by Keegan Long
“Ok, mom,” I replied with probably a little too sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes at me for my comment.
“I’ll see you soon,” she told me and then left to go on her own to get her things together.
As I walked around my room gathering mostly clothes for the mission McKenna’s comment did get me thinking. Why was it everywhere we went we always seemed to get in the worse kind of trouble? I always believed the universe just hated me but the words of my mother always came back to me as if she was right here in this room.
“Everything happens for a reason.”
My thoughts were soon interrupted by the loud banging on my door.
“Come on you slowpoke!” McKenna yelled through the door. “Scotland awaits!”
I rolled my eyes at this. She barely even gave me anytime to pack. “I’m coming! Just chill.”
I quickly scrambled around my room while stuffing my last few remaining clothes into my bag. Not like I had many anyway.
McKenna banged on the door again. “Let’s go, Delaney. We can’t be the last ones there.”
“I’m coming,” I replied as I opened the door. “Let’s go.”
McKenna and I walked together through the hallway until we reached the main lobby where we planned to meet everyone.
“See McKenna,” I said as there was no one in the lobby as I tried to make my point. “I am not slow. We are the first ones here.”
McKenna rolled her eyes at me. “The only reason we aren’t late is that I rushed you. You are still slow Delaney.”
I decided to end the conversation as I knew deep down that I would never be able to convince her. Nothing better than sisterly love.
A pair of footsteps could be heard approaching our location from the distance and it was Joe who would be the next to appear ready for the mission.
“To be honest I’m quite surprised,” Joe said jokingly. “I thought you guys would be the last ready.”
“It’s your lucky day,” I replied. “We decided to surprise everyone.”
Joe laughed at this. “Well, at least it was a good surprise. Don’t really get those that often nowadays.”
“No kidding,” I agreed.
The rest of the group emerged soon later with their bags ready for the long trip ahead of us.
“Is everyone here?” Jill asked as she looked around.
“I believe so,” Kevin replied. “What about Greg?”
“I have Greg staying here,” Jill answered. “He’s going to be running the base while we’re gone and trying to work on our communications so we can transmit a message back if we get another transmission in the future.”
“Good idea,” Mitch said. “We got to get that up and running if we ever need to call people up to arms.”
“Communication will be one of our most important weapons to winning this war,” Jill added. “But for now, we need to go rescue Susan. She could be a great ally in helping us fight against Cerberus.”
“So, what are we taking?” Sarah asked Jill. “We can’t just take a helicopter to Scotland.”
“If you follow me,” Jill said as she started walking out towards the back doors where all the helicopters and cars are parked. “I believe Frank has been getting her ready for our trip.”
We all followed Jill’s lead out the back doors and towards the vehicles. We eventually made our way out the back gate and to what used to be part of the mall’s parking space when it was a mall. Jill then stopped, and we did too but looked at each other all confused. There was nothing there.
“I know what you are all thinking,” Jill said with a bright smile. “I must be going mad. But believe me when I say I am not.”
Jill walked up a little further and put her hand out. Her hand came in contact with an object and by the sounds of it something rather large. Soon later a full-sized cargo military airplane revealed itself to be seen. Everyone’s eyes and jaws dropped in amazement.
“It never gets old,” Jill laughed and she looked at everyone’s reactions. “Everyone meet Liberty. Courtesy of the one and only Cerberus. Was able to remove her tracker after we stole her a while back. Also, can go invisible for a long period of time, which is helpful. We learned that these planes are used to transport important military and political leaders across the Cerberus Federation and even possibly the world by the looks of it. I think we’ll put it to better use though.”
“It’s amazing,” Mitch said as he continued to stare at it. “It’s like an early Christmas.”
“It’s a giant,” Nicole added.
“Looks like we’re traveling in style for now on,” Lindsay said jokingly.
Like everyone else, I was in complete shock in what my eyes were seeing at this very moment. I would have never imagined that anything like this ever existed. Now that we have this in our hands our missions should start to go a lot more smoothly.
“Well enough looking,” Jill said as she interrupted everyone’s thoughts. “Let’s get going.”
We all followed Jill’s lead as she walked us onto the massive cargo plane we had stolen. The inside was full of military equipment such as rifles, computers, and even parachutes. There were several seats you could strap yourself in to and even several private rooms on the upper deck of the ship. The only downside was the abundance of Cerberus flags and logos all over the plane but I knew I could expect that. I’ll make sure that changes at one point in the future.
“Well isn’t she a beauty,” Mitch commented as he looked around the plane. “She’s a beast.”
“I can’t believe you guys were able to snag one of these,” Lindsay said.
“With lots of planning and strategy,” Jill answered. “Our new allies I have made were able to give us all the intel we needed. We were the ones who were able to carry out the mission.”
“It’s perfect,” Nicole added. “It’s like our new home.”
“And she can’t be detected,” Lee interrupted as the robot revealed himself as he made his way down the stairs from the upper deck.
