I brushed my hair back as I closed the front door of the house, where a stranger was waiting outside in the overcast weather.
"I thought we could discuss this at the door." The man, who kept his hood up, commented as I stepped out.
"And let them overhear? Hell no." It was quite understandable that he had no idea of my family or my relationship with them, so it wasn't like I was surprised at him asking that question. "Well, I don't suppose we could go for a walk while we talk?"
The man laughed, a deep throaty laugh. "I'm still surprised you have so much faith in strangers. They do say that strangers are dangerous."
I smiled a little wryly. "Well, just say strangers are more appealing than most friends I have at the current moment." With that, I gestured towards southward, down the street. "Mind if we walk that way?"
He shrugged. "Very well."

We started walking for a full minute, making some distance away from my house, in absolute silence. The overcast weather which we were having was now starting to show the first signs of rain, but I never did mind that very much.
However, I did mind the fact he didn't say anything.
He comes up, knocks on my door, and now I give him a chance to speak, he has nothing to say?
As we walked along silently, I looked at the man who asked for my presence a bit more. As the thunder struck that night, I could see a little under the hood he was wearing, a dark skinned man who seemed to be somewhat going ahead in his years. The rain started to pick up, showing that he had considerable muscle hiding under the cloak he chose to shelter under too.
"You know," I asked, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the lack of conversation and the now slightly distracting soaking, "If you're going to ask someone to talk to you, it helps if you..." I paused, to think of the right word, "You know. Talk maybe?"
"That's true." He then paused before we turned the corner at the T junction we just hit. "Well, I guess I should get to the point. I need your help."
I rolled my eyes; this sort of vague requesting was something I was already used to, since my parents did this all the time. "What exactly do you want help with?"
Just like my parents, he didn't feel like giving specifics. "A few things. Do you want to help me?" Oh, this could be one of THOSE days...
I sighed. "I could, although you're not helping your case very much." I told him.
For some strange reason, he smiled, like he was almost waiting for my response, and for once, I could clearly see his face.
"Well, I could say that I could be offering you a chance you may never see again." He told me, the smile dripping wet from the rain.
"You're starting to sound like one of those telemarketers." I commented off hand, brushing my wet hair back a bit, " I suppose you're going to offer me adventure, some of the hottest boys this side of nowhere and millions upon millions of dollars too while you're at it?" I asked, knowing that I was being more than a bit sarcastic.
He laughed that deep laugh once again... and for some reason it disturbed me. Maybe it was the thunder strike which hit as he laughed. "No, I don't need to offer you any of that."
Then I realised what was scaring me as he turned to look at me dead in the eyes. "What I CAN offer you, is a chance at your future." He told me, not missing a beat. As I gazed into them, I realised that he wasn't lying... not one bit. As the rain poured down, as the thunder cracked through the air...
"You know what I speak of." He said after a short while. I think he was uncomfortable with me staring at his face like that. "Do you want to help?"

How does he know who I am, and how did he know my name? I pondered as he gazed at his fairly aged face, And why do I know that this guy, who I don't even know, isn't actually in one bit lying to me?
"You're thinking about it. Good." He turned to look around at the skies as they opened up. "You know that a total stranger wouldn't just walk up to you and ask for your presence abruptly." He then turned back around. "And here you are now, knowing that I'm starting to echo your sentiments. You see, I know a lot about you, your doubts, your dreams. And I know that what I need help with will set you free."
I scowled at him, because I was just sick of him trying to completely doubleguess me... although admittedly, I was more annoyed at the fact that he was getting it all right. "So, do you want-" He canned it after I growled.
"Can it buddy, I don't need another conscience crawling around repeating what I'm thinking." I told him angrily. "You got yourself a deal."
He didn't do anything at that moment, then he suddenly blurred, just as I saw a flash of thunderstorming light, and I felt a touch on the shoulder.

