Her feet drummed the forest ground as she fled in the middle of the night, under a dim moon. Noises with flash of torchlights were in pursuit. Their dogs barked as Natalie Eze ran to put some distance between them. She knew there was no turning back. She had committed their unforgivable sin.
Originally from Nigeria. Natalie had lived eight years at an assassins training camp in Minx Russia, nick-named "The Institute." A facility that trained kids to be skillful, ruthless, heartless killers, and Natalie was one of its best produce. Now eighteen and fleeing through the forest south of the Institute, they sought to kill her.
Natalie turned to get a glimpse of her pursuers. The dogs were the problem. Though her dark skin and black suit made her seem like a moving shadow. The dogs would always sniff her out. Institute dogs were relentless.
"Seven? maybe ten years." She thought as she ducked under a branch guessing the number of years they'd pursue her before they gave up. "Maybe never."
A sound wisped past her ear. A bullet. Natalie frowned and ducked behind a fallen three as bullets sprayed her surroundings. She covered her head. Splinters flew everywhere.
They had taken her from her home. Others too. It's been so long, most of them had made this their home, their family, but Natalie couldn't accept that.
Her last mission, the last straw, something she could not do. Take out a prime minister's relative to serve as a warning to him, if he didn't give her bosses what they wanted. She had expected he would comply, and there would be no need to carry out the mission, but he wouldn't change his mind. But she did, after seeing her target was the man's child. She posed to have done the job, alerting the prime minister to flee. Little did she know that she was closely watched.
The shooting stopped. Maybe they thought she was dead. She took the opportunity and bolted. But no one screamed. No more shots were fired. It was quiet. Which was strange.
Natalie ran into a clearing and stopped, she knew it was bad but she had learned to be sensitive to her environment. Somebody was here.
"Show yourself!" she shouted looking around. A few moments passed. Then a brief rustling of leaves. Natalie looked up, and on a tall tree a figure stood. Natalie shifted back. The figure stared at her for a while. Then after a moment, that seemed like an eternity, the figure dropped out of a tree. The figure straightened up.
Natalie couldn't make out his face, but she knew who it was. He wore the exact same uniform as she did. More illumination would have revealed his gold hair, fair skin and blue eyes.
"Stopper," Natalie said.
It was the code name given to the agent before her, and as the name implied, stopping people was his specialty. He stepped closer, resting a blade on his shoulder. Natalie could sense he was smiling as he always did. If the institute wanted to stop Its enemy's toughest operations, they sent him.
The pursuit behind her had died down. She turned. The flashlights could not be seen. They must have signaled them that an agent was already waiting for her, and they knew that overcrowding might be to her advantage.
"Natalie." Stopper said, "Never dreamed I would be facing you today," he said. He sounded amused.
"Listen Stopper, I don't want to fight you, let me through." Natalie immediately said. She hoped he'd listen to reason, but nobody here ever does.
"You know I can't do that,"
"I am leaving. Please, don't try to stop me," she warned, taking a step forward. Stopper brought down his sword, slowly. One false move and she'd be cut.
"You know the rules Natalie, you leave, you die" he said, his voice sounding more serious. Natalie knew there was no reasoning with agents but there was no telling with Stopper. He was hard to read, and he smiled a lot, so she decided to try her luck.
"Wait.." She raised her hands up, taking steps back. "Listen, I don't want to be here anymore. This life. I didn't sign up for it, and I'm sure you didn't either, so let's just go, ok?"
"This is life now kid" Stopper replied.
"Yes it is, but this place can't be my future, our future. Aren't you tired of it? the training of kids, the killings. You can join me, we can escape together. We can..." That last line was naive, even to her, but she was desperate. But Stopper didn't answer for a moment. She hoped he was considering her offer. Then he broke the silence.
"Nope, It is foolishness. No one escapes the institute." he took a stance with his blade. "I am not going to go easy on you."
The time of talking was over. Natalie sighed, of course her words hadn't gotten anywhere, but she had used the time to rest so she could defend herself. Though she wished she didn't have to. As tough as Natalie was, Stopper was more experienced. Two years ahead of her in training. A full fledged agent.
Stopper was first to move. He ran forward to slice her head. Natalie dodged, shifting her body to the right. He anticipated this, raised his knee to kick. Natalie blocked, she was pushed back.
"He's fast!"
