After Katelyn and Shair had finished their cigars, the giddy looks on their faces slowly disappeared and both of them adopted a serious expression as they stood up. Kate helped Shair stand while the rest of the group, upon noticing the two moving, also stood to await their new orders. After making sure Shair could move on his own, Katelyn moved towards the rest of the group to address their agenda.

“Ahhhh, I am going to spare you guys the long speeches unlike before” She grinned threateningly “we are hard pressed for time, once we start the ignition of the gases from here, the whole place will combust in a matter of minutes. Understood!"

“Yes, Ma’am,” Everyone shouted in synch.

“Alright, Jon go get the ignition system ready.” She ordered, turning towards Jon

“Yes, Ma’am”

“John! Inventory report,” She turned slightly towards John, her face frowned in a mix of both anger and determination.

“We got three HVK’s, with a total of 130 bullets. Five Glock-66’s with 150 bullets. One Dingo-6 with 50 bullets. The rest of the guns have no ammo so they’re useless”

“Hey, wait, wait.” Shair interjected “What about the colt?”

“The colt doesn’t have any more bullets, does it?” John asked.

“Wait.” The Commander reached into the back pocket of her armor and took out two magazines of revolver bullets.

“Here” She said handing the two to Shair “You left them last time.”

“Alright” Shair said happily. “Now that’s one colt with 14 bullets.”

“Humph. That’s all Commander.”

“Give the most able; the assault rifles and LMG’s while the rest equip with the pistols.” She said as she dismissed him.

“My god what was it trying to do?” Suddenly Jon’s voice could be heard from over at the panels.

“What do you mean?” The Commander moved towards Jon.

“Whoever used this last was trying to divert all the energy towards this place from other stations. This room would have blown up if this had continued.” Jon was nervously sweating as he changed the course for the power.

As the three fussed over the predicament they had just got out of, unbeknownst to everyone two individuals were sweating even more than the technician. Although they were relieved at being saved they were also very afraid of the consequences if it somehow led back to them. So scooting away from the group, as if it would decrease their chances of being spotted, the Mark II’s moved to the corner of the room.

“Try your best Jon.” The Commander said, then focused her attention towards Mustafa. “Could you use those glasses to see what’s happening outside?”

“Sure” Mustafa clicked a few buttons on his visor before looking outside the door. Since his visor was equipped with equipment to restore his sight, the HQ saw it fit to add other features in as well like; X-ray, or Infrared and such.

“There isn’t any movement outside. Do you think that thing didn’t contact its brethren yet?” After a minute or two of looking outside Mustafa turned towards his Commander.

“Hmmm, Maybe, but keep your eyes peeled and stay alert all the same. ‘Kay?” the Commander’s frowned deepened as she stared at the two large steel doors.

“That’s for sure.”

“What do you need me to do?” Shair said as he approached her, taking this as his cue Mustafa moved away to give the two some space.

“All you have to do is” She pinched his cheeks as she spoke “stay in my sight.”

“Ow”

With that she turned away leaving Shair to rub his cheek in pain, all the wounds on his body should have been causing him intense pain but the only thing he was focused on right now was passing the boredom of not doing anything but stay in her sight. Katelyn was acting like a proper commander now that he was here and he didn’t want to cause any more harm and jeopardize the safety of his comrades by distracting her.

After a few minutes of discussions and preparations everyone was ready to move out. The tense atmosphere could be felt oppressing those few, injured and battle hardened soldiers in the room; even the drops of sweat flowing down Jon’s face could be heard. Eventually Jon finished fiddling with the controls and raised his hand up as if to give the affirmation to move out, he then swung down as he pushed a button on the panel and turned to move with the group. The Glock-66, unclasped and in his hand, ready to shoot any Fraz they would encounter.

“Let’s go everyone!” The Commander opened the doors and led the way outside. The group moved with caution, everyone knew how important this moment was one wrong move and an encounter with the enemy could kill them all. The tense atmosphere remained…until someone ran ahead recklessly.

“Shair, get back here!” Katelyn hissed.

