Hi, Sparks!
I do hope you guys haven’t missed me too much.
I tell you! This scene had to be wrung out of me. It was such a pain to get it to flow, but I think the result is quite nice.
My scenes are usually around eight to ten minutes long with the intro. Today I give you fifteen, and a taste of Afrikaans, I hope you like it.
As for the story…
INDEX | Chapter 7 | Scenes 1 & 2 | Scenes 3 & 4 | Scene 5 | Scene 6 | Scene 7 | Scene 8 | Scene 9 | Scene 10 | Next Scene → Coming soon.
Previously: As Misty’s privileges with the PG grow with time and good behavior, she starts to build relationships while sparring with the other soldiers. General Morgan sends her on a training mission headed up by Cathy, and things go horribly wrong when Misty blacks out during the airdrop.
I can’t fly. It’ll draw too much attention. It’s almost dawn. It wasn’t too hard to find my way here once I reached the drop zone, but, near as I can tell, I’m still three miles away from the goal and now there’s a whole army ahead of me. At least five hundred soldiers in bivouac. In the small pools of low light cast by lamps, I can see that they are wearing uniforms not dissimilar to the one I came here in, only in a colour more suited to daytime movement and with a small rainbow-colored flag on their front pockets. One colorful nation.
I crouch in the brush, pushing my energy level down low as stinging insects buzz around me. Resisting the urge to slap them away, I envy those soldiers their long sleeves and boots. On my way here I was able to avoid the stinging bugs and pesky critters by keeping a layer of energy on my skin but now, with so many soldiers around I have to dial it back and the loincloth and chest binding that is left of my beautiful custom fatigues aren’t going to cut it. Grimacing, I clear a little bit of brush and decaying plant matter and rub the nearest source of camouflage on my milk-white skin and in my wild and messy half-braided hair to keep it out of the way.
I skirt the camp, careful not to crack twigs or rustle leaves, and alert them to my presence. I don’t want to fight. I just want to get past without being detected. So far I’ve been lucky, in a way that can be called careful, but the little blotches of sky above me, lightning by the minute, mean my evac will be here soon, and I can’t waste any more time going back, I have to get through.
I step gingerly along the pitch-dark ground, where the light hasn’t been able to filter down through the trees and dense undergrowth, feeling out the terrain with a very light energy net a few centimeters around my bare feet, intimately aware of the shape and number of the tiny and not-so-tiny insects walking there. I nudge the bigger ones along so as not to squash them.
I am about halfway around the perimeter of the bivouac when I run into trouble. I stumble across a nest of large sleeping monkeys and set them howling. It takes me three seconds to realize that the scattering apes are making a noise that I can use as cover and put some distance between the soldiers and me.
As I dart along in the direction of the goal, my flat-out sprint is obscured by the noisy monkeys, while the camp behind me springs into gear. I rush through a clump of hanging vines and feel a light tap above my left shoulder blade as if an insect landed there, but there’s no time to brush it off. Those soldiers will have to investigate the source of the monkey’s fright. Hopefully, I will be far enough ahead by then to be out of danger.
Twenty seconds later it’s all quiet around me, I seem to have outrun the monkeys. I stop to catch my breath, my shoulder feels slightly wet and has started to itch. I can’t see if it’s a bite or a scratch or a sting, but there’s no trace of whatever it was that touched me. I suffuse the area with energy to speed its healing and focus on reorienting myself. The sky is almost blue now, and the ground is grey with tones of green coming through. I haven’t got far, maybe a little more than half a kilometer and there’s something up ahead.
Sending out a tentative energy pulse I can sense a small group camped out here, away from the main company, with some halfway familiar energy signatures between them. Intrigued, I creep closer for a look.
It’s still gloomy and hard to make out details but there seems to be a cage in the middle of a handful of tents. I take a breath and use my refined senses. Listening, sensing for energy… There are twelve guards and four prisoners. I recognize two of the ones in the cage from the sparring ring. That Drakisthan, Joel, and his Serp friend. Prison camp. They were captured?
