ALICE

Chapter 62: TOXIC

 Chapter 62: TOXIC

 Alice spent the next two weeks perfecting her skills. Her daily routine was both consistent and brutal. She awoke at five AM every morning and did ten laps around the outside of the base. When that was done she went into the exercise yard and did one hundred crunches, pushups, burpies, jumping jacks, and then another three laps.

 When Alice was done with that part of her workout she took a half-hour break for a large breakfast of three MRE’s and a Calorie Mate. When she ate that she did the whole routine again. After that she went to the large firing range and perfected her aim with various rifles and handguns for around and hour. Then she braked for lunch and did her workout routine again. At the end of the day she consulted and did strategy with Redd and Angel. Almost directly after dinner she was off to bed to recover for the next day.

 Alice took Sundays off, and on this particular one Alice went to the Locker to find the best weapons for the mission in just a week. Upon entering the Locker she was shocked by the amount of weapons in there. It had decreased drastically, which made Alice think of all the casualties she had heard of in the past month. No doubt the LSF had stolen their weapons upon killing them, or simply burying them with the bodies. There were still at least a thousand guns in there, which was okay although the weapons were at one point at a number of at least five thousand.

 Alice browsed for a little while before finding a weapon she hadn’t seen any of in the locker. It was a heavy black and had the word VOID carved into the side. The stock was the darkest purple Alice had ever seen, and upon holding it, it was very comfortable and the perfect weight and size for Alice’s size. She gave the gun a shake but didn’t hear any rattle. Upon inspection, the gun was some sort of modified ACR, with a wider barrel that had what looked like it had a built-in suppressor. Alice took a look at the bullets inside the magazine and saw that it was full of 3.38 rounds, the same as her M4. Alice snapped a sight onto the gun and took it back to the firing range. As she held the gun up to aim at the target, there was a collective gasp from every soldier at the range.

 Words like Victim, Found, Away all made it to Alice’s ears as she took a shot at the target. Time seemed to slow just ever so slightly as the bullet hit the target directly on the red mark in the middle. Alice gasped as every bullet she fired slammed into the target in a tight spread around the bullseye.

 Alice decided she liked this gun. She was going to take this one to Threader with her. She pulled the magazine out of the bottom of the gun. And walked away, putting the weapon in her lean-to. When that was done she walked over to the mess-tent for lunch, grunting as she moved her sore legs.

 She spoke to Redd over a Calorie Mate, a calorie rich, cracker thing about tasted like strawberries. Kind of like a big pop-tart. The plan was very basic. There was some sort of deal going down between the LSF and another force that wasn’t the Resistance. Alice asked Redd what it was.

 “When Angel, James, and I were Mercs, before we became part of The Resistance, we were commissioned by the LSF a lot to kill people of the Espejismo Fantasma force. They’re a group of savage assholes who are native to the desert. They keep to themselves, mostly, although they will do anything if it’s profitable. They have been known to work for the LSF and then go in for assassinations on them not a week later. The LSF paid us good money to take out Chiefs and such in that force. Currently they’re getting low on water and they’re going to the LSF for a trade, soldiers for water.”

 “Soldiers?”

 “They’re selling them kids. Four to about eight years old, and they’re loading up trucks, giving them maybe two hundred children to be used as child soldiers.”

 Alice grimaced in disgust. “So they’re doing this meeting in a big open square?”

 “Same one Angel’s mom died in. Both sides want the high point advantage if the deal goes South. So they’ll have snipers in the surrounding buildings. The plan is to get into one of them after killing the Natives or the LSF in there, and then getting ZERO with this.”

 He pulled up a huge, black sniper rifle that Alice had never seen before. “Fifty calibre,” He said proudly. “Made for punching through the armour on tanks. Should put a hole in her pretty good.”