Emily made her way back to the Humvee. Sergeant Caraway was already there sitting down in the passenger seat looking at a map. Not wanting to disturb him Emily made her way to where everyone else was standing. She got a couple of nods and a few hellos as she joined the group. Standing off to the side was a couple Afghan people and one American looking guy in jeans and a bulletproof vest. Behind the strange group was a two of older looking trucks with tarps over the backs of them. At eight the Company piled into their trucks. Sergeant Caraway stopped Fanti before he could start the truck.

“Ok listen up we have a side mission. Those two trucks are going to be joining the convoy until we get to Hasis highway. Us, Carebear and Froggy will be going with them to a compound that is forty-five minutes down Hasis as an escort. We can follow Hasis as it loops back to the main highway and if we floor it we should be able to rejoin the main convoy in a little over an hour after that. Carebear will ride point. We will be second and Froggy will be in the rear.” Sergeant Caraway said holding up the map so they all could all see it.

Four boring hours later they were driving down the three-lane highway when Sergeant Caraway picked up the mic. “Carebear, Froggy you guys ready to break away. Hasis is about two miles away.”

After getting affirmatives back from the other two Humvees Sergeant Caraway picked up the satellite phone called the lead Afghan truck. “Mr. Smith this is Sergeant Caraway sir. We are about to break off from the main convoy. If you would pull out with your trucks after you see two Humvees drive by sir. The last humvee will be following you.” Sergeant Caraway paused for a few seconds for a reply then said: “Thank you, sir, we are breaking off now.”

He then picked up the mic again said “Convoy leader, Caraway.

“Go head Caraway.”

“Permission to break away now to start the second Convoy.”

“Caraway permission granted. Good luck.”

“Ok, Carebear that’s our queue. Let's get going.” Sergeant Caraway said to Fanti as he switched from Command frequency to squad frequency on the radio.

“Mr. Smith sir. Can I kiss your butt, sir? My nose is a little to pale sir.” Fanti said smiling.

“Shut up Fanti. Focus on your driving.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Sergeant sir,” Fanti replied. Emily turned to the window trying to hide her smile.

Emily watched the Carebear pull out of the convoy before her Humvee pulled out following them. She turned around to watch the two old trucks pull out and follow. She couldn’t see Froggy pull out but she knew he was back there. A few minutes later the second convoy turned off the three-lane highway and down a single lane highway.

Emily felt her hackles rise as she looked how close the buildings were to the road. This was an ambushers dream. There was traffic on the road slowing them down. She reached out and touched Righteous on her back to reassure herself. She looked back through the back window to see the old trucks driving really close to her Humvee.

“Hey Caraway man there is too much traffic for me to scout ahead. What do you want me to do.” Carebear asked on the radio.

“Stick with the convoy for now and let's hope this traffic opens up ahead.” Caraway replied on the radio.

“Geary, get on the fifty,” Caraway said pointing upwards towards the turret. “Stay low and keep an eye on the rooftops. It wouldn’t take much to set up an ambush here.”

Emily pulled her M9 from the rifle rack beside her and put it between her legs with the mussel pointed down towards the floor. She eyed the rooftops through her window suspiciously. In front of her, Caraway did the same thing. “I got a bad feeling about this,” Fanti said into the silence.

Forty minutes later they were only halfway to the compound and the traffic hadn’t gotten any better. Sergeant Caraway had already called in their delay and Command was not happy, but there wasn’t much anyone could do about the situation. Emily reached down and grabbed a sports drink. Caraway had turned the AC in the Humvee off when it started blowing hot air about thirty minutes ago and it was really hot in the truck now. Emily didn’t feel the heat as much as everyone else in the truck but she was still a little warm.

“Caraway there is a sharp blind turn ahead,” Carebear said over the radio. Hasis was a twisting and winding road and Carebear like to call them all in. While he was supposed to call in all the sharp turns it was getting out of hand because the entire road was one long twisting and winding road. If it was up to Emily she would have stopped a while ago.

She raised the sports drink and woke up hanging upside down. She blinked a few times trying to figure out why she was hanging upside down when she noticed that she was hearing gunfire and that she had been hearing gunfire for a long time now. Inside the cab of the Humvee was really dark with some dusty beams of light coming in from some spots in the truck. Emily was hanging by her seat belt with her hands dangling downwards. Light from the gun turret was shining right into her eyes. Looking up she realized that she could see the ground from the gun turret.

Emily reached for her gun but it was gone. She search by touch on the gun rack between the two back seats and all she found was Geary’s rifle. She looked at the turret hole again this time looking for Geary but he was missing. She looked towards the front of the Humvee to see to a body hanging upside down. One of the beams of light was shining on Fanti. His eyes were open but he wasn't moving. His body looked strange and she could not figure out what was wrong until something clicking in her head. He was missing his arm. He had a shoulder but no arm.

