Hunters of the dark (Nanowrimo 2013)

Chapter 1

"Training session, complete."

Julie smiled as she heard the robotic voice sound throughout the entire room. She then proceeded to leave the weapons she had taken and leave them in their proper place before cleaning her sweat covered face with a towel. It had been a long time since she had had such an exhausting training session.

"Hey, Julie!" She then turned around to meet Nathan, who was grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, there! What's up?" She greeted back.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go and have lunch with me?" He asked her as he fidgeted his fingers.

<Here we go again> thought Julie. "Sorry, Nathan, but I had already told Ellie I would be having lunch with her and..." "Don't worry about it!" Nathan cut her, trying to shrug it off though it was clear that he was hurt by her answer, "We can lunch together another time, right?" He asked. "Sure thing! And sorry about that..." Julie told him, actually feeling guilty.

<Why does he keep insisting even though...> Julie was thinking as she walked away from Nathan and towards her designated room, before she was interrupted by another voice. "Julie Hamilton! Where in the world have you been?" Julie looked up to see her best friend, Elizabeth, or Ellie, as she liked to be called.

"Ellie! Care to catch up in my room?" Julie asked her while smiling. "Of course!" Ellie smiled back and walked along her towards Julie's bedroom.

Once they were there, Julie let herself fall on top of her bed and sighed as she closed her eyes. "Julie, don't fall asleep, you haven't said anything yet and it's been at least six months since I last saw you!" Ellie whined.

Julie opened her eyes and sat up, looking at Ellie. "It's just that I don't even know where to begin..."  She sighed once more. "I guess you should sit down before I start, Ellie..." Her friend did as she was asked, eager to hear the new adventures of her best friend.

"Let's just say that a normal mission went... More than wrong... And I was stuck outside of The Fortress for much more time than what was planned..." Julie said, not really wanting to remember the nightmare she had escaped from just a few weeks ago.

"Yeah, yeah I got your message before you suddenly decided to leave the medical center of The Fortress and go on a new mission you hadn't even been assigned to! ...You had been stuck with that William guy for god knows how long and… well… that’s pretty much everything I know…” Ellie told Julie, trying hard to remember any more details.

“So I haven’t told you yet?” Julie asked. “Tell me what?” Ellie answered. “Well… William isn’t exactly a human…”

“ARE YOU MAD?!” Ellie suddenly blurted out. Julie tried silencing her, but Ellie couldn’t seem to get over the fact that her best friend had had civilized communication with a non-human.

“You know it’s completely FORBIDDEN to talk to any non-human that isn’t in alliance with The Fortress, right? You have repeated it to me a million times, Julie! There was even that time when we were younger when I tried talking to that cute werewolf and you yelled at me—“

“I REMEMBER, ALRIGHT? CUT IT OUT.” Julie hissed at her; why was it so forbidden to have any kind of contact with anything outside The Fortress, she didn’t know, but right after the last six months, she found it completely stupid and unnecessary.

Everything was different outside; nothing was like anything they had ever taught her inside of The Fortress.

“Just please promise me it was because of your safety…” Ellie said above a whisper. “It WAS, Ellie, it was…” Julie said back. “Then why didn’t you come back before?” Ellie asked.

“It wasn’t as easy as you may think, Ellie. They are still chasing after me. I can’t go into missions anymore, I’m to stay inside The Fortress at all times!” Julie plopped back on top of her bed, “I really miss going into missions lately…” She heard her friend laughing. “Do you remember when we had our first mission together, Julie?”

Julie smiled, “Yeah, things got out of control pretty quickly… Wasn’t it that time when we mistook those shape-shipter ovnis for real vampires?” Ellie burst out laughing, remembering what had happened, “And then we couldn’t get rid of them!” She managed to blurt out.

Now they were both laughing hard. <This is how it’s supposed to be>, Julie thought,<just me and my best friend, going out on missions, having fun…>. “Hey,” Ellie called out to her friend as she noticed her growing silent all of a sudden, “what’s wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong, Ellie, don’t worry.” Julie assured her.

Ellie wasn’t convinced at all, but decided to let it slip by; Julie would eventually tell her what had caught her mind all of a sudden. “So… I saw you talking to Nathan once again…” Ellie started. Julie huffed. “You know how he is…”

“Did he ask you out once more?” At that sentence, Julie looked at her. “Yes, he did…” “And you turned him down again, I guess?” “Yes, I did…”

Ellie sighed in annoyance. “Why do you always turn him down? He’s a nice guy, he’s always saving you on difficult missions…!” Ellie couldn’t understand why her friend was avoiding one of the most handsome guys in the whole Fortress. “Don’t forget he’s a werewolf, too.” Julie added bitterly. Ellie scoffed, “so what? He’s in the alliance, Julie…” “You were the first to avoid him because of his nature” Julie said while glaring at Ellie. “But that’s because I didn’t know him better…!” Ellie answered her while rolling her eyes.

“He’s just not my type… And he doesn’t seem to get the message through.” Julie thought out loud. “So, you have already told him you don’t feel the same way?” Ellie asked, surprised, “you hadn’t told me that!”

“Yes , I told him right after he declared his <undying love> for me, but let’s be honest here, “ Julie said as she rolled over on her stomach to look at Ellie, “I’m not a good choice for him.” “Awww come on, Julie! You’ve known each other since almost forever and you two get along really well! HELL, he’d even give his life for you! What more can you ask for?” Ellie said, exasperated by her thick-skulled friend; that was one of Julies flaws, if she had something set on her mind, she wouldn’t start thinking otherwise by any means,

“It just doesn’t work that way, Ellie…” Julie sighed. “Julie…” Ellie started, but then stopped and decided to let it fall. “Alright, then who have you got your eyes on?” Ellie smiled at Julie.

“No one in particular…” Julie said quietly. “Aww, you know you do! Do I know him? Has he gone on any missions with you?” Elli asked excitedly.  “You don’t know him, and I haven’t gone on any kind of missions with him…” Julie said, trying hard not to give out anything about that one boy that had caught her attention not too long ago. <She just can’t find out… No one can.> She thought.

Ellie whined. “You said we could catch up and you’re not giving away anything!” Julie remained silent before a while before saying, “Maybe it was a bad idea; I haven’t got much to say… Maybe you should tell me what have you been up to lately?” Julie then added a smile to convince her best friend. Ellie gave her a skeptic look, but started telling Julie about her life: how she had been (finally) promoted to Guardian, how she had met this <wonderful> new cute guy…

But Julie wasn’t really listening; she had gone once again into her memories.

And that’s when something happened: an explosion was heard, followed by screams and red lights flashing everywhere.

Ellie stopped talking right away and she seemed paralyzed. “Ellie, snap out of it, we’re under attack!” Julie shouted at her while she ran out the door, taking her best friend along with her; they had to fight back.

<I just hope it isn’t who I think it is, or we’re all in real danger…>