Smile More (Hamilton Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

Night had fallen, bringing with it the moon and stars... and bugs. Mosquitos and flies milled about you, attracted to your body heat. You dealt with them and didn't break your position. Not even when one flew into your eye. You wondered how the others were faring.

Moving slowly, you lifted your knife and angled it so that it reflected the moonlight. You scanned the other trees counting how many of your friends repeated the signal. Alexander wasted no time replying. Glints of light came from Lafayette's and Laurens's trees. Then Mulligans and... No response came from Burr's section of the tree line.

Perhaps he hadn't seen it. You raised it again and glinted it solely in Burr's direction... All of the others replied again. Nothing. Had Burr been taken? No, No, No. No!

 A flicker of light came from his direction. Oh, thank the Norns. Burr is fine. 

He must've just zoned out for a minute. You gave two consecutive flashes, the signal to tell them to be ready.

You waited and waited, listening and watching. Animals scuttled and crawled in the forest as insects hummed above. It was a long time until a wave of silence washed over the forest. 

Now, kids, this is an important lesson for anyone to learn in case they ever find themselves in the woods for whatever reason; Silence in the woods is bad news. It's worse than hearing a twig snap nearby. Animals, birds, and insects will go quiet so they aren't detected by predators. 

Yep, you guessed it. The British have arrived and the battle is about to begin. 

Showtime.

You imagine yourself becoming one with the tree, becoming as still and unmoving as it. Footsteps crunched down below and you suppress your smile. Now is probably not the time. The soldiers pass beneath your tree and continue towards the camp, none the wiser to your presence. 

You listen intently to the direction each soldier takes. You hear three in total and each of them spread out along the treeline. Rifles are being unslung and loaded. 

You silently shifted, timing your next move carefully. You dropped from the tree as the first shot rang out, letting the accompanying shots cover the sound of your landing. 

The whole area was booming with gunfire. Some sounds echoed off of trees creating the perfect cover. You crept through the brush with much likeness to a lioness stalking her prey. You chose the soldier that had travelled the farthest to the left so that once you dispatched him, you could kill his buddies in a clockwise order. 

You extracted your knife from your belt and slightly twirled it in your hand as you moved toward the soldier. You could see him now, he was using a tree as cover, reloading his gun. He wasn't under the cover of the tree as he reloaded, though, instead he stayed poked out around it, focused on the camp ahead of him.

Rookie mistake.

You grinned. He finished reloading and raised the musket, aiming at the soldiers running and yelling within the camp. You closed the distance between yourself and the soldier.

The soldier's hands left the gun when you stabbed him, desperately grappling for the knife anchored in his back. You pulled the knife out before his fingers could even get close to the handle. You yanked on his hair forcing his head to tilt backwards. He looked at you with a hopelessly terrified expression and you slit his throat.

Despite the intimacy of killing someone with a knife, it wasn't exactly enough to satisfy you. You sheathed your knife and drew your sword as you unstrapped the shield on your back.