Blue Through the Grey

War Bird

The smell of toxic death, the breaths of hushed warriors, the monsters of the new world. I can still smell the smoke of the crashed drone, it lingers in the air, thick, like I can scrape my fingers through it. We all stop and gather around, in the distance is our next target. We don’t say anything, we just look at each other and that seems to get the message across. Noah is the first to charge in, I’m not sure how to feel about him...he’s an alien...but a good alien? It just doesn’t make sense. The crunch of twigs under our boots reminds me of my time in the wilderness, before I was saved by the enemy. The sounds of rifle fire throw me into a frenzy. The Ghouls snap their jaws and spit blood, they taunt us, waiting for us to make our move. Down goes another one of our teammates and now it’s just Noah, Reilly, and me...just Jenn, not warrior Jenn, not badass Jenn...just Jenn. I go in, bullets spraying. Slice, shoot, slice, shoot. An endless swarm of evil trying to kill us. I want to give up, I want to scream, I want to go home.
“Get down!” A voice screams.
I fall to the grass and close my eyes, hoping whatever is about to happen will save me. I hear something swish by my head and then a sudden wave of heat. An explosion. I jump up and run towards sanctuary, leaving them behind, not caring what would happen. Branches smack against my face, my skin being torn apart. I finally make it back to the vault and wait for Reilly and Noah to come along. But they don’t come. My heart beats so fast, I feel like I’m about to explode. I head back but the treeline catches on fire. A wall of bright orange flames surround the whole area. I can see Noah and Reilly appear on the other side, but they can’t come through. The fire would destroy the Exos. I stand helplessly, watching as something dives down from the sky and scoops them up. I watch them fly away, my body frozen. Even after they’re gone, I still stare in horror, and when guards come out to escort me back inside, I’m still looking up at the sky.

I sit on my bed, my eyes trained on every crack that litters the wall. The room is trashed from my outburst earlier. I run my fingers through my hair and rock back and forth. I left them, I left them behind and they got taken. Reilly just reconnected with his dad and now he’s gone. I feel the tears stream down my face...again. The door slides open and in walks David. He looks at me, his eyes empty. I stand quickly and wipe the dirty tears off my cheeks. Before I can get any words out, he hugs me tight, a little too tight but I don’t care. I cry like I’ve never cried before.
“It’s my fault” I wail.
“No” He says, trying to comfort me. “It’s not. Marlene wants us in the War Room”
I don’t even care if I look like shit, she sent us out there and we were slaughtered. David pushes open the door and we take our seats. Marlene stands and points at a screen. “This is War Bird 736” She smiles.
“What’s it do?” I ask.
“It will help us win this war. We’re going to send a team on it and extract as many people as possible and then bomb the compound”
“What about Reilly and Noah?” David crosses his arms and leans back in his chair.
“They’ll be part of the extraction. We’ll get them out, David. Don’t worry”
I slam my hands on the table. “Don’t worry?! DON’T FUCKING WORRY?! We’ve been worrying since we got here! We were slaughtered out there and you don’t seem to give a shit!”
“I know what happened out there, Jennifer. I’m well aware. But we need to get this mission going in order to save them” She presses a button on the screen and it shows an entire picture of the War Bird. It’s beautiful, huge, deadly, just what we need. “In order to get the War Bird flying, we’ll need to launch it from the Bedrock levels. It’ll launch just like a rocket, that will give it enough speed for flight”
“When?” David asks.
“As soon as Jennifer gives the word”
“Now” I say quickly. “I’m ready”
“So are we” Marlene smiles. “We’ve been ready”

NOW ENTERING BEDROCK LEVELS. The elevator hits the bottom and the doors slide open with a creak, like they haven’t been oiled for a few hundred years. I step out onto the platform and instantly set my eyes upon the War Bird. Now that I look at it in person, it kinda looks like the jet from the x-men movies. Jessica, Emily, and Evan stand outside the doors, talking about something. When they look at me, their hands meet their foreheads.
“Captain” Emily says. “Ready when you are”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“You’re the leader of the Squad, Jenn” My father walks out of the War Bird.
“Dad” I run to him and pull him into a hug. “I’m sorry”
“Hey, it’s okay. Are you ready?” He asks, smiling.
“I am”
A voice screams over the speaker. “52 seconds til’ boarding procedure”
I climb into the plane and take a seat beside my dad. In the very front is four pilots, they press a bunch of buttons and eventually my head starts to spin as I watch them. I buckle up and take a deep breath. I close my eyes as the door lifts up and locks into place. The War Bird tilts upward until it’s finally straight up in the air. I’m suddenly afraid that I’ll fall out of my seat and die. I grab my dad’s hand and grip it tight. The countdown starts but time seems to slow down. When it reaches zero, I gulp and my head is thrusted against the seat. We take off so fast, I can barely breathe. A few seconds or maybe minutes of flying straight up, we finally level out and my dad gets his hand back.
“What now?” Emily asks.
“We land outside of the compound, blow the gates, go in and save civilization” Dad is so confident that everything will go as planned.
Then something happens...something unexpected...we’re heading towards the ground.