C411 The Attack

As soon as we started positioning ourselves, the people inside the three vehicles began moving out. There was no more time to wonder who they were. No more time to wait. They were coming for us. Cipher raised her weapon first. She didn't hesitate. Bang! The first shot tore through the night. Two bullets struck one of the men almost at the same time. His body jerked backward before collapsing onto the ground. Everything suddenly went silent. The men froze.

Cipher lowered her weapon slightly. "It seems like they were waiting for us," she said coldly. "Let's kill them."

Before anyone could move forward, another gunshot echoed through the trees. Bang! Silver had fired. But she missed. The bullet struck the ground near one of the men. Silver's eyes widened. genuine panic was visible on her face. She had been confident during training. now there was a real enemy standing in front of her. And her hands suddenly felt different. She quickly reloaded. "Come on," she whispered to herself. She raised the rifle again. This time, she didn't miss. Bang! The bullet struck the man's head. His body dropped instantly. Silver froze. She stared through her scope, watching the body lying motionless on the ground. Her breathing became heavier. She simply stared. Another gunshot came from the side. Bang! Pixel had fired. Another man fell. Pixel lowered her rifle for only a second before looking toward Kiddo.

That was when everything changed. Kiddo had been caught off guard. A bullet struck her left shoulder. "Ah!" She stumbled backward. The weapon nearly slipped from her hand The attacker stepped forward, clearly intending to finish her. Pixel saw him. She didn't think. She simply aimed. Her hands were shaking. Her breathing was fast. For a second, she struggled to keep the rifle steady. Then she pulled the trigger. BOOM! A headshot. The man dropped before he could reach Kiddo. Pixel remained frozen behind her rifle. Her eyes were wide. She had just saved Kiddo. But she had also taken another life. "Kiddo!" Survivor shouted. Kiddo pressed her hand against her shoulder. "I'm okay!" she called back. But she wasn't completely okay. Blood was already running down her arm.

Bighead, however, seemed more than ready. In the blink of an eye, he had taken down two men while remaining behind cover. Two shots. Two bodies. He barely moved. I watched him for a moment. Chris had changed. The funny guy who used to make jokes whenever things became uncomfortable was still there. But something else had appeared in him. Something I had never seen before. Determination. I tightened my grip on my weapon. I couldn't allow myself to freeze. I aimed at another attacker. I waited for the right moment. Then I pulled the trigger. Bang! The man dropped. My first kill. I stared at him. For a second, I couldn't breathe. My hands became cold. I had imagined this moment countless times during training. But I had never imagined what it would feel like to actually take someone's life. "Cracker!" Survivor's voice brought me back. She had moved behind another attacker. Bang! Another man fell. She looked at the bodies scattered across the ground. "Keep moving!" Cipher shouted.

We couldn't stop. There were still enemies somewhere in the darkness. Chipmunk moved forward carefully. She scanned the area. Then she spotted another man. She raised her weapon. But the moment she had a clear view of him, she froze. The man saw her. He raised his gun. Cipher noticed immediately. Bang! Cipher shot him before he could fire. He fell immediately. Chipmunk stood there silently. Cipher looked at her. "You okay?" Chipmunk stood there frozen. "I couldn't do it." But her voice was choking. Her body was shaking violently. Now only one man remained. We didn't know where he was. Everyone spread out. We searched the darkness. Every shadow looked like a person. "Where is he?" Bighead whispered. Nobody answered. The forest suddenly felt much larger than it had a few minutes earlier. From afar, Silver raised her sniper rifle. She slowly scanned the area. Her scope moved slightly. "There." She took a breath. "Behind the tree." Silver didn't hesitate. Bang!

The final attacker dropped. Silence returned. For several seconds, none of us spoke. Then everyone lowered their weapons. The battle was over. We immediately rushed toward Kiddo. She was sitting against a tree, holding her shoulder. Survivor reached her first. Tears were already running down her face. "Kiddo, what happened?" she asked desperately. "How did you get injured?" Kiddo tried to smile. "I was caught off guard." "You were shot!" Survivor looked at the wound. "You're bleeding." "It's only my shoulder." "Only your shoulder?" Survivor's voice broke. "You could have died!" Kiddo reached for her hand. "Survivor, I'm okay." Survivor shook her head. "No, you're not." She wiped the tears from her face, but more came. "I love you, Kiddo." Kiddo smiled faintly. "I love you too." We carried Kiddo back toward the house.

