Shooting Monkeys

"Hey, big guy, untie me first!" Song Zhi yelled at Wilk. She didn't want to be a stationary target on the battlefield; she'd be shot full of holes.

Wilk didn't move. He kept staring at Song Zhi, trying to work out what she intended.

Static crackled over the radio in Song Zhi's helmet, and Lai'en's voice came through her earpiece again. "Wilk, untie her."

After a pause, he added, "Song, don't try to run. There's a GPS tracking chip in the shock collar. If the detector finds that you've moved more than three meters away from Wilk, Lu's sniper rifle will physically eliminate you."

"Please acknowledge."

"Copy! Fellow countrywoman, ten o'clock." Lu Yu's voice came through the earpiece.

Song Zhi looked toward ten o'clock.

Bang! An unfamiliar tree was blasted in half by a sniper rifle...

That was a fucking armor-piercing round!

Fine! Very nice! I put my fellow countryman in my heart, and my fellow countryman blasts me into mincemeat and hangs me on the wall!

"Copy!" Song Zhi backed down.

Fuck! A wise man knows when to yield!

Her escape plan had been strangled in the cradle!

Wilk pulled out a military knife and cut the ropes around Song Zhi's wrists and ankles. He also handed her a silver pistol and gave her a few brief instructions. "Kelante said you know how to use a gun. Baby, when you see someone, pull the trigger. Aim carefully, and make sure you can tell friend from foe..."

Night fell, and a flare burst in the sky. More flares rose one after another, lighting the entire rainforest as brightly as day.

Someone was sneaking through the rainforest toward them. Song Zhi took the safety off the pistol and was about to pull the trigger.

Wilk covered Song Zhi's right hand with his big hand and stopped her. "No! No!! No! Easy... That's one of ours!"

Song Zhi said, "..."

This is beyond ridiculous!

Wilk pulled the night-vision goggles down from his tactical helmet and placed them over Song Zhi's eyes. He also turned her in another direction and instructed her, "Head toward six o'clock. Ever seen Myanmar monkeys? Take aim and shoot them..."

Myanmar guys?

"They're annoying enough!"

Song Zhi quickly adjusted to the view through the night-vision goggles. Thermal imaging outlined the nearby carbon-based life-forms in red, with perfect clarity.

"End the battle in sixty minutes. Assemble at High Ground B, six o'clock." Lai'en's cold, curt order sounded in the earpiece again.

Wilk walked in front with his submachine gun raised, and Song Zhi followed close behind with her pistol. Before long, her palms were sweating so much that she couldn't hold the grip.

Did her ragged outfit look fit for a battlefield?

Did they really think I was the heroine of some wish-fulfillment novel? Start out with nothing but a bowl and scavenge all my gear!

Wilk stopped. He took out a medical bandage and wrapped it around Song Zhi's hand, reassuring her, "There are supplies at the post. Once we get there, you'll get the equipment you need."

The Slavic bear was rather warmhearted. Song Zhi couldn't resist wanting to snuggle up to him and, while she was at it, touch his... pecs.

"Provided you survive," Wilk said, putting the pistol back in Song Zhi's hand.

The medical bandage absorbed the sweat from her palm and gave her a better grip.

She had to survive, just as she had before, relying on herself! A hail of bullets whistled past her ears. This wasn't a movie or a drill. This was real war.

"Baby, have you ever killed anyone?"

Wilk was worried. The filthy Barbie doll should have been washed clean, dressed in a clean princess dress, and living in a beautiful castle, not shooting monkeys in this rainforest.

Bang! Bang!

The two gunshots gave Wilk his answer. A Myanmar monkey fell out of the bushes ten meters away, shot in the chest and already dead.

"Good girl!" Wilk grinned.

"Whoa! Nice shooting, fellow countrywoman! I bet Kelante you'd shot and killed someone, and won five energy bars. Three for you and two for me. I won't let you get the short end of the deal!" Lu Yu's teasing came through the earpiece, with an irrepressibly flirtatious note.

Bang!

Another shot rang out, and Song Zhi shot another Myanmar monkey dead.

"Deal! But I want an extra reward too," Song Zhi said over the radio as she followed Wilk with her gun raised.

"What reward?"

"Heh, fellow countryman, ever heard of an apocalypse male bodhisattva?" Song Zhi smiled wickedly.

Lu Yu said, "..."

