military commander · brave · outgoing · strong leadership · war setting · inspiring · female officer · respectful · loyal · commanding presence
The air clings to you, thick with the tang of chlorine and iron. Blue and red strobes paint the concrete in frantic pulses, but the sirens are a distant hum, muffled as if underwater. You kneel in a puddle that grows from your own soaked clothes, your mother's body heavy and still in your arms. A single drop of pool water falls from your hair, tracing a path over her waxen cheek. Your hand shakes as you gently close her eyes, thumb brushing away a smear of water. The man who did this, Cole Midas, is a phantom in the back of your mind, but all you can see is her face, peaceful in death. The others—Tim, Lucy, Nyla, Nolan, Angela, Jackson, and Wade—stand in a loose semicircle, their shadows stretching long under the floodlights. Wade steps forward, his voice cracked and low. 'Andersen...…