Thankfully, the bullet had passed straight through her shoulder. It was an open wound, but the bullet hadn't remained inside her. That was the only reason we could breathe a little easier. Once we reached the house, we cleaned the wound, bandaged her shoulder, and gave her painkillers. Kiddo tried to act normal. She even joked a little. But we could all see the pain in her face. Cipher looked around the room. Then she looked at me and Bighead. "Can you two go and clean up the bodies?" Bighead grinned. "Impossible." Cipher raised an eyebrow. "What?" "We all must do it." Bighead was right. We had all fought. So we all needed to face the consequences together. One by one, we stood. Kiddo remained inside. The rest of us went back outside. The bodies were still where they had fallen. We didn't speak much. We simply carried them. One after another.

We moved them away from the house and toward a large dustbin area where we could deal with them later. Every time I touched one of the bodies, I felt strange. These men had come to kill us. They had entered our territory. They had attacked us. We had defended ourselves. I knew all of that. Yet knowing it didn't make what I had done feel easier. When we finally finished, we stood together in silence. There was no victory. Only silence. We had been trained to fight. But tonight, we had learned something our coaches couldn't teach us with words. Taking a life was different. It stayed inside our head. I looked around at everyone. Survivor was sitting quietly beside Kiddo. She kept looking at Kiddo's bandaged shoulder. Pixel was staring at the floor. Chipmunk hadn't said much since the fight. Silver was cleaning her rifle. Bighead was unusually quiet. Even Cipher, the strongest among us, wasn't celebrating. She walked back inside and sat alone in one corner of the room. She looked like she was thinking about every person we had just killed. This was only the beginning. Nobody had appetite to eat. Even Bighead who had been complaining was quiet.

Far away from us, Hanna was waiting. She had expected a report. She had expected one of her men to call her. She waited. She checked her phone. Nothing. She waited longer. Still nothing. Hanna became impatient. She called one of the numbers. No answer. Her expression slowly changed. Something was wrong. She sat on her bed, staring at the phone in her hand. "They should have contacted me by now." She waited. But there was still no feedback. Eventually, exhaustion took over. Hanna lay down. She still expected the phone to ring. But sleep came before the call. Back at the military base, sleep refused to come to me. I lay on my small bed, staring at the ceiling. My eyes were wide open. I couldn't stop thinking. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the man I had shot. I saw him standing. I saw him falling. I turned onto my side. My mind didn't care about logic. It simply kept showing me the same image.

I wasn't the only one awake. Bighead was still awake too. I could hear him moving occasionally. Cipher wasn't sleeping either. The room was quiet, but I could feel that several of us were struggling with the same thoughts. Eventually, I almost found sleep. My eyes were finally becoming heavy. Then.. "AHHH!" Pixel screamed. Everyone woke. Pixel was sitting on her bed, breathing heavily. Tears streamed down her face. Survivor, who had been sleeping beside Kiddo, immediately woke up. Silver was already awake and reached for her weapon. Chipmunk looked toward Pixel. "What is it, Pixel?" she asked softly. Pixel shook her head. She couldn't speak at first. Her breathing was uneven. Then she looked at us. "I saw him." Nobody moved. "Saw who?" Bighead asked. Pixel wiped her tears. "The guy I shot." Silence filled the room. Nobody needed to ask what she meant. Those images were following us into our dreams.

Pixel covered her face with her hands. "I saw him falling again." Survivor looked down. Chipmunk swallowed hard. Bighead didn't say anything. Cipher remained silent in her corner. I looked around the room. None of us were going to sleep tonight. I finally sat up. "Let's start a fire." Everyone looked at me. "Why?" Chipmunk asked. "Since we can't sleep, let's sit outside around the fire." Nobody objected. One by one, we got up. We left the house and gathered wood. A few minutes later, the fire was burning. We sat around it in silence. The flames moved slowly in front of us. Tonight, we were reminded that underneath the uniforms, weapons and code names, we were still human. Cipher finally broke the silence. "This is what our training was preparing us for." She looked at the flames. "But remember something." We all looked at her. "We didn't kill because we wanted to." She paused. "We killed because they came for us." I lowered my eyes. Maybe she was right. Maybe that was the only thing that could keep us moving forward. But deep inside, I knew something else. The people we had killed tonight were not going to be the last.