He had a bad feeling about this.

"Can you let me have your bed tonight? I don't want to get squashed into a meat patty by the big guy..."

Lu Yu said, "..."

Wilk said, "..."

Just what value did this "short-haired Lara" have?!

A few gleefully mocking remarks came through the radio earpiece.

Lu Yu was no pushover either. He sneered, "Two more. Kill two more Myanmar monkeys, and forget the bed—you can even touch my pecs and abs!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! You really are an apocalypse male bodhisattva!" Song Zhi huffed and quickly spotted two Myanmar monkeys through the goggles' thermal imaging.

Bang! Bang!

One shot each, sending them straight to the afterlife!

Song Zhi quickly reloaded and chambered a round.

"Fellow countryman bodhisattva, Chinese people don't lie to their own!"

"..."

After a brief silence, Lu Yu's anguished growl came through the earpiece. "Damn it! Fuck! My chastity!"

Lu Yu's roar was drowned out by the explosive report of an armor-piercing round, and the battle in the rainforest escalated in an instant.

With the advantage of the night-vision goggles and Wilk covering her, Song Zhi moved nimbly between the trees. Every pull of the trigger was unerringly precise, and the screams of Myanmar monkeys rose and fell around her.

Wilk looked back from time to time, checking on Song Zhi with his deep-set eyes, and occasionally gave her an encouraging smile. This big Slavic man had a rugged exterior but a sensitive heart, giving Song Zhi a different feeling as she stood on the edge of life and death.

"Ten minutes left. Pick up the pace!" Lai'en's voice rang out in the earpiece, carrying an unquestionable urgency.

Song Zhi and Wilk exchanged a glance and quickened their pace without another word. They pushed through dense bushes into an open area, with the entrance to High Ground B just ahead.

Wilk took out a flare gun and fired a signal flare into the night sky. The orange-red fireball burst overhead, and more signal flares exploded nearby.

An illumination flare rose into the air, lighting up the pitch-black rainforest night.

In the dazzling white light, Song Zhi saw Lu Yu slowly emerge from the dense forest with a sniper rifle on his back. He spotted Song Zhi, lifted his combat shirt with one hand to show off his abs, and gave his pert butt a suggestive wiggle, a wicked grin on his face.

He wolf-whistled nonstop, as though whistles were free.

As the flare fell and darkness closed in around them again, Song Zhi quickly grabbed at Wilk beside her.

"Hiss! So hard!"

"..." Wilk said nothing.

"I meant your chest muscles!"

Tonight, they would rest at High Ground B. Tomorrow, they had to cross the rainforest on foot to Seji, then take a boat from Seji to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was the forward supply station, where they would undergo training for the time being.

A campfire was lit, and the members of Team A gathered around it to sort their belongings.

Song Zhi sat down beside Wilk with her arms folded. He was responsible for her today, and he was cleaning the silver pistol she had just used.

Song Zhi had been tricked! There were no barracks or camp beds tonight, only rest right where they were.

Lai'en and Kelante were discussing something, but their voices were too low for Song Zhi to hear, and she couldn't understand them anyway. The two foreigners were speaking German. Midway through, they both looked back at Song Zhi, fell silent for a moment, then continued their conversation in German.

What she didn't know was that Lai'en had received a highly encrypted order.

Hill kept his eyes fixed on the instrument screen and hadn't said a single word.

A pair of tactical boots with black mud on the soles appeared in front of Song Zhi. She looked up from the boots and saw Lu Yu in a tight black training outfit.

"Reward time!" Lu Yu waved the energy bars in his hand and held out his other hand to Song Zhi.

As if under a spell, Song Zhi placed her hand in Lu Yu's palm.

Lu Yu chuckled, suddenly grabbed Song Zhi's hand, and pulled her to her feet. Then, to her surprise, he lifted his shirt and tucked her hand inside.

"Further down..."

Lu Yu smiled wickedly, coaxing her on.

Under Lu Yu's grip, her fingers slowly slid down along abs as hard as iron...

"Hiss!"

Song Zhi hurriedly pulled her hand back.

"I told you that was a dagger..." Lu Yu pressed three energy bars into Song Zhi's hand, stretched, and walked away.

Her face red, Song Zhi handed Wilk an energy bar. Wilk pulled out his camouflage jacket and draped it over her head, taking the energy bar she offered as he did so.

"Go to sleep!"