The searing pain a moment later after the sound of the thunder caught up had me involuntarily screaming, and I knew that it wasn't some freak of nature that had hit me, but it was HIM.
My arms, accelerated in anger, my slender frame hauling itself up. The fact I could force myself to move at all brought a surprise to me, and I was willing to bet, him. The pain was still travelling through me like wildfire, but I made myself ignore it, gritting my teeth as I slowly got up.
"What the hell..." I demanded, trying to force the words to leave my mouth, "Was..."
The figure that had put his cursed hands on me a moment earlier stood back, probably concluding that I was quite willing to strangle him at this point just shook his head. "I'm very sorry." The man told me impassively, his eyes watching.
"You... only just... nearly... killed me." I hoarsely shouted, my blistered fingers bleeding pus and blood, the rain washing away any signs as each drop hit the grass.
"It will heal. Just rest." The man told me, again, almost like he didn't care, "It was..." He paused like he was playing a word game, "...necessary."
"Necessary?" I asked weakly, my left eye deciding to deflate. "I'm... half blind..." I restrained the urge to scream after feeling my shoulder dislocate, even through the blind anger was running through me. "...Crippled..." My right eye focused on the man in an intense glare. "... and you expect me to just go LIE DOWN?" I shouted, blood littering his cloak... although that too somehow washed off him.
The man shook his head. "It's amazing that you're still up after that. You need to rest." I wanted to wring his neck there and then, before I died.
"What the..." I tried to demand out of him, still incredibly angry, "HELL..." I felt my knees buckle and I saw blood spurt upward, obscuring my vision, and I had trouble trying to keep conscious.
"is..." Then after that, everything went black.

"... Going on here?" I finished... except the circumstances which I finished weren't nearly the same as where I started. It was darker than the thunderstorm I was in, although I was completely dry.
"Hey, did you hear something?" I heard somewhere near me.
The second voice laughed, although by the sounds of it he was trying to muffle the laughter. "Nothing here."
I silenced myself, trying to figure what the hell was going on. By all rights, I should be dead... what the hell is going on? The corner of my left eye caught a slight slit of light-
My left eye?
I paused for a moment, as I reached to check my face with both hands-
My hands... with all my fingers? I cautiously touched both hands, and started counting my fingers. What the hell? I distinctly recall a couple of fingers falling off. At this point, I thought it would have been a nice idea to do a limb check since simply put, I never recalled anyone who could regenerate fingers, or anything else for that matter.

A few seconds later, the results were in... it seemed that all of me was still there, and it was all working too. My eyes were now adjusting to the darkness, and I also found that I was dressed up in a very nicely done white dress. It was a bit formal for my tastes, and I could have sworn that I never had a dress in my wardrobe to wear.
I was also in some sort of box, although with a pillow, and it being quite well cushioned, I didn't really mind the current position. It was very comfortable, to say the least, but it didn't answer the obvious question of where was I, or what the hell was going on.
A fancy dress I swore I never owned, and I'm in a box which doesn't let me move very much and is way too fancy- I'm being moved? I then heard a thud, and the little crack opened a little more, allowing me to look out a bit, and I saw some cleanly cut earth, with clay and all, then the little slit swung shut.
"Hey! Careful with that!" I heard my father scream at someone, "Don't damage the casket like that! It's an expensive one!"
Um... A CASKET? Uh oh. Suddenly the entire scenario hit me like a ton of bricks, as all the pieces fell into place. Everyone thinks I'm dead... I KNEW this box and the dress was wrong but...
I heard the rope which I think was supposed to secure me to lower me properly into the ground again, I slammed my head back onto the comfortable pillow as I pondered my options. I felt the coffin move a little to the side when I hit the pillow.
So I'm officially dead... I then thought about the people outside, about the people who I knew as family. Well, do I have to appear alive to them? God knows how much they'd love me to just disappear from their lives... Maybe I could wait till they disappear, and I could just sneak off, none the wiser.
I paused my thoughts as I heard something, presumably a priest intoning something which I couldn't quite make out clearly, and I felt myself being lowered.
Except how would I get out from under six feet of dirt? I better get out and do the fast talking rather than find out how long I can hold my breath. I then proceeded to try and open the casket, but I found it to be jammed.
Why does everyone want to make things so difficult for me? I thought to no one in particular, before falling back to the last resort, which was to just make the casket rock in any way I could.

