Everyone took care of me the next two days. Brock was actually the one helping and taking care of me. The others just kept me company. I was surprised at how much Brock knew. I knew he studied to be a doctor but I never knew how far along he was. I never knew he knew all this stuff on medicine. He told me he wanted to finish up his studies after the war. It was nice learning more about his life. Actually, I learned a lot more about everyone over the course of a few days. We were all so busy that we never really got to talk. It was nice. And before I knew it, it was Friday. And since I was feeling much better, I helped Cassy get ready for her date.
“What about this one?” She asks.
I look over at her and grimace. It was a dress that a grandma would wear to church. I shake my head at her.
“Definitely not. Where did you even find that thing?” I asks curiously.
“It was on sale.” Cassy shrugs.
Oh boy. I think I might have a shopaholic on my hands. I go back to looking at her closet. She needs something cute but not too revealing. She is only 13 after all. I pick out a skirt that goes to the knees and a plain long sleeve top. Then I take a colorful scarf and decide to have Cassy try it on.
She tries it on and when she came out, she looked adorably cute. I squealed at her and she looked at herself in the mirror. She squealed with me and then we both started laughing. I give her some sandals to match the belt on her skirt and I knew the outfit was complete. I go to the door and open it to let the boys in. They all crowd in the room to take a look at Cassy.
“Nope nope nope. She is not going out like that.” Connor says.
I give him a pointed look. “And why not?” I ask.
“Look at her!” Connor points at Cassy. “She’s too cute! This Jeremy kid isn’t going to want to keep his hands off of her. No, she needs to wear a habit or something.” He thinks deeply about what she should wear while I stare at him in disbelief.
“I quite agree with Connor. Poor kid Jeremy won’t stand a chance.” Tristan nods in agreement.
“Hold up! They’re only 13 years old! I mean, yeah, Jeremy is a boy but I’ll castrate him before he even thinks of doing something inappropriate.” I say.
The boys shiver and cross their legs. I smirk at them and look back at Cassy.
“You look lovely. Just have a good time and be yourself. And if anything happens, just call me. I’ll be there in a flash.” I smile at her reassuringly.
Cassy grins back and starts to skip downstairs. I look back at the boys.
“I’m going to drop her off and then go around town. I need to check a few things. So you boys are on your own.” I leave the room and take Cassy to the movie theatre.
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“Alright, have fun!” I yell.
Cassy waves at me as she goes into the theatre. A grin appears on my face. This is a nice normal life I wanted for her. I hope it stays like this. I walk further down the road to meet with my lawyer. I had to do something before I go back to camp.
I walked into a little diner and sat at my usual place before I left for the war. Linda, the waitress, greats me like always and we chat for a while before I see Mr. Andrews walk in and sit across from me.
“I’ll get your usual.” Linda says.
“Don’t bother. I won’t be here long. Just get me a cup of coffee.” I say.
Linda just nods her head and walks away. I turn to Mr. Andrews.
“Haven’t seen you in a while. How’s your time in the field?” Mr. Andrews asks.
I just shrug. “War is war. Let’s just hurry this along. I have to get back.” I say.
Mr. Andrews just nods and pulls out a folder from his briefcase.
“Is there something you wanted to change?” He asks.
“Just a few little details.”
He opens the folder and takes out a pen.
“Alright, what do you want to change?” He asks.
“Everything’s still the same for Cassy. I just want to give a few things to a few other people.” I say.
“Alright. What are their names?”
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“Well that’s everything. Are you sure about this?” Mr. Andrews asks.
I just nod my head.
“Why does it feel like you’re not coming back?” He asks.
I laugh. “You think I would leave Cassy? Don’t worry Mr. Andrews, I’m just being cautious.”
He looks at me for another minute before sighing and packing up the papers.
“Well I do hope your will won’t be active for a long time from now.”
“I hope so too.” I say.
I get up and say goodbye to Mr. Andrews and the few people from town that have passed by for a light conversation. As I walk out of the diner, I feel relieved. I’m glad I got to get this done just in case something happens. I’ll try and make it back to Cassy with all my might but you never know what could happen. I look up at the clear night sky. I breathe in the fresh air and sigh. I feel so relaxed and at ease. If I could just stay like this and remember this moment of calmness, I could do anything. For once, the world doesn’t feel like it’s against me.