My mind starts to race. I decided to finish the mission so Cathy wouldn’t get in trouble, but even if I come back, if she loses part of her team, she still won’t be able to call it a success. Joel is the one I put down so hard at Logan and Tom’s birthday party. He’s never liked me, but he is one of the training officers and a pretty capable fighter.
I wonder how they managed to get caught. As I crouch in the bushes, trying to decide if I should attempt a rescue on my own or get help, I notice my shoulder is really starting to burn quite badly. I feel more than a little nauseous, and a cold sweat is making me shiver.
“Opstaan Korporaal. Dis tyd.”1 Says one of the soldiers bending down to wake one of his comrades. In the dim light, I can see short light-brown hair and his sunkissed freckled skin, I see a few others doing the same and the sleeping figures stir and grunt. Change of guard, they’ll be disoriented. These rainbow-nation soldiers don’t seem to have any idea of the commotion in the other camp. Now’s the time.
I shake my head to clear it and stand up, feeling stiff and unsteady, and my shoulder is throbbing. There’s no time to worry about it. If I’m going to catch them off guard, it has to be now.
Grabbing the little switchblade from my last pocket, I slash my forearm, just enough to bleed. The light has strengthened now and I can see quite well. Joel and the others look unhurt but they aren’t going anywhere.
Ignoring the sting of the shallow cut I dab and smear blood over my face and muddy, barely clad body. When it looks right, I snap a branch and groan loudly to get the attention of the nearest guards and then give my best impression of stumbling into the camp, which is quite convincing as it isn’t wholly faked.
Two soldiers rush over, weapons in hand. I look around as if dazed and miss my step, stumbling a little so they rush forward, dropping their strange weapons. The other soldiers stand looking at me, concern in their eyes. “Jaco? Wat gaan aan?”2 The big one Jaco just woke asks from his pallet. Korporaal, it was Korporaal.
He’s got dark skin and a dense bush of brown beard, and some measure of rank on his lapel. I point back, and whimper, letting my knees go out from under me, the closest one reaches out and grabs me before I hit the ground.
I close my eyes in his arms and let myself breathe heavily. He cradles me tenderly, “Dis ‘n meisiekind, Korporaal! Sy is beseer.”3 He shouts back over his shoulder, and the others start moving closer. Listening carefully, I follow their movements. There are ten pairs of feet around me now, and the faintest hum of engines overhead. My shoulder really smarts. It’s sending shooting pains down my arm and chest. I let out a whimper to see if I can’t get the other two to come closer as well. Nope, looks like that’s as good as it gets.
The humming overhead is getting louder. Time’s up, Joel and friends will have to manage them.
I shudder a deep breath, and let my energy surge, sharpening all my reflexes, and explode into action. The soldier holding me and all of his companions are like statues, I have three of them down with energized head blows before they even realize what’s happening. The fourth tries to duck under my roundhouse kick and rolls off to the side with a thud and a grunt, and two big ones with dark heads to my left go for their weapons as I send energy blasts in their direction. That’s six down, four to go.
There’s some kind of commotion by the cage, but I ignore it as I square off with three around me. The other one, a youngish boy, cowers behind a fallen tree trunk, sobbing loudly, trying to help a burned and bleeding comrade.
I crouch in fourteenth form, left leg extended, with my weight on the ball of my right foot and both arms out for balance, energy glowing green from my hands up to my elbows. The three remaining soldiers train their weapons, stepping in a tight circle, clockwise, while their comrades groan in the dirt. I don’t try to keep them in sight, trusting other senses instead, all the while focusing on breathing through the sharp pain and dizziness that threatens to overcome me, refusing to let it show.
“Sy kyk nie eers op nie.”4 The one before me whispers in a puzzled tone, to the one behind. I tilt my head in that direction to let them know I’m listening. Their gait is irregular, dragging the toes of one foot. Right, it’s the right foot.
I cock my head as the soldier paces around to my right.
