Chloe
“Din jävla idiot,” Chloe swore.
Tucked away inside the training room number 6, Chloe fidgeted with her fingers. The training building was the largest on the campus, with the most people roaming around. The corridors were dreadfully long, ensuring you ran into at least 10 intimidating individuals while you passed by.
The soft mat beneath Chloe’s feet covered a good portion of the floor. It was meant for sparring, an activity she hated most of all. She wasn’t big on violence or fighting. Despite Ellie, her mentor, attempting to train her, Chloe could never hurt anyone. The mere thought of having to kill anothe person made her want to puke.
It had been almost a year since she joined Phi. It offered her a chance in a new life. Ellie told her only when she knew what she wanted from herself, she will know what she wanted from the world. But, Chloe already knew what she wanted from the world. To give Irene back. Given that she could not get her friend back by being in jail, Chloe was here instead.
Ellie was clear. The world will never give you anything- you have to be strong enough to take it. It had been good advice, but Chloe might’ve let it get into her head too much.
She crossed her arms across her chest, sighing. Maybe none of them would show up. She won’t have to meet her new team and she could continue hiding and training by herself.
She had joined on a whim anyway. All the talk about strength and confidence caused her to feel like she could actually become an assassin.
What a better way to get what you want then force people to give it to you? It had been a stupid, adrenaline-driven idea, not like her at all.
“Hey.”
Chloe jumped a little at the sound of a voice. She spun around, blush threatening to creep up on her pale cheeks. A guy smiled at her. He was tall, with blonde hair, gelled to look spikey. He wore a typical leather uniform with a golden letter ‘Phi’ and the number 6.
“Bill Connors.” He extended his hand.
Chloe’s throat went dry. She watched the hand, wearily. He was bigger than her and stronger. In a fight, she had no chance against a gold fish, let alone this guy. Chloe specialized in being invisible not making others disappear.
He raised his eyebrows, then frowned and took a step forward. As a reflex, Chloe stumbled back, raising her hands in front of her. She had seen what he had done in the cafeteria.
Bill’s eyes widened in surprise as he passed her, picking up a blade from the wheel cart.
“How long have you been here? Two, three months?” His finger traced the edge of a blade.
Chloe looked at the floor, blushing. “A year.”
“Try not to look so scared. It gives you away.”
“And how do I do that, hun?”
Chloe bit the inside of her cheek. She needed to keep her mouth shut. No amount of arrogance was worth a broken bone. She thought she had learnt that lesson long ago.
Bill looked at her in momentary disbelief and Chloe anticipated his anger outburst.
“Like that,” he said, pointing the blade in her direction. “Confidence. And if you don’t have any, fake it ‘till you make it baby.”
“I—“
“Don’t care. We don’t discuss personal matters during training. They should’ve told you that. Unless your mentor is an absolute idiot.” He looked at her and as if something snapped into place, he snorted.
Chloe didn’t reply, a cold sweat washing over her. She took in a deep breath.
“Am I late?”
Chloe and Bill both looked at the short girl wheeling herself inside the training room. Her dark curly hair was sticking out in a hundred directions, a single hairpin trying to restrain it on one side of her head. Chloe was quick to recognize her. She’d seen her during meals. She had seen her in the company of a Scottish guy with glasses and a laptop. Chloe only knew her first name but wished she knew more.
“No, you’re right on time, Diana,” Chloe smiled, appreciating the attention was off of her and she could compose herself. Maybe this won’t be so hard.
“Good,” She sighed. Chloe gave a small smile. “I’m Diana by the way. Wait, you knew that.” She pointed at Chloe, her bushy eyebrows knitting together. “How?”
She didn't want to admit she'd eavesdropped on a conversation or two. "My mentor gave me a list of mames. I’m Chloe.”
Diana was about to answer when a guy ran inside the training room. “Diana, you told me you would wait for me.”
Chloe watched as he tossed his laptop to a stack of mats, a pang of disappointment hitting her. “I have been looking everywhere for you,” he said, panting.
Chloe noticed Bill was looking at her. His eyes travelled from Chloe to the Scottish guy and he smirked.
Diana giggled. “Sorry, Lee. I was working on this super cool explosive thing and it ended up, well, exploding and I had to clean up the mess it made. Seriously, you should have seen the power of that thing. It wasn’t even big. Anyway, yeah, I forgot about this meeting. Gosh, my arms hurt from wheeling myself around at that . I have to show it to you later, it’s awesome.”
