12 Seconds (#1 in Military series)

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Darkness gave away to burning light.

Squeezing her eyes shut against the sudden onslaught, Julia tried to squint but the heat was immense and her body didn’t seem to know which way to face; the light was coming from everywhere.

“Jules?”

Spinning around, Julia tried to find where the sound was coming from but she could barely see anything.

“Jules!” The voice grew irritated but Julia could now only see the tips of her boots. They weren’t anything remarkable, sand in colour, and seeming to blend with the ground.

“Jules, for Pete’s sake!” The voice was growing closer and Julia felt her heart begin to race.

Who was it? What did he want with her?

Forcing her eyelids open, Julia found herself enveloped in a haze of light as her eyes painfully adjusted.

“Jules!” the voice was right on top of her, scaring Julia into spinning around.

As she did so, the light gave way to a shadow being cast over her face and Julia could finally see.

It was a massive relief that was quickly eclipsed with confusion and fear.

Julia wasn’t in her barracks any longer. In fact, Julia looked around her, she wasn’t in her own country any more.

The floor was the colour of sand, matching her boots. She took a hesitant step forward into the shadows and found that the floor crunched beneath her boots like sand as well.

What was this place?

“Jules, do you ever listen?” The voice snapped Julia back and she looked up to see a man walking towards her.

Julia began to panic; with sand dust in his hair, thick arms and a face scrunched up in annoyance Julia wanted to take a few steps back out of self-preservation.

But before she could open her mouth to speak, she heard her very own voice coming from behind her.

“I try my best not to.”

“What the-?”Julia turned away abruptly when the man blanked her completely and walked straight past her.

Following his path, Julia looked up and found herself staring into a mirror.

The hair on her arms rose up, her blood ran cold and her breathing pitched when she saw her very self sat atop a crate and cleaning her weapon.

But as she recovered slightly and looked closer Julia found that she wasn’t looking at herself truly. This had to be what she looked like a few years ago when she was deployment.

Her blonde hair had been twisted back into a sleek bun, her pale skin had been replaced with a soft tan and she looked fearsome.

Her body was muscular and intimidating as she cleaned the M16A4 Rifle in her grasp.

“He said you weren’t very ladylike,” Richards laughed as he took a seat beside her.

Julia watched as her other self, not knowing what to call her, snapped her head up and glared at the man, “Who the hell said that?”