They arrived at dusk, the only thing they heard when they went out of the cars was the insects’ buzzing. It was sort of calming, but Eve was feeling a weird pressure on her chest, she couldn’t let it show anyway. Even though it was expected because she was a woman, Eve couldn’t, if she lost the faith it meant that everyone around her was good as dead. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down and smiled to her fellows.

            “Alright, buddies!” she chirped, lowering her voice. “It’s now or never, we have to observe the field and report, what would be really effective and good is if we can catch someone. That’s optional. What’s more important is what we see, so, open your eyes wide and focus, this is a matter of life and death. Also, this is the last warning, be quiet, we can’t afford losing someone out of stupidity.”

            She looked at Baekhyun, the boy just looked at the ground, feeling bad all of sudden. His expression hurt Eve a bit, but it was not the time for being sorry. After this, she was going to ask for a pass. If she survived. Eve sighed and guided them, because a part of the road implied walking, they had to come unseen and unheard.

            Chanyeol’s heard was pounding hard in his chest and as hard as he tried to be next to his captain, she just kept walking faster or slower, or she just ignored him, until it hurt too much and couldn’t take it anymore. He bit his lip in frustration, he didn’t want to make a scene, but she was already crossing the line with her attitude.

            “Captain, I need to talk”, the tall one said in a whisper.

            Eve just glared at him, but went with him at the back of the crowd, where no one could hear them. Chanyeol adjusted his pace to hers since she was so much shorter than him. He sighed, couldn’t find his words to begin his accusations with. He ruffled his hairstyle, lowering his hand to his nape, scratching it absently.

            “Are you gonna tell me what you wanna tell me? Yes or no?!” Eve said in a stern voice.

            “Oh, yeah! Captain Kim... No, Eve! I’m mad, I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday. You were really cruel, you know this? You robed me from my chance of confessing my feelings to you! Just the worst thing you could ever do to a man. Fine! I like you, a lot and you drive me crazy, but please, for the sake of God! Don’t ignore me, you just hurt me more... Right?” The boy said that and went straight to the front of the crowd, guiding them through the grove.

            Eve was left there dumbfounded. He was right, though, she did ignore him, but she didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. Looked like she only hurt people that day. She cleared her thoughts and went in the front too.

            They were at the edge and they could clearly see the destroyed city. Once there were people, but they were asked to abandon their homes and leave because this was going to be a war field. Eve just told them in whispers to split in groups of 10 and go different ways.

            “We must meet again here in 4 hours. We’ll use the walkie-talkies to communicate, but use it only if you have something important to say. Like if you captured someone, or if you found someone. Be sure to turn on your stopwatch. It has to be 4 hours, no more, no less. Now it’s 10:14PM, so at 12:14AM we’ll meet again. Take care, all of you, please... and be sure to come back here no matter what! We have to go back together in one piece. Alright, go-go-go!” she ushered them to split.

            Eve took with her Chanyeol and Baekhyun and other friends of theirs and headed straight in the down. It was empty, at least that’s what it looked like. No freaking soul, they were expecting that. Eve was holding her rifle to her chest, like it was the only thing that could confort her in that very moment. Nobody talked, it was just the wind ruffling their hair, sending them the chills down on their spines. Eve sometimes heard sighs or people who took deep breaths because they were holding it for too long. As they were walking stealthily, they heard a woman screaming, but there were no women out of Eve in her troop.

            The scream was short, but enough to scare every men in her troop, and she know all of those 59 persons heard it. She heard Baekhyun gulping next to her, she felt like trembling, but somehow she managed to take out her walkie-talkie.

            “Here’s Captain Kim. Do you copy?”

            “Affirmative. Yes!” she got it 5 times, she felt relieved.

            “Good. Be aware. It might be a trap. Don’t follow it! Over!”

            “Roger that! Over!” again, for 5 times.

            They started walking again. She felt like her feet were made out of jelly, because it felt like falling with evey step she took, she was scared, she couldn’t lie about it. In these times she just wanted to go back to Seoul and curl up into her bed and never leaving it again. But it was too late, she was on warpath.

            “They wouldn’t send their army now, but they will send troops to patrol the place, so be careful to any move.”

            The entire place felt like a cemetery and they were in the coffin. Dead-walking, it felt like the calm before the storm and Eve couldn’t erase that bad feeling she had. Her heart wouldn’t unwind, and her breath was jerky and she was sweating. Hard. Her brain was a mess too, it was like she couldn’t give logic orders but she kept walking analysing the field, they had to have a map. She knew she had it figured and she’ll be able to report, but still, couldn’t, she knew something was going to happen. They “traveled” in shadows only, it was hard to be seen by sniper. She didn’t concerc herself with that.

            “Captain Kim! Captain Kim! Do you copy?” her walkie-talkie kept beeping.

            “Yes. What’s the matter? Over.”

            “I found someone of ours. His name is Im Han Soo.”

            “Roger that. What’s his state?”

            “He’s hurt. Badly.”

            “Can he make it to the scout cars? Over.”

“I bet he can, we need to lift him.”

“Fine. Leave! All of you. I don’t want your group to be split, just wait there. Over.”

“Copy that. Over, captain!”

Eve sighed, 5 groups out of 6. They saved a life, it was still better than nothing. Eve entered a building, if she could call it that. Without knowing, they were on the sniper’s radar, at least one of them. Eve hoped that they would catch one of those. She needed to be somewhere high to see the whole field in order to make an idea of what their invasion is going to look like. Chanyeol helped her climb on some stairs which were all destroyed by the grenades and climbed to the roof, or what was left of it. She took out her camera and started filming slowly to catch everything.

She went down, Chanyeol helped her again, caring her bride-style for way too long, but it was not the time to complain. Eve guided them out because it was time to go. It was 11:54PM, Chanyeol went out first, and after that, everything happened fast. He was shot in his shoulder. He grunted and fell to the ground. Eve managed to keep inside her yelling. It was blood everywhere. Her troops dragged him inside and Eve took out and handkerchief and pressed on the wound.

“We have to make it back somehow. I need two of you who can lift him and move fast, by fast, I mean like lightning.”

Baekhyun sobbed and held his friend’s hand. Two men volunteered and took him. Eve was explaining them the way back to the scout cars and she took the rest of them with her. She didn’t want to split the group, but she had to take an hostage and it was going to be that specific one, even if this was controlled by her strong feelings for her troops, she had to do it. She checked her watch. 16 minutes left until meeting.

“”, she murmured under her breath. “We need to move real fast. This is not going to end like this!”