My Name is Thea Queen, I Am the Arrow

Slade with his Hard Knocks

Slade and I are outside the plane and the fields, training in hand to hand combat. Well, more like I'm swinging and he's dodging all my blows, Slade finally grabs my arm and flips me over on to the ground, placing a knife against my throat. 

"Ah, dead. Again." Slade mocks. 

I stand up and we start again. I swing a blade at Slade, which he easily deflects and twist my arm, disarming me and twisting me down to the ground. Now, Slade and I are practicing with two sticks in each hands, banging each other in synchrony. But he throws me off with a swift smack to the face, knocking me down again.

"How did you survive here for six months? I know babies who have more fight in them." Slade mocks as he watches me struggle to get up.

"Fighting babies now, Slade, huh?" I grin, having my hand out for him to take to help me up. 

Slade smacks my hand with the stick roughly.

"What the hell?" I whine, shaking my hand. 

"Listen, kid. We have ten days until the supply plane lands. I have ten days to turn you into at least half a solider. So start taking it seriously. I'm not Yao Fei, I will not risk my life for yours and I won't carry you home either." Slade snaps.

I get angrily and smack the stick with all might toward him, which he blocks his stick. He easily disarms me and smacks the stick against my back. I groan and bend over in pain. 

"What is the point of this? These soldiers don't carry bamboo! They have guns! So what am I supposed to do if one of them jams a gun in my face, huh? Uh, threaten them with my stick? Is that what I'm gonna do, Slade? UH?!" I snap, waving the stick around furiously.

"Here, kid. Jam this in my face. Do it. Now." Slade orders, handing me the gun. 

I take a deep breath and aim the gun at his face, which just leads him to disarming me once again and flipping me over hard face first. I look up and see Slade with gun aimed right at me.

"Alright, alright. I give up. I give up." I sigh. 

"Get up, Thea. Look at me, kid. Look at me! There is no giving up to these guys! No crying or buying your way out of it! You have two choices escape or die. Choose." Slade says pointing the gun at my face and gripping me by shirt.

"Escape." I say softly. 

"Then let me show you how not to die." Slade says letting go of me and tossing me the stick back. 

:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

"Lían Yu." Slade says as he points to the map.

"Name of the island. I know. It's Mandarin for purgatory." I add.

"It is? Just wonderful." Slade says sarcastically. 

"Is that the air strip?" I ask. 

"ASÍS took satellite images of the whole island. This is Fyers' main camp where I was held for almost a year." Slade says as he points to the images.

"Do you think that's where Yao Fei is now? Cause we could get a message to him. Tell him we found a way off the island." I ask carefully.

"Forget about him. This is the airstrip. And these infrared images show there are at least ten soldiers guarding the permitir at any given time." Slade says.

"Too many of them for you?" I tease.

"No. My problem is the guy here in the tower. It's a PTAC, portable air traffic control tower. The US government set up these for disaster zones like Thailand after the tsunami." Slade answers.

"So what's the problem?" I ask.

"The glass is bulletproof. I can't take out the tower guard with my sniper rifle. And if he suspects anything's wrong he'll radio Flyers and we're cancelled. It'll be up to you to take him out. Up close and personal. Are you ready for that?" Slade sighs.

"Do you think I'm ready, Slade?" I ask.

"What I think is there's only one supply plane every three months. We leave tomorrow or we die soon afterwards. I pick leaving. So get some sleep. We leave at 0600." Slade says as claps his hand on my shoulder, walking off to his side of the plane.

I nod and make my way to my side.

"Don't worry, kid. You'll be back with your family soon enough. We just gotta get through tomorrow." Slade sighs. 

:/:/:/:/:/:::/:/:/:/:/:/:/:

"Rise and shine, kid. Come on, we're moving out." Slave says as he wakes me.

Author's Note: vote and comment!