Enemies in Uniform

Chapter 10

No one had noticed me yet.

The cadets on board—yellow and orange cards—were too focused, their eyes narrowed behind helmets, clutching guns like lifelines. 

And no one caught me because no one even thought a purple-level idiot would hide on a helicopter to sneak into a battlefield. 

I mean I wouldn't have thought that either.. But Tayren always told me to step outside my comfort zone.. 

The helicopter tilted, preparing to drop us, and then go back to the academy, bringing more soldiers. The cadet sitting closest to the cargo I was hiding behind said “Careful, rebels are open firing down there. The helicopter is gonna drop us about 6 feet above ground, jump and then roll.”

Okay Jump. Roll. 

Got it… 

It can't be that hard? Right..

So right when the cargo door opened, while all those soldiers were still gearing up, I made a break for it. Running to the open door and jumping down.

Jump then roll

And I did just that.. Well not exactly.. mid roll I flipped and landed straight on my butt, which hurt… but the grind can never stop, so I got up.. Painfully. 

The first thing I noticed when I jumped from the helicopter was how loud everything was.

Screams. Sirens. Gunfire. 

I gasped, inhaling more smoke than air, and immediately began running. I ducked behind a charred wall, then a tipped-over cart, weaving my way through burning debris and shattered windows.

Whose silly idea was it that I came here…. 

Mine.. but I had to see if anyone was still alive.

The village didn’t even look like my village anymore.

Flames tore through roofs like paper. The sky was a choking, orange blur. People screamed in the distance—my people. My neighbors. The baker who used to slip me rolls when my aunt wasn’t looking. The little boy with the missing tooth who always asked to braid my hair.

Now, smoke swallowed their homes. Their lives.

Tears also swallowed my eyes, but then some bullets flew past me and those tears ditched me quickly-

Come on siri, focus. 

I sprinted through the wreckage, keeping low. I didn’t have a weapon. I didn’t have armor. Just my little now almost gray from ash, pink dress. 

What was I thinking coming here?!

I ducked around a broken fence and stopped. My house.

—or what used to be my house.

It was half-burnt, collapsed inward like it had given up. The doorway was just ash now. My bedroom window hung shattered above the rubble, swinging gently, somehow still attached.

I stepped over the ruined front step and into the rubble.

Everything was gone. The green chair my aunt used to sit in. The painted plates on the wall..

All blackened, burned, or buried.

My breath caught in my throat. I crouched by the remnants of my aunt's old reading desk, brushing soot off a half-charred book—The Stars We Dream Of. My moms favorite. I choked down the ache in my chest and slid it into my coat pocket.

A sound behind me made me whip around.

Footsteps.

Too heavy to be a villager. Too quick to be a soldier.