Element 119

A New Beginning

        Sam gasped and sat up quickly in bed, clutching at the blankets around her as her blue eyes darted about the dark room. Sweat clung to every inch of her body, and her heart was racing, thudding hard enough that she could feel her pulse in her toes. Her sleep-addled vision took in the room around her as her eyes slowly adjusted. Her 'room' had once just been a small office, but she had converted it into a makeshift bedroom for herself. There was her in her bed snuggled in a corner of the tiny room, her clothes across the room slumped over a small chair, and the desk next to it, but nothing else. No one else was with her in the darkness.

        She let out a relieved sigh and fell back onto her hard matress, and to her emense shame tears fromed in her eyes and started to spill over. Those stupid dreams, she ranted inside her head. How was she ever supposed to get any kind of rest when those dreams plauged her as they did?

        She was still cursing herself moments later when the screaming started, sending her out of bed and to her clothes like a rocket. It wasn't the first time that she'd had to dress fast, so she pulled the shirt over her head, and was just getting her pants on, cursing herself for being idiotic enough to take them off for her nap, when her door banged open and a figure hurried inside of the room, making it noticibly more crowed, and the light that flooded into the once-dark room made her eyes ache as they struggled to quickly adjust.

        Sam's gun was already in her hand and pointed at the figure, the safety off, when the person looked to her and swore a threat so colorful that she dropped the gun back to the desk before he had even finished. Only one person swore like that, she knew, and the figure's next words confirmed it.

        "One got inside the wall," the man said quickly, looking over his shoulder, back to the world beyond her door. In contrast to the screaming that could still be faintly heard, the man was slightly relaxed and his voice was calm-despite the previous bout of foul language.

        "Nah, I thought a celebrity showed up, Eric," Sam muttered, finishing pulling up her pants and fastening them. "Just one?"

        The man-Eric-nodded. "There was a gap on the east side. Meant to repair it tomorrow."

        "Never put off til tomorrow what can be done today," Sam growled, picking up the gun once more from the desk and stalked past him,  unable to see the smile that formed on his face as she slid the gun's clip out and checked to make sure it was full.

        "I see someone got her beauty rest," Eric teased, looking over the Sam's grouchy and irritible mood. To go along with that mood, the girl's curly black hair was mussed and there were bags under her sharp blue eyes, which turned to Eric with a glare that could have curdled milk and promised trouble.

        "Remind me to find you after the attack on my people is over," Sam threatened darkly, shoving the clip into her gun with a violent snap that emphasized the threat in her tone and eyes. Though it didn't have the effect she desired nor expected as Eric chuckled, his eyes-now that they were exposed to the light were a dashing shade of green-twinkled in mirth.

        "I'm trembling in fear," Eric replied, his voice playful. "Shall I expect to fear Hell's wrath at such time?"

        "Worse," Sam promised before she stalked away from the laughing man behind her, her temper following her like a black cloud. Why she'd decided to make that man her second-in-command, she'd never know. He was irritating, obnoxious, and had no idea when to take a situation seriously, a complete contrast to Sam these days.

        But as the girl stalked outside and rounded the corner to where there was a group circled around a limp body on the ground, she stood taller, her dark blue eyes almost crackling with the dangerous energy that was flowing through her body. As she got closer, people began to notice, and those that had half a brain left  remembered that they had somewhere very important to be elsewhere and rushed away from the coming storm that was an enraged Sam.

        At least some people were smart, Sam mused with a small curl of her lips. Saved her bullets.