SPYFALL

“MELONY, RUN!”

I sprung out of bed ready to fight, only to find my dark dorm room and my alarm clock going off. Oh thank god! It was just a dream. I looked around one last time just to be sure before I turned off the alarm and headed off to the showers.

The school was a small one. It only had about 500 students attending and we were all orphans. Some of the girls around the dorm said that sometimes, they felt like they were a part of a James Bond prep school, in a way they were right. Nevermore was a school for spies. Who would have thought, right?

The school has four buildings. Three of the buildings were dorms, one for the male students, one for the female students, and one for the staff which just happened to be right in the middle of the student dorms. The fourth building was the biggest and was used as the school itself. The students like to call it the building of doom, you either make it out of the school week only partly damaged or majorly harmed. Nevermore had a tendency to take the life out of its students, it tends to turn innocent children into dangerous little devils. Which is why they only take in orphans, they are easier to corrupt.

I stepped out of the stall in my towel when a tall curly haired brunette girl spoke to me.

“Hey Melony, are you ready for combat class today?”

“Sure, Sonny.”

“I wish I were on your team. Don’t tell Mikey that though, he would kill me. It’s just that even though he knows what he’s doing, you know it better.” She smiled and I gave a small one back in reply then I headed back to my room to change. “Wait Melony!” I looked back and raised my eye brow in question. “Never mind, good luck today; even if you don’t need it.”

“Thanks you too.”

My combat class is all about the field work. We went to a building in the middle of know where with paint ball guns and all this technology. Our teacher “Coach” would tell us to get into our teams and discuss a plan for a certain mission then we had a set amount of time to execute that mission.

I looked in the mirror to find a short hazel eyed girl with curly auburn hair, and a black jumpsuit on. I nodded in approval. I had to look somewhat decent to get respect from my team, but I also had to be dressed for action.

* * *

When I walked into my first period, people greeted me but I just went to the back of the class and waited for the instructor to come in and tell us what security codes and government computers needed to be hacked. I wasn’t going to say that I sucked at that stuff, ‘cause I was actually pretty good, I just didn’t exactly like the class very much. So, once we got our assignment I finished it and got up to go. “Melony, Coach wanted me to tell you that you have to report to his class right after class. Something ‘bout going to the warehouse?” I smile and nod. When I left I went straight to my room to get ready for Covert Ops.

My covert ops class was my absolute favorite class. I was the best person in there and people respected me for it. The bell rung and coach walked in.

“Today we will be breaking off into teams and going to the warehouse, as I told you earlier this week.” Coach looked at us all before speaking again. “Though this time will be different, we will be filming you, and it’s an all day thing.” Coach explained. Normally the warehouse practices only lasted an hour maybe less, so hearing that was surprising.

At our destination coach had us get into our teams and explained what was going on. “This time we are not using up just one wing of the building, we are using it all. Make sure you have your paint ball guns set, maintenance rooms hidden, and flags safe.” He let us go to our wings with an hour to get set and form a plan.

I formulated a plan with the team. We set up the hidden paint ball booby traps near and activated our communication devices.

“You guys set?” I asked.

They all nodded. “You know Melony, you really are great at this stuff.” One of the girls in my group said. I mumbled thanks and took off with my partner.

We made our way through the building careful not to set off any alarms. Whenever we heard people coming our way we would duck behind stuff or slide behind walls until they disappeared or until we shot them down.

The thing about Mikey is he would always send all his people out at once. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but, it’s not a good thing either. His people would die off faster, or they would get tired and no one would be able to cover them until they were fit for the task again. Me? I had two people 50ft from the flag just in case they get past the traps, two more people to cover my two tech people, and then I had me and my partner out trying to retrieve the flag. I figured it would be easier and less painful for us to travel light and guard heavy, yet light.

“Melony” a voice came through the earpiece.

“Yes?”

“We found the flag, but we don’t see any guards..”

“So far we brought down three people, so that leaves five more. We heard two of them pass us which means Mickey was one of them.”I said in a hushed tone while Robert kept a look out.

“Ok, so does that mean he has 1 person on guard?”

“Mhmm.” Someone was coming and I signaled for Robert to hide. We slid into the darkest corners we could find just as Sonny walked by. I met Roberts brown eyes and pointed to myself, he nodded. I lifted my gun and aimed, the silently pulled the trigger. The paint ball hit just over her heart. Satisfied I put my figure over my mouth to let Robert know to stay quiet. I knew Mikey wasn’t far behind. Pounding footsteps started coming our way and I mouthed for us to fall back.

