CHAPTER TWO
ADELAIDE
Sit in one of the jeeps, my legs bouncing up and down rapidly as I keep my eyes peeled at the horizon. I twist my wedding ring on my finger with my thumb, my other hand gripping the crossbow tightly.
"You need to relax." Aislinn tuts beside me.
"Hmm." I nod absentmindedly, still bobbing my feet rapidly.
"Stop!" she places a hand on my knee. "You're making me nervous."
"She's making all of us nervous." Fry pipes from behind me. "If she's tensed this much... I just wanna puke."
"If you wanna puke then get the hell out of the car." Aislinn threatens the boy.
"Then tell Ally not to make me nervous." Fry snaps back.
"Don't pick up on my nervousness then." I hiss at him. "I have the freedom to be nervous. You don't take on it, if you don't like it."
"You are the most trained of us for god's sake. Why the hell are you nervous?" Harriet mutters.
"Yeah?" Frypan spreads his arm as if he'd already won the argument. And like a very matured woman, I shove my middle finger very near his vision.
Aislinn slams her hand on the steering wheel. "Shut the hell up! Both of you!" she screams.
We both fall silent. Aislinn puts her head in her hands. "I'm surrounded by idiots."
Harriet snickers lightly and Aislinn snaps, threatening everyone to keep quiet otherwise she would kick all of our asses out of the jeep.
A clashing, hard grinding sound accompanies the rare of five freight cars as they slow down and roll down to a stop. It stopped right where Vince had predicted, only half a mile away from where we had been hiding.
"Its show time, baby." Aislinn smirks and floors the accelerator.
"Thomas!" Vince yells, waving him to come over. Two jeeps race to the freight cars. Thomas slides out of the window and carefully balances on the top of the bonnet, the safety cable tightly hooked to the car.
I jump out of the car and take my position on the end of the car, with Harriet and Fiona by my side, aiming my crossbow. Thomas pounds on each metal car, yelling for Minho.
Setting his equipment down where Thomas is, Newt tosses a glance to me and sets to work.
The guards come earlier than we had anticipated. We start shooting them.
"Shit! It's gonna be close." Vince mumbles to Thomas as he too notices the reducing distance between us and the soldiers. The both of them, as planned, quickly scale the ladder on the sides and get to the top, both of them trying to set up the thick cables into the metal at the top of the freight cars.
As I keep shooting at the guards, my back hits the metal of the freight car. I can feel faint, but steady vibrations in a precise manner resonating through the metal. As I focus on it, I can make out that the vibrations are increasing and nearing. It sounds like heavy boots stomping on the metal.
My eyes widen and I quickly climb up the car.
"Newt! Hurry up!" I yell at the boy, as I run towards Thomas and Vince on the top of the car, about to give them cover from the oncoming soldiers. I rush past them and keep shooting them on their soldiers as they tumble down off the train top.
"Don't rush me, love!" Newt yells back tersely.
I notice that my arrows are very close to exhausting and my fingers brush my holster around my waist for my spare gun.
"Adelaide, need any help?" Vince looks up from the job in his hands. Bullets ricochet from the soldiers off the metal, whizzing past our ears.
"Concentrate on getting your job done, old man!"
I toss my crossbow off the train and yank the knife in my boot out and lunge at them. I slash the guard nearest to me. If I attack them like that, they won't be able to shoot me from such a close range. The soldiers are probably surprised by my attack.
By this time I am sure, each guard was notified about the ground zero of the commotion.
I kick one at their kneecap and yank their rifle away before pushing them off the train. I use their rifle and shoot at the soldier coming to attack me from side.
I never said that I can't shoot from the short range.
I toss my knife to my right hand and attack, aiming for the shoulders and armpits of my adversaries.
"NEWT!" I yell.
"ALMOST DONE!"
"I'M GONNA BE COMPLETELY DONE FOR GOOD BY THE TIME YOU ARE DONE!" I stab a guard and yank the knife out.
The soldiers keep coming. I am sure that I have felled almost twelve or thirteen men, but we are heavily outnumbered and the soldiers are gaining on us.
From the corner of my vision, I see Bea shoot at one of the guards straight between his forehead. Then her gun clicks. She grunts and mutters under her breath and throws the empty gun on the ground. She readies herself and runs to the nearest soldier, jumping on top of his shoulder and twisting herself until she was chocking him with her thighs. She twisted his head sharply, snapping his neck. She took the gun of the dead soldier and started to shoot the others.
Suddenly a soldier wraps his arm around my neck from behind and press my neck. I wheeze and splutter.