After a moment of just staring up to the sky, I come out of my trance and look around the town. This is a cute little town. You know almost everyone and they’re all such good people. I’m glad they weren’t attacked. They don’t deserve to be put through more with this war. Most families have a family member in the war or who have died from the war. I hope I can stop this war soon.
As I start walking down the sidewalk, I hear a high pitched scream. I stop in my tracks and turn around to see people running. But from what? Then I notice how light it seems and realize it’s a fire. A big one. I run towards the direction of the fire and I feel my stomach drop from the scene in front of me.
It seems I spoke too soon. They were here. The French are here! It’s a small group of men but still enough to wipeout this little town. I thought the Russians took care of it. What happened?
More screams sound and I know I have to take action. I first try to help the ones who are still in their houses but trapped by the fire. I hear gun fire and freeze. They wouldn’t! No, they would. This attack is because of me. They’re doing this to get to me. Because they know I’m a threat. A wicked smile appears on my face. Oh, I’ll show them just how big of a threat I can be.
I run towards the gun shop in town and take anything I can get my hands on. I load up all kinds of guns. Taking different kinds of knives and even a crossbow. I go to the top of an apartment complex and look down at my prey. They’re ripping people from their homes and pointing their guns at the innocent people. They don’t shoot them but tease them. But I know better. They’ll do it. They’re going to wish they never even lifted a gun.
I see a man about to shoot a mother and a child. I aim my sniper and take him out. He goes down with a direct hit to his head. The mother looks around until she finds me and her eyes widen. Mrs. Clegh. I just saved the most obnoxious woman in the world. Well maybe now she won’t lecture me on etiquette anymore. I see the gratitude in her eyes and just nod to her. Then I go back to looking around for other threats. Another man is about to rape a woman as her husband is held down by two men. Her cries shake the core within me and rage blossoms inside of me. I line up the shot and get a direct hit to the man raping her. Everyone freezes before looking around for the source of the shot. One of the men sees me just before I hit him right in between the eyes. His friend freaks out and runs away before I can take him out too. The husband looks confused before running to his wife and holding her, trying to calm her down.
I hear more screams across the town and try to head to each place I can. Then I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get to everyone. I can’t save everyone. How can I help them? Just as that thought came across, someone hits the back of my head with a hard object. Immediately, I feel pain erupt in my head. As I fall to the ground, I realize it’s the guy that got away when I shot his friend. He points his gun at me, and before I can react, pulls the trigger.
The sounds rings out and after a second, I realize I wasn’t hit. Either he has a bad aim or someone stopped him. I look up to see a knife in his chest. He sputters out blood as he falls to the ground and chokes on his own blood. He died in seconds. I look up again to see Tristan frowning at me. He puts out his hand and I take it quickly. He pulls me up and wraps his arms around me.
“Damnit Anna! I was so worried. Why didn’t you call us?” He pulls away and looks at me. I can see the hurt in his eyes. “Don’t you trust us?” He asks.
“Tristan, of course I trust you guys. I just didn’t have time to call you guys or somehow get to you. These people needed me NOW.” I say.
Tristan’s eyes soften and I see him sigh in what I think is relief.
“Good because I think Jacks would be devastated if he found out you didn’t trust him.” Tristan smirks.
A small smile appears on my face before I hear Jacks yelling in a distance.
“I heard that! I wouldn’t be devastated!” He yells.
I just giggle as the rest of the guys finally make it over to me.
“Thank you guys. Thanks for coming.” I say.
“Of course. We can’t just leave this wonderful town to be destroyed.” Brock says.
His eyes looked so sad. This must remind him of his own town. And his parents. I just nod my head before looking all around me. There’s a lot to do.
“So what do we do General?” Gale asks.
I turn to them. “Simple. Get rid of the trash.” I say.
They all nod their heads before they all take off. My heart feels lighter knowing that they have my back. I grin.
“My boys.” I whisper.
I take off to help more people. All night we fought. It took a while to kill all of them but it was a success. Sadly, a few people died. Some we didn’t get to in time or the fire made it impossible to get to them. It all ended when all of my boys and myself took out the last group of soldiers with crossbows and then trying to distinguish the fire with water and fire extinguishers. After a long exhausting night, the sun finally rose as we put out the last of the fire. A few hours later, troops came from a different camp to assist us but realized they were too late. I don’t even know how they found out.