Success of sorts in escaping was achieved when I felt the casket overturn and tilt and hitting the ground pretty hard. I could now see the clay which I was to lay on if things had gone according to plan since the rope which was locking me in had snapped.
"What the?"
"Did a rope snap? I heard something snap."
"Was it a ghostie mommy?"
"Course not Thuy, it was just an accident by the foremen."
"What are foremen mommy?"
The continuous murmur and chatter went on above me as I shifted around, seeing if I could escape. A slight check of the now semi-dislodged top found that I could.
"What happened?" I heard my father scream at a couple of people.
"We don't know, the rope must have frayed."
Oh dear. I think they haven't realised that I could still be alive. I couldn't actually believe my luck... I managed to escape and not have anyone know I was still alive.
I then heard my mother's voice rip through the murmuring like a thunderstorm. "Don't prolong the grieving!"
It certainly shut everyone up, even the priest who was conducting the service. Nice to know you'd like to get out of here and get me out of your life mom. I mentally shot at her, a little angry, but not surprised at her response.
"I think it would be best to conclude this service." I heard my father tell someone, I'm guessing the priest, "Unless there is anything else that needs to be done."
"No... no, the service has been concluded." I heard the priest, an elderly man, respond.
"We'd then like to thank all the people who attended, and we'd like to invite you all to a light lunch at the Eight Dragon Restaurant in the City... while the foremen fix this unfortunate mistake."
Nice to know that you care more about appearances than me Dad. I noted, more than a bit irritated, When I'm getting out of here, I should make a note to get you back for that!
I then waited quietly until the main crowd was gone, which was fairly rapid, no doubt encouraged by my family to leave the disgrace of the family behind. Cars started to start up and drive off, and after a few minutes, there was silence.

I was about to make my bid to escape, until I heard that there were a couple of other people still above me, except by the time I realised that, I had already begun to move the casket.
"Um, did you hear that?" I heard a man ask. He was fairly young, from my best guesses, and probably inexperienced with this.
"Hear what Danny?" An older man asked back.
"The casket, I swear I heard it move." He could have caused a fair few problems, and a need for an explanation if he kept up this train of action.
Fortunately, the more experienced man saved me all the trouble. "It might just be really unstable. I think we better run back for the ladder. I'm going to the car to drive back to get it."
"Coming!" I then heard the last two drive off.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I now struggled to open the casket enough for me to wriggle out. "Come on..." I told myself...
"There!" I exclaimed as the top finally opened enough for me to climb out of.
You know, I must be awfully lucky to get a chance like this... I thought as I counted my blessings.
"You know," I wondered to myself aloud as I wiggled out of the opening I got, "I might just think I'm invulnerab- Ouch!"
So much for THAT idea. I noted as I got up, feeling the scrapes I got while crawling out, And there went a perfectly serviceable dress too. Now I should crawl out of this hole...
It was an easy enough task, even though the hole itself was a good four metres deep, the casket itself was stacked rather messily against a wall due to my actions, and using it as a boost to get me out of the hole proved to be easy enough.
Now, where the hell am I? I pondered as I looked around, trying to get my bearings. The sun was out, and it was just past noon from my best guesses, and it was obvious that I was buried at the local Cemetery.
There wasn't anyone that I could see as I looked around either; the two funeral maintainers were probably inside the building looking for a ladder, and the only other thing I could see other than graves and trees was the truck with all the dirt which was supposed to fill my grave up, all ready, only needing the latch to be released before it all went rolling in.
Well, I better cover up the fact that I escaped my grave, shouldn't I? Good thing no one's going to see me do this... With that, I opened the latch and watched the dirt fly.
It was satisfying, to watch the dirt fall and cover up and bury what little life I didn't want anymore. It did make me cough somewhat, due to the amount of dust that it kicked up but...
I couldn't help whistling a tune as I walked off. The action on its own half made me feel completely librated, a burden which I wanted no part finally being lifted from my shoulders, being able to just walk away and pretend that the people who despised you no longer existed in your world... and yet have it all real. It was a dream that had come true for me.

Two and a half hours later (and a bit of luck with being able to do a bit of fare evasion on the train) I had finally managed to get home, or at least what was home until my funeral, for the final step of my vanishing act. Just get all my stuff, do a bit of constructive looting and be on my way before anyone had noticed.
One of the more odd notes was the fact that no one really asked about me, or even noticed about the fact I was dead, but the only reports I read about it only mentioned my name, but little else. Although I thought regenerating limbs would have made front page, I didn't really question it since it worked more for me.

Fortunately as I entered the front gate, I found my family were still gone, probably enjoying themselves with the fact that I was quite permanently out of their lives, so I had an empty house and no one to kindly point out that I should have been buried... or worse, tried to correct my breathing status.

