As he finished helping to unload some of their equipment from the Harrier, Richard saw Kellie conversing with Emily and James.
“And just when I think I’ve taken down the zombie-bitch, she twists back up like I simply shoved her instead of pumping a cluster laser into her,” Kellie was saying with some casual intrigue. “So a couple more bang-bangs, and she’s dead to rights.”
“Well, at least you didn’t have someone throw an ax at you,” James replied, taking advantage of Kellie’s glowing energy to destress from today’s mission and recalling a couple memories from the Area 51 Incident.
“An ax? Seriously? Why didn’t he just charge at you with it?”
“Well, I guess this craphead thought he could aim better if he was throwing a bladed weapon instead of swinging it in close quarters. And of course, he probably didn’t have the same training as you, zombie hunter. I thought your kind was good at wielding axes against the undead.”
“You bet I could, although I find my little toy here,” Kellie tapped the sheath on her left shoulder where her spare combat knife was clipped in, “she does the trick. Much easier to wield by far. And those Kronosians, they have no idea what’s in store for them if they come back with another army of the undead.”
Like everyone in Bravo Team, Richard had grown used to seeing Kellie get in her zone and raise hell against hostiles who chose direct military action. And while he could not disagree that Kellie’s lethality in the field was one of the many things that made hostile parties quiver when they heard Bravo was deploying to the scene, the fact she seemed to view the Kronosians as nothing more than mindless killers whom she could take down single handedly with her rifle, or a chainsaw if she were given one, made Richard’s stomach churn: not only because he hated violence despite being a soldier and now an operative, but also because he worried Kellie would learn the hard way how dangerous the Kronosians really were if she underestimated them again. From memory, the traumatic repercussions of taking life in the field and then almost losing his own life in the same setting was something that had nearly eaten up Richard’s own soul years earlier. And it only disturbed him more when Jack told him on the Harrier ride back about witnessing Kellie practically dancing with death out there at the Port when she plugged in her headphones and killed several of the humanoids along with a few Kronosian soldiers. Since Kellie was just five years younger than he, and in spite of her valedictorian victory in the Roland Pharmaceutical Incident in Beverly Hills, Richard felt a need to put some added pressure on his teammate to keep her from experiencing the same trauma he had been through, or paying an even greater price in the event her lustful teenage behavior resulted in a particularly severe breach of code.
“Strawberry,” Richard firmly called out, “a word.”
Simply shrugging and parting with her teammates for now, Kellie followed the Lance Sergeant to the wall behind another Harrier’s tail rotor.
Briefly grabbing at his eyes with frustration, Richard began warily with, “Would you please explain to me what the hell you were thinking, McNeice?”
“Sir?” Kellie seemed completely caught off guard.
“Headphones, Kellie,” Richard reminded her. “I thought we talked about this two months ago.”
“Just that I would be more selective in their use, Lance Sergeant. You didn’t say anything about completely banning them. I told you I need them to focus in a heavy combat scene.”
“You did.” Richard remained unimpressed in his expression. “But that was when we were dealing with groups like the Silens, or yes the Lyrena Mutants in Hattiesburg. But these Kronosians, they’re not just terrorists, and they’re especially not mindless and stupid like zombies.”
“But they raise armies of the undead. Doesn’t that count?”
“That’s not the point, McNeice.”
Briefly rolling her eyes with a casual face, Kellie tried to defend with, “I know what the point is, Lance Sergeant….”
“Well clearly you don’t.” The stone hard sound of Richard’s otherwise calm voice, the cold unblinking stare, and the lack of shouting seemed to briefly widen Kellie’s eyes like saucers as she reacted with a little fearful surprise. “Now I get you’re not a seasoned soldier with experience like I am, Kellie. And though I’ll admit you were commendable in helping us take down that supersoldier at the Port and your music choices are great for boosting team morale, listening to headphones in an active combat scene, especially against hostiles that are as dangerous as the Kronosians, is like walking into a highway with your eyes glued to a smartphone. Not only that, but your love for violence is really starting to concern me.”
“I don’t love killing people, Lance Sergeant.” Kellie added a sarcastic jiggle of the head and an outward gesture of the hand as she said this. “But hostiles who want to make trouble and mess up our people, I take that personally.”
“So do I.” At least Richard could agree on that. “But it’s important to remember that, even in a full scale war, there are lines we don’t cross. And no, a zombie apocalypse is not a war, no matter how many ways people like to put it.” The ex-Ranger took a moment to banish his memories of the ambush back in Syria as well as his resentment towards those of his fellow countrymen and women who had committed egregious war crimes in the Middle East before concluding, “Look Kellie, a word of advice: stop treating war like it’s all fun and games. You’ll just get yourself killed in the process.”
“Sir, with all due respect, we took down the bad guys and secured the objective. Right? I just did what had to be done so we could accomplish the mission.”
Holding up a hand to stop her, Richard interrupted with, “There are many ways to ‘do what has to be done’ in the field, Kellie. Reckless behavior and a lust for violence….are not one of them.” With that, Richard turned on his heel and walked off, leaving Kellie to fume as her cream white face briefly reddened with embarrassment at getting her bluff called. To a point, she even twisted her head and silently mocked Richard before Emily casually walked up behind.
“Hey girl, what was that all about?”
“I’ll give you one guess, Bighorn,” Kellie sourly replied.
Nodding with recognition, Emily surmised, “Same thing as always.”
“I just don’t get it. We all get deep in the heat of action, make plenty of kills, break some bones and egos in the field, but the Lance Sergeant always picks on me. Does he really hate me that much?”
“Might just be something to do with your tactics, Strawberry,” Emily remarked. “He’s got more experience, he hasn’t fought zombies before, and he probably just thinks that violence isn’t cool.”
“I don’t love….,” Her teammate was merely saying the same thing Richard had said to her earlier but in a different way, and she was tired of fending off the criticism, so Kellie just muttered a disgusted, “Huh, fuck you,” and strode off. Knowing Kellie for as long as she did, Emily understood that her teammate didn’t mean what she said and still valued their friendship. So with a mere shrug at the insult, Emily met up with the rest of her teammates as they headed to the mess hall for lunch and awaited debriefing from their Team Leaders.