Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Briefing

0430hrs, March 11, 2025

The grass bows in submission to the howling winds, creating curved patterns that snake across the moonlit hills. Their bellowing breaths caress my face—flirting with the chill that is now racing up my spine.

Maybe that is how a wind of change is supposed to feel like.

I have seen this scene before: the rolling hills, the unmoving moon, the jeweled sky of stars and the illuminated horizon that is calling to my doom. Clutching my Colt M4A1 Carbine Sniper rifle and surveying the wretched landscape, I know what needs to be done. But the anticipation of the intended kill keeps my hand twitching.

Can’t afford to make one mistake. Not now, not after waiting for so long. Besides, its my reputation, my months of perspiration-laced work and mind-numbing planning that is on the line. Tonight has to be the night.

I switch to night vision goggles and see the world turn into an all green hue. A shy smile wavers on my thin lips.

It's a funny thing these goggles. They are enhanced with thermal imaging technology to improve your vision in the night. You are not supposed to miss one small rodent; yet a simple muzzle flash or street lit towns almost blind you from the danger. I guess relying on technology has its drawbacks. But relying on my human-borne instincts will count for nothing in an environment where smell, sound and touch are absent. I have no choice; but at least I can rest my laurels on the fact that my enemy will have not have the choice either.

“Time is ticking mate; what’s your next order,” comes the soft chatter through my earpiece. That’s Eve. We’ve been warriors for almost one year, and knows when not to pull the trigger to my tightly wound emotions.

“Wait until I clear,” I whisper back.

I slowly leopard crawl my way to the top of the hill, and look down the valley. My heart then begins to race.

At the valley floor lies my objective: A petrol kiosk that my team has been tasked to take it off commission. But somewhere in that cacophony lies my personal goal: enforcer_3388.

I have met him before. With a call sign that strange and yet blatant, it is hard to miss.

He has been at this for over a year, and his reputation is daunting. He and his personal team of so-called enforcers have cemented their rise with incredible kills and team play. Every mission that has been thrown at his team, he has completed well with a kill ratio to match.

He is ruthless, unpredictable and methodical. But I know his one weakness—which was made apparent the last time I met him in the European killing fields.

He hates mercenaries who are girls—just like me.

More writing by this author

Blogs on This Site