Blinking Emily looked to the passenger seat but it was too dark to see anything. A loud boom shook the humvee. “I gotta get out of here.” Emily thought to herself and shook her head to get some focus. Her eyes found Geary’s rifle and she reached out with her right hand and pulled it out from the gun rack at the same time she unclasped her seatbelt with her left hand. Which turned out to be a stupid idea because she ended up falling towards the ceiling that was now the floor.

Righting herself she headed towards the gun turret and climbed out the opening. Right in front of her was the underside of one of the old trucks. It was on its side, with the tires facing her, taking up most of her view of the street in front of her. She heard gunfire from her right. Turning she saw three OCS in white and brown robes firing AK’s down the street. For some reason, they were all wearing ski masks.

"They must be really hot." She thought to herself still feeling kind of fuzzy.

She could not see who they were firing at but she assumed they were firing at her people. They were hiding in an alcove of someone's house. There was one guy crouched down firing at a pretty steady pace. There was another guy popping up over the first dude to fire off a few rounds then pop back hiding again. The last guy was messing with what looked like a broken gun deep into the alcove. Emily checked her left to see an entrance to some kind of electronics store. She didn't see any enemies there so she turned back towards the three OCS.

Still lying halfway inside the gun turret, she lined up the hologram sight on Geary’s gun on the third guy who still messing with his gun. Taking a deep breath she pulled the trigger. The guy folded over his gun to crumple head first into the group. The second guy who kept popping up to take a few snapshots turned to look at the downed guy. Emily moved her gun to him and just as he turned to look at her she fired again. He fell backward into the alcove. The last guy never even notice his two dead friends as Emily pulled the trigger. His head snapped to the side against the wall and he dropped bonelessly to the ground.

Emily checked to the left again but it was still empty. She crawled out of the Humvee and was on her hands and knees when she saw four OCS carrying someone race around the corner towards the electronics shop. Still, on her knees, she raised her rifle and fired at the lead guy. He dropped to the ground making the other guys stumble. Emily lined up the next target and fired again. The second guy was still trying to untangle himself from the man in front of him when her bullet hit him. The third guy dropped his prisoner and was going for his gun when Emily’s little red dot found him and she fired. He dropped to his side his rifle falling from his fingers.

The last guy spun around and was able to get a shot off before Emily pulled her trigger. He missed she didn’t. She climbed to her feet keeping her rifle point in the direction of the four dead OCS guys. She used her left hand on the Humvee to help her stand. She was glad she did when three more OCS guys appeared from around the corner heading towards the four dead guys.

They paused by their dead friends giving Emily more than enough time to line up the little red dot on the guy in the back and pull the trigger. The other two guys spun around as the guy in the back fell. One guy had his gun pointed to the ground while the other one had it up and ready. Emily lined up her sight on the man with his rifle that in the ready position and pulled the trigger. He took the round in the chest. The last guy was able to bring up his rifle to fire before Emily was able to hit him. Emily crouched down as the guy fired his gun on full auto. She felt something hit her in the leg. It stung a little bit. She returned fire but shot too fast and without aiming all that well. Because of that, it took three bullets to hit him. He fell to his knees still alive so Emily took extra care lining up her next shot. This time he dropped and stayed down.

Taking a quick look to behind her she moved to the underside of the downed old truck once she verified that there were no OCS behind her. She crept forward until she was at the edge of the truck. She looked toward the group of dead OCS guys to see who they were carrying. It took a second for her to realize it was Mr. Smith. Cursing Emily leaned back. Pausing she leaned around the truck to peek to see what was down the street.

She saw the second old truck on its side. Taking a look in the other direction she spotted what was left of Froggy Humvee. It was half buried in a crater. Black smoke was boiling out from the inside of the cab. Looking up she spotted a lot of guns barrels pointing toward the other side of the street. Emily looked behind her again to make sure no one was behind her but the dead guys. Taking a deep breath raced across the street to where Mr. Smith had fallen.

No one fired at her so she stopped at the edge of the store and looked back down the street. When she didn’t see anyone she turned toward Mr. Smith. He was alive and his eyes were wide open looking frantically at her. “Mr. Smith are you ok?” Emily asked him. He kept on looking down like he was trying to tell her something. “Dammit, Mr. Smith do you have a broken back?”

Wiggling his eyes back and forth he pointedly looked down again. Emily looked down and tried to see what he was telling her. Nothing looked weird or off except he had on a really thick gold chain on his neck. She didn't remember him having one when she saw him that morning. She looked back at his face but he was still using his eyes to point downwards.

“The gold chain?” Emily asked confused. His eyes bounced up and down. With a shrug, Emily grabbed the gold chain and yanked it off. Mr. Smith gasped and curled up on to his hands and knees.

“Thanks.” He croaked out.

