When I start awake, I find myself on a cot in Turks tent still. No one is in here but I hear the commotion of the camp still around and the shots being fired in the distance. I stretch and get my blood moving to go face the day. As soon as I walk out, I'm greeted by one the soldiers.
"Good morning, Major General Sin. Lt. General Turk asked me to take you the surveillance area. He's waiting for you. Would you care for breakfast? I can grab it for you and take it to you while you're talking to the Lt. General."
"Yes. Thank you. Which way to the surveillance tent?" I ask.
I get pointed in the right direction and head over. Suddenly a large explosion goes off, making me dive behind the next closest object for cover. Dirt flew everywhere, but as it still continues to drop, I'm out from behind the cover and checking for damage.
"Bwhahaha!" Turks loud malicious laughter rings out from behind me, making me turn around.
"Sin! You're up! Come on in!" He waves me over looking like he's in a rather good mood.
I look back to see the cloud of smoke coming up and realize that the explosion was across the river.
I turn back to him curious, "Did we just do that?"
He starts to chuckle and shakes his head, "No, one of our drones caught it on video. Some idiot was goofing off with his RPG..." He starts to laugh again bending down propped on his knees. "Idiot, won the Darwin award, shot the RPG into the cases of extra rounds for the things!" He's still bent at the knees laughing slapping his thigh as his deep roaring laughter comes barreling out and I can't help but try to repress my own smirk at the situation.
"Turk, you wanted to show me something right?" I ask once he seems to be trying to pull himself together. I'd never seen Turk laugh like this before, hell I've hardly ever seen him laugh.
"Yeah, come with me." He finally stands up, his belly still shaking in spasms of controlled, silent laughter.
"Enjoy your nap?" He asks me as we go inside.
"Nap? How long was I asleep then?"
"Two hours, maybe. Your snoring in that seat scared us all out of my tent though." He grins his at me, his white canines flashing from the light of the computer screens.
I slap his arm, "Oh please, the mighty Turk scared of my snoring?" I feign indignation.
"Anyways, here's what I wanted to show you." He points to one of the six screens that are up on a rack in the center of the room.
I'm looking at a downward aerial view of the area, from high enough to see both sides of the river and the stretch of it from the delta up into the forest.
"So this is what we looked like yesterday before the fighting began." Turk starts to tell me as the video begins to move at an expedited pace.
"This was around the time you arrived, you'll see the airstrike ....now! Okay and then until dusk. Do you see anything before I continue further?" He runs through the time lapse and all I could see was them retreating back from the airstrikes.
"No, continue."
The night goes by and I notice nothing out of the ordinary other than the airstrikes, but as morning comes around...
"What the hell?" I ask noticing a large portion of army that was there is just gone. They left a big enough force to keep their side of the river, for now.
"Right? We had to switch to the infrared on the satellite to see their movements." He switches the screens and the infrared comes on.
"They retreated and are now heading.. east."
I stop and look at Turk. Fear and anxiety start to enter into my thoughts.
"Don't worry, John knows. He wanted you to get some sleep before coming. They haven't made it there yet and they're still having fun playing 'herding' the forces all over into your lovely traps. I've already have someone rallying your people to head back to your location. Half the army has already headed that way. They didn't even unpack, if you need us we will be there."
Turk pats my shoulder as the soldier comes in with my food. I'm about to tell them to take it to someone else when Turk gives me a glare.
"Eat, Sin."
"Alright..... dad." Giving him a pout and sarcasm, I take the food and begin to eat with a grin.
He looks up at the ceiling and mutters under his breath, "This shithead.."
The shifting of the main force of their troops had me and my men back within the hour at our original location. Turk was not lying when he said they were having fun 'herding' them into traps.
"Is this all just infantry? No armored cars and heavy fire power at all?" I asked sliding up next to John after watching them fire a few shots at the soldiers still trying to figure out how to get back out of area riddled with traps and too close to us not to be target practice.
"We've had some RPG's fired at us, but the few jeeps moving with them..." John smirks at me, " they found out there's a lot more holes out there than they realized."
I flip my visor down and zoom in on the pockmarked ground and trees almost half a mile away. Sure enough bunches of large brown sacks swing high in the trees, still full of the Erl's soldiers, and holes with soldiers trying to help people out.
'We can't have any of that, now can we?' I think to myself before getting an idea.
I flip my visor up and give John a devilish grin. "Oh we're going to have to have some fun, I think."
"I'm listening." Johns curious smirk comes closer as leans in, "what kind of fun are we talking about?"
