The world had gone quiet, Lily noticed as she lay on the floor of the helicopter. All she could hear was a steady ringing sound. What had just happened? Everything around her was blurry, it felt like her whole body was in pain, and her head was killing her. As her vision came back into focus, she tried to take in the scene around her. The helicopter was completely totaled. There were mangled bodies strewn all over, and so many people lying immobile, covered in blood. How many of those were also dead, and how many simply injured? She watched the others who were still alive scurrying around, trying to get out and find cover, trying and failing to revive the fallen. Nobody seemed to be paying her any mind.

[i]Do I look like I’m dead?[/i] she wondered. Come to think of it, the top of her head felt oddly wet. She reached an aching hand up to touch it, and then brought it back in front of her face. There was a little bit of blood on her fingers. [i]Wonderful,[/i] she thought. [i]Just what I need right now.[/i]

The ringing in her ears was starting to subside and the world was once again filled with sounds of all kind. But it was the sound of gunshots that snapped her to her senses. She was still in a warzone. She was alive, but she could die any second. The adrenaline was apparently enough to fill her body with life again, because she quickly found herself on her feet, grasping her weapon tightly.

She scrambled to the window and saw the soldiers charging the building. She ducked down next to Avery just before a hail of bullets came through the open window. When the bullets momentarily stopped flying, Lily popped up with her rifle and unloaded on the enemy soldiers. Her head was still spinning and she could barely tell where she was aiming the damn thing. She was fairly certain she saw some of them fall down, but she wasn’t sure. All of the sudden, she realized that her gun wasn’t firing bullets anymore. She panicked and ducked behind cover again, hastily trying to reload.

Had she just killed somebody? She might have, any of those bullets could’ve been a lethal shot, but she wasn’t sure. It was strange, not even knowing. She had been dreading the moment where she’d be forced to kill someone for so long, she figured it would be a bigger deal. Yet here she was, not even knowing for sure if she’d done it at all.

[i]Not the time![/i] she thought. She tried to stay focused on what was going on around her. The enemy was coming fast, there were a lot of them, and they wouldn’t be able to defend this position for long.

“We need to get out of here!” she shouted to whoever could hear her. Was she slurring her words? She couldn’t really tell. “They’ll be on top of us any minute!”