The drive down was a long one. I waited until Daniel was asleep until I sped up cutting as much time of the journey time as possible. I had promised Daniel before he went to sleep that I would wake him when it was his turn to drive. I was driving for an hour and a half before pulling over for a rest. I got out and went for a very quick and short walk into the forest and then straight back to the car because my legs were starting to ache from being stationary for too long. When I went to wake him, I couldn't bring myself to do it. He looked so peaceful and I was wide awake anyway so I just left him to sleep in peace while I climbed back into the driver's side. I turned the radio on and played it with the volume turned right down so as not to wake him and continued the rest of the journey without stopping. There was only a few other cars out on the roads at this early time in the morning so I only encountered about three others on my way but they were all heading in the opposite direction. When I pulled up at the air base I parked the car in a far corner where it would be hidden by the trees while I was away until I could get back to pick it up. I retrieved both bags from the car boot heaving them onto my shoulders before waking Daniel. "Daniel." I gently shook his shoulder seeing his eyes begin to flutter open but he wasn't fully awake. "Daniel we're here." When he finally opened his eyes he looked around taking in his surroundings. Right now we were stood, well for him sat, in one of the many air base carparks which looked like it had been deserted long ago, that was why I had picked this one compared to all the other ones near air force personal homes where it the car would have been easily spotted and could have looked suspicious.
"You promised you'd wake me." He yawned stretching. His voice was low and raspy from just having woken up as he rubbed his eyes dragging his body out of the car to stand in the cold morning air. "How long left?" He mumbled as he took his bag from me rummaging through before pulling out a sandwich to eat. I checked my watch and it read 0410.
"Roughly two hours." I found us a place to sit where we were concealed by the trees as we ate our breakfast in silence. I found myself continuously yawning as I struggled to keep my mind active so I didn't feel tired but it wasn't working. Normally if my brain is active then my body feels wide awake but since I had nothing to do I was starting to feel drowsy. "Why don't you go to sleep for an hour and I'll wake you up when it's time to board." He suggested seeing me struggle to keep my eyelids open.
"No I'll be fine once I get moving, I always am." I shrugged, doing some quick sums in my head to keep myself going but that wasn't working either.
"Seriously just go to sleep. Nothing's going to happen." He reassured me. I pulled my back over to me using it as a pillow as I lay on the dirty, dusty ground falling asleep almost instantly. I don't know how long I was asleep but I was awoken when I heard a branch snap shooting up from my position and quickly surveying my surroundings seeing it was only Daniel who had stepped on a twig and broken it in half. "I only snapped a twig you know, no need to shoot me." He joked nodding his head at where my hand was hovering over my gun.
"Sorry force of habit. What time is it?" I got up and stretched my arms and legs feeling much more awake and refreshed than I did before.
"It's 0550 we should probably get going." I nodded my head in agreement dragging my bag up from the floor and slipping each strap onto one of my shoulders and wearing it like a backpack as I walked over to meet with one of the planes personnel. The guy we met with looked nothing like what I was expecting him to, he wasn't even in his damn uniform yet; he was in jeans and a hoody. "Right you two get on the plane and try not to disturb my crew, their tired and annoyed enough as it is okay?" He didn't sound too happy about having to transport two young civilians on one of his nice aircraft but he didn't get any choice in the matter, he had his orders just the same as we had ours.
"Not a problem sir. I'm sure there won't be any bother." I smiled sweetly. I just wanted to be on the plane and over to America as quick as possible. When I had a proper look at the plane it was a C-130 Hercules, usually used for troop transport, medivac and cargo transport. While we walked onto the plane the guy we had meant walked off in the other direction probably to get changed into his uniform.
When I walked onto the plane it was full of American airmen who were all staring at me like I had grown two heads or something and it was really annoying me. "We've got company boys." One of the ones closest to me chuckled. "What's your name?" So much for them being tired, they all seemed wide awake to me.
"If you tell me yours then I'll tell you mine." I bargained. No way was he knowing my name before I knew his, that wasn't how this worked.
"Jordan Anderson." He smiled politely; he seemed like a really nice person.
"McKenzie Taylor." I replied extending my hand for him to shake, he held it firmly in his hand shake it quickly before dropping it.
"And you are?" He turned to Daniel who seemed to be off in his own little world while staring at us both a strange look being held in his eyes.
"Huh...Oh sorry I'm Daniel Lowes." He stuttered out coming back down to Earth.
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Jordan asked and we both turned to look at each other laughing. "I'm guessing not then." He chuckled.
"McKenzie can I have a word with you over there a minute please." Daniel asked pointing to the back of the plane away from everyone else and I nodded getting up from my position next to Jordan and walking down with him.
"What's up?" I asked.
"We were told to be in our disguises by the time we reached America." I wasn't seeing his point.
"And..." I pushed him for more information.
"And how are we meant to get changed in front of the fifteen odd men out there?" He asked exasperatedly as though he was trying to explain something to a little child but I didn't see a problem with it.