It was a good thing that the neighbours had gone to the funeral as well, because I really didn't want them, or anyone else, to see someone they would easily recognise going for the hidden spare keys my parents had kept hidden around. Breaking in was easy enough, painless enough and quick enough...
Getting out of the dress was a bit of a different story, and admittedly, that took somewhere in the vicinity of about ten minutes.

God damnit, whoever made these dresses so difficult to get out of deserves to be lined up and SHOT damnit! I muttered silently as I glared at the mostly ripped up formal dress. The lacing had already torn, but now there was a rip along the back of the dress, and lots of black marking where the black shoes I was wearing had shown me struggling.
It's good to be in something that doesn't make me feel so stiff. I rolled my shoulders and swung my arms around to put some feeling back into them, Although maybe it's just the fact I was immobile for about three days... I shrugged it off as I looked around for my backpack, which would probably serve as my home for the rest of my life... that was easily found since they hadn't really gotten around to packing it all.
I did notice that a lot of my stuff had a bunch of price tags on them. I sighed as I ripped off the tag from my backpack. Damn cheapscates. I muttered darkly as I quickly started to load clothes into the bag.

It took me about an hour, but it wasn't too hard to load the bag full of clothes and a whole bunch of other things I could sell along the way, or at least they looked valuable enough to sell.
I know normally I'd not exactly be supporting anyone who has to do mass theft like this but you know... if they were planning to just sell MY stuff like this, I think I should be allowed to do it BACK.
I hefted the bag once, just to check that I could carry it. Admittedly, it was kinda heavy, since I managed to find my parents rather large money jar, but it was more than managable. Putting the straps on was easy enough though, and the weight was much more bareable on my back than when I lifted it with one hand.
"Well, I guess I better get going then." I told no one in particular as I gave one last look in the mirror in the hallway outside my room, having a quick look at myself. The reflection had shown me perfectly normal, my black hair without a strand out of place, both black eyes looking perfectly fine, and all my limbs were looking perfectly normal, like nothing happened.
"And you should be coming with us." I heard from behind me, as I saw a shilouette show up in the mirror as the owner of the voice turned the corner, armed with two short blades of some sort.

There was a lot of loud shattering as the first blade hit my bag, as I turned to face him, with coins scattering all over the floor. Definitly not ALIVE! I noted in the microseconds as the jar shattered and the bag started ripping.
I didn't really get much chance to think about that as I managed to complete turning around, one of the blades still embedded in my bag, to face him. The second blade followed through as he let go of the first, flying in at head height, which I barely managed to dodge by ducking down.
Blade... must get close! I didn't think very much as I suddenly closed the distance as he recovered from that swing. Then I did the only thing I could think of... I shoved him back.
It sort of did the trick, with me being able to shove him backward through a door.
"Just great." I muttered as I started to look quickly for an exit. Unfortunately, someone had busted in the back door which I came through.

"Run!" I heard the person who busted in the door shout at me. He had sufficently dark skin and he certainly wasn't carrying anything to kill me with.
"Hey, aren't you- Whoa!" Unfortunately my unknown assailant had other ideas before I could conduct my questioning session by barely missing my nose with his one remaining blade.
"Christina, turn, aim, now!" I heard him suddenly tell someone, although I was fairly sure it was just us three in the house.
"For god's sake!" I shouted as I struggled with him as I instinctively grabbed the hand he used to swing as he now started to swiftly block the exit to the back door. "Come - Ahh!" He managed to exert a bit more strength than I did, and managed to slice into my left leg. "Damnit!" I continued to struggle with his grip, trying to keep him and his blade away from me. The only problem was that he was apparently a lot stronger than I was, and I didn't have any way to surprise him this time.
I felt as my back hit the mirror violently, as he shoved me to pin me to the wall the mirror was mounted on, and he slowly but steadily managed to raise the blade right where it could hurt...
I gave a slight glance to the side, where the man who had probably caused this mess inexplicably had stepped out of the corridor's way.
"Christina, fire, NOW!"
What is he doing? I wondered as he quickly peeked around to me, Why isn't he-
BLAM
The sound seemed to amplify, as I heard a distant boom somewhere in the distance.

