Nightingale: The Vigilante || EDITING

Chapter Five

Flashback Part Two:

My alarm goes off half past six. I slam the snooze button on my alarm, groaning as I attempt to pull myself out of bed. I waddle forward as if I were to exit my room and flip the light switch. The bright light blinds my eyes so much I have to shield them until they adjust. I pull my HIEP suit on and begin to strap on my belt when there was a knock at my door. I hop over to the door as I pull on one of my boots. Zac stands in the doorway, dressed with his hair spiked in the front.

"You ready?" He asks me. I reply as I pull on my other boot. I shut my light off as I exit my room, pulling the door closed behind me. Zac and I both walk down the hallway, lights from different rooms began to flicker on. Everyone was waking up to start another gruesome day of training. Some other doors opened revealing other teens dressed in HIEP uniforms. I twisted my long brown hair in a bun. I struggled to get it just right while we walked, with an occasional poke at my arm from Zac.

"Stop it!" I hissed. He shrugged and poked my bun. I slap his arm. He rubs it as if I actually hurt him.

"Dude! What's up?" Zac's friend, Eric, jogged up, greeting us with a fist bump.

"Hey, man!" Zac pat Eric on the back, "You ready?"

"Totally! I heard we're going to some place in Pakistan."

"Why would we go there?" I pulled my glove off so it could be scanned. The red touchpad glowed green and activated the heavy door to open. "I mean, aren't the U.S. already there? Why add more people from the same country when the U.S. can pick up the package themselves."

"Don't know," Eric shrugged. "Maybe our client is a part of an alien race and is gonna sell us a probe!"

"Dude," Zac rested his hand on his friend's shoulder, "you watch too much Sci-Fi."

We enter the weapons hangar and I immediately run to my personal locker. I twist my lock to fit my combination and pull it open. My locker is filled with throwing knives, my belt with grenades and flashbangs. I strap my belt on and begin to insert the knives in their holsters upon my sleeves and at the side of my calves. I grab my twin pistols and slide them into their holsters as well. I stare at the black holster hanging in my locker, a part of the blade shinning at my face.

"Will I need my katana, Zac?" I look back at my boyfriend, who was busy putting firearms in his holsters on his back and attached to his belt.

"Nah," he huffed as he pulled out a pack of ammunition from his locker. "I'm pretty sure it would startle the natives. Besides, that's my sword. Just because I let you keep it in your locker doesn't make it yours."

"You went from all happy and perky to boring and protective over your crap in like seconds." I shove the blade aside in my locker and pull out a longer knife, strapping it inside my suit.

"Just trying to get my game face on, babe," he chuckled.

"And I'm guessing no one cares squat about me again?" Eric leaned his elbow over my locker, grinning. His dirty blonde hair had been ruffled, strands of his hair stuck up in the oddest places. His smile fades when I press one of my knives against his throat.

"Yep, pretty much," I pull away my knife and return it to the holster in my arm. "Your just a big sack of neglected."

"I'm hurt, Johnson," Eric whimpered, placing his hand over his chest. He then returned to his own locker screaming back, "No one cares about me!" I sigh, then to strap a bulletproof vest on top of my suit when I heard the alarm.

"That's are cue!" I shout. I slam my locker closed and run out of the weapons hangar. Two other teens, along with Zac and Eric, followed me down the stairway and out to the plane hangar. Commander Scott waited by the plane, his hands behind his back. I run up to him and wait for the rest of the Alpha team to arrive. Commander Scott looked around.