“Lee has been helping me improve her the last couple months,” Jill explained to the group. “He was able to disable the GPS tracker in the plane so we won’t be detected by other Cerberus forces. I’m sure they have noticed by now that their plane is missing so they will be looking for it.”
“As long as it makes our trips go smoother I’m happy,” McKenna said. “It seems like our trips will be a lot more comfortable too.”
“It sure will,” Jill replied. “There are enough rooms on the upper deck of the plane for us to all have our own. They’re small but better than nothing.”
“What shall we call her?” Sarah asked. “All great ships in United States history had a name. What should we call it?”
“I already thought of that,” Jill answered. “I was thinking we should name her, Liberty.”
“I think that’s a perfect name,” I agreed. “Liberty it is.”
“Agreed,” Joe added. “It fits perfectly.”
“Liberty is fully operational,” Lee addressed the group.
“She sure is,” Frank announced as he made his way to us from the pilot’s cockpit. “And so is your pilot. Where is our adventure taking us?”
Jill answered with a smile, “Scotland.”
3
Scotland
The trip to Scotland was a lot longer than I was expecting. Even though there was plenty of space in our newly acquired plane I found myself beginning to feel sick to my stomach from being in the air so long.
I made my way up to one of the rooms on the upper deck of the plane a decided I should try and get some rest before we landed. Who knows what surprises are waiting for us when we land. Since we got the transmission came from a Cerberus command center it is more than likely that we are going to run into some trouble down on the ground.
I continued thinking to myself as I laid down on the bed while staring at the blank ceiling. My thoughts were soon interrupted from someone knocking on my door.
&nbs
p; I sat myself up from laying down, “come on in.”
The door opened revealing Joe’s friendly face with Lee at his side.
“How you doing, bud?” he asked me.
“Just great” I lied sarcastically. “Just been sick to my stomach the last couple hours.”
“Is this your first time out of the country?” he questioned me.
“Yup,” I answered with a sickening face. “My family back in the day didn’t have the luxuries of going on exotic vacations. The furthest we went was to Colorado to visit good old grandma.”
“I see,” he responded. “I used to go all over the world for work with Jill as she met with world leaders and others. That’s one thing I admire so much about her. She didn’t just care about her country but others as well. She would visit to talk about world issues and even would get other leaders’ advice.”
“That is admirable,” I agreed. “I owe her everything. I can never repay her for what she has done for me.”
“Lee here says there’s a deck of cards here on the plane,” Joe informed me. “Shall we go play a game to pass time?”
“I guess I can do that,” I replied as I stood myself up from the bed. “Anything to make this flight go by faster.”
Lee, Joe, and I made our way back down to the main room where everyone was sitting as they too waited for this long plane ride to come to an end.
“Well, look who it is,” Sarah announced as I made my way into everyone’s view. “How you feeling?”
“I’ll feel better once we land,” I told her.
“Still got a few hours,” Frank informed us from the cockpit. “But we’re getting closer.”
“I remember my first long plane ride,” Jill told us. “I was like you. My stomach didn’t quite agree with me for most of the flight. But don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.”
“Thanks for the comfort,” I told Jill. “I hope you’re right.”
“Has anyone here ever been to Scotland?” McKenna asked the group as she tried to get a conversation going.
“I have,” Jill replied. “I went out there once to visit Susan when she was an ambassador for me. It quite a lovely place.”
“We shouldn’t get our hopes up too high though,” Lindsay commented. “Since Cerberus is out here there’s a good chance most of that has been destroyed.”
“That’s what they’re good at,” I muttered.
“Our mission doesn’t call for us to stay long,” Jill assured us. “We get in and get out.”
“The less time we’re here the less likely we are to run into any surprises,” Mitch commented. “And I think we can all agree there’s no such things as a good surprise in today’s world.”
“Do you think Susan will come back and help us, Jill?” I asked.
“I hope so,” she replied. “There’s no way we will be able to put a dent in Cerberus’ forces with the current numbers we have. If we are to win this war we need more people.”
The conversation turned into a serious tone as the words of Jill’s comment. Everyone fell silent to their own thoughts at her words, “If we are to win this war.”
We all wanted to win this war more than anyone out there in the world. We have lost everything we had once loved. Our families, our friends, our lives. I can’t remember what it feels like to get together with friends and go to the movies or have our late-night sleepovers. I have even forgotten the feeling of having late night study sessions as I crammed the material in my brain for the test the next day.
I want to win this war so I can have my life back and even possibly have a family of my own one day but I know that none of that is possible if Cerberus is around. I cannot bring the future generation into a world like this.
Joe was the one who decided to break the silence and thoughts of everyone, “I’m sorry but I must disagree with you on this one, Jill.”
Everyone stared at each other as they became confused from Joe’s words.
“It’s not a question of if we win this war,” he began to explain to group. “But a question of when we win this war.”
Everyone’s confused faces soon later changed to smiles of hope as he explained.
“I really appreciated that, Joe,” Jill thanked. “But with our current numbers it’s just impossible and besides that we haven’t even figured out a way to destroy Cerberus for good.”
