The Hunt

Chapter 4: Hanna

The forests look dark and cold in the rainy, gloomy weather, but that isn’t what scares me. The fact that dangerous exiles are just beyond those shadows is enough to send shivers through me.

“We’re heading in,” Captain Sergate instructs, “If you look at your MBSs, they will tell you your role in this mission. We are doing a simple flanking position, chasing them to the wall and then cornering them there. Let’s move out!”

Jonas lets go of my hand as we start jogging. Now, the only sense of comfort I feel is the large gun that I press to my chest.

I had worked with missions like these before. But we’d never really had such high stakes like this. It was always just arresting one or two exiles for messing around near the gates. But this was three dangerous exiles who we had been hunting for months now, and this might be our only chance to get them.

My sprained ankle still hurt, especially since now the ground was even rougher, more uneven. But I never let it show, not in front of the judgemental adults like Carlyle.

Jonas taps me on the shoulder. He has his gun over his left shoulder, and is showing me his MBS in his right hand.

“We’re going to be the back of the pack, kind of like the safeties. While group one chases the three exiles towards the wall, group two and three will be on the outsides, flank them, corner them against the wall, and arrest them. We’ll be standing a little bit farther off from all that action, making sure no other exiles are near,” Jonas explains. Then he flashes me a smile, “I love when they give us absolutely nothing to do.”

I laugh, just quiet enough so nobody else can hear me. It’s true though. We are always just backup. Never actually in the action. We are younger, still in training, and the only reason we are actually in the team is because we’ve been here our whole lives, and we gave them crap until they did.

Then suddenly, Captain Sergate holds up her hand behind her. There is a moment as she looks around, back at the wall which is just barely visible to our right, and then out into the bleak forest which is to our left. The way to the forest is slightly uphill, because the walls are built in trench-like things.

“We separate now.  Keep in contact, always be talking, but be quiet as well. You all know the drill. And today, the emergency code word is sparrow. Understood?” Captain Sergate says, in a slightly more hushed voice.

“We should experiment, and try calling out sparrow, to see if anyone actually comes. I bet you ten dollars that they won’t,” Jonas whispers to me.

I let out a laugh.

Carlyle turns and glares at us, but we are splitting up now so there’s nothing he can say.

Jonas and I head off with group one, which luckily, Carlyle is not in. We’re going up the upwardly slanted hill, into the thicker forest. The pine trees are wet and we shake the branches, spraying water everywhere, as we run past them.

For a long time, we are just jogging, silent. I feel scared in these woods. Every sound, every twitch, I flinch at. Exiles scare me, and only Jonas really understands that. Jonas hates exiles, so he doesn’t like the forest either.

Suddenly, the man in front of us puts his hand out behind him, and we all stop.

I tighten my grip on my gun. My muscles are tense with fear, but I’ve been trained to ignore it. Somewhat.

He gives the signal to split up, and his group trots off to our right, and Jonas and I stay here.

I step closer to Jonas, feeling vulnerable, and he pulls out his MBS.

“Alright, they’re following the trackers of the three exiles. See, here,” Jonas points to three blinking dots on the screen. “And here we are, and here is the rest of our team. That line there is the wall.”

I nod, “I’m not stupid Jonas, I know this stuff.”

“I know, but look at our position.”

“Why?”

“We’re too far out to be backup,” Jonas says to me.

“What do you mean?”

“Look,” Jonas points to the dots that represent the group that just split from us, “They’re heading in an arch, like this. That means they’re going to chase the exiles in a slant towards the wall, over there. Away from us. By the time anyone calls sparrow, we’ll be too far out to help.”

“So what are you saying? That they purposefully took us out of the mission?”

“Yeah, they did,” Jonas is annoyed. He doesn’t ever get angry, really. He only get’s annoyed, or frustrated.

“No, I’m sure we just need to move in closer,” I say.

“Look, there’s no arrows or anything,” Jonas shakes his head, “I can’t believe them! They think we’ll get in the way or blow the mission!”

Now I’m annoyed too, “We train twice as hard as any of them, and they don’t even trust us with backup, where we don’t even do anything!”

“I can see why maybe me, because I’m a pain in the ass, but you, you execute perfectly, all the time. They don’t have any reason to treat you like this,” Jonas scowls.

“We should show them we’re just as good. Like, go in and arrest the exiles even before they chase them,” I cross my arms.

“Don’t be stupid Hanna,” Jonas smiles a little, “Only I can do that.”

“Okay, fine, we’ll just sit here and do nothing until they give us the signal to head back,” I grunt.

“Yes, that’s what we’ll do,” Jonas says, and sits down in the mud. He knows I hate doing this, but he also knows that I trust his good judgement.

I sit down next to him, my camouflage pants sloshing as I kick around the mud. Angry, yes, but I can be a good girl. I can follow orders.

Well, let’s see how long that lasts.