“Nobody is here, so let’s go.” Shair hissed back as he ran.

“Idiot” Katelyn cursed. Seeing how he wasn’t going to stop, the commander led her team in a slow jog to catch up to Shair who had already traversed the large clearing and was standing at the top of the staircase, waiting for the team. Once the she reached him the first thing she did was swing her arm back.

*Shhht* Katelyn slapped Shair as hard as she could afford without making much noise. Shair just stayed still his eyes wide with shock, until his pain receptors picked up the action and transmitted the burn of the slap to the brain.

“Owwwww” Shair hissed as he held his cheek where she had slapped him.

“I don’t care on what basis you are running. I am the teams commander and you will follow my orders, understood?” Katelyn held him by the hair. “You are injured and if you overexert yourself, you will reopen your wounds. Follow my lead and stay with the group.”

Katelyn pushed him back and Shair fell into step next to John who just gave him a wry smile as they jogged behind their commander.

“How were you so sure there was no one hiding around outside for us?” Jon asked.

“Intuition” Shair whispered as he looked to the ground sadly.

“Intuition, huh?” John whispered.

“When have my intuition ever been wrong?” Shair whispered back glaring at John as they descended the steps.

“I am not saying you’re wrong. But... I thought we went past this?”

“Past what?” Shair looked quizzily.

“It’s worrying how you could forget about it so easily. You just promised to stay in her sight and then we see you running off, imagine what your putting her through.”

“The faster we get off this thing and retire the faster we get to be happy.”

*Sigh*“Your still suffering from acute amnesia…fuck. Okay, imagine from her perspective; the man you love gets taken away from you by a Fraz mutation, no wait.” John shoookhis head “To begin with you always disappear whenever you go out on a mission. She has to keep on worrying if you are alive or died behind enemy lines and still put up with you when you do get back. Did you ever open up to her, properly?”

“Hey” Shair hissed as he followed John to get a bit away from the group to have their conversation “I open up, I tell her things.”

John frowned at Shair pitifully “I saw an opening and I took it.”

Shair just shrugged unable to believe that he did something wrong.

“It would have been fine the first few times, but seriously using the same excuse over and over again loses its value. I know you don’t talk about these things and I find it incredible that she is willing to put up with that.” John rolled his eyes while Shair looked at the ground worryingly. “I can’t believe we are having this conversation here. You have some serious explaining to do when we get back, especially to her. She, no, we have been through enough for today and then we see you running off again, doesn’t matter if there are no Fraz around us, that was a wrong move friend. If it was up to me I would have left your ass a long time ago.”

Shair stayed silent as he stared at the ground, worry written all over his face as they reached the second flight of stairs.

“Carefully” Katelyn whispered as she descended down the steps. The rest of the group followed her until she suddenly crouched at one step and held her hand to signal a halt. Another series of hand signals followed telling them that a group of Frazs were spread out in front of them on a ledge. Katelyn looked back and glared at Mustafa who just shrugged nervously.

Shair crouched forwards and reached a hand on her shoulder gaining her attention. He then explained with his hands that a silencer would be needed to take them out. Understanding what he said Katelyn reached for the pockets on her utility belt and took out a large silencer looking thing. This was more suited to be placed on an assault rifle than anything else. She placed it on her HVK and it clasped on its barrel with a click. Shair gave her an encouraging squeeze before returning to his place and letting the rest of the squad members who already had the silencers on their glock in front. Wezzil didn’t have a silenced weapon and Daniel was too injured to fire properly so he had to uncomfortably stay next to them while the others did the work. Evident by the gritting of his teeth, Shair did not like other people taking care of things for him, even if they were his closest friends.

Katelyn moved forwards with slow careful steps until she was close enough to get a sure fire kill without any stray bullets. The others had occupied the space behind her and each aimed at a different target. Katelyn held up her hand and counted down from 3, 2, 1.