“Laat haar dans, Sersant.”5 Korporaal says dryly. He’s the leader. The other one, a woman moves, suddenly, directing her weapon low, and fires. Something comes at my feet at an almost impossible speed. I tuck and roll, reacting just fast enough to avoid getting hit and use the momentum to knock Ma’am Sersant off her feet, taking advantage of her uncertain gait. I grin when a gratifying snapping sound is followed by a shriek I have no time to contemplate.
Korporaal and his friend dive towards me at once, but I twist and fire energy in one direction while flying a spear in the other and take them both out. The one hiding behind the treetrunk runs off, screaming in the direction of the main camp just as a large vehicle rumbles overhead, and I crouch panting, trying to catch my breath.
Joel laughs out loud, his great reptilian maw snapping with each guffaw as he stares at me and the ring of incapacitated enemies. I see the last two guards lying broken at his feet, a ring of keys in the pool of blood between them. One of the trainees has a bloody nose but everyone else is okay. I straighten up, grinning while every inch of my body protests. It feels like there’s a great big hole in my back where my right shoulder blade used to be. It’s getting very hard to breathe.
Joel steps in my direction, the others follow and I look towards the goal, where evac is waiting. We don’t have time. It’ll take at least fifteen minutes to get them there. I feel myself swaying, but manage to keep my feet and we all head off. I hope we make it.
* * *
“What is it?” A sweet and mellow female voice intones. I flutter my eyes open but the blur is so bad I can’t even make out the barest outline, it’s all bright light and a white smudge. I think I’m being carried.
“I don’t know. Looks like a snake bite.” Joel hisses in his Drakisthan drawl.
“Oh dear! Any idea of the species.”
“No, fast acting though, she was fine a few minutes ago.”
I’m now lying face down on a padded surface. There are people all around me but I can’t see much of anything. I don’t know how I got here. Something is pressing on my back. It hurts. I scream, then struggle to take a breath.
“She saved us. Took out half a South African platoon singlehandedly and you should see her dodging bullets.” Joel mumbles with a hint of embarrassment. I hear the clicking and beeping of a portable scanner and try really hard to breathe.
“The venom looks like green mamba. Deadly, and common as those hanging vines in this part of Kenya. How long has it been?” The mellow voice has a hint of strain and continues after a moment when there is no answer. “I’ll need some materials to synthesize the antivenom, we have to move fast.”
* * *
I wake up in hospital, I don’t know where. There are birds chirping outside a grated window and white linens, the smell of disinfectant and something floral. Cathy is sitting by my side with a screen in her hands, tapping lightly. She leaps up and hugs me when she sees me blinking at her.
“Elle, thank goodness! For a while, we were worried you might not make it!” She gasps, drawing back. My mind feels sluggish. I rub my face and try to sit up and the world spins, so I lie back down.
“You were bitten by a snake, a venomous reptile, unique to our planet. It really did a number on you but the doc fixed you up.” She says, looking me in the eyes. I still feel a little fuzzy. Cathy grins and hugs me again. “Oh, Elle! You made it back! You came back.” When she releases me there are tears in her eyes.
* * *
Cathy hasn’t come to me since we got back. On the way to the base, she told me about what happened, that I’d panicked when we jumped from the plane, that I’d ripped the harness to shreds and kicked myself away from her, sending us both into a spin. She said she’d only barely managed to get control of the chute before it was too late for her but when they lost track of me, ten kilometers outside the drop zone, they didn’t have much hope. The rest of the team ran into the other nation’s soldiers as well though Joel’s group were the only ones to get captured.
The day after we returned, they brought me in for debriefing. It was a large room with a whole panel of medal-encrusted old people asking me question after question. I could tell they were trying to be nice about it and set me at ease, and I did my best to answer what questions I could, but they weren’t really asking the right ones to get the full picture with yes/no responses.
When they realized that they weren’t getting anywhere they had Cathy sit in a chair across from me, watching closely. Her interpretations gave them a little more detail. They all shook their heads in disappointment when Cathy explained how the harness made me scared and my panicked energy surge fried the tracking equipment.