We came close to the maintenance room when I heard the slight movement of someone about to shoot but I made a sound to let them know who it was. A tall Hispanic came out of the corner with a smile on his face. “Got the flag yet?” he asked.

“No Mark, not yet.” Was Roberts reply.

When we got into the room I heard Robert curse quietly under his breath about it already being one o’clock. So I gave him a look that said we both need to get a move on, and he said out loud, “agreed”.

“So what do we do now?” Hannah asked.

“I’m not quite sure yet. Can I take a look at the monitor?” I asked.

“Sure.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked what I saw or not. No one was to be seen around the flag but then again none of my guys were visible either. The thing about their flag is that it was surrounded by two different corridors and a wall was right behind it. That had to be where the guard was hiding. After a few minutes of looking I asked to see a map of the warehouse with the flags hiding spot highlighted. “Do you think you could print this out for us?” they nodded. I looked at Robert and he was ready to go, so I had the four guards swap spots with each other before we headed back out.

With four of the of the other team gone that meant only Mikey would be out looking for the flag and I had no doubt they already knew where it was at. I pulled Robert off to the side and showed him the map. “You see how there are two ways to get there?” I asked and he nodded. “We have to split up. There is a wall right behind the flag and most likely only one person will be guarding the flag, so one of us is going to have to distract him, and the only way to do that is by splitting up.” I looked at him for a second. “Do you understand?”

“You can get into a lot of trouble Melony.”

“Robert.”

“What?”

“That is not what I asked. But if you do not understand that’s fine, you could go back to camp and I will go on by myself.” When Robert hesitated I continued. “But know this, if I get hit and no one is there to retrieve that flag then you would have cost us the game. And no, don’t say you would just get it with someone else, cause I am pretty sure that Mikey knows where our flag is. If he knows where our flag is, then I doubt you will have time before him or someone from his team grabs our flag. So tell me Robert. Do you understand me?!” I quietly yelled at him.

“Yes ma’am.”

Even though I knew that what we were about to do would get me into trouble, it had to be done. There was no other way to do this without more of my team being at jeopardy. We split up and I ended up close to their base and I sent out a message for Robert to keep an eye out and for maintenance to let us know anything we couldn’t see. When I was pleased with the ignorance of me being there, I continued on to the room that had the flag.

The guard finally showed himself when I caught sight of my partner. Robert was closer to the flag, but the guard grabbed him before he could. “If you want him to live, then drop the gun Melony.” Robert just smiled as I put my gun down. Ryan looked confused until Robert shifted to toss me his gun and I pulled the trigger. Once he let go we ran to the flag and grabbed it.

The buzzer went off and we all made our way to the vehicles. When we got back to the Nevermore Academy, coach told me to stay behind while everyone left for the showers.

“Did I do something wrong?” Coach glanced at me knowingly and I knew I was screwed. I should have had Robert stick with me.

“Come with me.” Gosh darn it. I was going to the head mistresses office.

This had to have been the longest walk in my entire life. If I got kicked out I would have nowhere to go other than foster care, and I refused to go there. If I refuse foster care that would mean they would come after me until I am no longer a threat. I stared up at the tall building and for the first time ever, it truly felt like The Building of Doom. Coach hurried me down the halls of the school all the way to the head mistresses office, then paused to have a long look at me. “Good luck.” I took a deep breath and walked through the door.

“Hello Miss Melony.” An old woman greeted me, I nodded at her in response. “Please sit. We have much to discuss.” My heart was pounding. I had no idea how this was going to turn out. I hoped I would just be let off with just a warning, I mean it was the only mistake I have ever made.

Head Mistress looked at me with her sharp eyes for what seemed like forever. “Do you know how many violation codes you broke today? You are to never split up! The only time you are to split up is if one of you guys were dead. Do you know the consequences are for doing that in a school administered field practice? The rules tell me I am to suspend you. The only thing keeping me from doing that right this second is the fact that you are the number one operative at this school.” I let out a sigh of relief. At least I wasn’t being kicked out of school. “So because of today I am going to have to tell you to pack your bags.” Or maybe not.

“Head Mistress! This was the only time I have ever made a mistake! What am I supposed to do?” I gasped out.

“You can attend school tomorrow but that is your last day except for your exams. I am giving you 42 hours and then you are to meet me back here and I will tell you what you are to do from now on.”

I looked at the old women and nodded. What else was I supposed to do? Kill the lady? Yea, I didn’t think so. “Oh, and Melony?” I looked at her, and was surprised to hear what she said next. “I’m proud of you.”