Chapter 3 - Meeting the Squad

Chapter 3

The fog is clearer now… I can see the thing more… Though now, I think it’s a man… Or maybe… Used to be… I see his human like outline, but that’s all I can see aside from his ever glowing eyes… He tries to speak again, and this time, I see his mouth… It’s just a hole… A gaping hole… But then I believe I understood something… I tried to walk closer, but I couldn’t move… Then the man spoke one last time, and I heard it…
“Tim…..” Then he started to fade away and I started seeing less and less. I tried to call for him, but it was like trying to talk underwater… Then three great pounds crashed through the area!

I woke with a start. I was sweaty as hell… Who is that? And why is he always in my dreams? Three more pounds on my door and I heard the voice of another woman at the door. What’s with it with all these positions taken by women? Guess it makes the men feel more comfortable before going off to die… Anyway she came in and handed me a bundle of clothes, which was when I noticed I was naked…
“It is alright sir; you don’t have to be shocked. My programming disallows human affection of any kind.” Replied the woman with her annoying sing song voice.
“So you’re a robot?”
“Far from it, I am a human that gave her life to help the army for the price of my free will.”
“That’s bull crap you can’t use free will as property.” I replied highly annoyed by this. I mean, who would want to give up their free will to become a damned robot… I’m starting to hate this place more and more every day… Well after she left I finally put on what was supposed to be a uniform, with of course their normal grey color… What I didn’t like about the uniform was that they had that “hand me down” look to them. Are they really so cheap as to take the uniforms off of dying people to save money? Oh well, I’ll worry about it when I die…Anyway I had to head over to the docking bay where we were going to be getting our job placement, squad, as well as our 1st assignment, which will probably state,” Jump inside that cannon barrel and plug it so we can destroy it.” So I headed down there and that’s when I noticed that I was running a bit late. Some old guy was already making a speech about how brave we are and how we will win this war, and that we are all heroes. That’s a load of crap. Millions have died already and I didn’t see a parade for any of them… So finally he stepped off stage with everyone giving him a half-hearted applause, and then a much younger looking guy came on. He looked like a snooty bastard, but according to him he was going to be our commanding officer, I could not wait… At this point he explained to us that the memories we were given is about combat (duh…) and that when we were placed within our squads we would only remember those which are needed for our squad. Ok, now I’m lost… How can they make us forget anything? We aren’t in their torture suits anymore…

That’s when the fun began… They already had us pre-programmed apparently, and when he pushed a button the back of my head hurt like hell! It was like the back of my head was being dipped in boiling water! But it quickly stopped, and I was left with some of the most disturbing images… Assassination, running, bull shit tactics, that’s all I could remember… We were then filed into the basement where they had the armory set up as well as many vehicles, many of which I couldn’t name. I was given directions to one of the transport vehicles as well as a description of my duties in my squad. From what I read there is only 6 people including myself in the squad, and our job is to kill high priority targets quickly and silently, basically assassination… My job within the group was pathetic… I was supposed to check areas to see if it’s safe, send messages to nearby leaders, and to find our targets. Sounded boring as hell… But at least they let me keep the memory on how to defend myself with knives and pistols should I get caught. But I still honestly think I would do a better job as a pilot, that’s what I was born to do! But whatever, nothing I can do about it now…

Well I searched the blasted area for at least 20 minutes before I finally found the vehicle they were talking about, and I have to say, that wasn’t a disappointment. It was a pretty small vehicle, but it had plenty of armor as well as a few mounted lasers and a rack for bikes on the side. What was strange was I heard a guitar playing, really well I might add, on the other side. So I went to look and that’s when I noticed her. It was a woman sitting in front of the vehicle playing on an acoustic, something I didn’t recognize though. But what really stuck out was how beautiful she was. She had beautiful long brown hair and had the most beautiful face… She had a slim figure and when I looked she had these gorgeous green ey… And that’s when I noticed she was looking straight at me. She caught me checking her out.
“Oh sorry, was just seeing who was playing… You play really well.” I stammered, trying to NOT sound stupid… Which didn’t work… She stopped playing at this point and stood up, propping the guitar against the vehicle.
“Well thank you, and who might you be?”
“Oh, well, my name is Tim. I believe I’m in your squad.” I just guessed this hoping I was right.
“Oh really? Well that’s wonderful. Too bad you couldn’t meet the others while they were here. What took you so long?”
“Well I just got lost is all, too many vehicles that look alike.” I felt really stupid right about now…
“Well that’s alright, you’re here now and that’s all that matters.” That made me feel a lot better. “Oh, and my name is Katelyn, glad to meet you Tim.” She smiled as she took my hand in hers and we shook. “So I’m guessing you’d like to see what our new home will be for awhile.”

As we went inside I noticed quickly that is was a lot smaller then I thought, I had to hunch down to even fit… But all in all it wasn’t so bad. There was enough space across that we should all be able to sleep well, as well as 2 mini fridges. One had food in it, the other had batteries for the lasers. We talked a bit about each other and I think we both learned quite a lot. For one I learned that she would be our medic and that she would make sure that we eat healthy. (Wasn’t really too happy about that, but I didn’t care, I was with her.) We also spoke of our related tragedies, like her parents dying in the war, which apparently was her motivation for becoming a medic.

After about 20 minutes of chatting with Kate (Her nickname) the others finally came back one by one. The 1st one back was our hacker Mike, he was a bit of a negative one but according to Kate he means well and that it was just the fact that he’s a pacifist helping directly in a war. He was scrawny and did indeed look like a bit of a nerd. He had the classic glasses (which he claims aren’t proscription and is for working with computers) and he has a dirty mop of brown hair which made him look older then he really was, which was 19. After that 2 women showed up, named Samantha and Jessica. Samantha hit me instantly as a tomboy and proved it more so by letting me know that she was the engineer. She was fit and had short red hair and she defiantly knew her way around a toolbox. But Jessica on the other hand I am a bit wary of. The only thing that she said as she passed me was an unenthusiastic “hi”. I learned from Sam and Kate later that she doesn’t talk much because apparently when she refused to go to war they dragged her here because she was too valuable. I could understand why as she was our sniper, and she could defiantly shoot… I’ll have to watch her. But the last person that showed up was a complete surprise. In the distance the person only looked like a large shadow. But I had begun tearing up as I heard that very familiar voice that I love.

“Hey Tim, you look well.” Replied Ken with a smirk


(Remember! I like any comment you can give! It will help me write better^^)