Then they called Joel in to tell them what he knew of my story. He did it well. I was surprised to hear a lesser being like him, speak so highly of me. I had expected a bitter tale laced with hatred of how I showed them up, how I thought I was better than them but he recounted my fight with the rainbow-nation soldiers with pride. When he was finished, he gave me a little half-bow and a smile and walked off without waiting for the order. It was a clear disrespectful gesture, showing his disdain for the whole encounter.
Afterward, I was led back to my room where another brand new set of beautiful fatigues with my Elle nametag was waiting for me among my treasures.
* * *
Cathy is here! I jump up from my coloring book and rush to open the door. I have missed her so much. It’s been five days since the debriefing. I feel so excited it’s hard to remember that they are watching and I open the door as fast as I can.
She is waiting, looking away, holding a shiny black box with a gold bow. Pretty. I run back to fetch my picture so I can show her. It’s a cat with a ribbon around its neck. I’ve colored the ribbon blue and the cat a grey tabby. I hope she will like it and hold it up but she still won’t look at me. She seems upset. She’s still holding the box. I wonder if that’s why she’s angry. I want to see what’s inside. I tap her hand to get her attention then hold out mine for her to give it to me but she doesn’t, not right away. I grab her free hand and give it a shake and then she turns to me at last, and I see what she’s been trying to hide. I gasp, stepping away from her. What happened?!
Her face looks like Logan’s did after I kicked him. Her whole left eye socket is blackened and swollen, the eye itself bloodshot and bleary. There’s a blue and purple bruise in the shape of a hand. A large one. I can make out three thick fingers and a thumb. I swallow hard.
She stares into my eyes as I reach up to touch her ruined face. It’s my fault. I frown. Its because I ran away.
My mind races. Oh, Cathy! I’m so sorry. Cathy looks like she wants to cry. She shakes her head and says “It’s okay, Elle,” but I know this is because of me. I came back and she got in trouble anyway. I saved the captured team members but it didn’t matter.
“It’s okay, Elle. I shouldn’t have put you in that harness. I mean, we all know you can fly perfectly well on your own, it’s not like you needed the parachute.” She laughs softly and sniffles a little then pushes the box into my hands with a smile, saying,“This is for you.”
It fills my splayed palms. The edges are sharp and the smooth shiny surface reflects a little light. The bow on the corner looks like a flower. I open it slowly balancing the bottom on one hand while I lift the lid. Inside on a black velvet cushion is a metal pendant on a blue ribbon. It’s in the shape of a gold star inside a wreath with an eagle flying over. It is beautiful. This is for me?
“The Medal of Honor is our highest accolade for valor in combat. Dad wanted a public ceremony but I knew you’d prefer it this way.”
Next Time: Some time after Misty gets her medal, Tom comes home with wonderful news, that isn’t received as well as he thought it would be.
Thanks so much for reading! If you like, please:
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and as always, I love hearing what you think so, feel free to:
“Time to get up Corporal.”
“Jaco, what’s going on?”
“It’s a girl child, Corporal. She’s hurt.”
“She doesn’t even look up.”
“Make her dance, Seargent.”
I really don't like the PG. They drop into an unknown situation, lose a group, get rescued by Elle, and then they hit Cathy.
At least you got a good idea of writing an enemy, so people hate them.
Jenny, it seemed like a forever wait...
You certainly filled in a lot of gaps that I have been waiting for! Liked the way you let the snake bite be an unknown but gradually more serious impairment to Elle's ability to function and fight. Now, confession time... The way this played out in detail, had me 90% convinced that this had turned into an inadvertent or actual planned engagement with a hostile force, and not as I had previously surmised , a fully staged scenario just for Elle's benefit. Even with the previous scenes between Cathy and her father in mind. And I would still be persuaded thusly, if not for your, ahem, expansive discussion of a comment below... I have to say I am surprised, ahem, at the reveal! I was about to hit you up for a back story as to why South Africa would have become an adversary for the PG. Great scene from my perspective! PG got an eye full of Elle's capabilities!