Free Becoming by Chris Ord Page B

Their  eyes met. The rain and cold weather had freshened Freya’s beauty. Unlike the others who looked weary and fed up, Freya looked alive. Her pale skin almost translucent in the biting rain. Her red lips a more intense hue than ever. Freya locked onto Gaia’s gaze and returned a stern, piercing stare, a knowing stare. Freya smiled. It was the faintest of smiles, just enough to let Gaia see it, to know she was aware. Freya had seen them talking, had been watching. The stare and smile said everything. Kali’s eyes were watching.
    The support team moved into the woods, following the path of those in the frontline who had moved on ahead. After a short while Kali gave the signal for their team to follow. They set off through the woods, one team after the other. The first ploughed a path through checking for imminent danger. The others provided cover from behind, extra eyes and ears to locate any threat. They pushed on for about twenty minutes then Gaia noticed the front team slow and stop. Their leader raised his arm and crouched low, moving towards the cover of the trees. Each member of the team splintered and found cover. They lay low facing the teams behind. Tarkan gave a signal to the other two leaders. Shia led her team off to the right, moving around and further into the woods, curving back in on the area the others had stopped. Kali led Gaia and her team in the same movement, but to the left. It was a pincer movement, forming a circle, a trap, so nothing could escape, at least not without a fight. Tarkan had found something. It was a lair.
    Gaia was on her knees behind the trunk of a tall, sprawling tree. She could feel the water seeping through her trousers onto the skin, but was soaked beyond the point of caring. The others dotted the trees. Gaia peered from behind the tree into the centre of the area they encircled. There was a mound of earth overgrown with a blanket of foliage. Harsh, spiked plants hugged the earth. Gaia could not see anything unusual, though the mound itself was typical. The rats would burrow into them and create a maze of passages and chambers below. Somewhere concealed beneath the thick undergrowth would be the entrance holes, the doorways into the passages below.
    The first task of the mission was to wait and observe, to see if there were any rats above ground. These would need to be taken out first. The teams would then need to locate the holes. It was never easy to find them all. Most were concealed, and several would be well away from the mound. A team member would each take a hole, cover it and wait. The leaders used smoke bombs to flush the rats out. They were a crude cocktail of chemicals that produced a noxious gas when mixed. The teams would roll these deep into several of the passages. The rats would then come running, desperate to escape certain death, fleeing the choking fumes which burned their eyes and skin. The teams would be waiting. The rats would flee one by one from the tunnels and into the traps. The knives, spears, machetes, axes would be ready, all poised for the slaughter.
    Gaia scoured the area, but could see no sign of movement. Tarkan stepped out from behind his tree and approached the mound. This was the signal for the others to follow. The team members each crept out and eased forward. The rain continued to play out its relentless symphony overhead, the thick canopy of leaves and branches still providing a natural umbrella. Fragments of droplets worked their way through, enough to splatter the people and ground underneath, but without the brutal sting of the deluge overhead.
    Gaia shuffled through the leaves and web of vines in the undergrowth at her feet. She kicked and crushed them as she inched forward. Her eyes surveyed the area, watching, ready, like a coiled spring. As Gaia neared the slow incline of the mound there was a gap in the foliage. The vines in front had been disturbed. There was a large hole in the ground. The earth entering the hole had marks, of