The End of Her World

Chapter Five

"Get down!" the order rang out over the din of gun fire. Katrina smacked to the ground, so hard and so fast, that gravel impaled itself into her chin, and mud sprayed into her ears.

Katrina was in an underground labyrinth of stone houses with Fade, training for heavy combat. She had spent the last one and a half weeks learning how to use a gun, doing push up, pull ups and sit ups and learning how to use the Command Center, or Shit Hole as the Intel students called it, on the basis that it had used to a septic tank for a US Navy Head Quarters.

Fade stood in a rocky alcove in heavy duty combat gear, his eyes locked onto Katrina and a funny, prickling feeling overcome her. "Get your ass over here!" he screamed between burst of gunfire. Katrina crawled over, ignoring the spikes of pain as the gravel raked her flesh. Fade's hands pulled her to her feet, surprisingly gentle, radiating heat. For the past week, he had been calling her 'newbie'. But his words were a surprise to her. "Nice work, Hawk." Tingles ran through Katrina. It had been the first time he had called her by her code name, Hawk.

The moment she was covered, Fade turned and headed up a frail looking metal ladder that wound up to the roof. Katrina climbed up swiftly, matching Fade's pace. Admiration gleamed in Fade's eyes, and a blast of exultation flooded through her. No more scornfully 'newbie' and finally respect from the handsome warrior that was her mentor.

Katrina ducked down behind an empty gas tank. She pressed her ear piece and shouted, "What about real Recon training?"

The acerbic laugh of the control room commander, Smith, came through the static. "Soon, Hawk, soon." Katrina winced as a hail of bullets rained down at her. She did a quick shoulder roll and popped up and fired a barrage of shots at one of the machine gunners. The rapid popping ceased as the bullets pierced into the machine gunner's chest. A few seconds later, Fade killed the squad on the ground.

"Nice work," he told her quietly.

Katrina nodded. "You too." But her heart pumped painfully in her chest. Why was Fade acting like this? He was too kind, too handsome. Her thoughts were stopped by the artificial light strips lighting up, casting a ghastly blue light illuminating the maze, and his smile. The smile was soft and gentle, quite like his touch. But it disappeared as the radio fizzled into contact.

"Fade, Hawk, report to self-defense class immediately." Fade set his gun down and headed out of the door. Katrina straightened up and dashed after him.

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"Target the throat," instructed the muscular man at the head of the class. "Compressing the windpipe and jugular," he indicated a few spots on the throat. "will result in unconsciousness in 3 seconds and death in 12 seconds." Katrina nodded, scribbling down the diagram, realizing how using this could be in recon if you needed to dispose of someone quickly.

"Class dismissed," growled the instructor.

Once Fade and Katrina were out of the room, he consulted a datascreen for their schedule. It had been a week since their first self-defense class. "Central Command," he read.

"Copy that."

"You are very nearly late," Dr. Hale spoke in a quiet voice, laced with ice.

"Sorry, sir," Fade said, his eyes darkening with anger. "What was it that you needed to interrupt our training for to us to see it?"

"Fade," Dr. Hale's voice was strong and authoritative. "Enough."

Dr. Hale turned on Katrina, looking at her for the first in the conversation. "We have leads on your sister's position." He paused for a measured moment. "Is this enough to convince you to stay until we have found her?"

Katrina thought back to the previous weeks, her incompliance with Dr. Hale, her anger at him for not letting her back to her father...

"Tell me where my father is!" Katrina screamed

"I can tell you if you work for me! Just listen! I can find your sister and your father!"

Katrina was jerked back to reality by Fade's hand on her shoulder. She flinched away, pretending she didn't like it, but at his touch, a light tingling ran through her.

"I'll do it. I'll cooperate."

"Excellent." Dr. Hale typed in a few commands into his laptop. "You're scheduled for you're frist mission a week from now. Drop everything and train for recon."

Katrina and Fade snapped quick salutes. "At ease, soldiers. You are dismissed," Dr. Hale stated flatly.