"Well I don't mind and I don't think they'll mind. What's the problem?" He just sighed and rolled his eyes at me. "Hey don't roll your eyes at me you've had to get changed in front of people before." I fake scolded and he just rolled his eyes at me again. When we walked back out we each walked over to our own bags starting to get out what we would need. "Hey guys you don't mind if we get changed here do you?" I asked and they all just murmured in response nobody saying they had a problem with it. I started from the top and worked my way down. So it went contact lenses, glasses, braces, t-shirt, skirt and then shoes. A few of the guys wolf whistled when I started stripping down but I knew they were just having a bit of a joke around with me and in all honesty I wasn't bothered. What I was bothered about was that I now had nowhere to hide my gun since I had my shirt tucked in so I couldn't conceal it in the waistband of my skirt like I thought I would. Whoever had the stupid idea to put me in a skirt was quite clearly an idiot. When I was finished and turned around from where I had been facing the wall, I saw Daniel struggling to pull up a pair of ripped black skinny jeans as he started bouncing all over the plane. Everybody else seemed to find it just as amusing as I did because they all started to laugh as well until he finally pulled them up, fastening them in place with a black belt, and ruined our fun. "I don't suppose anybody knows how to put eyeliner on do they?" He sighed looking around the room while everybody turned to look at me since I was the women on the plane.
"Don't look at me." I mumbled but he wouldn't stop looking at me until I agreed. "Fine but don't blame me when I mess it up." I painted a thin layer of eyeliner just above and below his lash lines to make his eyes seem even darker than they actually were, I was rather impressed with my handiwork since I had never actually put eyeliner on anybody before and that includes me. When I packed my uniform into my bag laying my gun on the top I retook my seat next to Jordan. "I like the tat on you back by the way." He spoke quietly trying to keep the conversation private. "Didn't take you for the Marine type."
"I'm not." I lied.
"Oh come on the tattoo completely gives it away. It's got a small royal marines logo and then a bunch of dates underneath it. I also saw the lovely one on your hip that says once a marine always a marine. Why would you have that hmm?" He smirked knowing I had been caught out.
"Fine I am." I sighed in defeat. "I think you'll also like the one on my ribs then." I smirked.
"What is it like?" I lifted my top to show him and he laughed slightly reading the words aloud. "To find us you must be good, to catch us you must be fast, to beat us you must be kidding. Well that is most definitely true. Semper fi." Semper fi was a US military saying which means always faithful and always able to count on your fellow marines. Fair enough neither of us is a US marine but he is from the US and I'm a marine so that's good enough for me. Semper fi was always something me and my buddies lived by whether we're American or not.
"Semper fi." I replied. Those two words may not have meant much to other people but they meant a hell of a lot to me and my friends. My mind started to wader back to the friends I left behind, how they nearly always managed to keep the mood light and happy, how they fought hard for me to be able to stay with them, how they all threatened to quit when I was given honourable discharge. And then my mind wandered to all the ones who were lost, who were known as just another casualty of war, the ones who would never be coming back home to their families and never getting to say goodbye. The ones who lay their life down for queen and country. That was bollocks, they lay their life down because they were kind and caring people who wanted to protect their country and the millions of innocent people who lived their putting everybody else before themselves. I tried my best to focus on the good memories of how I promised to keep in touch and visit when they were all on leave but my mind kept flashing images of the ones who got killed. I mentally scolded myself, telling myself to focus on the operation because I couldn't do this when my life depended on me having a level head. I couldn't do this when somebody else's life was in my hands and needed me to have a clear head. I looked over at Daniel who seemed to be getting on really well with the men while I sat and stared at him.
Finally the plane touched down at 0725 which was close enough to our approximated time. We said goodbye to everybody on the plane and even got a few of their numbers so we could keep in touch as we said our final goodbyes. It was easier enough to spot our new cars since we had one each and they were both identical, plus the fact they were parked miles away from everybody else's hidden once again under the cover of trees. I climbed into one, putting my bag on the seat beside me, while Daniel got in the other both of us attempting to boot up the satnavs to find out where we were going. When we started the cars and they finally started up they took us in completely different directions, it was only expected because it would have looked weird us both driving two separate cars to the same destination because when we get there we are meant to pretend that we don't know each other and have just been put in one of the off-site college buildings together because we are both late joiners. I arrived fifteen minutes before him so I took the opportunity to go in and have a look around throwing my bag down onto one of the beds in one of the two bedrooms. Of course I picked the bigger one but there wasn't that much difference between the two of them anyway as I began to explore the house. There was a bare minimum of supplies in the kitchen and no toiletries whatsoever apart from toilet roll so I was glad I had brought some with me since I suspected something like this. The living room was of a fair size and I was extremely glad to discover that every single room in the house had black out curtains which I know at some point will come in handy. When he finally sauntered in the fifteen minutes later he looked a little less than impressed. "Of course I had to get the satnav that gets me stuck in all the bloody traffic." He scoffs throwing himself down onto the couch. "Of course mines the one that takes me halfway round the world first."
"Stop being so grumpy." I sighed rolling my eyes at him. "We've got an entire day of uni to get through yet which should be so much fun. That's when you can complain." He just groaned into the couch. I went back into my bedroom looking in the mirror and checking over my outfit, I looked like an absolute mess. I decided to pull on a black zip up hoodie and just leave my gun in my floral backpack since I very highly doubted I would need it on my first day here. I attempted to have some food with the braces on to get used to eating with them so I wouldn't look suspicious but if felt to strange so I decided I would just eat away from everybody else or not eat at all. We had a little bit of time to get ourselves prepared before we had to leave to go to our first day of university. I felt like a six year old child on my first day of school again except not as excited. I just wanted to get in, keep my head down get the job done and get out. Just like that, no complications and no mistakes.