The killer detective

22 - A needle in a heap of hay

I realized what it actually meant after a few minutes had passed.

“Yeah, what’s so surprising about that? You need to learn how I do things, otherwise, you won’t be able to become the best! Moreover, I need someone to do the house chores for me as I’m awfully busy!” He chuckled as if all of this was just a laughing matter. Me becoming basically his servant, while learning from him, was just a laughing matter to him. And for me, it was definitely going to be a huge ordeal. I could see others having a completely normal after-education trainings, while I was supposed to be stuck with this weirdo.

“We’re going.” He said with no emotions in his voice as he threw his heavy bag at me. I caught it last-minute. It was seriously heavy! I had no idea who the heck would carry such a thing with them to pick up a graduating student.

“You’re not coming?!” He turned around, shouting at me. He didn’t seem like a very patient person as he sounded quite mad.

“Coming!” I shouted back, threw the bag towards my back, and started running after him. We were walking, not taking any public transportation. It looked like he was probably living somewhere close-by in this family-housing area. It was one of the more expensive places to live, the houses had fancy gardens, while luxurious cars were parked in their driveways behind the high fences.

“Do you live close, Cailean?” I tried striking a conversation as we kept on walking without any words spoken. It was getting way too awkward and walking for a good over twenty minutes was getting quite long. Not to mention the heavy bag on my back.

“Not really.” His answer was short. He didn’t seem bothered with walking this long, letting me carry his heavy things. As a guy, he should have been the one carrying it, letting me walk more easily! Or at least we should have taken public transportation. Like a bus or something that would be going to his place.

“Then how long do you think we’ll be walking for? Can we take a bus?” I pushed the bag up with a lot of strength, trying to make it feel a bit lighter for my back for a while.

“You don’t need to know that. Instead of asking for the target place where we are going, you ask for time? And no, no bus. There are no shortcuts you can take. I thought this was going to be easier as you were one of the top of the class. Guess they didn’t give you proper tests for your brains…” He poked my forehead with his two fingers, making me stop and nearly fall back as the bag was dragging me down.

“Then where are we going?” I asked, correcting my question from before.

“You know where the best training spot is, newbie?” He asked me, while he was walking with ease.

“Not really. The only training grounds I know are from the school…” I replied, feeling a bit down as it seemed that I was only making it harder for myself to be trained by him. It didn’t seem like he was getting more interested in training me.

“The forests right behind the Ruinees’ place. You can sometimes catch a few wanderers there. It’s an easy place to make points if you feel like you have none in your account.” His lips finally widened in a smile.

“Can I ask you one more thing?” I was starting to doubt his intentions. As I thought the training would be quite easy to do, I was hoping that my intuition this time was plain wrong.

“Strike ahead.”

“We’re walking the whole way there? Whole twenty kilometers?” I harshly swallowed my saliva. Walking the whole way to the forest through all these streets, carrying this god-awfully heavy stuff on my back, that was going to be my doom. Not to mention I had no water with me, no food, no weapons… No weapons?! How will I defend myself against Ruinees? He can’t be serious!

His chuckling was enough of an answer to my suspicions. My stomach tightened. This was it. I was officially a student of a complete sadist!

"Do we take a break anywhere?" I asked him, hoping he would take in account that I was a young pretty girl, who only started her training today.

"We rest after we make points. You need to make a living somehow. You think that your petty points are enough to pay me for teaching you?"  He grabbed a grass straw and put it into his mouth, chewing on it like a cowboy.

"Wait... I have to pay you?!" I yelled out. It was only the two of us in the street, as everyone was probably at work.

"They didn't tell you?" He chuckled, taking the straw out and throwing it to the ground.

"But I didn't get to choose my master!" I protested. This was just way too much! How could they pick anyone to teach me just like that without even asking me about my own preferences? If I could choose, I would definitely choose a nice guy, who would be handsome, and not too bad with his skills. I would definitely not choose such a sadist as my master.

"Less talking, more walking. We don't have that much time until the sun sets! If you want to pick a good spot for the hunt, you need to be there before sundown. So move up!" He hit my butt with another straw of grass, trying to make me go faster.

…

Area 29, CAUTION!

“How long are you going to keep staring at the sign, Omita? It won’t change anything. It won’t budge.” I sighed, pulling the cap deeper into my face. I was wearing my usual light gear as well as a few more things for easier location from the system. Isaac and Basil were our back-ups, they had to know where exactly we were in case something would go wrong.

“It’s the first time I’m going inside! Is it really so dangerous as all these signs say?” She wasn’t checking her equipment nor her clothes for the final time. Instead, her capacity was fully focused on all the different signboards that were wired to the fence. There were different kinds of letter fonts reading CAUTION, many skulls with crossed bones as well. It looked more like a place, where one could anticipate instant death. Good thing they don’t have land mines here. Putting up a sign like that would definitely make other people more cautious about entering!

“Check your gear. We’re going in soon.” I told Omita while I was finishing my own checks. Two handguns, check. Knife, check. GPS on the ankle, check. Oh, I have to hide my dog tag. I tugged the tag deep under my T-shirt and a light bulletproof vest.

“All checked!” Omita called out to me. I nodded. I made sure to quick-check everything on her. I didn't forget to see if her dog tag was well-tugged under her clothes and not visible.

“Alright. Isaac, we’re going in.” I talked to the small microphone, which was hanging around my mouth. Omita had one as well.

“Roger that. Newbie, take care!” Isaac wished her good luck in his own way, while we entered into the high-grass land through a hole in the fence, which we made a while ago. It was bound to be wired back together soon after we would finish the mission. Basil was supposed to be the one checking that nobody got out.

Area 29 itself was one of the worst places to go for the first mission with the newbie. Other areas were fine, they weren’t as dangerous as this one. Ruinees in them were usually quite calm and they were only used as drug-trading places. Area 29, 43, and 58 in this city were the really awful ones. But compared to the other two, Area 29 was still quite calm. It had fewer drug addicts and fewer Ruinees, who were caught illegally handling guns and other military equipment.

“No movement. Clear.” Omita whispered to the microphone, while we were stalking in the grass, effortlessly moving closer to the first buildings on the horizon.

“Are you going to spend the whole day there, girls? Move it up!” Isaac was already commanding us, probably checking his GPS radar to see how we were doing. I grunted.

“You’re not here to give orders, I am!” I retorted.

“Omita, we should hurry up.” I hissed at her, trying to be as quiet as possible. I readied my handgun just in case. The first house was completely empty with a lot of shattered windows in it. It looked empty, but one could never know.

Clouds were smoothly flowing in the sky, covering the moonlight, making the whole place quite dark. There were a few street lights in the streets ahead of us, but this place was completely dark. Even darker, when the moonlight wasn’t there to show the way.

Something cracked under my boot. I froze in my movement for a while, quickly lifting the leg up. Damn it! I will have to buy new boots again! It was definitely a needle! I gulped, hoping the needle just broke and didn’t dig into the shoe. The nice breeze lifted the loose strands of my hair, rustling the grass around us. But in all of that natural sound, something sounded off. I clicked the safety pin on the gun. I concentrated my efforts into all of my senses. I slowed down the tempo, bent my knees to lower myself a bit more into the grass. I gestured to Omita to do the same. She stopped and hid in the grass. I was nearly not breathing, keeping my breaths as slow and quiet as possible to hear anything that would give away what was going on.

Clouds moved through the sky again, making the moonlight hit us directly from the sky. Even if we didn’t move, our clothes weren’t the best for hiding in the grass. I was checking all the windows from the house at two o’clock from us. As the moonlight was moving closer, I saw a silver reflection.

“Omita, down!”