I lean in, "Well, not what you were thinking. I think we could fit some of that in real quick though."
Our lips meet and next thing I know, John is taking my shirt off. My eyes snap open and see he's snapped us to our tent.
"Someone is going to walk in on us." I whisper.
"No, they're not. They all know we are at the wall somewhere, gives us at least thirty minutes before someone catches on." He grins as he removes his own clothing before coming back to me and starting where he left off.
I moan as his lips start to trail down my body, "I love the way your mind works.... and those lips.."
I look down into his eyes as his mouth works my breast, making us both grin.
"I think you'll like the way something else works too." He says coming back up to my lips and wrapping his hand around my neck to deepen our kiss.
Our lips part and hungrily we look at each other. "Oh yeah? Show me." Grinning at him as I motion come hither and walk backwards to the desk.
"I am." He says with a hungry look in his eyes as he stalks toward me making my breath hitch and heart beat faster.
....
"You ready?" I ask John as we check to make sure we have extra bottles and plenty of rounds and grenades to do some quick work of the area.
"I am." He winks at me, making me blush from head to toe as the memory of what he did to me earlier makes my toes curl again.
Clearing my throat first, "Hchmm. Okay let's get going then. Akiyama, you're in command while we're gone."
Akiyama nods her head, "Yes, Sir. Be careful."
We nod in response and snap from camp. I'm up in one of the trees near where the nets had been set. I quickly scan making sure not to move and attract attention yet.
I notice that the net nearest me was empty and merely swaying in the wind. I looked down and made myself dizzy. I cling to the tree branch beside me as my equilibrium balances back out. I take a deep breath and glance down again, now ready for the sight.
I was easily eight or nine stories up in the air and even with that height, I could see the brownish red splatter of the bodies under the tree. I look around and see that only one or two other nets had ended up with the same fate.
I quickly scan again looking for the holes with the jeeps in them. They're easy to spot as the Erl's forces are working on getting to them and getting the supplies out safely.
I click my tongue and snap quickly pulling a grenade and tossing it in the hole before snapping to the next hole and doing the same. I snap back up to my tree, just as the first grenade goes off.
The explosion sends debris from the hole flying and the cries of the soldiers reach my ears. They are quickly drowned out by the next grenade going off which is followed by a chain of explosions. It sends the tires from the jeep flying through the air to land and bounce around still burning. Chaos is erupting on my side.
I look to the side where John was supposed to be and there's nothing. My brows furrow in concern as I try to call his com.
"John? What's going on?"
Silence on his end.
"JOHN, RESPOND OR SNAP BACK TO CAMP IF YOU CAN HEAR ME."
I snap my self to camp and look frantically for him. Everyone at camp gives me a questioning look before Akiyama finds me.
"Sin! Come with me!" She quickly pulls me into the surveillance tent.
"Everyone out! That's an ORDER, SO MOVE!" Akiyama shouts at everyone but holds onto the tech sitting in the seat in front of us.
"You stay Corporal." She grumbles when he goes to move. He sits back in his seat and stays.
Once everyone is out of the tent, I grab Akiyamas arm.
"Akiyama, what's this about? Where's John." I'm trying to keep the panic rising in me out of my voice, but it still is noticeable.
She takes my hand and points to the screen. "Corporal, show Major General Sin the video feed, now."
He pulls up a window and shows me the video from John's visor. It show's him in the trees scoping out the area for his targets.
Then it starts to rain.
I grip my chest as suddenly I hear him struggle and then it looks like he's falling as I see sky and earth spinning.
There's a loud crack as it hits the ground and the visor show's a crack in the screen but still working. Suddenly there's a note placed in front of the visor.
*****
-Mary, Why do you avoid the rain? Face your fears girl, there's much to gain.-
*****
I don't even think, I just immediately snap to Thietian and startle him on the phone.
"Shit! Sin! Gave me a damn heart attack! Wait.. Prime Minister, I'm sorry but I will call you back shortly. Bye." Thietian hangs the phone up and stands up.
"Sin? What's the matter?" He morphs to Cass who quickly pulls me to him.
"They took John. I need the Shadows. Now." I pull back from Cass's embrace as he nods and shifts back to Thietian.
"Don't worry Sin. We'll get him back." Thietian says as he does something in the air and clenches his fist, causing a soft puff of air and a soft flash of green light to quickly come and go.
"Go back to camp, they'll be there soon. If they aren't already." He says as I nod and snap back.