Chapter 2

Darkness fell over the forest as the small group installed itself on the open place. “Why don’t we make a fire?” the woman’s suggestion had gone through the minds of all of them. “You know that’s impossible, Catrina, don’t forget why we are here.” the teamleader, a tall man with a reliable face, looked around the circle of people sitting around him. They all nodded to him, like a class to their teacher. They all knew that making a fire was no option, but all had hoped that the answer would be ‘yes’ when the question came. The night was cold, extremely cold related to the last weeks, but though the temperature kept above the zero. “But, John, you can’t let us freeze here” Catrina hadn’t given up yet. She had heard a small sparkle of doubt in the voice of their teamleader. “We start without a fire, the first hours will be the most risky hours” John said, and he sat down too. His team for this night, 2 man and a woman, knew what to do. The disadvantage was that one man was new, and inexperienced. After his training he was immediately transferred to the special operations team, which is very unusual, but on top of that now he’s also joining this mission. John still hadn’t decided if he was happy about it or not. But, happy or not, he was here, joining the mission. He was rudely interrupted from his thoughts. “Man, you almost fell asleep!” In front of him stood a man, staring at him with hard, green eyes. John smiled. His oldest colleague, almost the same age as himself, was always careful about him. “The Guard” was his nickname in the team. Harry Miller, that was his name, wasn’t only a good colleague and a serious man, but also a guard for the team. “I’m sorry, I think I’ll mustn’t think too deep on missions. How long have I been sleeping?” John looked up to Harry’s worried face, and saw that there was something wrong. “What happened?!”. “We heard a branch crack, and Frank thought he had heard voices. Catrina went out looking. That’s about 2 or 3 minutes ago” Harry whispered. John nodded. “Right, good job. Tell me where you heard something. Frank!” Frank turned around. He had been looking into the forest. “Well, what…!” John said surprised. Now Frank had turned around, a small fire became visible for John. “I told you three not to make a fire!”. Harry came in between. “John, easy. I made it, because we were freezing, just sitting on the ground. You want us to get into action when necessary, not? We can’t get into action if we’re frozen to the ground”. John stood up. “Alright. Frank! Put that fire out, and stay here until we come back. You know the rules, don’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, John turned again and looked to Harry. “Alright, show me where you heard voices. Usual distance!” When they walked into the dark forest, Frank was trying to put out the fire. When he finally succeeded, he stood up and walked a few steps, stretching his legs, wondering why always he had to stay alone on the campsite…