I suddenly found that I could easily shove him off after the sound had rattled through my ears... I also felt something wet hit me on my right cheek, and heard a couple of windows break and pair of solid thunks in very rapid succession.
I turned back to the person who had assailed me, wondering why he wasn't trying to kill me anymore-
What the? I couldn't help but just gawk at the corpse which had a nice big hole where his ears were. Most of his head wasn't even there. He's... I reached up to my face, and touched my cheek cautiously. He's really dead, isn't he? I asked myself as the blood ran through my fingers.
A quick glance to my right found that a hole had somehow severely rattled the simple wooden door that was the front door, and a quick glance to the right found it went through a wall. Someone shot through-
I couldn't help but spin back around to the mirror, with the blood still draining off its reflective surface. Staring at it revealed how bloody the death that was left on my hands had stained me. The red had stained my hair, my face, my clothes...
I couldn't help but feel it also somehow stained my soul in one way or another...

slap
I turned around to the person who throught it was a funny idea to hit me so hard in the face. "Hey, what's the-"
The man looked at me with almost a sigh of relief. "Count your lucky stars that Christina didn't miss. Now stop moping around, there's at least five elements here waiting to rebury you!"
"Huh, what's going on exactly? What's an Element?" I tried to parse the information, but admittedly, I had no idea how many people were even in an element.
For some reason, the older man smiled at me. "Least you're bright enough to ask a few questions when you don't know everything." He then had a quick chuckle in his deep voice, "You might even survive this." That statement didn't comfort me very much.
"Might? That doesn't sound too inspiring old man." I told him, a bit displeased with the fact that a lot of people were trying to kill me, and to think it was mostly his fault for getting me into this mess.
"Can the chatter, I need to activate your module." With that he quietly closed his eyes, and muttered something. "We'll talk during the briefing, cause we need to figure out how to get us out of the deathtrap you managed to get us all in."
"Death-" Suddenly, I found myself not staring at the dead man who tried to kill me. In fact, I could have sworn that we weren't standing in a house anymore. The only thing I saw was a realistic model of a town and the man who had come for me.
"-trap?" I blinked as I saw the dark room we were in. "Um..."
"Where the hell are we?" I asked after a quick look around. It was the obvious question really. I mean, when was the last time you got teleported from your house to the middle of nowhere?
"Welcome to Tactical space." He told me in a calm fashion.

"Tactical Space... whatever that means." I murmured as I looked at him, and of the three dimensional models of what looked to be some surburb which lay on what seemed to be a table. "So what were you talking about earlier about a module anyway?"
"The module allows access to-" He frowned slightly as I interrupted him.
Admittedly, I was bombarding him with questions, but I didn't care, he DID deserve it after all. "So what's with this map, it looks like outside my house." I then paused as I squinted at it. "Wait a second..."
I took a second look at the models and realised that all the terrain was deeply familiar to me. I remember walking the streets it represented, seeing the houses...
"What's the meaning of this? Why am I looking at a replica of my place?"
He smirked as he watched me realise everything. "The reason why you're looking this tactical map is because we need to plan our way out." He then reached what I recognised as the roof of my house and tapped it once, the roof magically disappearing. It revealed the two of us, standing right next to the mirror, still with bloodstains on it.
"We are here." He told me calmly after lifting his hand from the rendition.
I pointed to the darkness around us. "This sure doesn't look like my house."
"The module is just rendering this for our convience and our survival. We are still present in the house."
"So if we're here..." I pondered aloud as I gingerly touched the rendition, "Who's that over there?" I pointed to a man in grey, who seemed to be crouched behind a fence. He was near the front door, where the bullet which saved my life had punched a hole. I was tempted to touch him, the whole thing felt like a child's sandpit.
"He's one of the others here to kill you."
I withdrew my hand immediately. "Um, shouldn't we snap out of this and RU-" He made a silencing gesture with his finger.
"Since you're here with me, and we are in Tactical space, we are running this rendition at very rapid speed." He told me crisply, which admittedly made me snap to his attention. "Everything here is happening over very minute pieces of time."
"So basically everyone else is in slow motion?" I asked, uncertain of what he was suggesting. The whole concept of being in a weird trance while people were just around the corner to kill you wasn't quite something I was comfortable with.
He gave a quick smile. "Not quite, but for our purposes, that explanation is adequate. If you need to be accurate, we are just thinking much faster than normal." He then tapped one of the houses across the road, and it revealed that a woman was crouched behind a window; the rifle barely hanging on the windowsill, her short blonde hair barely touching the shoulders and wearing what seemed to be a blood red uniform. He then tapped the model of the person standing there.
I involuntarily winced, since she was, according to the man, actually there across the road from us. I thought he could have smacked her head in or something. "Christina, do you read?" I heard the man ask the figure.
To my surprise, she replied. "Sir, copy." I blinked as I heard her speak, it didn't really sound right... That and honestly, I was expecting her to complain about being smacked so hard. He was kinda rough.
"Good. Christina, meet the girl you saved..." He then paused, like he was trying to remember my name. "...Melinda." He finally finished, making a gesture towards me.
He knew my name too. How did he discover so much about me without me knowing? I just continued to listen and watch the two talk. It was sort of unnerving to have her actually look up at us, like she was present through that model.
"She strategic Sir?" I frowned slightly, wondering if there was something wrong with her, or if it was something inherent with talking around here.
He shook his head, which was a little unnerving. "No, she will be dealing with tactical."
"Why tactic not?" I heard her ask.
"That is currently classified beyond your level Christina." He replied calmly.
Hold it, hold it! I'm classified? For what? Why am I so important? I made a mental note of the conversation so I could do lots of interrogration out of him later when we were out of this mess.
He continued without skipping a beat the explanation. "I'm reassigning you to her. Keep her alive at all costs."
"Yes Sir." The figure replied, saluting. "Establish Uplink."
A few seconds paused, then he looked at me. "You heard her, touch her and establish contact."

