Chapter 8

Lorraine's POV

I was silently eating my dinner on the plane when someone gasped out for everyone to hear.

"You didn't know that we are a co-capital Country!!! Have you been living under a rock? Also with absolutely no source of education don't you read it online? It is all over the news about how we are the most successful coexisting capitals in the entire world." The girl was from King City she was somebody I had seen talking to Eric (-Vice of the Medical troupe).

The boy who she had been scolding seemed as embarrassed as he could get, his cheeks flushed crimson red. He whispered something to her and her gaze shot towards me. I silently glared at her, giving her the message to control her volume, she lowered her head in fear while I returned to my dinner that still sat as good as untouched on my plate.

The curtains to our Plane Class opened Michael stepped into our Cabin locking eyes with me, he smiled subtly as strode with huge steps towards me.

"Major. You are needed shortly. Please, follow me." I nodded quickly putting my still untouched dinner to the side. As I took small steps away from my dinner I could hear its pleading cries to be eaten up from me. I sighed mentally following Michael diligently, he leads me to Damon's seat who was eating his own dinner while briefing a File. Lucky him, nobody stopped him from eating his own dinner, yet mine is lying on a cold plate waiting impatiently-

"Michael, please leave us for a second." He left obediently moved far away placing the sound compressor headphones on his head. I remained silent as his aura was hindering my vocal chord from speaking up.

Mr. Owens set a hundred dollar Bill on the Table. Just as expected luck was not on my side and he definitely remembered me from that unfortunate night. He dropped the newspaper on the Table finally honoring me with his attention.

"Acting as nothing happened won't change the fact that I know about it. I will just accept that time as our private life, seeing that we even almost slept toget-" Just like Magic I could speak up again, but even the words that slipped out were just adding oil to the burning home.

" Mr. Owens. Hold your Horses. We did not sleep together, it was a ten seconds kiss, do not get ahead of yourself. A pure mistake. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else."

He raised an eyebrow at me, his eyes puncturing dozens of holes into me, I lowered my head in shame. Regretting what I had said a few seconds ago.

"Apart from that, the reason I called you here is simple, right now there is no way for you to contact the Pharmacy's Warehouse to order supplies. Give me your List and I will see to it on my way to the Palace."

"You are going to the Palace? Can I come with you ?"

I bit my tongue, feeling disappointed in myself, lowering my head.

"I apologize, Sir, it was a slip of tongue-"

"and excitement. Don't forget where you are right now. Control yourself. This is Work, not sightseeing. Don't bother meeting royalties with your very unknown background, you would even be lucky to meet a lady." While stifling my laugh, I nodded quickly, suppressing my urge to mention my real Identity.

He instructed me to return to my seat, eager to see the food that I had left behind, I left without hesitation. The pictures of our short-lasting kiss re-playing in my mind, the fact that I didn't pay attention to my first kiss after my broken-off engagement for 9 months. Yet again thoughts of my engagement filled my head with dark clouds. My appetite from before suddenly vanishing, my stomach was churning, bile rising in my throat. Not only was the man -never-to- be-mentioned-again my ex-boyfriend but also my ex-fiance. The person who I trusted the most, no, he didn't cheat on me, although that would be far better than the impression he had left me with. He had might not have cheated but he was one of the reasons I tend to keep my identity as hidden as possible, he and his mother had used me to climb up the social ladder as I was known as the General's daughter. Right after he had met my Father he had proposed to me, but trusting Him to my fullest I thought he was being sincere while he did this just to become noticed by several people. Like the Queen who he met as my fiance, was one of his many missions, and when I found out he tried to deny it. And whether he was just a puppet or was doing it absolutely from his own mindset has not been my business. There is no way that I was ever going to allow my love to hurt the people around me. Never again. Once someone who I suspected as Zoe stole my food from my tray, I tried not to get held up by my emotions once more so I took out our supply list.

Once I had ticked off everything from the list I sent it over to Mr. Tyrann. I spent the rest of the flight sleeping occasionally feeling my stomach grumble in frustration.

