Military Girl

Chapter 25

As soon as everyone digests the fact that I killed a man, more bullets are being shot.

"Duck!" I yell and everyone literally jumps into the sand, trying to bury themselves. A man in my troop screams.

"What's wrong with him!" I shout at a private next to him. The man whose screaming jumps out of the sand and runs towards me. The man limps.

I look at his ankle and a snake is digging its teeth deeper and deeper into the skin of his ankle.

"Get that thing away from me! Someone shoot it!" I yelp. The private shoots the snake and it dies. The man who was bit, a captain I believe, falls to the ground. He's sobbing.

"Oi." I gently kick him.

"Captain Jones. We are in a war right now." I lightly kick him again. He wraps his hands around the wound in his ankle before screaming.

"There's poison." I say. The ignorance of some people.

"Captain Jones. Either you get your whimpering butt out of the sand or the troop leaves you in the sand cowering." I kick him harder. The Captain jumps out of the sand and limps back towards his gun.

"Fire!" I shout and we all shoot in the direction of the bullets. We shoot until no more bullets are being fired from the trees.

"Lets go!" I shout and we head into the direction of the trees.

I crouch down. Every time there's a new tree, I quickly run behind it and lay my back to the trunk.

"It's safe!" I whisper. The troop sneaks behind me to a clearing.

A blanket is laid across the sand. There's a pit of snakes with wire surrounding them so they can't get out. The same type of snakes that bit the Captain.

There's three men laying across the blanket. Two are smoking cigarettes and playing cards while the last man is in chains, chained to the snake cage.

"Got a 4?" One asks.

"Go fish." The other replies.

"Got a King?"

"Nah. Go fish!"

"You got some whiskey?"

"Now THAT, is something I have!"

The man who asked if he had a four, passes over a large bottle. The other takes a swig and sighs.

"How's the prisoner?" He asks.

They look over at the man in chains. He struggles. He snaps his head back and catches my eye.

"Shoot!" I shout and some of the troops step out behind the trees and fire their guns.

The men with the cards go limp, joining their dead comrades.

"Who are you?" The man in chains ask. He struggles some more.

"Stop moving! We already almost got a dead one from a snake." I say and nod my head towards Captain Jones. His head is sweating and he's wheezing with his hands on his knees.

The man stops struggling.

"Ya didn't answer my question." He says.

"I'm Captain Malamack. My first name is Tera." I smile and do my best impression of Tera. I miss being Maddie. I miss being a blonde who was hot-headed and always fighting with my mom. But instead I'm stuck characterizing Tera Malamack, a girl I know almost nothing about. Other than she's friends with Nia. Whose dead.

I wonder if the REAL Tera knows that Nia is dead.

"Oi." Captain Jones gently kicks my boot. He winks. I roll my eyes but laugh.

"And you are?" I ask the man.

"Your father."

I cough. He's Tera's father?

"No your not! Tera's dad died last year. She told me so." Captain Jones says and punches the man in the face.

"Not Tera's father. Troop, you've gotten an impersonator," the man says, "this here is my daughter. Maddison Dark."