CH1e

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JULY 10TH, 2011

"Hey Eric, what time do you have?"

"It's still dark, Mike! Why, are you nervous?"

"Shut up, stupid, I'm just getting a little tired."

The rustling movement of the two military men woke Seline up. She lifted her head slowly to look at them. The one on the left was showing his watch to the other. Seline yawned. Good morning, last day alive.

"Hey there, sunshine. You're looking beautiful today," said the man on the left. He tipped his hat to her and smiled cynically.

A low growl from the pit of her stomach escaped Seline's mouth. In fear that such an action might've constituted a harsher death penalty, she looked away before the two executioners made eye contact with her.

"Oh, she's real feisty," said the one on the right to his buddy on the left.

They smiled deviously at each other and scoffed at Seline's 'retaliation'. Seline only looked back up once they had both faced away from her again. She stuck her tongue out at them—childish, but what could she do? She was tied up and she still had that confounded ankle monitor on.

Suddenly, Seline heard a sound she hadn't heard in years. She did her best not to seem suspicious, keeping her ears down and her eyes on the grass. Since when did Purvis allow dogs onto his property? Or cats...? Whatever it was had soft padded feet, and was quickly skimming the perimeter of the tall, ivory stone walls surrounding Purvis's garden. She inhaled to try and pinpoint exactly what might have been lurking on the premises. She smelled…gunpowder? And…shoe polish? Oh great! Another mindless pet from the military! It was probably one of the two executioners' dog. Seline rolled her eyes.

"D'you hear something, Mike?"

"Nah, you're just getting sleepy. This village is full of freaky things that stalk the night. Are you nervous? You have a gun, wuss."

"I'm not nervous…just cautious. Jameson said he wouldn't be out here for at least another hour. Maybe he's up early."

"Probably-"

Seline's big round ears involuntarily perked up again as she heard the sound of a bullet whistling through the air towards her. She shrieked in fear and closed her eyes.

Oh God, it wasn't a dog.

"Mike?!" Thud. "MIKE!?"

Seline opened her eyes. Sergeant Michael Thomas was down. He had been shot at directly through the forehead. If the bullet hadn't stopped in his brain, it would've passed through and probably hit her. Fresh blood was dripping from the bullet hole. Sergeant Eric Johnson was leaning over his comrade, horrified and furious. He set his military cap down on the body and stood back up. Seline sighed, but she wasn't relieved just yet.

"Where the hell are you, ya scum!?" Sergeant Johnson screamed to nobody, his gun held out and ready to fire. "I'ma kill you, you dirty rotten punk!"

This time Seline saw a sliver of bronze come flying through the air, hitting Sergeant Johnson at the bottom of his spine. Whoever was firing had their silencer on, because there were no loud gunshot noises, just the faint sound of the bullets speeding by. The military man spat out several vulgar words, falling to his knees and dropping his gun. Another bullet whizzed through the air and hit him in the back of the head, and Sergeant Eric Johnson toppled over, dead.

Seline looked in the direction the bullets were coming from. There was nobody there! Just the ivory wall! There weren't any houses beyond the wall, just hilly desert and a few low mountains. The gate leading out of the garden was still shut and locked!

"Hello?" Seline asked, breaking the silence with her own voice for once.

No response.

"Thank…you…?" she continued, hoping that there weren't anymore bullets to come. Still no response.

"I'm tied up. If I don't get out of here, they'll kill me…" she blurted out, hoping that her begging to be rescued wouldn't go unheard.

A few seconds of silence passed. Seline heard nothing, not even that faint sound of padded feet.

"I ain't setting one toe in there unless I know they're all gone."

The corners of Seline's mouth curled up in delight. "There's nobody else back here, but if you're going to help me, you should probably do it fast and quiet. These chumps already caused too much of a fuss, and the owners of this house are probably already on their way out to see what happened."