It was a simple task to complete. She was to be in and out in 30 minutes. The job was clean. She was supposed to be unnoticed. However, in a cruel twist on her fate, life had devious plans for her. The bomb had gone off much earlier than she had anticipated. Now, she was being chased full speed through the Schwarzwald. She spoke into her earpiece, "This was not supposed to happen, J."
Static crackled before a calm voice answered, "J is dead." The line went dead after that. She shuddered in her strides. Conclusions and scenarios ran through her brilliant mind. Then, setting aside her emotions, she concentrated on the job. Survival!
The torrential rain was pounding on her. The thick clouds and forest cover blocked enough sunlight. She was running through the dense forest, informed solely by her observation and sense of direction. She had one gun with 15 bullets in it and a hunting knife. Her decisions had to be pinpointed. A small slip and it would be certain death.
According to her calculation, she had a 10-minute head start. It was enough to escape the compound and head towards the extraction point. The kill had gone according to plan. The bomb, not so much. A sniper's bullet had torn a hole in her backpack.
She focused her energy on reaching the extraction point. From the compound, it was ten clicks away. She had to reach EP by 7 PM. She looked at her watch. It showed 6.45 PM on it. She was still seven clicks away. She checked her vitals on the clock. Her heart rate was peaking, and she was losing fluids. Shit! She swung her backpack around and reached for a bottle of hydrator. Gulping it down, she kept her eyes peeled for movement and bounded down the slope.
Her onboard device beeped. She threw the empty bottle away, swung her backpack on, and looked at OBD: five clicks away and 10 minutes to EP. A minute later, her watch beeped. The hydrator had done its job, and her fluid was back to optimum levels.
She was trained to take on the best and beat them. During her training, she wrestled with Mother Nature and came away victorious. She was the top student.
She was four clicks away from EP when she heard the engines roar. At a distance, she could see the blazing lights. They were onto her. She said to herself, "It is them or me." As the sounds grew louder, she quickly crept up a tree and hid in the leaves. An owl turned its head around to look at her and hooted.
The machines stopped under her. The half-human, half-machine beings, Sonics, alighted from the machines. She squinted her eyes to see the Leader giving non-verbal instructions. They fanned out, one behind the other, in each direction. The Leader went back to his machine, and it vanished. Camouflage was activated. The entire squad would be invisible. The only way she could make out their existence was by the pattern of the raindrops falling on them.
She planned to slide down from the tree to the forest floor and check for the machines, but she refrained from doing so. The Leader would be looking at thermal scans. Any blue dot would set her apart from the red forest, so she had to blend into the woods and become the forest.
Her watch beeped for the final time. It was time, and the self-destruct sequence was activated. She carefully removed the watch and placed it next to the owl. The watch hissed before dissolving in its acid. The owl's heat signature masked the liquified watch. She was now playing the waiting game. For now, she was safe behind the thick branches.
She opened her backpack to review the items - a book, another hydrator, a Swiss Army knife, and a cigarette lighter. She flicked the lighter on, and it sparked and died. When she shook it, the liquid inside it sloshed. She could get some use out of it if she could dry the sparkwheel. Her attire was wet, and it was raining. She positioned herself comfortably on the branch and dug into her mind castle. There was some sliver of information that she could extract from her brain to make this work. She closed her eyes, slowed her breathing, and dived in. She sifted through her memories, separating pyro techniques from the rest. Then she went through the pyro knowledge she had gained. Finally, there was one she could use. Her trainer had mentioned, "If your spark device has died, there is one way to bring it back. It needs an Orange source". She opened her eyes, wishing for the owl's original stance. Alas, for her, it was a disappointing result. She had to wait for another animal to show up.
She was getting anxious as the Sonics showed no signs of departing. Then, she heard screeching from above her. An eagle with hungry eyes was perched a few feet above her. This orange source was her to escape. She flicked on a switch on her OBD. It projected a hologram of meat on her right palm. The eagle swooped down with intent. She grabbed its legs and cupped its beak. Then she stuffed the bird into her backpack, threw the lighter in, and zipped it. The bird struggled inside the bag, giving off heat. She derived no pleasure from her act. It was either the bird or her, and survival had kicked into top gear.
The wait began. Based on her training, the sparkwheel should be ready in 30 seconds. She looked at the watch and waited for a full minute. She carefully unzipped the bag, and the bird scratched her before it flew away. It was the eagle's way of exacting revenge on its captor. She winced and shifted her balance. The leaves ruffled, and she was now in plain sight. The Sonic Leader was still inside his machine, though it was visible now. The Leader stepped out and looked directly at her. She saw the blue rings on the scanner on the left eye light up. She quickly set her book on fire. The Leader aimed at the fire and sent two quick shots. It grazed her left shoulder, and the other barely missed her temple. She broke the lighter in half, dumped it into her backpack, and threw in the flaming book. The flame engulfed her. The rings on the scanner turned red. The Leader was shouting instructions into his helmet.
She jumped, flaming backpack first, at the Leader, landing on the Sonic and pummeled it. The Sonic gripped her torso and flung her into a tree. She crashed into the tree and landed hard on the ground. Her OBD pinged once, indicating that other Sonics were on their way. She had to kill the Leader — the War of the Titans as they exchanged punches and cracked ribs. The Leader was her size but much stronger, given the build. She had to find a weak spot as her attacks on all known sensitive areas ended with dismal results. It slowed the Leader only momentarily.
Out of the corner of her eye, she found a fallen branch. It had just enough clearance from the ground to execute her plan. She drew her heel into the Leader's torso. The Leader doubled back. She turned around and sprinted towards the branch. The Leader followed a few steps behind her. As she reached the branch, she pressed a button on her OBD; claws emerged from under the sleeves and latched onto her fingers. She grabbed the branch, swung up, released the branch, turned 180 degrees mid-air, grabbed the branch, and swung with feet first. The landing struck the Leader on her torso, damaging the devices and fogging the helmet. She swung at the Leader's legs bringing the Leader hard on the forest floor. She grabbed a nearby stone and pulverized the Leader to death. Oily liquid and blood oozed out from under the helmet.
Her watch beeped frantically by the second. She jumped into the machine and readied all the available armaments into the automatic mode as she floored the pedal, springing the machine out of the mud. The Sonics were onto her in a moment.
She pressed the touchpad. The armaments located and obliterated their targets.
The Moon was rising over the horizon. She drove away from Schwarzwald to a safe house. As the safe house was a few clicks away, she sent the Green signal to her handler, placed the beacon inside the machine, set the coordinates to the nearest water body, and engaged the autopilot. The machine roared and trundled towards its destination.
She made her way on foot to the safe house. She walked around the perimeter, performing reconnaissance. Once she deemed it safe, she approached the house with her gun off safety. She carefully disengaged the alarm system and stepped into the house cautiously. As she walked into the living room, the house lit up. A tape played, "This is your end." Unfazed, she searched the house for beings, friendly or otherwise. Finally, she made herself comfortable on the couch and watched the TV.
J's torture was playing on the TV. She had noticed it when she entered the living room. She had to make sure she would survive the night.
She sat there, watching the film on repeat. It was her way of penance—a penance to be desensitized and rid of any human emotion she had developed during this mission. She was neither a human nor a Sonic. She was another being of the undetermined alliance. The only coalition she knew was that of her team of brilliant and skilled killers.
A tear rolled down her cheeks as the film repeated for the umpteenth time. She was not equipped to handle this emotion. An emotion her trainers had mentioned as "sadness."