“Jeez Di, don’t scare these people with your rambling. You’ll show me later.”
Lee usually wore glasses, but now Chloe could see them peeking out of his pocket. He had freckles and a very heavy accent that, now that she paid attention, sounded very sophisticated. Chloe looked at the mat. With her red hair and pale skin, she resembled a vampire. And her accent clearly depicted her as a non-native English speaker.
“Have you heard anything about our team leader?” Lee asked, turning to Bill and Chloe.
“I heard it’s a girl,” said a guy, dropping his bag on the pile of mats by the door. He ran a hand through his light-brown hair, the muscles on his arm showing. “I’m Andrew.”
Everyone introduced themselves, including Chloe, which earned a nod from Bill. She could do this. She had to.
A clicking of heels on the metal floor alerted the group. Chloe lined up by the mat along with the others and waited. Her heart picked up and she held her breath, eyes fixed on the door.
A white haired girl walked in and it was as if time stopped. She wore a pair of round sunglasses that covered her face but even then, Chloe’s skin crawled with goosebumps.
Bill, who was standing on her left, sucked in a breath, going stiff as a board.
Andrew swore under his breath.
The girl made her way over to the uniformed group. She carried herself with pride, her back straight and hips swaying with every step. Her hand glided through the air as if the wind and gravity didn’t work on her. She took off the glasses and lowered them to her side as she looked around the room for a split second. Her eyes travelled from Andrew to Lee and Diana and then to Bill before they stopped on Chloe.
Chloe had never seen eyes like hers. Icy blue, piercing through your soul like two daggers.
“My name is Cassandra. I will be your team leader.”
Bill was shaking next to her. Chloe resisted the urge to look his way.
The girl, Cassandra, nodded her head at Andrew. “Roomie, take the stage.”
“Agent Jackson,” Andrew corrected stepping out of the line-up. “Combat.”
“We’ll see about that,” Cassandra said with a snort.
“Agent Foxtail,” Lee said next. “Computers.”
Chloe was struggling to stay still. These people were so confident they could sum up their skills in one word and she didn’t know if she could do anything well enough to be considered skilled. Ellie had told her she was a good actress and she should use that to her advantage, but making yourself invisible and pretending to be other people didn’t count as a talent. It had always served as a survival instinct.
“Agent Artemis,” Diana said next. “Explosives.”
“Agent Bishop,” Bill said, through gritted teeth. “Sharpshooter. But you already knew that.”
Chloe had no time to wonder what that could mean. “Agent Scarlet,” she said, looking at the ground before retreating back to her spot next to Bill.
She could feel Cassandra’s eyes on her, burning a hole through her head.
Cassandra’s voice was calm as she spoke. “Jackson, Scarlet, show me what you’ve got."
They faced each other and began circling, awaiting for an order.
“Fighting is like chess,” Cassandra spoke, observing them. “You need to work in sync with your body and your teammates in order to win the war. You need to trust that everyone will do their job. And you need a strategy.”
Chloe had barely gotten through middle school. She had never played chess in her life. She wiped the sweat off her face.
“Go.”
With those words, everything was set into motion. Both Chloe and Andrew lunged at each other, throwing and dodging punches. Chloe stumbled when Andrew's foot connected with her stomach. Her entire body was overtaken by shivering and it was enough to send her back into the dark, hot underground club. She was still wearing the skimpy clothing and trying to cover up her bruises with the little fabric on her body.
She gasped as Andrew knocked her to the ground, his knee resting on her chest.
“Finish it,” Cassandra’s voice broke Chloe’s thoughts and she became aware that she was on the floor, a gun pointed at her face.
Andrew did a double take before getting up and offering Chloe his hand.
“Shoot her.”
Chloe let go of Andrew’s hand, looking at the ground. She noticed when Cassandra stepped onto the mat.
“Agent Jackson, you have an order.”
“I already knocked her to the ground. I’m not going to kill her.”
“I never asked for an opinion.”
Chloe’s heart was beating frantically. She wished to be anywhere but here. At a nightclub, in her old, wet, apartment. She hated fighting.
“Cat Eye—“
“Not a word, Bill.”
