. She was studying him. The lines of his face and everything just mainly him, but he wasn't looking at her. "You know when Bradley left." He didn't ask. He told her.
She looked away from him and watched the sky, it was now more pink and peach than before. The sun was winning the fight between Day and Night. Light and Darkness. Day's strongest warrior. How ironic really. Darkness and Night always lay just outside of reach. Waiting, counting down the time until Light and Day has to leave again. Counting down the time to when they can become the best friend of some and the worst nightmares of others.
To when they can become her nightmare.
She got up without answering him – why answer to the obvious? – and started in the direction she knew the big building was with the fenced off yard and eight kilometers from there the plane was waiting. And most likely another one because the new soldiers around didn't fall out of the air.
Stryker could find his own way back to base. She was leaving now. She had wound she wanted the doctor to take care of and she wanted to take the strongest pill that would allow her to sleep without dreams. And before that time she hoped some wild animal found him and tore him to pieces. "Exactly where the hell do you think you're running off to?" He snapped at her.
As far away from you as possible Colonel Moron. "To the plane, sir." She answered.
He snorted and she knew, just like Wade the year before, if she aimed her gun at him, he wouldn't even flinch, he'd probably just smirk at her sinisterly and order David to shoot her. "I don't give you permission to go." He said and returned to his phone call. He must've broken up during that time.
"Oh? Good, because I wasn't asking for it either." She muttered darkly, annoyance circling dangerously below the surface. She walked away and her the indignant spluttering behind her and the order to get her.
"I'll do it!" Wade shouted quickly as he got up and jogged after her. "I'll take her back, so she can clean those cuts on her hands." He continued. "Don't worry Victor, I'll make sure she doesn't secretly sneak into your manicure kit."
It took him a while to catch up. She walked briskly and quickly past everything. Africa was beautiful, but if she never saw it again, it would be too soon. She didn't give a damn about whether or not Wade had picked up her vest and guns, and she gave even little less of a damn about whether Stryker likes flying with a group of big soldiers. "So where'd he go?" Wade asked when they were a reasonable distance away from Stryker and the clearing and the empty village. They were past the big building already.
She glanced at him. "If I remembered correctly, I don't specifically like you much. Why would I tell you where he went?" She asked angrily.
A few hours earlier all she wanted was him. Oddly enough she still did, but she wasn't going in on that. "Ok. You won't. I get that. But…don't you think it's a little odd that on the same day Chris ups and leaves Stryker informs you oh-so-sweetly that we're going back to Africa? And the next thing you know, a lot of people die?" He asked. "I'm just saying that something of this doesn't make sense. And if Chris had to rat you out, he wouldn't have seen you break down. Like he knew you would've." He explained.
She almost laughed. Stryker. This was all part of Stryker's plan. Whatever that might be, but she wasn't falling for it. "You can stop now." She told him dangerously and wondered how far they still had to walk and if she'd make it without trying to kill him.
He frowned at her. He shouldn't frown. He looked better with a smirk or a grin on his face. "Stop what? I'm just theorizing." He said. Theorizing her ass on a silver platter.
"Bullshit. I told you before, you rank number one." She sneered and walked a little faster.
"Ok so maybe Stryker has something to do with the questioning." He said. She was almost surprised to hear Stryker's name. But he gave himself away. "But you must know something. About James, or about Chris." He continued.
She snapped and spun around. Her eyes burning with angry tears. "I don't! If I did know where James was do you think I'll be here? Of course not!" She nearly shouted. Her throat was still too sore for that. "Everyone in my life leaves! Everyone I get close to leaves! My grandfather left. He just left. One day upped and left. We never knew where he went. Four years later he's found dead, in a ditch. When they found him, he had been dead for two hours! Two hours, but he was gone for four years with no word and no reason for leaving. No reason and we never found out why!"
"But that was ok. Old people die. Life worked that way. I was eight when he died. When you're eight, you accept it as life. But two year later, my best friend Amy-Lee moves away. No, she didn't just move away, she left. For two week straight I sat alone at our lunch table, walked alone to and home from school. Why? Because I thought she was sick. That her mom just didn't want anyone to get sick like her. Then I hear, on a rumor at school, that they moved to California. So I vowed myself to make a lot of friends. I convinced my mom to move and we did. We went from Chicago to Washington. Carter had no problem with that. He hated the old school anyway."
"In Washington, I had more than enough friends. But in Washington my parents started arguing. Divorce causes scandal, so they stuck it out. I was ten-years old with no understand what they were arguing about. I was ten when suddenly my mom didn't want to spend time with us. So I started getting closer to my brother. A boy six years my senior. He never complained. He was the nice kind, you know. The type that never complains about anything. So my mom didn't want to play scrabble anymore, Carter would."
"But Cater was still six years older than me, he grew up. He went to Quantico. He started working for the FBI. And five years after he started working for the FBI, a day before my birthday, he's killed. Not just because of anything, but supposedly because he had been tracking a man of the military involved in illicit and illegal business. So we moved to Texas. A small town. I left behind my friends and promised myself to never forget my brother. To never meet anyone I'd get attach to ever again. And I did just that. Until James and Chris and they left me behind." Her eyes burned as she spun around and saw the plane in the distance.
A maybe a kilometer away. She wasn't sure why she told him all that. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know why she told him all that. But she knew what was coming. She just knew it like she knew that eventually night will come again. With certainty.
"So you lost people. People die. Young and old. Sometimes people move without getting time to say goodbye, people become distant. It happens. People leave. And family members died. So what?" He asked throwing his hands into the air.
She spun around, half a kilometer to the plane now. "So what?" She hated crying this much. And she hated crying in front of Wade. She hated it. She spun around again. "There's no so what, Wade." She called back to him.
"And why is that?" He had to jog to keep up with her.
She stopped in front of the door to the plane and watched him curiously. "I told you. When I touch people I know everything about their lives." She said in answer.
"So you touched the dead body of your brother? That seems rather sick to me." He said.
She shook her head. "No." She took the small stair like thing two at a time. "I touched you." She said.
She turned back to him in the door. "You, Wade, killed my brother."