_______________________________

I was arranging my bag into the Tent that I was going to be sharing with all the Female doctors. My bed was the first bed closer to the exit, at the back of the tent Zoe was coordinating who gets which Locker. I had chosen my locker at the very beginning dropping all my valuables in my locker, keeping the Key safe in my pockets. Everybody was shouting up and down looking for things they misplaced somewhere. I made a beeline to the cafeteria to get some of the takeout food. Someone sat across from me, I glanced at Zoe who was smiling like a kid on Christmas day.

"Lory, I feel really bad. You didn't call me like ever."

"Zoe, it has been 1 week. We went shopping 1 week ago and you texted me not to call you cause you are trying to hook up with more boys."

"Oh. That is truly on me."

Zoe was the liveliest soul I have ever met in my life. Not only was she extremely caring and lively but she was pretty smart too. Just like me, she studied Cardiology but she was the first and last person who figured out my true Identity in University, and also the one who stood by my side alongside Olivia through the years of harassment. She was my best friend and my best competitor. Yes, Competitor, since Uni we have been beating each other at various surgeries, of course, naturally, surpass my record and hers but she always took it as an opportunity to show who is the best in the field. Her fighting skills were nothing compared to mine, she lost every time, I am most definitely not bragging but I could say that I was trained by the best of the best.

Zoe went on talking about the new person she likes, her face beaming with excitement, I smiled at her while she kept blabbing about a Seth who she previously met at a Night Club. My phone dinged at the same time as Zoes phone.

"Eric wants us to get our Walkie talkies." I just nodded at her following her to the campfire that was set up in the middle of the Camp. Eric was panting as he dropped a box of Walkie Talkies on the ground, I took out a few tossing ones to each soldier standing in the straight line.

"My codename is White Wolf. If there is an emergency do not Panic call for help. All of you have gone through training so do not panic. There is no curfew, no worries."

I looked at each of them turning to Eric giving him a nod telling him to continue.

" Well apart from that Breakfast is from 8-9, lunch from 12-14 and dinner from 18-19. Everybody is to wake up at 6 o'clock sharp. You have 15 min to get dressed, then we will proceed to our Morning Jog from 6:20 to 7:30, after that, you will have time to freshen up 10 min and then a briefing then breakfast. Same process before dinner. For those who have to work during dinner or so on you will be given food at any time when asked for. Planned by Major Anderson everybody will be on a healthy diet according to headquarters, do not worry the taste will be to your liken. No Alcohol. Well if you are going to drink just put in mind that anybody that will destroy our working atmosphere due to Alcohol will be punished. Snacks will be available in the kitchen in case you have an endless pit of a stomach. That is it. Dismissed."

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Before I was aware the sun rose the clouds covering up the sky. Some girls were already dressed and ready for our morning Jog around camp.

"Good morning ladies, are you ready?"

We started jogging singing to Sound off, me leading them responding.

Howard: HARCH!

Hup-hoop-hip-hop

The heads are up, the chests are out

The arms are swinging; in cadence, count:

Sound off (one, too!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two -- three four!)

Eeny meany miny moe

Let's go back and count some mo'

Sound off (one, too!)

Sound off (three, four!)

Cadence count (one, two, three, four, one, two -- three four!)

We will march to beat the band

And we'll never bite The Hand,

Sound off (one, too!)

Sound off (three-

The boys joined us and continued to chant with us, some of them running shirtless. Soon enough all the soldiers were running together. Damon at the very front with Michael. Damon took over the calls after Michael and everyone else was corresponding to his shouts.

Sound off (one, too!) ...

It went on for further more minutes with felt like hours. My thighs were burning and sweat was dripping from my shirt. While others were comfortable running in their sports bras I was feeling safer in my t-shirt that just made me sweat more. I hunched over my body painting my breath, Zoe and her overdramatic ass fell to the floor looking like an exhausted corpse. Damon who ran longer than any of us looked like he had just run from one-bed end to the other. He was giving Michael instructions while looked like he would pass out at any moment. I took a look at everyone for the first time. We were all younger than I expected and about sixty in total. Even though I imagined more than this. But I wasn't surprised we are part of the special forces it isn't that easy to maintain our image and do a good job as well, not everyone can hold out that long.