Chloe raised her gaze. Bill looked at her helplessly. She shook her head. She didn’t want to get him in trouble.
Andrew straightened himself.
“Agent Jackson, you are disobeying direct orders from your leader. Are you aware of that?”
“Yes.”
“And you still refuse to obey?”
“Yes.”
Cassandra grabbed his hand, putting the gun to her chest. “Shoot.”
Andrew didn’t blink.
She grabbed the gun from his hands and pointed it at his head. Chloe’s breath stopped as time slowed down.
Cassandra pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
The gun made a series of clicks. “It was empty, you wimp,” she growled. "Some combat specialist you are."
She threw the gun across the room and turned away from them. “Let me ask you something. What would have happened had Agent Scarlet won the battle? You think she would’ve spared you, Jackson? She could’ve taken the opportunity to beat you down when you helped her.”
Chloe and Andrew returned to the line-up.
“I’m not here to be your friend. I’m here to make sure you don’t die. Lesson number one: Life is the most unfair fight of all. Now, let’s go. Grab a gun and let me see your aim.”
#
“Hey, Chloe, wait up!”
Chloe turned to see Diana wheeling herself down the hall of the training room. Cassandra had let them off the hook when they were out of energy to hold their guns properly.
“You did really good today,” Diana said, falling into step with Chloe.
Chloe shrugged. She was the weak link of the team. Even Lee, who was used to being behind a computer screen as it seemed, managed to hit more targets than her. “I guess.”
“You did! Cassandra put you in a tough position, making you fight that other guy. What’s his name again?”
“Andrew,” Chloe murmured.
“Right, Andrew. He’s obviously a very skilled chest to chest fighter.”
When Chloe didn’t reply, Diana continued. “Anyway, Lee and I were planning to go to dinner together. Care to join?”
Chloe shut the door to the training room, taking in a breath of the warm night air. The sun had set about an hour ago and the sky wasn’t pitch black yet. “I don’t know.”
“It’ll just be the three of us. Come on, it’s not like you have something better to do. Do you?” Diana’s eyes glistered like a child’s.
She would be uncomfortable if she accepted the invitation but she’ll spend some time with these people as it is, so maybe eating with them wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. “Okay.”
“Yes! Let’s go, I need food.”
They entered the dormitory building, Chloe heading for the stairs out of habit. She never liked elevator rides. Too many strangers in a small space.
“Chloe?"
“Huh?”
“Uh, stairs might not be the best option for me.”
Chloe covered her mouth with her hand. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t, it’s just a—”
“It’s fine,” Diana said with a smile. “Don’t stress it.”
When the doors to the elevator closed, Chloe looked up at the mirror on the wall. She looked like a tide had thrown her out to the surface. Her hair was a mess, falling around heer shoulder in uncombed clumps and her face was shiny from the sweat.
“I can’t wait to see what mission we’re getting. This was all so sudden.”
“Yeah,” Chloe said. “Cassandra’s scary though.”
“She’s such a badass. Everyone thought she had died along with the rest of her team. I almost yelled when I saw her.”
Chloe looked down at Diana.
“Cassandra’s team died?”
They exited the elevator and grabbed the trays from the stack, going into the line with everyone else still waiting to get dinner. The row wasn’t too long as most of the people had already eaten.
“Yeah. They were given a mission and nobody really knew where they went, although there were rumors. But they never came back. That is, until today apparently.”
Chloe put some curry chicken on her plate. “Are the other people from her team also back?”
Diana shrugged. “No, they’re still dead.”
Chloe removed her tray from the line and waited for Diana to get her food. The girl balanced her tray on her knees as she made her way towards Lee, who was already back to staring at his computer.
“Lee, you nerd, leave the poor laptop alone, we have company!” Diana shouted louder than necessary as they approached.
Chloe smiled at Lee, who looked at her skeptically over his glasses. She seated herself across from him and listened as Diana and Lee made small talk as she picked on her food.
What has she gotten herself into?
________
Another Friday, another update. We have now officially been introduced to all of the POV characters and they will continue to appear and tell their stories.
I hope you guys enjoyed following Chloe this time around. She was a favorite among my beta readers and I hope you relate to her as much as they did.
Squad 6 is in the Wattys this ywat so vote, comment, share and follow as always, to get the story on other people's pages and support me as an author.
Have a great day and happy writing,
Sara