The people in my city seemed to have seen me in a different light too. Mrs. Clegh even hugged me and thanked me for not being raised as a lady. Not the best compliment but that’s the closest I was going to get of a compliment from her. Everyone helped each other and patched people up who were injured.
I saw Brock just sitting on the sidewalk looking down at some ants. I sat next to him but didn’t say anything. He didn’t lift his head so I just waited. After a few minutes he finally spoke.
“You know, this kind of feels like redemption.” He says.
“Because of your own town?” I ask.
He nods. “Yeah. I couldn’t do anything at the time because I wasn’t there. But I’m glad I was here this time. I’m glad these people are safe.”
“Me too. And it’s thanks to you guys.”
“Yeah.”
I look at Brock to still see him sulking.
“You know you couldn’t have done anything. If you were back home, you might have died along with your parents. And then all of us wouldn’t have met because the team just wouldn’t be complete without even one of you guys. So I’m sorry about your hometown and parents but I’m also glad that they brought you to us. At least, that’s what I believe.” I say.
Brock looks at me with glistening eyes but you can tell he’s not going to let his tears fall. I give him a reassuring smile and hug him. He hugs me back and we just stay like that for a little while. After what seemed like an hour, Brock pulls away and looks at me.
“Thank you Anna.” He whispers as his lips lightly touch mine.
It was a peck but it sent my heart into overdrive. I clear my throat before getting up.
“You’re welcome.” I get out breathlessly.
Brock just chuckles and gets up with me. That’s when another doctor comes over to make sure I’m alright and try to check my head again. I decide to go with him since Brock seems to be just fine now.
As I was getting my head checked out for what seemed like the hundredth time, Cassy runs to me and I embraced her. She was glad I was safe and told me about her date and how Jeremy protected her and they hid in the theatre. I had new respect for Jeremy and owe him my gratitude. And I still haven’t even met the child!
As Cassy and I were chatting, a soldier came up to me. I realized it was the one who was watching over Cassy before I came back. He salutes me.
“General Berndt, it’s time to go.” He says.
I frown. What a way to end my stay. I look back at Cassy to see her also frowning. We hug each other and I kiss her forehead before turning back to the soldier.
“Alright soldier. Take care of my girl.” I salute him back.
“Yes General Berndt.” He says.
I walk up to him and put my hand on his shoulder.
“I’m counting on you.”
I go to round up the guys and apparently our luggage is already taken care of. It’s time to go. I look back at Cassy and smile at her reassuringly. She waves at me and smiles but I can see some sadness in her eyes. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. But at least I got to take care of my business while I was here. Hopefully, next time, we can all hangout again. I really hope we can.
Just as I was turning to leave, I heard roars and cheers. All different kinds of voices calling me and cheering for me. I turn back around, shock clear on my face. All the townspeople are cheering for me. Not just me but the guys too.
“Thank you Anna!”
“I believe in you!”
“You can stop this war!”
Most of them were the same saying how I gave them hope. The soldiers tried to calm them down but they wouldn’t stop. Even though they were through so much, they still had all this energy. Is it because I gave them hope? Did I really help them that much? I was the reason they attacked in the first place. I even told some people that, but they just shook their head. They said the war would have caught up to them eventually. I didn’t believe them but they just ignored me and thought I was an angel sent from Heaven. If only angels really did exist, I would wish them to protect everyone.
I wave at the townspeople and tell them I’ll do my best. They cheered as we were driven away. Some of the guys had goofy grins on their faces while others were neutral. I smile just a little. It’s nice knowing that I helped them, even if it was just a little bit. I don’t think it was much, and they’ll probably forget about it later on. If only I had known then that that wasn’t the case. The little battle in my hometown, changed everything. It was the turning point of the war
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Well we're finally done with that little arc. Now she's going back to camp and there's new surprises. I was hoping to finish this story within a year but I started it in October and the only way I could finish it is if I wrote a chapter a day and we all know that's not going to happen. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of December but no promises. Anyways, please leave some feedback if you can. I would really appreciate it.