“Fucking hot! Cap, why the hell did they send us all the way out to the middle of a fucking jungle?” I couldn’t help but complain. Having to wear camo pants and jacket while carrying a pack, a weapon, and black boots in this heat was just too much.

“Aiya, we are almost there. You are not the only one suffering.” My Cap. who goes by Jackson, was also sweating buckets. He was the only black guy in the group, but he was three times the size of everyone else with his muscles. He basically stayed in the front anytime we were under fire. We nicked name him the Paladin. He was the oldest, around forty-three years old, and to be honest I looked up to him as a father figure.

As an orphan, I never had a family until I joined the Black Wing Militia and entered the tenth squad. At first, I was quite nervous. At night, I always guarded myself well. But in the end, my worries were for naught. These guys were all good people. People who had a rough life and could only trudge into the darkest corners of history. People like myself who had no other home to speak of.

“Little Sis, you could always take your jacket off.” The blonde-headed idiot next to me name was Briggs. 

Beside him was Carlos our resident Puerto Rican. The food he makes is some of the best. He can make anything taste good, even swill. Taking up our rear were Thomas and Bryan. Thomas stuck out the most with his bright red hair. While Bryan just had brown hair and was normally quiet.

Then there was me. The only Asian in the group. Although I kind of stood out myself. Besides being the only girl as well, my shoulder-length black hair had white strands running through it. And my eyes were like an ash gray. I was also the smallest. But not a single guy in the group could beat me except Cap.

“Briggs if I take my jacket off, I will expose myself to the insects and other shit. The last thing I want is to get sick. Think before you speak.”

“Whoo! Harsh! Briggs you better watch it or our Angel of Death might just come knocking.” Carlos let out a laugh at Briggs’s expense, as did the others. 

“I was just making a suggestion!” Briggs looked pitiful, but well, he was still an idiot. He was like that one older brother who always suggested stupid crap to get on your nerves. 

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“Carlos, I said lay off with that name!” I also couldn’t let Carlos slide. Angel of Death. That was my nickname in the squad. An annoying one at that. They gave me the nickname when they realized I had never not killed my targets. Whether it was close combat or with guns, I always killed the person I set my sights on. 

I never even realized my talent until I joined the militia. My ability to kill was one of the best in the entire company. And I have only been with them for two years.

The training was hard at first, but I pushed through. Cap did not let me slack at all. He pushed me forward even when I wanted to give up. Because of that, I found a home. A place I could truly feel safe in.

“Over there.” Carlos yelled out.

This time, our mission was not to go to war but to check out a certain place for our client. Kind of a forward force to make a path to the location target. Some old ruins in the middle of the Amazon Rain-Forest.

“Are you sure?” I looked up at the strange structure. From what I know of world history, there should be no structures like this sitting in the middle of nowhere, at least not in this neck of the woods. It was a white marble-looking domed structure.

“Come on let’s go check it out. We only need to make sure its clear. We do not need to know about anything else.” Cap kept moving forward and we followed behind him. We all got into formation, which consisted of me in the middle with the guys surrounding me. It was as if they were escorting me. Somehow, it kind of ticked me off.

When we finally stood in front of the ancient-looking building. I noticed there were strange carvings that looked like some kind of writing. Nothing I could read, that’s for sure, but it did seem strange to me. While the outside of the building was covered in vines, the entrance and, from what I could see inside, were devoid of any foliage. No birds either.

“Cap, this is kind of weird. Where is the wildlife?” I always pointed these things out. Mainly because I wanted to make sure they were also paying attention to these minor details.

“Mmm yeah, you’re right. But we are still going in. Creepy or not we are getting paid to do this.” Cap strode right through the open door into the black abyss. No light passed the very beginning of the entrance. We had to turn on our flashlights as we walked into the darkness.

“Mist?” I heard Briggs’s comment.

I couldn’t help but frown. Why would there be mist inside the ruin and not outside? “Cap, I think we should retreat. I am getting a bad feeling.”

“Aiya, I know how you feel but we came all this way. I want to return as soon as possible.” Cap was always like this. He stood in the front, marching forward with no fear. But my gut feeling was telling me something was very wrong with this place.

*Shuffle*

“Hey did you hear that?” Thomas called out. The entire group stopped as we looked around. Since entering this place, we had been walking for almost five minutes with no end in sight. On top of that, it had been dead quiet, so suddenly hearing movement made us all quickly go on guard.