I awoke to a rough shaking on my shoulders.
"Steph! Hey!" It was the undeniable deep voice of Beau.
I slowly blinked my eyes open, adjusting to the brightness leaking in through the windows.
"Cmon, Steph we landed." I stood up and stretched.
"Don't call me that." I said emotionlessly, trying not to show that I was utterly horrified. Tabitha and Sabrina were snickering at me from the opposite side of the plane, obviously seeing through my bad acting. Beau realized that I saw them, and led me to the exit of the plane.
Right as I walked out, the heat hit me. I stopped to block the insane brightness of the sun, it being even more so because I'd just woken up. Beau put his hand on my shoulder and kept walking. I followed. Once off the planes metal steps, my thin black shoes stepped onto the hot asphalt.
Once I had finally accepted the overwhelming shine of the hot sun, I put my arm down and really got a chance to take in my surroundings. It was flat. Everywhere you could see. No mountains, no hills, just flat desert. And there was a geometric set of buildings in the near distance. A mirage separated the small runway and the tiny airport from the said town. The sun beat down and pelted us with its heat as we walked towards the airport. Tabitha and Sabrina walked together about twenty yards behind us. Once we reached the white set of doors, we entered the airport, and the cool, refreshing air conditioning was nonexistent. I silently sighed in anger and frustration. Beau noticed and leaned down to whisper to me
"Hang in there." We walked up to a small front desk to a man in a turban with a dark gray beard.
"Hello!" He smiled, friendly.
"Hi there, we're here from FFF." Beau said, taking out stacks of paper from a briefcase he held, and flashed a large gold badge from the inside of his jacket. The man eyes instantly widened as he motioned for us to come into a back room with him. I looked at Beau, and he nodded towards the door. I gulped, and walked toward the man whom I had never met. He placed his hand on my shoulder as I passed by him and into the doorway, and he did the same to Tabitha and Sabrina as they followed me. Once we walked into the room, Beau entered following the man in the turban. The room was small, like a janitors closet. But the man dug around through the mops, brooms and buckets to reveal a keypad, which he promptly typed the code into, and a door slid open. It was a white hallway, in which he motioned us to follow him through. On the other side, was racks full of weapons. There were assault rifles, grenades, and even ammo and bullet proof vests. He motioned to the racks and said "Take whatever you need. Please." And Beau nodded at us. Tabitha and Sabrina practically lunged at the assault rifles and flung the straps over their shoulders. They holstered grenades and pistols and threw on gnarly belts to connect all the holsters to. They filled up ammo pockets and picked the biggest scopes for their rifles. I stood awkwardly, feeling horrendously underdressed and uneducated. I glanced over to Beau who was watching intently on the weapons the girls chose. Once he realized I was lost on the subject, he walked me to the racks, pointing out multiple guns that to me, all looked same. Finally, he picked one out and dropped it in my open arms. I tossed it around my shoulder, making it easier to carry. I looked at him, looking like a little kid on be first day of school.
"What do I do?" I said, barely a whisper, a tear rolling down my face.
Beau wiped the tear off my face with the rough pad of his thumb.
"It'll be ok" he mouthed.
I felt my lip quiver, and I held back the burst of tears that screamed to get out. I turned around and began heading towards Tabitha and Sabrina who were getting a kick out off the available crossbows. Beau was talking at someone in his phone, and the man in the turban was attempting to break open a door. I crack eventually echoed throughout the small, sweaty smelling room and the heat of sunbeams hit my face as I was motioned outside. We were in an alleyway. It shot memories of the alley that was once outside my small city window. I shook this memory away, and payed attention to Tabitha as she pointed to a ladder and shuffled over, Beau staying in the room. All I had was a sniper rifle, but the weight was still unbearable. I heard the door latch behind me. There was no going back now. My shoulder ached enormously as I attempted to go up the ladder without showing my pain. Tabitha and Sabrina had already gotten atop the square clay building and we're looking with binoculars at the city in the distance. Once I stood up, I looked around. We were on the tallest building in a group of about a dozen. They were all abandoned, but still held a lifelike feeling. Maybe it was the ivy that intertwined with the open holes in the walls that were once windows. Tabitha mumbled numbers and letters to Sabrina, who was looking through a small booklet. The sun would have been beating down on us if there wasn't a large overhang of clay above us. I walked up behind the two, who ignored my existence. I stood on my toes looking over the shoulder of Sabrina, trying to see the pictures in the book she was glaring at. They were all mug shots. My heart froze, and I realized they were all middle eastern men, who all had the same beard, the same turban, and the same hateful glare into my soul. I gulped, and slowly lowered myself back onto the soles of my shoes. And stared into the ground in silence. I've seen these people on the news. I've heard the names. I've seen what they do.
These were terrorists.
Tabitha and Sabrina were silent, both looking at me, as I rubbed my forehead and paced back and forth, tears forming at the corners of my eyes. Sabrina put the book down and walked up to me with a rather intimidating swagger. She gripped my shoulders and turned me towards her.
"Stephanie." She said gently at first.
"Stephanie." She said with a bit more force when I didn't answer.
I looked into her eyes.
"Stephanie. The first time is hard for everyone. Ok? It is. But you have to get over it. You're fighting for much more than just yourself." And with that, she walked over to the crumbly hip-level wall that was stopping us from falling off the edge, and kicked a small hole in it. I watched her set up the sniper and lay on her stomach behind it. Booklet next to her, and ammo behind her. I stood, wiped my tears, and took a deep breath as Tabitha did the same. I shook my head.
"Get it together." I whispered to myself, picking up the gun and walking over to the wall. I busted a messy looking hole in the wall with the butt of my gun, and laid down. As Sabrina broke open the book, she began reading names with a specifically on point accent.
"First target, Alaa Rere Barhoomee"
Sabrina said, having glanced once at the booklet and returning to her scope.
"Copy that." Tabitha responded blankly.
Something clicked on Tabithas gun.
"Do you have a visual?" Sabrina said. Being in the middle of the two, I could easily hear the two quietly converse. They were both turned towards a specific building. Being as curious as I am, I followed their path and saw what they saw. An open window, with an old looking man talking on a phone. The rest of the room was empty, and the scope on my gun was so accurate, that I could zoom in enough to see the scar on his forehead. I took my sight away from the scope and saw that Tabitha had an earpiece in. A small wire connected to the scope of her gun, and she was mouthing silently to herself. I shot my head around to look at Sabrina, who was doing the same. Suddenly, Sabrina tensed up and grabbed onto her gun, jamming her eye into the scope. I did the same. Looking into the window, I saw him typing on his phone.
"On three." Tabitha said loud enough for only Sabrina to hear. I continued watching.
"One"
I tensed, adrenaline shooting through my veins and my heart going a mile a minute.
"Two" I heard Sabrina shift into her gun and the click of the safety switch to "OFF". I took a deep breath.
"Three"
A silent "Pop!" Went off, and through my scope, I saw a spray of blood into the white flowing curtains. It was a perfect head shot. Over a hundred yards away. I took my eye away from the scope, to see Tabitha and Sabrina staring at me wide eyed.
Tabitha chuckled.
"Good shot."
