I wake up around 3:00 am, already dressed in my uniform. I brush my teeth and immediately leave my room. Walking down the metal flight of stairs, I see a police car pulling up next to the curb.
The exterior of the car is mostly white with red stripes running vertically over the car's roof. On the side, there are bold red letters which read: "Acctio Police." I wave over to the car, and as I reach the bottom of the stairs, I briskly walk up to the curb.
I circle around the car and hop into the passenger's seat. When I get in Iain greets me with a tired "good morning." However, today I notice he is lacking his usual energy. After saying good morning back to him, Iain starts driving straight to the warehouse.
While we're driving, I begin to stare out the window. My eyes are then drawn towards the moon still hanging in the sky. Due to it raining last night, droplets on the glass of the window distorted my view a bit, but it was still beautiful.
It was only then that I realized this would be the last time Iain would be picking me up from my house. I turned back towards Iain, and upon seeing his face, I'm hit with a hint of sadness. It's funny; something I was so opposed to a few days ago was now something I could see myself missing.
We continued to drive and eventually, Iain and I reached the warehouse. The warehouse parking lot had a strange van parked in it. I didn't really recognize it, but I chose to ignore it. When we got out of the police car, I watched Iain go into the trunk where he pulled out a large duffel bag. After that, he began to walk towards the warehouse; bag in hand.
Upon entering the warehouse, everybody was crowded around the middle of the space. They wore bulky tactical vests equipped with multiple pouches for ammo, medical supplies, and communication devices. On their heads, they had red and white protective helmets, all with a transparent screen covering the front. And now they had their actual guns attached to their belt. That's when Iain turned to me and hands me the duffel bag he pulled out of the car minutes prior. It's heavy.
Confused, I ask, "What's this?" Iain looks at me like the answer is obvious. "It's your equipment for today." "Oh, that makes sense." I place the duffel bag on the floor and slowly unzip it. Inside is the tactical vest, medical supplies, and essentially everything everybody else had in their vest, including the pistol which was in its holster. Then I took the vest out of the bag and hold it out in front of me. Then I place it over my torso. Iain tells me which items go in which pockets.
When my vest is on, I reach into the bag and pull out the gun and attach it to my belt. Finally, I reach into the bag one last time and take the helmet; putting it over my head. When I finish getting ready, Iain looks at me and smiles. "You look ready for a raid!" I laugh, "If you say so."
Shortly after that, Iain asked us to get into our assigned two groups, and once we do Iain gives us a final rundown. "Alright guys, in five minutes we'll be driving to the house. You'll recognize it, but don't get too comfortable, anything can happen. The backup will be coming shortly after us, so don't worry. When we get there, we'll get into our positions and we'll execute the raid, securing the house and lab. After that, we can let the backup deal with the cleanup, and we'll be done. Anybody have any questions?" Nobody asks anything. Iain smiles. "Great, then let's get going!" Now that Iain smiled, everybody's smiling. "Yes, Sir!"
After that, everybody follows Iain into the parking lot, and we walk up to the strange van I saw earlier.
Iain turns to us, "Everybody get in the back!This is the vehicle we'll be taking. Without question, everybody piles into the back of the massive truck, but I stay behind. "Who's driving?" I ask Iain this, praying that he doesn't say himself.
In response, Iain knocks on the driver seat window, and Martin's head pops out. The old man gives me a thumbs up and pulls his head back into the car. After that, I sigh and get in the back. In the back, five people sit on each side, in our respective groups.
Then from the front, I hear the engine rumbling, and I feel the car slowly leaving the parking lot; it was time. In the back of the truck, there was a small window so I peered through it, watching the warehouse get farther and farther away. Goodbye warehouse. It was a silly thing to say, even if I hadn't said it aloud, but in a way, this really was goodbye.
I continued to look out the back window during the drive watching the road stretch out from behind us. The entire drive was silent. The car drove for about thirty minutes before coming to a stop. We stay there for a bit until the silence is broken by Jack of all people, "Let's do this," I'm pretty shocked that Jack of all people said this but he was able to break the tension. Everybody nods, and we quickly evacuate the vehicle. The first thing I notice when I get out is how gross this neighborhood is.
Trash, alcohol bottles, and cigarette butts covered the street. There were very few houses here, or there were few non-demolished houses here. And the ones that weren't demolished were vandalized beyond belief. Silently, the ten of us continued to move down the street until we reached the raid house. When I saw it, I froze up for a second. It was surreal seeing it in real life for the first time, but it was also terrifying. This time we'd get no retries. I could die here.
I might've stayed like that all day but I come back to my senses when I feel somebody grab my shoulder. It's Bob, "You alright, Eve?" I smile at Bob to reassure him. "Yeah, I'm alright, Bob. Thanks for asking." Bob gives me a big goofy smile back "Great then." Bob then walks off and I hear Iains voice call to everybody in a low whisper. "Okay, is everybody in their groups?" We all nod, and Iain nods back.
"Eve," Iain then walks up to me and smirks, "don't die in there." I smirk back. "Don't worry, I won't. I've got a date tomorrow, after all; can't miss that." Iain lets out a soft laugh before looking up at me one more time. "And remember what I said about Zayn." I firmly nod, and Iain walks back to his group.
It's time... Iain lifts his hand up to the sky and, using his fingers, counts down from five. Five, four. Three fingers left. Three, two, one, zero. As soon as Iain's last finger goes down, I bolt towards the door, leading my group. Iain, on the other hand, bolts to the basement. The raid has officially begun.