Marcus sneaks over the rise of the hill to see what we are up against, and Hugo and Sarah turn to me, grinning.
"Ready for your first combat lesson?" The excitement in Sarah's voice is evident.
"Would've been great if it wasn't just before my certain death but whatever." I grumble.
"Okay, me first!" Hugo exclaims like a kid on Christmas but quietly, as we are still in supposed enemy range.
Hugo pulls me down the hill a bit more to make sure we're completely out of sight while Sarah keeps an eye out at the top for Marcus or unwelcome visitors. Hugo pulls the pistol strapped to me out of its holster. He hands it to me, the cool metal of the gun biting into my palm as I hold it uncertainly. He then pulls out one of his own pistols and brings it up in front of him.
"First you want to hold it in both hands for the purpose of the recoil." Hugo says, showing me and gesturing at me to copy. "Make you sure grip it tightly so that when you fire it you don't drop it – but not too tightly, we don't want you accidentally pulling the trigger, just make sure you have a firm hold." He adds, watching my knuckles turn white as I squeeze the gun. "Now place the index finger of your dominant hand on the trigger, make sure you flick off the safety beforehand, and then press the trigger and it will fire. When you're just carrying the gun but not going to fire, rest your index finger along the gun, not on the trigger so that you don't press it accidentally. You got all that?"
I nod at him, my body tense from the power of the weapon I hold in my hands, my hands cramping from the short time I've been holding it.
"Good, now with your stance," Hugo continues, "You want your feet shoulder-width apart, your dominant foot set slightly forward, and keep your shoulders relaxed. Bring your arm up in line with your shoulder, elbows slightly bent – only slightly – and if you're walking or running point the gun towards the ground and away from your feet with both hands still on it, ready to bring up when you have to shoot. That's good, you're a natural." He finishes looking at me approvingly as I copy his movements.
"My turn!" Sarah jumps in as I place the gun back in its holster and Hugo goes back to crouching just below the top of the hill as Sarah had been.
Sarah plucks a knife from its sheath and tells me to do the same, then she begins her explanation, "When using a knife, you have to be loose. Think of it as an extension of your arm rather than a separate object, it is a part of you. You can hold it many ways, but for the purposes we'll need them for and the limited time I have to teach you, I'll just teach you quick and efficient stabs." She then shows me two different ways to hold the knife, one like an overhead stab, and the other as a quick stab to the thigh as an example, hand over the top of the knife handle, then underneath.
I practice this a couple of times until Sarah squeals excitedly, barely staying quiet which earns a sharp glare from Hugo. "You got it! Take that Mr Broody Bitch, I knew you could do this!"
"I guess he had a fair point, I have no idea what I'm doing even with what you both just taught me – it takes longer than five minutes to learn how to actually do all of this." I sigh wearily, gesturing around me as Sarah and I join Hugo.
"Just stay behind us, you shouldn't have to do anything as this is just a precaution," Hugo explains, "You need to be trained by the professionals before undertaking anything like this but unfortunately it looks like it's the professionals we're having to rescue."
"You'll be fine." Sarah assures me. "We'll kick arse, rescue some hostages, and then you can start your proper training, like the actual basics."
I laugh. "The basics would be nice."
We sit in silence for the next couple of minutes, listening for any movement. Eventually we see Marcus sneaking back towards us from behind a tree. He sprints the last few metres and slides down next to Hugo.
"I counted nineteen armed hostiles. They have the hostages spread over three rooms, with three squads tied up in each, plus the soldiers and administrative staff. Some of the hostages are injured, but none too gravely from what I could make out. All of the squads have been captured except ours, and I don't like that I only counted nineteen hostiles – that number can't be right, so one may have already been taken out before everyone got captured, or there could be more hostiles that I couldn't see." Marcus reports.
"What are they armed with?" Hugo asks, a crease appearing on his forehead.
"They were using our weapons, SA80 individuals, a few had Glock 17s, and two of them are carrying sniper rifles – I didn't recognise the make, they looked military grade though." Marcus recounts what he'd seen. "I also presume that they had blades of some kind but none that were visible."
"Okay we can work with that. Three of us against nineteen of them without getting anyone killed, should be easy right?" Sarah laughs but doesn't sound confident.
Marcus sighs. "I think we might need to kill the hostiles."
"Kill them?" I gasp. "Why the hell do we need to kill them?!"
