Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~TEN~

~amelie~

Grass is tickling my nose.

I sneeze and my eyes fly open, revealing a bright green carpet centimetres away from my face. There's a ring of force around my arm, just above my elbow. My other hand is on the floor, holding me up. I let it relax and I flop on the floor, and the circle of pressure disappears. I breathe out slowly, letting out the air I didn't realise I was holding in. I stay like that, hugging the ground, until a voice breaks my silence.

"That... that was so close. Don't do that again, okay?"
I roll over to find Hunter bending over me and holding out his hand. I take it gratefully and he pulls me up to a standing position.
"Amelie, that was terrifying. We should have told you the Flying Rules, and we should have given you a test run, and..." Lila's sentence tails off as she starts towards me. I step back a little, but then she's right next to me, and hugging me. I hug her back tentatively, not expecting this reaction. "Amelie, I'm so happy you're okay."
"Me too," I say. "Where's Ryan?"
Hunter points away from us as Lila moves away again. "He went over there as soon as he let go of your arm. I think he hated how close you got to the ground before he caught you. And, by the way, you have got to stop blacking out. Someone might think something serious happened."
Lila's voice is her usual cocky tone as she says, ignoring Hunter, "Ryan likes you, you know. Likes you, likes you. It's so obvious."
I smile at her. "Really?"
"Really," she confirms with a grin.

I decide to go over to him, and Hunter and Lila stay behind as I walk off. When I reach Ryan, his face is set in anger.
"Hey," I say softly. He jerks his head round before relaxing slightly, and some of the emotion fades from his face. "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention."
"No, it's not your fault," he says, staring stonily into the distance. "It's the sensation of wind air - it just takes your reason away. We should have told you our rules for flight beforehand, and then maybe you wouldn't have fallen."
"What are they?"
Ryan starts to list them, finally looking at me. "One, always hold on. Two, ignore the wind. Three, be aware of its effects. If you obey those rules, whatever happens, you won't fall unless I'm shot out of the sky."
He's not joking. So I swallow and say, "I understand. We need to go."
He stares at me, traces of anger still in his eyes. "It's too risky. We have to abort the mission - you're not injured, but we forgot the Flying Rules and that means we could have forgotten something else."
"We're out already, and who knows what will happen if we wait? The smartest option is going now."
He looks at me for several long seconds before he says, "Tell me anything - and I mean anything - you see or hear that you don't recognise." He strides off to Hunter and Lila, and I quickly follow him. He holds out his hands, and we all join on. Lila's furthest away from me, holding onto Hunter, and she nods at me as I look over. Ryan waits for just three seconds before he lifts off again, and we're back in the sky.

This time, I don't sing.

~~~

The complex is is huge and gleaming from up high. I don't know how we're ever getting right to the centre - but I ignore that train of thought, because it only leads to what might happen if we don't find my sister. Ryan lands us on the roof slowly and surely, and he waits for a long time before speaking.

"Okay. Touchdown successful, no hostile activity yet. Turn on your comms," he says, "We're expected online in one minute."
I'm fiddling with my earpiece when a sharp beep startles me, and Hunter gives me a grinning thumbs-up. I do the same thing with my microphone, and then static fills my ear. It's cleared a few moments later by a voice saying "Field team, check in." I recognise Markus' voice.
As I watch, Ryan speaks into his mic clearly. "Ryan online."
"Lila online."
"Hunter online."
I mumble, "Amelie online."
I can hear Amber smiling over the comms as she announces, "Welcome to Secondary Holding Facility Delta-B." Her voice becomes muffled as she says, presumably to Elian, "Did I say it right?" There's a pause before she uncovers her microphone. "Yes, I said it right. So, first phase of the operation is to get into the subject's cell. Then Amelie copies her clothing and takes her place. Lila and Hunter extract the subject to the roof, where Ryan is on guard. Team flies to a safe distance, then returns once Amelie gains enough information. Clear?"
Everyone echoes her, so I do too. I'm quickly realising how much their personalities are pushed out of the way when they're focusing on an operation like this - they all become more businesslike and to the point. I wonder if I come across the same way.
Elian comes on then, and he tells us to stay as silent as possible when we're inside the compound. Ryan nods and says, "In position. Comms going dark."