“What the hell is that thing,” Emily asked dropping the gold chain to the floor.

“Magnus.” Mr. Smith choked out rubbing his neck.

Before Emily could ask who or what was Magnus the door to the electronic store exploded in a shower of glass. Emily pushed Mr. Smith away from her and took a step to the right to give her more room. In what was left of the doorway was a tall man in a black silk robe with a black keffiyeh tired on his head with two white ropes circling his head. On the left side of his face was twisted with large burn scared. Emily also noticed was that he was holding an AK47 at his hip. At the same time, both Emily and the black dressed Arab fired.

“He’s a good shot.” Emily thought to herself as she felt herself being peppered with bullets. It didn’t hurt but she did feel the sting of getting hit. Emily unloaded on him at the same time and he didn’t even try to take cover. He just stood there letting himself get hit to shooting at her. They both ran out of bullets at nearly the same time. For a second they both stared at each other before the black dress Arab smiled. He reached to his waist and pulled out a black knife. Before Emily could reach behind her and grab Righteous he charged at her.

He raised his right hand with the black knife over his head and charge at her. “The secret to any knife fight is the person who controls the knife wins,” Emily remembered from her Marine close combat teacher. Emily move as he brought the knife down towards her. She slid her right leg back turning to present her left side of the body towards him. At the same time, she reached up with her right arm and grabbed his knife hand.

She crouched slightly as she pulled his hand towards her twisting his arm around and using her shoulder knocked him off balance. “The greatest weakness the human body has in close quarters combat fight is the joints. One of the ways to win such a fight is to break a joint.” With an explosive spring, Emily drove her shoulder up into his elbow and at the same time yanking his arm downwards. With a sicking wet pop, the elbow broke and the black-clad Arab cried out in pain.

Emily grabbed the knife away from him with her right hand and sliding her left arm up over his broken arm she grabbed his wrist and twisted his broken arm causing him to scream louder. Spinning around under his arm she brought her right hand and the stolen knife towards the Arab driving it towards his chest with her entire weight behind the knife. She slammed the knife into his chest.

Emily ended up face to face to the Arab. His face screwed up with hate as they stared at each other. She could feel his breath as he breathed on to her face. His breath smelled like rotten garbage. When he didn’t fall right away Emily slid her right leg around his and pushed him backward at the same time pulling the knife out. Reversing directions with the knife so the dull edge was resting next to her forearm she pushed herself upwards a little bit with her toes so the back of the knife’s hilt was resting against her chest she let herself fall following him down driving the knife downward all her strength. As the black dressed man hit the ground Emily drove the knife into his forehead. He went still under her. With a vicious twist, Emily twisted the knife with both hands counterclockwise in his forehead and then yanked the knife out just as her close combat instructor had shown her.

Emily slowly climbed to her feet the entire time staring into the dead man’s eyes. She let his knife she was holding drop but she couldn’t stop looking at his glazed eyes. He was so still. She had never seen anyone so still before. She never realized how much a person moved when they were alive. He was just so still.

She had shot people and killed them but this time it was different. It felt different. Emily felt odd. She knew she shot and killed people before but this man was different. It was somehow more real now. It was like up until that moment she had been shooting at targets instead of real people. This man, he was not a human looking target down range. This man had been a real person only moments ago now he wasn’t now. He was dead. Gone forever because of her. “So I’m a now a killer. A murderer of people.” Emily thought numbly.

“Hey, we're not done yet.”Mr. Smith said pulling Emily out of her daze. He reached down and picked up the black knife and cleaned it off on the dead man’s clothes. “You're going to need this.” He told her.

Emily blinked at him then shook her head pulling Righteous out from behind her back. “The Cat Lady made this.”

“Dorothy made that?” Mr. Smith asked looking at the tomahawk.

“Who?” Emily asked frowning at him.

“Never mind. This is a Putin. You know the old Russian president? His grandfather was a great weaponsmith like The Cat Lady. The knife is yours now.” Mr. Smith said handing the knife to Emily. “We need to take out the guys on the roof or your people won’t make it.”

“The Butcher,” Emily said then clarified at Mr. Smiths confused expression. “His name. He was called the Butcher.” Emily pointed at the dead Arab. It has just come to her and she blurted it out.

“No kidding?” Well, this mission might have been worth it then.” Mr. Smith said looking down at the dead man smiling.

Emily slid the black knife into her vest and replaced Righteous back into its harness. She looked around as Mr. Smith grabbed an AK from one of the dead OCS guys on the floor. She reached down to pull out a new magazine from her vest but stopped when she realized that she had the wrong ammo for Geary's rifle in her vest. She dropped Geary's rifle and picked up an AK as well from one of the dead OCS guys. She dropped her M9 magazines on the floor as well and stuffed her vest with the curved banana magazines of the AK’s from the dead OCS. She tried not to look at them in the face as she looted them but she still saw their faces. Looking up she noticed Mr. Smith was done and waiting on her.

