The morning sun rises in the East. The girls were up and ready. Jet lag made some of them a bit tired. Someone knocked on the door. Rina opened it.
"Morning ladies. Did you sleep well?" asked Zulkifli.
"Very well. Thank you Zulkifli," replied Rina.
"Had you have your breakfast?"
"Not yet."
"Come on. I'll bring you to this coffee shop down the street. It has really nice hawker's food."
"Thanks a lot."
"It's the least we could do for coming to help us out." Zulkifli led them to the coffee shop down below.
The morning made the war scars more clear. Soldiers were patrolling the roads. Military trucks moving around. Several buildings had been blown to bits by Nationalist bombings. But life was still thriving. People were manning the shops, buying and selling rationed groceries, people walking to factories to work on consumer and military products. The people were working together to get the nation through this war, coupled with a faltering economy and incoming refugees. Zulkifli brought Rina and her team to the coffee shop for breakfast. They took a seat at a round table and ordered their breakfast. Then a warning siren came blaring. Everyone ran for cover. Zulkifli quickly notified Rina.
"Air strike! Quick, follow me!" exclaimed Zulkifli as he led them to a bomb shelter nearby. They entered the bomb shelter near the coffee shop together with some of the civilians and hid there. The last person that came in; a soldier closed the heavy metal door of the shelter. All they could do was waiting until the siren stopped blaring. They could hear explosions from the outside; shaking the ground they were hiding in. Rina asked Zulkifli.
"Aren't we supposed to be out there helping the troops to shoot down those planes?" asked Rina.
"We can't get out there. They're hitting us with carpet bombing, and then spraying chemical agents which are deadly upon contact. The only thing that stands between us and those aircraft are our own jets. Let's just hope there are no other jets that carry bunker buster bombs," replied Zulkifli. The terrified civilians were shaking in fear as the explosions continued. An Indian guy was saying verses from the Bible, praying as though he was going to die. Rina was scared too; but she tried to keep optimistic. After a while, the bombing stopped; the siren stopped blaring. A radio inside the bunker started crackling. Zulkifli took the receiver from the radio.
"This is Commander Zulkifli. What's our situation on the outside?" he said on the receiver.
"It's all clear. No toxin sprays today, just heavy bombing," replied the radio. Zulkifli ordered the soldier to open the metal door. The soldier opened the door; the surroundings were decimated. Shop houses that used to stand across the coffee shop were no more. What's left of them were rubble and debris. Miraculously, the apartment building that Rina and her team were staying remained untouched by the bombing. A military jeep with a soldier came by and stopped in front of Zulkifli.
"Sir, one of our bunkers had been hit by a bunker buster. No one survived," said the soldier.
"Were there any bodies?" asked Zulkifli.
"Twenty, sir," replied the soldier.
"Take the bodies out and bury them. I'll report to HQ," commanded Zulkifli.
"You didn't seem sad at that loss of life," commented Arthuria. Rina nudged her.
"We have lost five million civilians and troops fighting this war. They've been killing us like animals. Singapore was no better off. Only 20,000 of them are left," commented Zulkifli. Rina remembered a phrase from Stalin that goes, "When a person is killed, it's called a murder; when a million people are killed, it's called a statistic". She pondered at it for a while before snapping out of it when Saya nudged her.
"Rina, let's grab our gear from the apartment before something else comes and destroys it," said Saya. Rina nodded and followed her team to grab their gear.
"There have been several reports that Nationalists have landed some troops in the jungles of the Peninsular," stated Arthuria. Rina nodded. They were walking through the paths in the dense jungle. Sunlight barely lit the ground. They walked slowly, as not to attract attention from Nationalist troops that might have been in this area. A radio signal came in.
"Hello, this is the Malaysian 3rd Regiment and the Singapore 5th Regiment. We're here to assist you on the mission," reported the radio. Arthuria grabbed her radio from her back to reply.
"Roger that," replied Arthuria and they continued walking. They approached where a light has managed to pierce through the thick canopy; a clearing near a stream, slowly, as they have spotted camps nearby. They hid behind a fallen tree near the stream. A soldier came out of one of the tents, sporting Nationalist uniform. They took cover while Diva observed them.
"Arthuria, map," said Rina. Arthuria reached down her pocket and took out the map. Rina inspected it and pinpointed their location. She reached for her radio and whispered in.
"Enemy spotted. Coordinates 2510345," whispered Rina. Then she came up and looked again. More troops came from behind the trees. They brought back some prisoners of war. They were wearing Malaysian and Singaporean military uniform.
"Shit!" Rina exclaimed before getting back.
"What is it?" asked Arthuria.
"Our assistance is right there," replied Rina, pointing towards the camp. Arthuria peeped from behind the log. Then she came back.
"We gotta go. We just told off our position," said Arthuria, preparing to leave.
"But we can't just leave them there," said Rina.
"It's your call. Either we go or get caught as well," advised Arthuria. Rina thought for a moment.
"Plan B," said Rina.
"Aww hell no!" said Arthuria. Rina grabbed a bunch of straws from her pocket.
"Are you with me or not?" asked Rina.
"Ok, fine," replied Arthuria, rolling her eyes. They drew straws. Arthuria got the shortest straw.
"Fate has sided you today," remarked Saya, giving Arthuria a pat on the back. Arthuria smirked. She grabbed her rifle and started crawling out of the hiding place. Once Arthuria has left the scene, Rina peeped over the log again. This time, a Nationalist officer pointed a gun at the POW on the head and shot him. A second one came to take his place. The officer pointed the gun at his head and was ready to fire. Rina ordered Diva to fire at the officer. The officer was shot through the head and the other Nationalist soldiers rushed forward to find the sniper. The team deliberately revealed themselves and fired at some of the soldiers. The soldiers were killed, but more started to appear from the camps and started pursuing them. Rina and her team ran away and made the other Nationalist troops follow them. There were only a few guards remained.
From behind, Arthuria swiftly entered the camp, stabbing off all of the guards and releasing all the POWs. The POWs rejoiced, stole the weapons at the camp and set some explosives around the camp.
From afar, the explosion of the camp rang through the jungle. Rina and her team reached a valley and quickly turned around and fired at the troops. A soldier threw a grenade at them. They got hit and surrendered to the troops. The Nationalist troops, five of them, surrounded them and pulled them up from the ground.
"How lucky did we get?" commented a soldier as they lined them up facing at a cliff face, with their hands on top of their heads.
"Ready!" yelled a soldier. The soldiers pulled the bolt on their rifles. Rina and her team just looked at each other without turning their heads. Rina just nodded once.
"Aim!" The soldiers pointed their rifles at the girls. They closed their eyes. The soldiers eyes were aimed at their heads, fingers fixed to the trigger. The suddenly six shots were fired from the back and the girls dropped dead. The Nationalist troops turned and looked around for the gunner. A soldier looked back and saw them; lay sprawled on the ground, blood coming out from their mouth and eyes wide open. The soldier turns back and looks for the gunner. But from behind, hands reached out and grabbed all the soldiers at their mouths, then slitting their throats. They were let to fall to the ground, and Rina and her team withdrew their knives and kept it. Diva spat some blood from her mouth.
"That's the last time I'm putting chicken blood in my mouth," commented Diva as she wiped the blood stains from her mouth. Rina waved at a distance opposite the cliff face. Arthuria popped out from behind a rock and waved back.
"They're all safe now. They're awaiting extraction. Come, let's go," said Arthuria. Rina and the rest of the team followed.