*Swip-Swip-Swip* *pip-pip-pip-pip-pip* A barrage of fire hit the Fraz standing around, luckily there were enough Fraz for each person. The Glock-66 and the HVK shot down each Fraz before they even had time to react, the bullets from the guns were placed perfectly at the dead center of their chests so even the smallest sources on those regulars would be destroyed. This display of silent execution showed off that one strength they all had in common, they were all suited to kill a Fraz.

After a little while when the ammo of the HVK finally stopped and the last Fraz fell down in a heap of dead wood, only then did the group progress further. The caution seemed to disappear in the group as they were suddenly taken over by exhaustion, their movements less steady and their steps heavy.

John and Shair were walking side by side when they were joined by Weezil and Jon. Harry walked back to Daniel who was being helped by Mia and supported him from the other side as they followed Mustafa and their Commander towards the ledge.

Mustafa stopped a few meters away from the ledge and raised his arm, after waiting like that for a while a dark cloth came in view. It was covering a large object that took up the entire length of the ledge. Wezzil upon seeing this nudged Jon in the side and asked.

“That’s a camouflage for covering our ride out of here.” Shair spoke up instead of Jon, his eyes fixed on Katelyn. Wezzil was slightly shocked at being addressed by him but quickly regained his composure and gave him a once over before speaking.

“It surprises me that a man with such injuries can still talk properly without coughing up blood.”

“Then you must have lived around weak people.” Shair snapped.

“Shair” Jon frowned at Shair’s behavior while John placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry, just a bit tired.” Shair scratched the back of his neck, taking John’s hand off him.

Jon turned towards Wezzil before addressing him “Shair is a Mark I, we all are, except those two”.

“Mark I?”

“Phase one of enhanced humans. HQ has these drugs that enhance the reflexes of the humans allowing us to match the Fraz in battle.” When Jon said then Shair whipped his hands towards Jon.

“Drugs? They injected you with drugs?” Shair addressed Jon with his nostrils flared.

“Shair. The injection enhances the reflexes, we all went through this.” John looked towards Shair with concern. “What process did you go through?”

Shair was starting to sweat as he looked from Jon to John, his mind drawing different scenarios that his next choice may lead to. Finally he sighed and looked back at the Commander who was helping Mustafa get in the aircraft.

“I can’t remember, must have slept through the process.” Shair was obviously lying and John could feel it, having been his friend this long, he knew that whenever Shair lied; his left eye’s lower eyelid twitched slightly. But he didn’t pursue it at the moment, they were very close to getting out of this and he didn’t want to delay them nor did he want to cause Katelyn anymore stress, he would deal with this later.

*Boom-FSSHHHH* A large explosion followed by a tremor and sounds of gases being released sent the humans into action. Katelyn shouted for everyone to get into the Pelican while the tarp that was covering the aircraft suddenly got pulled back into it. As everyone boarded the aircraft the explosive sounds were getting louder, indicating that they were getting closer. When everyone entered the Pelican II it got airborne and Mustafa started to turn it around and fly away.

*Boom* Just as he was flying through the dark tunnel a large explosion from the back shook the aircraft causing everyone to fall over. Shair fell over straight into the ripped out part of Pelican where he fell out last time. Shair was falling head first into the opening when something suddenly pulled him from the straps of his Kevlar throwing him deeper into the aircraft, away from the hole. Shair landed flat on his chest and yelled out in pain. The wounds were bleeding out again from the force as he was pushing himself, up another explosion from the back made him loose his stance and he fell over once more. The others had occupied the seats on the sides while Shair just laid where he was thrown, not moving until the light from the outside flowed in the aircraft, signaling that they had successfully escaped from the Fraz base.

Once he knew that the aircraft would no longer experience anymore tremors Shair slowly stood up and walked towards the far end where he sat down far away from the rest of the group. No one spoke a word until Mustafa spoke up.

“We’re out of the clouds.”

Katelyn turned towards the group, and gave them all one of her rare ‘public’ smiles. The others returned her smile with equal enthusiasm and joy.

“Retirement, huh?” John asked her.

“That’s right.” Katelyn said. A silence followed her statement until John pumped his fists in the air and yelled.

“Yeah!!!!!” Everyone joined in as Katelyn made her way deeper into the Pelican.

