Children's Games: A Story of Modern Punishment

Chapter 21 - Emilia

~Emilia~

Gabriel's signal was an explosion from outside. Immediately a smoke grenade and a flash grenade were thrown into the mass of proud red hats and gunfire exploded in the air. They all stepped out from behind their hiding spots and shot towards the soldier they had targeted. Quick, precise, deadly.

Only after a few shots of her machine gun did she feel the people next to her fall back behind their covers. The Chinese soldier's cries of surprise quickly died down as they began shooting back through empty smoke, void of any opponents. As soon as she realised her mistake, she was shot in the rib. It was over her bullet-proof vest but the sheer force of it was enough to knock the air from her lungs and she froze.

Suddenly she was yanked back down to cover, and she blinked to find Jonny had hooked an arm around her and pulled her out of shot. There were a few moments that passed before the gunfire stopped and only a breath later was everyone closing in again and on their second round against the red hats. Emilia sidestepped to join them, still without a breath, but Jonny lightly kicked her feet from beneath her and forced her to sit down against the wall. He was out of sight as Emilia started wheezing, the force against the wall kicking her reflexes to breathe back in. She would only need a second as she hadn't properly been shot, but the blunt force from her vest on her ribs was excruciating.

She tried to get up without bending her torso. She opened her eyes again only to flinch at Joshua in front of her, wrapping his arms around her like a protective shield as rubble and dust from nearby walls rained down on them. She inhaled in the particles, finally allowing herself to breathe as she coughed up clouds of dust.

"Joshua!" she grunted, but he wouldn't budge. He was holding her down so that she could preserve her energy. "I need to help!-"

The strain to yell at him pierced through her chest and she hunched over and winced in pain. Joshua only pushed the hair from her face, which was already sticky from the sweat on her forehead. She gritted her teeth. I can do this! She shook her head as she pushed him away, stepping immediately back into battle. The pain in her ribs was now nothing more than an annoyance, masked by bravery.

Emilia blasted her gun at a red hat that had one of their soldiers in a chokehold. It pierced their jugular and poured blood, but she was onto the next person before the blood reached the ground. Their back was to her, so she shot at the back of his neck and kicked the back of his knees, then shot him twice in the back as he continued to move. She scanned the area with a boot on his shoulder as he stopped struggling. Then she was the one being attacked as one of them came running through the smoke still clouding the air. She dropped to the ground as they shot, but she got them first through the stomach before they'd even hit her. She whipped her head back up to look for more threats, already panting.

Adrenaline ran through her veins, and she liked it. She felt whole, an ironic joke to the things she refused to do back in Fimiston...

Their enemies were thinning out as she ran back and forth through the small battlefield. She ran amongst cooling bodies collapsed on the ground, but she had no time to identify which side was being killed off the fastest. Her weapon became an extension of her arm, flesh of metal and blood as bullets.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a red hat slice his opponent across the chest and then make a run for it. He was weaponless except for his tiny knife, and panic had set into his face, his mouth opening in a silent cry. Emilia chased after him, jumping over a wrestling pair in her haste to catch the stray. Someone seemed to have the same idea, and she looked over to see Miranda, the woman who had given her a book on the plane, running side by side with Emilia to chase after them. She looked much the same except she had a large cut exposing her shoulder and bleeding through her shirt. But she grit her teeth and ran as fast as Emilia.