After we freshened up we left for the cafeteria that was just right 70 people. The cafeteria was a separate building that was more than ten minutes away from our tents, The huge Building in which the control rooms and other storages were, the kitchen, the Lieutenants (Damon) office, and Michael's office too. Although I was a huge fan of running I would rather not walk ten minutes just to get food, but just like I love walking/running I also love eating so I might as well sacrifice those ten minutes for twenty minutes of eating.

I was just about to take a bite from my sandwich when my Walkie talkie let out a distorting sound. I clenched my eyes annoyed that every time I was about to eat something must happen so much to twenty minutes of peaceful eating.

"SKkzzzz- Major Lorraine, Lieutenant General would like to see you. Now! zzz."

Of course, it was that good for nothing Lieutenant.

"Copy that."

I took my sandwich with me eating in on my way to meet the oh so might Lieutenant, I wasn't ready to lose my appetite once more because of his bad word choices.

Before I could knock on the door I heard a faint come in, I stepped into the room that was occupied by Michael, Damon, and Eric. They all stared expecting me to do something, I saluted waiting for him to tell me to sit down.

"Sit." His eyes never left the files he was looking at, I mentally rolled my eyes and sat down close to Eric who was eyeing Lieutenant Damon like a rare item in the market.

"The reason I called you here is simple. We are going to have a briefing with this set of people in a few minutes." He set a list on the table gesturing us to look at it.

There were 12 people on the list Damon, Michael, Zoe, and I being a part of the list.

"These people will be going Land Mine searching with me. But before I get to that all of you follow me." He got up from his seat leading us down the hallway. He leads us to a dead-end, where absolutely no soldier was granted access, he slides the left side of the wall a keypad appearing.

"The Pincode to this Lock is 0901, but seeing as this place is top secret you must also use your fingerprints," he pressed his thumb below the keys on a small slit into the wall we all awaited the door to open but to no avail, "After that, you keep your right eye to the right hole here."

He pointed at a small hole that magically appeared on the wall, he held his face to the hall and year again we were waiting to expect the door to open, yet again we were seriously disappointed.

"And then Voice recognition." He pressed the same button as when he checked his fingerprints.

An automated voice echoed through the hallway.

"Name."

" Damon Owens."

There was a booting sound heard from behind the door.

"Access granted."

The door slid open Damon casually walking in he once more turned on his heel staring at all of us.

"All of you complete the same process, then meet me inside."

The door slid back again leaving us with the disguised door once more. We all went one by one into the room a gasp leaving our mouth, this place was set up with the highest technology. The room was filled with screens, a meeting table, a small kitchen, a small couch, 4 perfectly aligned tables each separated by glass.

"This place only allowed one person to enter at a time. Due To different reasons. Each of you in this room and our Army General have access to this place. Before every meeting with the rest of the soldiers, we will all meet up here and discuss beforehand. Take a seat. "

(Imagine More screens this is just a sample for your imagination)

We all sat down on our chairs each having one of our names on it. Sitting on my chair I placed my hands on the table when I was once again rudely interrupted but not by humans.

A Siri-like voice came from the table.

" Welcome Major Lorraine Anderson. The list of your female doctors is loading. Please wait for a moment."

A good second past and a list of all my female doctors including pictures, and private information popped up. Zoe's face coming up first.

"Thank you. Major for showing us the next thing I was going to explain. Sit"

My head snapped to Damon who still had an ice block on his face, with absolutely no emotion.

He pressed a single button on his side of the table and the Voice of Siri appeared again.

"The Deep of Hampbo files loading...."

A destroyed town appeared on the screen, knocking all wind out of me. My breath stocking up. No, Inhale no Exhale.