“That what I’m talking about.” Mustafa shouted from the cockpit.

“Wooohoo” the joy and merry feelings continued on in the plane even after the initial realization had set in. Each Mark I had spent a whole year working for the HQ, either directly or in one of the other human resistance outposts in other countries. They all had travelled for two years or more with each other until, fighting the Fraz, watching others die by your side, surviving and killing. They had finally destroyed the Fraz command center, their place of communications and storage facility for sources to produce more of their kind, with such achievements the fight for the human survival had gotten considerably easier. Everyone had a face of pure joy, content and satisfaction as they all sang and talked.

Everyone, except two people, a man and a woman who sat side by side cuddled together as they enjoyed the sounds of the celebration around them. The man was reaching the half century mark, while the woman was still in her early 40’s. The man had grey streaks of hair lined up around his sides while the woman had disheveled blond hair that almost glittered as the light from the ripped part of the sun shone on her.

“That was you, wasn’t it?” the man asked her as he cuddled closer, not that he could, but he still tried.

“Not losing you another time.” The woman had her head placed in a perfect rest place between the side of the man’s neck and the top of his shoulder met.

“I think I may be bleeding again.”

“Is it really bad?” She asked with concern. The man was about to speak out when he hesitated and sighed.

“I’ll live.” He said after a while.

“Retirement.” The woman said as if the whole thing was alien to her.

“You deserve it I think.”

“I am still quite young y’know I got a lot of fight left in me.”

“You also have the most achievements out of all of us.”

“But I don’t think they will allow someone of the council to…just retire.” The woman nuzzled in closer to the man.

“You don’t have to retire. You can still contribute.” The man leaned away and looked at the woman in the eyes. “I will be damned before I let them send you into the frontlines again.”

She seemed a little annoyed at the notion of being controlled where her position was, but this was a moment of celebration, so she just let it slide. For now, anyway.

“Without team Frontline I am not going to in the Frontlines.”

“Good, cause if you did I would have chased after you.” At this, the woman leaned back and looked down, troubled.

“You know we have a lot to talk about when we return”

“I know” the man reached for the woman’s chin and turned her to face him. She was still troubled.

“What?”

“I am sorry for running ahead like that.”

“And?” She looked at him with a slight frown.

“I am sorry for not always telling you the truth, I will when we get back.”

“And?”

“I am sorry I didn’t do this sooner” He moved in closer, his face only centimeters away from the woman’s.

“What?”

“Will you marry me, Kate,” The woman was surprised for one second but quickly regained her composure.

“What, no ring?”

“Not yet. That will have to wait until the wedding.” He smiled “I wanted to know your answer.”

“Hmmm. Well you have been a good person so far, if not very conservative and private.” Kate leaned in closer their lips only a few millimeters apart her eyes focusing on her man’s “But you mean well, I know that and you only snapped once on this mission so that’s an improvement.”

“So…” Shair raised his eyebrows.

“ Hmmmm, what to say what to say.” A smile had spread across her face, a cheeky smile that clearly showed how much she was enjoying making him wait now.

“No need to say anything, an engagement kiss would be enough.” He was playing along with her. Kate moved her hair out of her left eye and smiled. She moved in for the kiss and he met her half way. The two, for a rare moment, enjoyed the happiness and blissfulness of being together tuning out all noise around them. When they broke the kiss she licked her lips before saying with a smile.

“Yes I will, Lion.”

“Finally!!!” They whipped their head at the shouts and saw grins, larger than life, planted on their old friends. John and Mustafa, having placed the Pelican on autopilot, were sitting side by side and grinning like idiots wearing their black glasses while Mia held her hands in a clap and beamed at them.

“Congratulations Commander, Shair.” Jon and the Mark II’s shouted while Wezzil just smiled at them.

“Haha, thanks, everyone even you clust-” Shair was nudged in the ribs by Kate “Harry and Daniel.”

Cheers and joy once again resumed in the group as they pushed all things aside and enjoyed themselves. Tomorrow wasn’t going anywhere, so they enjoyed today.