Being The Hero | 1

1 | New Beginnings

The room felt like it was moving back and forth, like a boat in the ocean. Lyra felt herself rock back and forth, and the sound of loud footsteps and yells outside the walls of the room turned into one big loud noise. The sounds reminded her of the ocean. That of a thunderstorm crashing through and the footsteps and yells were apart of it, drowning out any sort of thought that raced through Lyra's mind. The screams she heard were droned out by the buzzing in her ears as all she could see around her was shards of broken glass, pieces of the fallen building scattered around, and blood. Lots and lots of blood pooled on the floor, around the fresh new carpets now destroyed. Fire danced in her vision as the smoke started to crowd in and tried to find an exit. The floor was littered with bodies, dead or alive she wasn't sure. She stepped over a few, seeing their lifeless faces looking up at the ceiling and she moved away from them, holding the edges of what remained of the building's wall structures. Lyra could feel fresh air coming from some area in the room and she fought the urge not to fall unconscious and let the fire around her swallow her up. She worked her way around the edges of the room before spotting a jagged crack in the wall and slipped out and into the fresh air. Blinking the smoke out of her eyes, the surrounding area around her outside the building wasn't much better. Fallen debris of the building was everywhere, the wreckage far to great for Lyra's eyes to believe. More bodies laid waste to the ground, blood surrounding them and it took every ounce of strength not to throw up from the sight.  Walking a few feet from the burning building, Lyra stumbled over a few shreds of the wreck and fell to the ground. The soft dirt felt soothing to her and her breathing slowed slightly as she felt herself slipping. As darkness started to crowd her vision and the buzzing still there from the earlier impact, Lyra could just make out two pairs of combat boots walking towards her face and she closed her eyes and the darkness swallowed her up. 

Four Years Later

Lyra watched people walk by her in the military aircraft as she sat in an empty seat with a blanket wrapped around her. The soldiers were mostly all strapped into the seats with seatbelts while a few were holding clipboards and Ipads, writing stuff down on them. She stared down at her hands, bleeding from the weeks of hard survival in the harsh climates. The middle of the aircraft was semi-empty except for the giant crates strapped down to the aircraft's floor and some had tarps over them for protection. Lyra glanced out the window across from her and watched as the aircraft started to lower to the ground. A soldier came walking down the big aisle wearing a tactical long sleeved light gray uniform shirt underneath a Matrix S.D.E.U. Ultra lightweight black tactical vest. He had a pair of military light gray pants with a handgun strapped to his thigh and black combat boots. On the top of his head was a Black military beret with some sort of squad symbol on it. He stopped to talk to a soldier two seats down from Lyra and she sighed, clutching her hands together. The officer came walking down to her once he had finished his conversation with the previous soldier and knelt down to a knee, staring at Lyra eye to eye.  He wore a crisp uniform and had dark brown hair with sharp eyes. 

"I'm commander Stryker, we're landing in about ten minutes, you'll be escorted by my team personally to a nearby hospital and recommended to stay there until further notice," he said and paused, watching Lyra as she stared back at him tiredly. She was exhausted but today was the day she was finally going home, no amount of tiredness was going to make her miss anything that happened. "You'll be searched for injuries but all of the questionings will continue tomorrow as you need rest." He started to get up but shifted in a pocket for a moment, taking out a juice box and handed it to her.

Lyra looked up at Commander Stryker with surprise. She slowly picked it from his hands, clutching it carefully. Commander Stryker smiled slightly and Lyra watched him go. "Thank you," she quietly said, making Stryker stop for a brief second before continuing to the aircraft's cockpit.