“Ladies first.” He told her motion to the store.

“Ok,” Emily said and raised the AK so that she could see down the iron sights. “Iron sights? Who still used iron sights.” Emily thought to herself. As she led the way into the electronic store. It was a long but skinny store with a beaded curtain blocking the back door. Emile headed in that direction hoping to find some stairs that would lead to the roof. Mr. Smith followed her with his weapon at the ready.

Past the beaded curtain was a small cluttered back room and a door that led outside. Beside the door to the right was a steep staircase. Emily checked outside and saw an old boxy BMW that was running but no one was inside. She could see some more buildings across the street but she didn’t see anyone so she turned to the stairs and led the way upwards.

At the top of the stairs was a small room furnished with a colorful throw rug and a small old fashion TV with some curtains behind it blocking some of the sunlight out of the room. There were some more stairs immediately to her left. Emily swung around and face the stairs. She could hear the gunfire get louder. She almost charged up the stairs before Mr. Smith grabbed the back of her vest stopping her.

“Hang on let's plan this out. Magnus might still be up there.” Mr. Smith told her.

“Who is Magnus?” Emily asked.

“Magic super. He’s pretty high on the OCS leadership. The bad news is that he is really powerful. The good news is that he can only focus on one thing. How bulletproof are you?” He asked her.

"Class A,” Emily said.

“Really, wow. Ok. Here, let's do this then. You charge them burning your magazine on full auto then drop it and use your Putin and the ax. I’ll cover you from the stairs.” He said nodding to the door.

“Why don’t we just shoot them,” Emily asked frowning.

“Two reasons. First I am not as bulletproof as you are and these walls are paper thin. The second is that if Magnus is up there then he can only focus on one of us. If he goes for you I shoot him. If he goes for me you chop his head off and avenge me. We good?” Mr. Smith asked.

Not finding any reason to fault his logic Emily nodded. “Okay.”

Before she could turn around Mr. Smith reached for her chest. Emily backed away surprised. “Ammo. I need more ammo.” He said with a sigh. Emily reaching into her vest pockets and gave him a couple of magazines.

“Ask next time.” She whispered to him. Turning her back to him she raised her rifle to the ready and climbed the stairs. When she got to the door at the top of the stairs she paused to look backward at Mr. Smith.

“Go.” He told her.

She turned to the door and bashed it open with her shoulder and she stumbled out onto the roof. Right away she realized that the door was facing the wrong direction. She spun around and saw a lot of OCS on the roof firing into the street. She noted an old SK cannon to the right and a few old .50 Cal fixed machine guns pointed downwards to the street and one guy loading an RPG.

She sprinted towards them opening fire at the guy with the RPG. He dropped the grenade launcher and fell towards the side of the roof. Emily turned towards the rest of the group sweeping her gun from left to right while she held down the trigger. Not as many as she expected fell to her gun before it ran dry. She dropped the gun and pulled out Righteous and the little black knife. Then she was in the middle of them.

To normal soldiers, a Brute is an unkillable monster. Emily was close enough to be a Brute that it didn’t matter if she wasn't one. Every swing of her Tomahawk passed right through someone's body. Every stab of her little knife she put her whole hand through someone chest. She was fast, unstoppable, and merciless just as she was trained. She carved her way through the men on the roof leaving body parts strewn across her path. The last guy took one look at her and turned then leaped off the second story roof. She looked down below and saw him lying on the ground holding his leg screaming.

Before she could do anything about him he was shot several times from across the street. Emily looked across the street to a large hill that sloped downwards hiding her people. “Never is that you?” Carebear called out from his hidden position.

“Yea.” She called back.

“We clear?” He asked.

“I ….” Emily started to say yes but stopped when she turned around and saw the carnage strewn across the rooftop.

“Roof’s clear.” Mr. Smith called out limping towards Emily. “Don’t know about the other buildings. How many are hurt?”

“Who’s that.” Carebear challenged.

“You can call me Mr. Smith and I was the leader of this crap storm.” He called back. “How many are hurt.”

“Everyone here,” Carebear called back.

“Ok, we're coming down. Anyone call this in?” He asked Carebear.

“Yea got a call off before they blew up my Humvee,” Carebear replied

Mr. Smith turned to Emily. “We still got work to do. People are hurt and they need your help. You coming?” he asked her.

“Yea,” Emily muttered turning away from him. She looked around at what she had done and felt bile rise up from her stomach. She tasted copper and touched her cheek to see if she was injured. She felt no injuries but her hand came away covered in blood. “It’s not my blood.” She muttered out loud more to herself than to Mr. Smith.

“Didn’t think it was.” He replied before turning around and limping towards the door