Halo: Noble Freelancer

Part 10: Fear of the Past

I'm running through a cement facility, feeling a bit of joy as doors open to a field. Grass well managed. A statue in the center.

Fully grown adults playing in the field. No... Not adults, kids. Kids manipulated into adults, grown premature, changed by chemicals, and they're not playing, they're fighting. One on one simulations in combat, one person with a wooden knife and the other just fists. Guards stand near corners and on watch towers. People in lab coats and blue scrubs observe them from the larger towers, picking out who's stronger than the rest.

One of the guards at the door point to me and the other readies his gun. I look back and see even more guards chasing me. I jump and kick the gun out of one guards hand while slamming him into the other. "Everyone leave the quad, now!" a guard in a tower tells everyone in the field as they run into another building. I look back and see the other guards jump over the unconscious ones and continue there pursuit. I spot a row of guards line up on one wall and another group come up the adjacent wall. I stop in the middle of the field, no where to go.

They shut down the entire facility, doors close and turrets activate from under the ground, rising up from the cement perimeter of the field. "Sierra-115, I know you must be scared, but you have nowhere to go, get on your knees with your hands in the air and remain still. This can all just be misunderstanding or a really fucked day. It's your choice." a guard announces. I look around. What a beautiful, bright sky and a perfect dark forest, both on the other side of the wall.

I fall to the ground on my knees, hands in the air. Only two guards step forward as the rest still aim there guns at me. As the guards get near I can hear them speak low to one another, "Why does the boss want her so bad? All's we even did was just call her name in the mess hall and she ran." "I don't know man, I just want this all to be over soon."

"Okay just stay perfectly still while we do our thing. Understood?" the first guard asks. I nod, hearing rattling from the cuffs as the other guard tries to get them off his belt. "Come on man, just take them off." his friend demands. "Is everything okay over there?" a sniper in a tower yells out. "Yeah... The damn things just stuck."

The rattling continues. "You know, that one guard over there is wrong about me. I'm not scared, in fact, I'm actually having quite a fun time." I say calmly. "Shut up!" the first guard commands.

I can feel him look around. "God is it just me or does it feel like they're aiming at us?" "What are you crazy? If they were pointing those things at us then we'd be the ones on the ground." the second guard says a little irritated. "You should listen to your friend." "I thought told you too shut up?!" "They are pointing those guns at you." I finish. "Right." one guard says sarcastically while the other simply says, "She's obviously lying." "Oh, trust me, I'm not lying." "And I'm supposed to trust you. The one who was just being chased a couple minutes ago?" "This time, yes."

"Have you gotten those things off yet!?" he ignores me. "Almost... There!" he says triumphantly. I small accomplishment for a dead man. "Now just stay perfectly still." the guard with the handcuffs says to me as he bends down to slap them on my wrists. I quickly grab his shirt collar and he freezes, "No... You stay still." I push him back and rise to my feet while they both come at me. I get one in the pair of cuffs and hold him to my left with his hands over his shoulders. The other one I get in a head lock and hold to my right.

The other guards start to fire and I release the Guard in a head lock and hold him there by grabbing his uniform, the bullets kill one immediately while the other chokes on his own blood. "See, I wasn't lying, they did shoot you. You'll tell your friend that on the other side won't you..? Thanks." I say tapping him on the back as he dies. I stand up and the remaining guards finish loading their guns.