His hands feels like ice as they close in a vise like grip around my neck, pinning me on the metal roof. The crazed look in his eyes terrifies me as his grip becomes tighter and tighter and my breath is stopped. I fight back instinctively. My nails dig into his skin but his grip is unyielding. As my lungs begin to burn from lack of air I reach for his face and feel my fist once connect with his flesh. I begin to see dark spots across my vision as I become more and more frantic. I feel myself weaken.
I slowly find myself numbing to the pain, my eyelids becoming heavy.
Suddenly the pressure is no more. Air immediately rushes in my lungs, burning my lungs with each labored breath I take in. I prop up to my side and hag and cough, my head spinning, spinning, spinning.
Brenda rushes past me and shoots the soldiers, probably killing him. She keeps shooting the others.
"NEWT! TAKE HER!" Brenda yells.
Seconds later, a pair of hands grab me delicately and pull me away from the storm of soldiers, defended by Thomas, Brenda and Vince.
A hand cradles my cheek. "Love, Addie? Can you hear me?"
I groan, my throat hurting and burning. "Shuck." He mumbles, the pads of his fingers tentatively touching my bruised neck. He kisses my forehead. I open my eyes and gaze at his murky brown eyes, filled with worry. He smiles wearily. I wheeze and try to get up, Newt helping me.
I had been trained for the most of my life to force myself through pain and setbacks, only focusing on mission. And I'm full of stubbornness, so I will keep fighting until I'm totally incapacitated.
Chocking is a teensy bruise.
Earlier, as The Cube, it was my mission to eliminate my target, but now, it is mission to save my friends. I can kill scores of WICKED soldiers, singlehandedly, if it means that my family will be safe. And I won't even need The Cube's raw ruthlessness.
I yank out my spare gun from my holster and kneel down, getting in position for Jorge. Newt too, reloads his gun, and shoots a few of the soldiers..
"Remember to breath." I mutter, loud enough for Newt to hear. He nods, focusing on his targets. Flying in to the rescue, comes a WICKED berg and the soldiers lower their weapons, thinking that it was their backup.
"Alright, muchachas! Let's roll!" Jorge yells through the comms.
Thomas and Newt tie the cables onto the hook, lowered from the bay door of the Berg. As the Berg starts to lift itself up to the air, taking the freight car with it, Thomas yells for Aislinn to hurry and jump up.
Fiona and Aislinn takes cover and shoots at the soldiers and takes Thomas' outstretched hands and climb up the car. Frypan pulls up the ladders, so that no soldiers can climb them up as the freight car continues to hover high up in the air.
Everyone screams with a joyous laugh, celebrating their victory. I kneel down and relax leaning back on my hands as I smile at the boys, hugging and patting each other's back as a congratulatory gesture.
Aislinn's smirk disappears when her eyes settle on me. She frowns, seeing bruises scattered around my neck. I wave my hand, gesturing her to not stress it out but her glare doesn't lessen. She huffs and settles herself beside me.
"Are you hurt anywhere else?" she worried hazel eyes darts up and down, taking me in.
"I'm fine." My voice comes in a hoarse, raspy whisper.
"Clearly not. You'll get that treated immediately we land. No excuses needed."
I nod.
"You can't just not get hurt, can you?" she grumbles. "I just.. You know that I'm an old lady, right? I can't take so much of tension, my heart is weak."
I smile at her softly, my heart swelling because of her caring attitude for me. Aislinn normally likes to show that she is this badass bitch, who can beat anyone's ass in her sleep.
Though I don't doubt her. I had lot of bruises from the initial days of training to prove that.
Aislinn portrays this big, bad woman but I know that she loves me to the moon and back. She had always cared for me, just like my mommy would have. She fought for me and even somehow managed to go against the WICKED's orders and tell me, my real name.
And she never stopped looking for me. When she'd me, she readily stepped forward for helping me, even when I was skeptical of her and didn't trust her. She saved my friends, time and again.
She had practically raised me and made me to be what I am today. She had taught not to give two damn's about a crown and opt for a sword . She taught me how to be independent and taught everything that I know today but she also taught me how to be this caring, empathetic, unapologetic and loving girl.
I'm not her blood, but she'd never failed to love me the very way my own mother would have.
And I love her just the way I would have loved my mother, and sometimes, I think I love her even more.
a/n:
i dont like the ending much, but im running on like 4 hours sleep and i have no energy left in me.
p.s. i still love emojis 😍🎈🎈
Please vote, and comment on the favorite part of the chapter