#p:bs

A.B.’s gut told her something was wrong. She had been on edge before going into the field. Something told her to look over her shoulder as she fastened her Kevlar and her grip tightened on her gun. It was impossible to relax even the slightest bit no matter how confident she was on the field.

She could have blamed it on her last field assistance. The one where Richard fucked up. However, A.B. was far from being a newbie. Her years on the field had given her a handful of scars. But that never stopped her from going back into the field without fear. At least, never paranoid although always on high alert.

This time was different.

The feeling didn’t leave her as she made it into the SUV or when they arrived to their destination. It loomed over her as her squad took their positions and the sensation of discomfort only grew as she spotted a shadow lurking behind a nearby corner.

Even if everything told her to keep her position, her body followed a deeper instinct. She was chasing a ghost again with the certainty she had seen her before. A.B. ran, with her gun aimed but without a good angle to shoot. And then, her communication with the rest of the team faltered for just a second...

A second was all it took.

The ground shook violently beneath her feet. Her left ear ringed until silence welcomed her. The vague sense of heat licked her skin as she turned around to face what was nothing but fire and debris. It lasted just a second, and then she collided against the wall behind her. That was the end of their mission.

-------

Breathing was hard; painful even. If there wasn’t someone sitting on her chest, A.B. guessed that at least they dropped half a building on her. Still, it was hard to grasp consciousness when she couldn’t even hear her own breathing.

It took her another few minutes.

Everything came back slowly; the machines beeping around her, the feeling of the bed under her body, the slow throbbing on the back of her head and the distant voices somewhere in the distance.

It was hard to tell what was going on. Harder than it should since every sound was so distant; almost like she was underwater.

Her eyes were heavy, probably due to the pain meds pumped into her system. Still, she had to know. Blinking a couple of times, A.B. finally managed to focus enough to make out the ceiling and the lamps. The machines around her beeping louder; faster, along with her heart. But she found some solace once she found two other people in the room.

One of them was Agent Millers, and the other one remained unknown as they had their back to the bed.

“What happened?“ Barbara barely whispered, her throat too sore to speak any louder.