Sergeant Sheena Devonne chuckled then blurted out rather quickly, “I never got those tickets you promised me by the way,” while tying a braid in her strawberry blonde thick cruelly hair; her deep blue eyes glistened by the campfire.
Marie grinned and raised one eyebrow then laughed while telling Sheena, “You would have ’em if you didn’t go running off with Kevin to Hawaii.”
They both had a little laugh with one another before they realised their captain wasn’t joining in as he usually would!
“Captain, what’s going through your head?” asked Sergeant Devonne.
Captain Quis Podex fixed his eyes to the flickering flames of the small fire, his shaven head reflected the waving flames like they were the burning thoughts circling around his head. It seemed he was about to pull the answer out of the embers.
“I was stationed here once before, I would give everything I own to end this mission here and now,” he held his colt python revolver firmly and looked at it longingly, “If I only had the courage.” And with that, he brought their conversation to an abrupt end.
With several moments of uncomfortable silence, the awkwardness was broken by a sharp and distant scream that shook the collative hearts of the team.
“It begins,” sighed Captain Quis Podex.
The scream rang in their ears; carried upon the air with waves of unrelenting pain without an apparent destination. The only thing the team knew was the scream sounded like a woman in dire need of help.
“What the hell?” yelped Sergeant Devonne, peeking out of the cave, pushing the earbud button on her visualiser a few times, switching between the functions of the device, stopping at night vision function; she carefully scanned the darkness, her keen eyes could see nothing.
“Move out,” ordered the captain, his focus locked towards the town, trying to map the quickest way to the facility that their mission required them to enter. They put their masks on and gathered at the cave entrance.
“Alright, stay alert and whatever happens, no one plays the hero, understood?” asked and ordered Captain Quis Podex.
They nodded their heads in agreement then followed their captain; racing across the marshland, struggling to remain silent.
The rain hadn’t eased off at all and the wind had only grown more fierce. They held their rifles across their chest using their visualisers to detect where their team mates where and what their current medical state was. Sergeant Devonne was at the rear of the group, she could see Corporal Knightley was four feet ahead of her and to her left in good health, but her blood pressure was slightly above normal, while her captain was eight feet ahead of her, also in good health; however, his blood pressure was highly elevated! It wasn’t long before they stumbled across a cottage, weather-beaten white crumbling and worn cottage that remained only partly intact. Sections of the front and east walls had fallen to the ground, no doubt caused by been exposed to the elements over the years.
The screaming had stopped, but they still needed to find the poor woman, they couldn’t just abandon her, she needed help and they weren’t just going to walk away.
Captain Quis Podex hunkered down behind a large tree, looking to Sergeant Devonne gesturing her to scout ahead while he and Corporal Knightley moved in to position; she nodded her head and slinked away without a trace. Corporal Knightley would creep around to back of the cottage while the captain crouched down and shuffled his way towards the front. Sergeant Devonne positioned herself on a rise high above her team and the cottage, high enough to see as much of the inside of the cottage as she could, hidden in a sizable tuft of grass in the pouring rain; she swiftly switched her rifle to single shot mode and activated the thermal scanner on her visualiser.
She carefully scanned what she could see of the cottage, finding a faint heat signature in the back room of the cottage; she pressed the earbud button to open a communication link to her team and announced, “Faint signature in the back room, no signs of hostiles, I’m locked on to your position.”
Corporal Knightley replied, “In position.” She switched her rifle to single shot also and readied herself.
“Affirmative, Sergeant, fix your eyes on me, Corporal, on my mark, we gain entrance,” Captain Quis Podex ordered as he stood into the cottage choosing his steps cautiously.
He made not a sound not even as much as a squeak as he followed his rifles sights when entering the hallway, his eyes looked over every inch of the worn stone walls coated in a horrific wallpaper that seemed to have a pattern of black birds pecking at skulls on beds of thorns.
He walked deeper into the cottage that got suddenly darker and darker, he was forced to activate the light on his rifle and he stopped and dropped to one knee asking, “Sergeant, you got eyes on me?”
With a slight pause, Sergeant Devonne answered, “I got you, crystal clear, I’m good to go.”
He nodded and raised his fist with a thumbs up then remained crouched and entered the kitchen with the light on his rifle lighting only what he looked at.
He stood in the doorway, slowly sweeping his flashlight from left to right. He could see in front of him there was a dinner table set for a meal, but no food could be seen. The screaming started again; this time it was deafening, it was like they were standing right next to the poor woman. Captain Quis Podex decided stealth was no longer a viable option.
“Corporal, on me, heading to the back room now,” Captain Quis Podex ordered as he left the kitchen aiming his rifle down the hallway, filling his path with a bright UV light.
He took a number of firm steps almost reaching the end of the hallway when he heard Corporal Knightley burst in the back door of
