Young Writers Society

The cold wind that awakens the agents is unwelcomed by many but not Arla she embraces the wind. It reminded her of a summer beach where the wind would whip up the sand until it seemed to crate flowers made of sand in the sky. The birds were her favorite thing about the beach though. The little sandpipers running around in short bursts of energy on their long thin legs. It always brought a smile to her face. Oh god what she wouldn’t give to see those birds right now she didn’t know.

The branches rustled in this new-found wind as a storm seemed to brew on the horizon. The pitter patter of cold Icey water started to drip onto her face. She grabbed her pistols and ammo bag and took cover under a cedar tree. Her group that she was assigned was a bunch of green horns in her opinion they talked too much, made friends too fast, friends they might lose in an hour. The assignment was simple, take down the enemy's fort. The enemy was an unknown some shady organization that had been testing with human DNA. They had messed with her life too much. Her parents were from that organization, they had volunteered for the testing on their DNA. The changes hadn't worked on them, but the child her mother carried was a different matter.

One of the agents had started a fire to warm up their hands she could smell it although they had tried to hide it. She groaned at their stupidity, did they want to freaken die? She stormed over placing her boot in the fire smothering it. She threw her coat over the ashes to hide the smoke that was slowly wafting for the treetops. "What is your problem green horn? We are three miles from the enemy, and you think it’s a wise idea to create a smoke signal?" The look in her eyes made the young man shiver and mumble, "no mam." She sighed and removed her coat from the fire handing it to the man. "Here take this you could have at least told me you don’t have a coat we could’ve worked something out." The man nodded accepting the coat with a thanks. "Let's move out!" She yelled addressing the group. The men gathered their stuff taking the bare minimum and leaving what little food they had.

The trek was nothing to her as she walked with heavy bags of ammo, but she noticed some of the rookies panting for air as they neared the tree line. She held up her hand and the men stopped in their tracks looking at the large building in front of them with wide eyes. The red Hydra flag was visible for all to see and even Arla felt a little intimidated. She pulled out her water bottle with brandy in it and took a gulp letting the adrenaline kick in. The men looked to her for instruction as she placed the water bottle back in her bag. She signaled the men to split up into two groups one would cause a distraction in the back and the other would go for the front.

She waited for the fighting in the back to start before she went for the front. The metal doors looked hard to open for someone without her ability's and skillset. She placed her USB into the face recognition software and waited for the affirming beep telling her the doors were open. The men gulped as she drew her gun opening the door there was a lack of guards due to them being occupied at the moment with the second group, but she knew not to let her guard down. She made her way to the room full of the files she was tasked with getting. The long medal hall seemed almost endless as she continued down it looking around every corner.

The shout from down the hall told her she was running out of time, Hydra had found them. She ran now not bothering to look around the corners. She quickly opened the door and headed for the monitors. Hydra scientists shouted confused by this random event but the were quickly silenced by her accurate aim. She pulled a second USB drive from her boot and plugged it into the monitor. As the drives were downloading, she felt a pain in her side. She looked down to find that a bullet had grazed her hip. She swore and kicked the gun out of the scientist's hand. His eyes widened as the bullet graze slowly healed itself. She grinned. "Surprise." The bullet entered right between his eyes with the look of shock still on his face.

The file was complete. She grabbed the stick placing it in her boot and grabbed her water bottle pouring the contents on the monitor. She lit a match on her nail and lit the computer room on fire. She exited the room sprinting down the hall calling out orders as she went. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the young man who had started the fire dead in the hallway leaning up against the wall. Her coat was still on his shoulders now red with blood. She gritted her teeth, why had Fury assigned her these nubes? She ran out into the field with the pickup point rooted into her memory. She let the men run into the tree line ahead of her as she sot behind her at the remaining Hydra soldiers.

"Hold your fire, hold fire! Arla!" She stopped her movements everything seemed to slowdown as the man who had yelled stepped forwards. "Arla come here come back your fighting the wrong side honey." She hadn't seen her dads face for ten years but she knew that voice and face. She stood there in the middle of a battle field sneering at her dad. "You are a monster. I will never fight for Hydra I would rather die." She spit out her voice dripping with venom as she turned and ran for the woods. Before she was out of earshot, she heard her dads voice, "Oh you will, you will."

The Helicopter picked them up at the pickup point right on time. She felt a numbness settle into her bones as she threw down her heavy gear and slid down the cool medal wall onto the floor. Her curly blonde hair was coming out of the tight bun she had placed it in that morning. She sighed and wiped the blood and sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. The world looked so different from up in the sky, but things always look better from farther away.

Her father when had been the last time she had seen him she wondered. It was around ten years ago when she was twelve. She remembered how she was living in a cement room with a drain on the floor for any waist. The room was always dark you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. The rats were the worst she had grown a fear of them as at night they crawled over her limbs. She hated them more than anything except the men in white coats they were the worst. She remembered her dad wearing a white coat, her dad injecting her, it was her dad who had killed her mom.

When she got home after the helicopter had dropped them off, she went straight for the bathroom. She opened the med cabinet full of the strongest alcohol she could get her hands on. This was a ritual for her now drinking after missions. Bottle after bottle went into her as she cried and cut at her wrists with her knives, but they would just heal reminding her that she was a monster, a freak of nature. The drinks made a reappearance however as she threw up into her tub her sides aching as they emptied everything within them. At this point she had cut so deep in the same places that the cuts weren’t healing her stamina was running out. She let herself fall to the floor in her own vomit and blood as she finally succumbed to sleep.