Octagon Project 1: Melody Halloway

~-6-~

"Damn it!" Mel whisper yelled as she pulled out the magazine and realized that she didn't have any bullets left.

"Seriously?" Zack hissed. It had been eight months since Mel joined the Octagon and her colors were really starting to show.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know we had any children here." She spat, pulling the knife from its pouch on her thigh and sliding it across the throat of a man that suddenly came around the corner of the rusted blue container without giving him a chance to make a single sound. Zack rolled his eyes and brushed his hair out of his face. "Cover me." Mel said as she used the body of the man she had just killed for cover while running the distance between the two metal shipping containers. Gunfire was everywhere, and there was just as much grunting as Zack fired back from his spot behind the first container, hitting each target. When there was no more sound, the two emerged and stepped into the clearing, the trees of the forest around them making the clearing look darker than it really was. Mel looked at all the dead men whose bodies painted the dusty ground red.

"You know you could have left some for me, right?" She said, annoyed.

"I think you've killed enough people for tonight." He countered, lowering his gun.

"Only twelve!" She cried like it was nothing, then spun around and kicked up a machine gun lying on the dusty ground, firing it off and watching the man fall. "Thirteen." She corrected with a head jerk, dropping the gun and turning towards one of the containers as Zack stepped over to the other one. "How many have you taken out?" She looked over at him expectantly. Zack was quiet for a long moment as his face remained expressionless, but then a dark smile crept onto his face as he met her eyes almost challengingly.

"Twenty-six." He shared. They did this sometimes in cases where the enemy numbers were large. It was the easiest way to keep sane in this kind of life; make everything a competition. They pried open the end doors of the two containers, killing the guards that were in there and pushing the limp bodies out.

"Please... please help..." A woman tied to a chair begged quietly with tears sending lines down her dirt-stained cheeks. She looked like a complete mess. So did all the other women around her. Looking the women up and down, she determined whether or not to let them go. She slowly picked up the machine gun that a dead guard dropped. In a single, swift motion, she fired a round and dropped the gun again- leaving the lifeless, bullet-ridden bodies in the container and leaving without a second glance. Cold hearted, yes. But if any of those women went to the police and described her to a sketch artist, the Octagon would be blown to the public. She met Zack back at the car a quarter mile away and hopped in.

"My container was empty. Did you find it?" She hastily asked. Zack held up a small vial containing a bright, blue liquid. "All this trouble for that little thing?!" She squeaked.

"No, there were a couple of hundred cases full." He said, putting it in his pocket.

"What did you do with-" Mel didn't get to finish her question as a massive boom went off back where they had come from, the orange glare bright and highly visible through the trees. "Great..." She muttered, turning back in her seat and slapping her hands down on her thighs. Zack gave her an empty but competitive smile and popped the gear into drive, pulling out onto the road towards the Octagon headquarters. He dropped the vial off in the evidence department and then drove them back towards the house as the sky began to turn shades of light purple and blue. The morning was well on its way.

"How was it?" Roy asked, sitting in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand. Mel kept walking towards her room. "That bad?" He looked at Mel, then at Zack, posing a question with his hazel eyes.

"She's just mad that she couldn't kill more than thirteen people. " Zack said, rolling his eyes.

"Twenty-One!" Mel shouted from in her room. Zack cocked his head at that as though asking if Roy needed any more emphasis on the subject. He cocked an eyebrow at Zack as the tired agent walked past him towards the bathroom. Mel grabbed him by the collar of his leather jacket and pulled him back. "Nuh-uh. Me first. I need to wash this blood off of me before Dean makes any more dumbass remarks." She said. Zack sighed and turned to walk towards his room instead.