The Day Before We Met

My Part

"Is there a reason why you don't talk much?" Hannah asked me after my team left to patrol the area. We aren't afraid to kill in front of civilians, so it's probably another reason why we were assigned to this mission.

I shook my hand sideways in a teetering manner to gesture a 'kinda' and sat down in front of the door. If someone were to try and open the door they'd be stopped by a bulletproof, three-hundred pound doorstopper that can kill with its barehands.

"Is it possible for me to get you to talk or should I only ask yes or no questions and make you be my friend by doing that?" Hannah pressed more.

"I can talk some." I squeaked out. Damnit, why does she make me so nervous?

"Coms coming from Sentinel Ajax." My communications alert went off in my helmet.

"Put him through." I stood up in case I had to move Hannah.

"Alex, we've got some hostiles surrounding the venue, but I don't think they have a means of getting in. I'm waiting on approval from admiral to pick them off and execute them. I just wanted to give you a heads up." Ajax seemed slightly distracted when he talked which confused me.

"Alright, let me know if anything changes." I ended the com and smiled at Hannah's confused expression that reminded me of a puppy. Her head was slightly tilted and her eyebrows were knitted together. All I can do is be grateful that she can't see my smile through my one-way visor glass.

"Is everything okay?" Hannah showed slight fear and hesitation. Like she didn't want to ask the question, but she knew she had to.

"Some Marians are surrounding the venue, but my team has it handled. Trust me." I assured her and her figure went from tense to relaxed. Wow, I was able to get a full sentence out without stuttering.

"I trust you." Hannah smiled at me after a second or two of her taking everything in.

"Thank you." An unfamiliar feeling surged through my body and it caught me off guard for a split second. What the fuck was that?

"You're welcome." She continued to smile through all of her actions as if she was the definition of happy and content. "I have to leave for hair and makeup in a few minutes if you need to tell anyone."

I nodded my head, not trusting my voice in that moment, and reached out to my group's com system.

"What's up?" Zander asked in a slight pant.

"Hannah has to switch rooms here soon. Is everything clear for that?" I continued to watch her play on her phone with the natural smile resting on her lips.

"We've been picking them off rather quickly, so yes. Make it quick and smooth. No stopping." Ajax was also out of breath.

"Execution count?" I checked my wrist device to see the route we had to take to change rooms.

"Eleven and counting." Keenan answered confidently.

"I'm sending our route to you guys now. We will move in exactly two minutes." I swiped my wrist and sent it to my group before ending the coms with them.

"Two minutes?" Hannah asked me as I adjusted my pistols after sitting on the ground. They get all jammed up in their magnet holsters and get angled weird. So annoying.

"Well, now," I checked my wrist device. "Just over a minute."

Hannah scurried to get her things together and came to me as soon as time was up.

"Coms to Sentinel Ajax." I linked Ajax since he is technically our Captain, but he's just the big brother.

"Green light." Ajax was clearly in the middle of fucking someone up from his voice being as strained as it was.

"Let's go." I cut Ajax's coms, and I walked Hannah to her makeup room with both of my pistols drawn.

"Should I have a gun too?" Hannah asked as we walked.

I tried to politely hush her, but it sounded too urgent to sound so.

"Why did you shush me?" Hannah pouted when I closed the door behind us and immediately cleared the room and scanned the two workers for weapons through my helmet.

"Because we have to travel as quietly as possible. The less people that know where we are, the better." I re-holstered my pistols and sat down on the metal stool that sat in the corner of the room.

"Oh, my bad." Hannah sucked her lips in. "So should I have a pistol?"

"Um, no." I shook my head. "I have plenty of guns on me, and so do the other three."

"You only have two guns on you." Hannah tilted her head to the side in question.

"I have many, many more. You just can't see them." I assured her.

Hannah slowly nodded her head, definitely shocked that I have more weapons than what meets the eye.

"Let's get to work, Miss Hannah." One of the workers clapped his hands and I took my part of listening to everything and anything.

"So is this what you guys do? Play body guard to celebrities?" One of the workers teased me, but a rude awakening is about to come for the short stack.

"We're usually dropping out of space shuttles onto Mars for recon and or loud missions on a weekly basis, but she is a target of interest, so they sent the best of the best to guard her. I am Sentinel Black and that is what you will call me. I spent my entire childhood being genetically modified so I could save your ass. Show me some damn respect." I gave a short and to the point lecture to show that I was not one to mess around, nor was I one to be disrespected. "I have killed more people than you have met in your entire lifetime, and I could make your death have a legal reason for me to kill you if you disrespect any Sentinel again."

The stylist stood their with his jaw slacked, his face pale, and his entire figure trembling.

"Get back to work. We're on a schedule." I got annoyed when he stood there motionless for another minute or so while the other stylist had nervously rushed back to her work.

What caused an unfamiliar feeling in me was Hannah's facial expression. It held both terror and, I want to say, sorrow or woe. My chest felt like it got punched right in the middle, but no pain or injury was detected from my suit. The hell was that?