It was a silent morning. The snowstorm had just passed, covering the desolate landscape with white nothingness. On the rugged mountain, amongst the forest cover, she lay in her makeshift camouflage. She took a deep breath as she looked on through the crosshairs of her rifle into the prison facility that was situated at the confluence of the two frozen rivers. Even though far away, the facility seemed eerily silent despite all of the chaos contained within it. The dead silence was finally broken by two trucks that slowly made their way up the road to the facility. “Here we go”, she said to herself. She knew this was one rare chance of finding her target, M. The trucks stopped briefly near the gates, and as the gates opened, the trucks rolled inside the facility and came to a halt in the inner grounds. The truck doors opened, and troops wearing black combat gear stepped out and stood in a formation. She knew that M might step out of the facility anytime, only to be taken away by the troops to another location. Her index finger inched closer to the trigger as she scanned the main prison doors. As the doors opened, she finally saw him being chaperoned out. She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and took her shot, but missed. This alerted the guards, but before they could react, she took her second shot and did not miss this time.

 

Her job was done, but her cover was blown. In a short time, the guards approached her location on their snowmobiles. She knew she had little time to make it to the evacuation point. She raced through the thick forest on her snowmobile, hoping not to be tailed by the guards. However, by now, she was spotted and was being chased. Dodging bullets and making way through the tree line, she eventually reached a clearing, which was also her evacuation point. She could already hear the deafening noise of the helicopter. Her fellow troop members were in position to provide her support, they fired bullets back at the tailing guards and rescued her. They climbed into the helicopter with her.

 

As they travelled back to their campsite, one of the squad members told her, “That was intense”, to which she replied, “Meh”.