"Because we're outnumbered!" Marcus snaps, glaring at me. "Do you not think that if they managed to take at least thirty trained soldiers, some veterinary agents and a bunch of administrative staff who know how to look after themselves pretty well, they could take the four of us? This is what you signed up for Freak, get used to it, we do what we have to in order to survive."
"He's right Patience, it's too dangerous to keep them alive." Sarah agrees quietly.
"But you don't even know what they want!" I level.
"We'll leave a few of them alive – don't give me that face you don't have to do anything – Hugo and I will take them out with our rifles, they have scopes and they're long range so we can do it from a hidden vantage point, and we'll leave the rest to the agents in the room who hopefully should be able to overpower them." Marcus is clearly agitated that he even has to explain this, it is obvious that he isn't used to being questioned on his decisions.
"Patience, you and I can keep an eye out for any extra hostiles who we might not have spotted, okay? Leave the rest to Marcus and Hugo, trust us." Sarah says as if to comfort me.
Trust. What a funny word. They hold trust for each other, believe in each other so strongly, but how can I trust them? I haven't even known them a full twenty-four hours and they're already talking about killing people.
But what other choice do I have?
"Okay fine, let's just get this over with." I grumble.
After discussing where they are going to get the best vantage point, Marcus and Hugo move further across the hill and climb into the low branches of a large oak tree where they have a clear view into the cabin and are hidden from sight, balancing precariously in the tree with their rifle. It isn't ideal but they're not exactly trained for ideal situations, so they deal with what they have. Meanwhile, Sarah and I move in the opposite direction so that we have a view of the side of the house, and we can see into the first room.
From where we crouch, we can't see the other two, but I know right about now they'd be attaching the silencers that Marcus had taken from the hidden room to their rifles and lining up their shots while simultaneously trying to not fall out of the tree.
It is a minute or two before we hear the shattering of a glass window and watch the first hostiles drop to the floor. Marcus and Hugo are good. Perfect in fact.
I try not to breathe, not to look as red sprays the dark wood of the cabin walls, whereas Sarah stares intently into the room, making sure that each target is taken down effectively.
They pick off each target quickly, each choosing a target to begin with, and then dropping the ones next to them. In the beginning there was five hostiles, and now only one is left standing in the centre of the room wildly swinging their gun around trying to see where the shots had come from.
He doesn't call out to the other hostiles in the cabin. I'm not sure why, maybe he is too shocked from his companions being taken out in a matter of seconds, and I'm also not sure how the other hostiles didn't hear the shattering of the glass, the thud of the bodies, the shocked gasps of the agents who are huddled on the floor in the middle of the room.
It seems a bit ridiculous honestly, until Sarah somehow manages to read my mind and explain that the cabin is soundproofed so that they can simulate multiple drills in there at once without distracting other groups – the cabin itself being two stories and stretching a large distance along the ground it sits on.
I watch the commotion that unravels next. The agents jump at the remaining hostile, hands and feet still zip-tied together, and they tackle him to the ground. I can't see what happens next, but after a few moments the agents jump up, hands and legs cut free, armed with the hostile's weapons.
While we are watching these bizarre events unfold, I hear the faint shattering of the glass from the window at the far side of the house and know that Hugo and Marcus are taking down their targets in this room too.
The middle room is the hardest to deal with. We move around the hill so that we have a view of it now as the agents in the first room seem to be preparing to storm it. It is the biggest room with the largest number of both hostiles and hostages and from what we can see, there is at least nine of the nineteen hostiles in the room, who are harassing some of the thirty hostages crammed in the small space.
These hostages included all types of personnel; soldiers, administrative staff, people in business suits – you name it, they are there. One of the hostiles is holding a hostage while another hits the hostage with the butt of their gun repeatedly. The other hostiles are laughing, kicking hostages in the ribs, trying to rile them up. But because of this, they most definitely hadn't heard the commotion of the two rooms on either side. From where we are crouching, I can see movement in both rooms, the agents, candidates, and soldiers ready to take on their attackers.
Marcus and Hugo come running back towards us having dropped out of the tree, their work done. I hold my breath as they get to us just as the hostages of both rooms line against the walls, then charge into the remaining room almost simultaneously, immediately shooting at the hostiles to take them out.
But the issue is, the hostiles shoot back.
All hell breaks loose.