Taken Innocence, Yet Unbroken

Teenage Years

I hired a babysitter and had half of my earnings from the military transferred to her account as payment. We quickly became close, and I explained my situation to her. She was heartbroken and shocked at what I had endured and what the others were still undergoing. She wanted to help me pursue justice but that would have to wait.

I left to my missions on and off while she watched over my darling Alaiyah. I spent every second I wasn't in a mission or seeing clients for daddy with her. Either spending time at home or off on field trips to parks and nature outings. Near the day of her second birthday we were in a mission to destroy an enemy training ground hidden within an orphanage. We scouted the area for an entire week and noticed no enemy forces in nor near it. We ventured inside and found nothing more than a poor orphanage struggling to stay afoot. We reported our findings to our commanding officer, who was quick to dismiss us and reminds us of our orders. As squad leader and trusted friend of our little group of misfits, it was my call to make. I looked at them all once we were back at our camp and said "You all know the consequences for not following orders and worst yet for attacking our own troops. However, I will not stand for this and the plan to protect the orphanage until our troops understand it is out of the question." They all exchanged brief looks before standing at attention and saying in unison "Our orders ma'am?!" I stood proud of them all and happy to have such a group and saluted them before firmly stating "We protect that orphanage with our lives from enemy and friendly troops."

The next few weeks were a lot of the same. We all had different rotating positions and we did what we had to protect the orphanage. We shot warning shots before lethal ones to our own troops but didn't hesitate after their warning had been given. After about a month of this we received a coded message stating the orphanage was no longer a target. We cheered at the news and headed home. I couldn't wait to see Alaiyah again. We got back to the base and were debriefed. They had told us we were being reassigned to a base in Germany and our family members would be here soon for us all to leave together on a Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter. We had been transferred this way countless times. It was actually the most common way to transport a non-existent unit of unconstitutional child soldiers. So we simply waited as we always did. Once our family members (those we had living with us within the base) arrived we each went to them after being away for so long. Alaiyah waddled over to me and I picked her up and nuzzled her for what felt like an eternity. By this point her babysitter had become my partner, and I made my way to her and gave her a deep yet brief kiss. She looked into my eyes and closed hers while we put our foreheads together (an Inuit way of expressing love in public settings).

I gave Alaiyah back to her and kissed her on the cheek before turning around back to the squad only to see the general was there and the others were in attention. I scoffed but made my way to them and took my place as squad lead in front of them all. The general asked if I acted alone and forced my rank on the others or if they acted of their own free will when we were protecting the orphanage. I instinctively took the blame or it all but they stepped up and said we made the decision together as a squad because we ourselves are still technically children and will not kill other children without a valid reason or in self defense. I smiled back at them and looked back at the general and nodded in agreement. While this was happening our family's chopper was taking off. The general shook his head and murmured "Such a shame" before pressing a button on a remote. The chopper with our families within exploded in response. We all stood there in shock before running to the wreckage. I walked a few steps and saw Alaiyah's head. I kneeled down ad picked it up. I put her forehead against mine before crying as hard and as loud as my lungs would allow. I heard everyone panicking in the distance as if they were muffled all I could hear was Alaiyah's laugh and the babysitter saying that she loved and missed me.

All of the sudden one of the others yanked me away from the wreckage and took her head from me. They practically carried me away as I was no longer responding simply crying in what seemed to be muted. After hours of our punishment the general returned to our barracks and said "Now you have one less excuse to disobey orders again." He then left with a smile on his face. The others were raging or in shock as I was. It was hours before we were all responsive. I looked around and gathered my gear as if I was going in an infiltration mission. I had a silenced 9mm handgun, extra magazines, four tactical knives in different areas, two wakizashi blades, ties and nylon roping, nitro glycerine, liquid nitrogen and two full sets of throwing knives. No one asked her where she was going, nor did they try to stop her. Deep down they knew the answer and what would happen i they intervened. So they simply lowered their heads in respect and watched her leave the barracks with only one purpose in mind.