“Don’t you worry,” Joe replied. “We’ll figure out a way. I have no doubt about that.”
“And we’ll figure it out,” I added. “Together.”
Jill smiled at me as she gave me a silent nod to thank me for my words.
“Hopefully in a couple years time we’ll all be sitting together at a fireplace remembering this day,” Mitch said.
“Sounds good to me,” Nicole agreed. “No more war. Just some nice peace and quiet.”
“Amen,” McKenna also agreed.
Soon later our conversations were interrupted by the loud alarm Frank has switched on from the plane’s cockpit.
“Talk to me Frank!” Jill yelled across the plane. “What’s going on?”
“We got some Cerberus drones coming at us from our six!” he yelled back.
“I thought we were invisible?” I yelled across to him. “What happened to that?”
“They haven’t spotted us yet!” he replied. “But if they accidentally bump into us we’re screwed!”
“Can you move us out of their way?” Kevin asked.
“At this point they’re too close!” Frank answered. “If we move to much there is a good chance they will spot us. The invisibility coat on this plane only works best if we’re still and moving in a straight path.”
“Where did they come from?” Jill yelled up to Frank.
“Not sure!” he yelled back. “They just popped up on my radar a second ago. There must be some sort of Cerberus base bellow us they launched from.”
“Just our luck,” Jill said. “Everyone strap yourselves in incase things get ugly!”
“Don’t we have any guns on this thing?” Sarah asked. “We should shoot them down.”
“If we shoot them down they’ll know exactly where we are,” Lindsay answered.
“It might be our only choice though,” Bekah suggested.
“How close are we, Frank?” Jill asked. “What the time to touchdown in Scotland?”
“We’re just entering Scotland airspace now ma’am,” he answered. “But the drones are getting closer. They are definitely going to hit us if we sit still.”
“Damn it,” Jill cursed. “It looks like we only have one choice now.”
“What should we do?” I asked.
“We have to shoot them down,” Jill answered. “Since we are already in Scotland we’ll be able to land quickly once we have shot them down. Once the drones are down Cerberus will have deployed all their local forces in looking for us. This means we have to be quick on the ground. We’re grabbing Susan and leaving.”
“So much for doing any sightseeing,” Nicole complained. “But I guess I can always come back another day when I’m actually free.”
“Now stop your complaining,” Bekah scowled at her sister. “You’ll be fine.”
“Alright, here is the plan,” Jill began to explain. “We have two gun turrets that face at the rear of the plane. Delaney and Joe are going to hop on the computers in the back and take them out. Everyone else is going to strap in and hope for the best.”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied.
“If you excuse us but we have some drones to take care of,” Joe said as he ushered me towards the back of the plane where the computer stations were.
I approached the chair and computer and strapped myself in as I turned the computer on as is came to life. I could already see on the screen the drones Frank was talking about through the camera on the outside of the plane. I took a hold of the joystick with both my hands but could already feel the sweat running down my forehead and neck.
“You got one shot at this!” Frank yelled back to J
oe and I. “And remember that once I deploy the guns the invisibility cloak of the plane will wear off so you must shoot quickly.”
“Do you have us close enough to Susan’s location from her transmission?” Jill asked Frank as she strapped herself in.
“As close as I can be!” he yelled back to her with his answer. “You’ll have to do some walking but will be close enough.”
“Here we go everyone!” Jill yelled as she finished strapping herself in. “Here goes nothing!”
“Are the gunners ready?” Frank yelled back to Joe and me.
“Ready!” Joe replied
I took a deep breath as I calmed myself down in order to focus,” Ready!”
Frank then began his countdown,” Three. Two. One. Give them Hell guys.”
The guns deployed at the end of Frank’s count. To my surprise they were a lot bigger than I was expecting. I quickly turned my gun towards the closest drone by me and pushed the trigger button on the joystick. The gun shot at the location where I aimed as it was accompanied by the sound bigger than a cannon blast. It felt like I was stuck in this moment forever as I waited to see if I had accomplished my mission. The bullet came in contact with the drone I aimed at and exploded on impact as pieces of metal were seen falling towards the ground bellow from leftover of what used to be a Cerberus drone.
“Direct hit!” Frank yelled in confirmation to the group.
I learned too that Joe had shot down the other drone just as I had done with mine as everyone erupted in cheers. We had escaped the claws of death once again.
“Nice shot, Delaney!” Joe called over to me.
“Thanks,” I replied with a bright smile. “You too”
My heartrate had begun to slow back down to its normal rate as the threat that was upon as was over. I knew the peace would not last long as the moment we land we are bound to run into another obstacle to where we need to go.
“You two did great,” Frank called back to us. “We should be landing within the next couple minutes. Better suit up.”
I got myself out of the chair and made my way back towards the group where everyone was getting their bags prepped and guns loaded.
“You did great,” Jill said as she was the first to congratulate me as I approached the group. “Saved our necks once again.”