She watched in amazement as Stopper weaved his blade through the air with masterful skill rushing her again. She dodged, got sliced a few times. They were trained to take the pain. She didn't let out a grunt or a scream. A few more close calls but Stopper couldn't hit her anywhere fatal. Natalie saw an opening and hard kicked Stopper's middle. It sent him flying, but Stopper controlled himself mid air and landed on his feet.
Natalie straightened. She did not want her opponent to notice she was winded. Seemed like the rest she had wasn't enough. He was fast, agile, and she was already getting tired.
"I have to end this quickly," she thought, raising her fists.
"You are exhausted," Stopped taunted. "Save me the stress, surrender, and I may not have to kill you."
"Oh yeah?" Natalie laughed weakly, "You noticed. Sorry, been running all night, and come on, you know the rules Stopper. You run, you die. Didn't you say that?" Natalie replied, then she smiled. "I choose to die, but this is the end of the fight for you."
"What...."
Natalie tapped her watch. A few seconds passed before Stopper felt a brief pain on his neck, like an injection, then his whole body went numb.
"Urgh!" He crumpled to the ground, unable to move, unable to feel anything. He was surprised. He stared at her, wondering what she had done. She had set this in motion the moment he revealed himself to her. Natalie had gently tapped her watch when she raised her hands and did her best to make sure he didn't notice.
It was an attempt to activate a high tech device she created at the Institute. She called it, "the tranquito." A device that looked like a mosquito, packed with a potent tranquilizing serum from the litmus tree, hence the name.
Natalie breathed easy seeing her plan had worked, but she didn't have time to celebrate. More will come. As she attempted to walk away she heard Stopper mumble something.
"What was that Stopper?" She knew the paralyzing effect affected the speech, but only for a short while.
"You..sho..uld have..stayed..fo.rr them."
The Stopper managed to say.
The words caught Natalie's attention. What was he trying to say? Natalie looked at him closely.
"What do you mean by that?" His eyes locked with hers. He managed a smile.
"They Look..up...to you..." Natalie hoped it was what he was talking about. She had done her best to make life easy for them. They probably had looked up to her. The new recruits, children like her and younger. And only she truly cared for them. Had she betrayed them leaving? But she had no choice. She couldn't do what the institute asked. but maybe, in some way, she had killed them.
"What are you babbling about?" she asked, trying to hide the fact she understood. Stopper laughed weakly.
"don't... try to acttttt tough. I know you...cared..for them" he said, but surprisingly like he approved. "but what you don't know is, what would happen to them." Natalie stared at him coldly. If he threatened to harm them she would break all his limbs, so much so that he would never walk again. His smile faded, he turned to the sky. "They plan on using them for Project PS." He said. Natalie unfolded her arms in shock.
"what?"
Stopper didn't respond, just kept looking up. "Project..PS." she repeated, horrified, "but that project is..."
"For adults," he scoffs, "Not anymore." Natalie didn't know when she whispered "No."
PS stood for Power Sting. An experimental program to make better agents. Agents who would lose total control of themselves, completely. They would only eat, breathe and kill, no emotions, and they were going to use the kids as guinea pigs, and not many survive this experiment.
"When?" She asked darkly.
"Soon." He replied. Natalie felt her stomach churn, then she became suspicious.
"Why are you telling me this?."
He took a while to answer. Much to Natalie's annoyance, she hoped he was not playing her, to delay her escape.
"Just thought you should know." he finally said.
Natalie left the scene. She stared at her watch, 3:37am, but the time wasn't her aim as she ran back the way she came.
Natalie was a strategist, an ahead thinker. She didn't think she would need this but had planned ahead just Incase she would, but not for something like this. Natalie clicked her watch. She wanted to avoid this, taking the institute head on. She knew the chance of letting her go would decrease. They'd surely hunt her the rest of her life, but she was willing to risk it all to save those recruits.
Natalie knew about the project. She was thought to be a suitable candidate for the program. She was fourteen. Then the authorities changed their minds. They thought it best not to use her. She was a valuable asset. That's how dangerous project PS was.
Natalie heard shouting before her. She smiled, it was working. She just activated a thousand tranquitos she hid at the institute, and everyone was getting stung. Everyone except the recruits. She'd take them with her. They'd be on the run for the rest of their lives, but anyone who came near them she'd give em hell.
Her code name was "the War-Child" after all, and she was going to show them the meaning of it.