"We won't let you down, sir! Everyone gear up, our operation starts now," Monica bellowed.
June 15, Summer 1545
Flora Marksmanship Academy
1200
Alright everyone, you know your assignments," Monica yelled looking back. "Show no mercy. Let's go get that flag. I'll see you out there." Monica gave a heartfelt nod to her squad as she ran forward with Rosemary straight ahead.
"You're with me sweet cheeks," Cody says putting up two fingers and blowing her a kiss.
"Personally, I find it offensive," Abby says. "Don't call me sweet cheeks again."
Catching up, Cody let go of a slight smile as he put his semi-automatic pistol to the right side of his body. "So I can't call you sweet cheeks but when I call you by your real name you don't give me any leeway either. What's a gentleman to do?"
"That's where you've got it wrong," Abby says, walking up to the tree. "You're calling yourself a gentleman when you don't have any of the characteristics." With her back against the tree she looks to the left. "I just saw a wide-open grassy area with sunflowers up to the waist. Let's talk about that another time. We need to focus on not getting shot."
"Whatever you say, Abby..." Cody says, wiping his hand through his sweaty brunet hair. "Given the scope of the land radius we're working with we've got a ways to go, but that field over there to the left that you're looking at will give us great cover to flank the opposing squad."
"Well, that's the thing about the opposing team's sniper, if they even have one. We can't take anything for granted," Abby states. "They could be working with different weaponry, especially if they're coming from the Northern Garrison."
"Should we low crawl through the grass, or do you think that will take too long? Some flowers are quite big, we could knee down and scuttle across it." Cody took his rifle in his right hand and started towards the sunflowers about 10 feet away from him.
"You idiot," Abby whispered as she took her rifle and leaned it against the tree. Her feet stumbled on a few pinecones as he adjusted her flitting and looks through his scope at the sunlight glistening over the sunflowers, giving off a slight yellow hue to the air around them. Her eyes squinted as she saw nothing down her scope but some flowers.
"Come on Cody," she states, waving his arm over.
Abby, frustrated, put her rifle on her back as she quickly sprinted over to the meadow of flowers, leaning down and crouching beside Cody. "Our backs stick out," she whispers, looking over at him. "Why didn't you wait for me or communicate with me? You could have gotten sniped."
"What's life without a little chance?" Cody snickered. "I used to gamble and play cards all the time back home, and they can never touch me. I'm like a cat. I got nine lives."
"I think you only have three in this situation," Abby snarked. "I'm taking lead." Pulling her pistol from her hip, she opened the cylinder and noticed six red bullets that had paint on them. Her sack that was leaning on her hip had six speed loaders with bullets at the ready. "Come on!"
"As you wish, sweet cheeks. I get a good view from the back end," Cody smirked.
Abby glanced around, her eyes flaming like a phoenix. "Don't make me hit you with the butt stock of my rifle."
Braata ta ta ta!
Cody and Abby immediately hit the ground.
"That's machine-gun fire!" Cody leaned on his back, looking up at the sky. "I don't think those bullets are coming for us. I think they're ways away. I hope nobody on our team got pegged."
"I trust Luna to take on any machine gunners. She is amazing with calculations so she and Ian should be able to hone in and take a good shot."
"You trust her that much?" Cody inquired, flipping back on his stomach looking over her putting his hand on his chest trying to catch his breath. "She does seem a bit aloof to me, as if she is not fully confident in herself."
Placing her elbows forward and returning her revolver to its holster, she positioned her shoulders and began crawling forward. "Let's do a low crawl for a while, especially while machine-gun fire is happening."
"I think this is a good idea," Cody says, lining up beside her as a slog through the dirt, their faces covered with grime.
"One thing I learned about Luna is I wish she was sure of herself, but her convictions lead her heart," Abby states as he continued to crawl through the oversized sunflower field.
"Convictions of the heart! That was a wise thing to say," Cody smiles. Reaching on his left hip he pulled out a bottle of water as he took a sip. "You want some?"
"I'm good," Abby says. "I don't want to drink after you, plus, I'm not thirsty yet. These sun flowers are getting taller, don't you think?" Abby put her right hand on the ground and leaned on one knee.
Cody pushed his body up slowly his eyes open wide. He stood up completely, looking at Abby who was covered by the sunflowers. "This isn't too bad."
"Get down here you idiot," Abby whispered frustrated. She pulled on Cody's sleeve and he fell onto the ground.
Boom!
There was a whooshing sound over the head of the two comrades.
"Shit! We've got company, but I don't know how much. Split up. Go to the left and I'll go to the right." Cody took off and grabbed his semi-automatic from his hip and took a wide berth to the right.
"That moron!" Abby felt the wind on her cheeks as she noticed sunflowers swaying to the left and the right. Feeling the wind! Pulling out her revolver, she cocked the hammer. Pushing off to the ground, she darted to the left.
Boom, boom. Two shots rang out from her right.
Abby sprinted at her fastest pace, keeping beneath the towering sunflowers, just as a man with dark skin and a tan uniform appeared in view.
"I don't see anybody else," a man yelled.
"Keep looking," a light-skinned man says.
"That must be his partner. How many of them are there?" Abby crouched low to the ground, swiftly shuffling her feet. She believed she had a strategic position on the dark-skinned man ahead of her, who was leisurely strolling about 15 feet away.
Bam! Bam! Abby's finger hit the trigger twice, hitting the man on the left in the shoulder.
"Where did that come from?" the man yelled frantically, looking around trying to find Abby who was hidden in the brush.
"It came from over here," Cody yelled, pointing his semi-automatic pistol at the man's knee. Boom! Cody's finger pressed against the trigger as the bullet hit the man square in the right shoulder.