The Fight for Freedom (Book One in the EDSOR Military Academy Trilogy)

Chapter 31- Protecting Thomas and Stephan

“Oh my God! Who the HELL are you?”, I heard Thomas scream. He screams like a girl.

I brought out my shotgun then burst into the front door of the computer room. It was a wreck! Wires were coiled everywhere…Papers strewn on the floor. Thomas’ neck was in midway getting sliced by a kunai. The assassin’s body was feminine. She had a GPS Device on her. Drat. She killed Lexine. K I saw from Lexine’s mangled body a large hole. That must’ve been the GPS that she took to fool us into thinking that was Kazim. She…hacked it to make it appear like a different color. Such intelligence.

“Good day to your girlfriend, handsome”

“Let them both go!”, I shouted from across the room. The wooden floor below me creaked. The smoke bombs had started. Boom Boom Boom! Defeaning sounds rung in my ears! Smoke blinded my eyes as I tried to duck below a table.

“Why would I? I already have an advantage over you. What’s to these young boys’ deaths that bother you so much?”

I started to stammer. Stephan and Thomas…I couldn’t just let them die. They’re like my family…my brothers. “D-Don’t hurt them or anything. They’re important to me. I guess you don’t know what’s it like to have a foster family.”

“Ah. So the strong and invincible female leader has a weakness for men?”, she laughed at me. I stood there, turning slightly flushed. “But of course, going to this war entails sacrifices too, you know. My father….aww..snap out of it, Valentine! Anyway, I am going to finish both of them off now so if you’d excuse me….”, she raised her kunai blade to the neck of Thomas who was gagged with white cloth.

I lunged forward and aimed for her legs. She yelled and lost balance. She dropped her weapon. As I regained my composture, I focused my shotgun at her face. My trigger finger was quivering with delight. I couldn’t control it. Thomas ripped out his gag and helped his younger brother.

Valentine was a beautiful warrior. She had short hair that had jagged ends but she was so fierce. I could see fire burning in her eyes. The desire to kill was there.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on my family!”, I gritted my teeth.

“You don’t even have a real one”, she shrugged as she picked herself up from the ground. Tears welled up in my eyes. True, my parents abandoned me and threw me at the gates of this school where I saw death with my own eyes. I reminisced the times when I never experienced love and acceptance from them. I was a freak..they’d say. A war freak destined to rebel.

“Does it matter now?”, I darkly asked as I forced myself to pull the trigger. Just before she got to get a good aim at me, I acted first. I saw the tip of the bullet from my shotgun go through her forehead and bury itself there in a second. When it did, my heart immediately started pounding against my chest. Her bloodied body was all that I could see; and a flabbergasted pair of brothers watching me in horror.

“Brother, did she kill…”

“Jesse. I can’t believe it. You just…”

“I know. Go to the DTASC. That’s the main refuge area. In the meantime, clean this dead body out of my sight”, I interrupted as I did the sign of the Cross to bless the body.

Stephan bent down to retrieve the satellite device she stole. He sterilized it with warm water he kept in a small bottle inside his pocket. “First aid procedures”, he said as he carefully wiped it. Thomas’ shoulders were slumped against the wall. His eyes were fixated on the blood gushing freely from the dead body. As if he was never seen a dead body before.

I remember the first time I met him. I was eleven and he was thirteen. We made it out through the entrance exams alive. We didn’t actually kill people. They started killing each other so our plan was to stay out of the cult. All three of us were the last ones standing. Poor Stephan. He had to experience all of this at a very young age. I doubt he’ll be the same innocent child he was by the end of this war. This war was an eye-opener to all of us.