I didn't disobey him, since he was the obvious master, and here I was as a student. I did however try to very, very lightly touch her, the whole space was making me nervous. I didn't want to hit her too hard in case I broke her neck and that somehow carried on when we got out of here.
As I touched her, her uniform changed from the blood red she was wearing into a much more nondescript black with touches of purple. Thing was however, the sniper rifle that she had suddenly vanished.
"I see you like black." He noted amusingly.
Since we were so serious for most of the time I was here, he sort of caught me off guard. "Um... thanks?" I replied weakly, at a loss of words.
"She'll be under your personal command from now." He instructed me, switching from his light tone, "Take care of her, since she is one of our best."
"I understand." I replied, somewhat calm. For some reason, the whole scenario's overwhelmingness had somehow disappated. It felt less and less alien, and more something that felt familiar. It felt like... it was my future.
I cleared my throat. "Christina, do you hear me?"
I watched as the figure replied. "Loud and clear Miss." I blinked as she spoke perfectly, unlike how it was disjointed before.
"Well, I guess you'll be taking my suggestions for now." I told her, "I hope we do well."
I saw her flash a smile. "Of course we will miss. If Murphy has confidence in you, I do too."
I quietly looked at the map once again, and now started to tap houses, to see what else I could find.

A very short time later, I unearthed the entire situation, or at the very least, what looked like the entire situation. There were numerous people in grey who were around in what seemed to be a steel ring on three sides. From what I could see, there were seven others in the blood red uniforms, all which seemed to be set up in defensive positions scattered over various houses. They all seemed fine, although it was obvious that they had just started opening fire.
"That's everyone on the field?" I asked curiously after doing a quick check.
"Well-" He didn't get very far, cause I had just noticed something.
"Where's the neighbours?" I asked quickly, "It's not like everyone had gone to my funeral."
A frown clearly showed his displeasure. "I was about to get to that. We can't see them." He told me, a bit irritated at being interrupted. "If no one under your or my command can see them, we don't have any idea where they are. I think they're starting to go into a panic."
I sighed. "Well, I hope no one gets killed. Um so, how many people are in an element?" I asked, recalling what he said before we shifted location.
"Four," He answered, "although every second element usually has a commander to manage the two elements."
I glanced at the battlemap, and did a quick headcount. "You said there were at least five elements. But at least one's missing..." I sighed as I thought about the implications.
I count 17 people, and there's another 5 people I don't know of trying to kill me... And they can be hidden almost anywhere...
I took a deep breath as I considered it. "So how are we going to get out?"
"Well, I can arrange for someone to pick us up and get us out. Thing is, you need to tell me where to land and what to expect."
I then paused. "Hey, why am I the one who has to decide?" I asked, a bit uncomfortable with the added responsiblity.
"You have to learn to do this sometime." His cool response chilled me to the core.
And he's putting his life and the rest of his squad in MY hands. And I don't know what to do... I swallowed as I looked at the map again.