Adopted.

So there we stood, the six of us, girls, women. The youngest was almost seventeen, Mia. Then me at almost eighteen, and the rest of us were adults. There was the sweet, smart, chubby Lina, just eighteen, Clara, eighteen-and-a-half, headstrong as ever, brave and already close to some wooden stick should the coming soldiers have more in their mind than just pick us up. Sophia was nineteen, a gorgeous woman, with the reputation of a slut in the villages. And then some. And we had also Emma, twenty, very sweet, but also extremely shy.

We didn’t even hear or see them coming, suddenly appearing before us. And giving us almost all a heart-attack in the time they appeared before us. Or behind us. And if that wasn’t enough, the soldiers were no men at all. Sophia had wondered about their looks, and if they would be in for a threesome at one point. More like a joke to lighten the anxious mood. But these soldiers would not provide that type of fantasy. They were cute women, slim and smiling brightly.

“Sorry for the surprise. I am Kylie, and this is Kate.”

Kylie and Kate were just a bit older than us, if I had to guess: in their early twenties. Kylie had raven black hair, and Kate was a redhead, a bit smaller than Kylie.

“Sorry, yes. Kylie wanted to have a laugh, and surprise you with some sneaking around. I warned her you women could get into a panic.”

“Kate, they didn’t! Look at that one, she has a stick in her hands.”

Kylie pointed her look at Clara, who indeed had taken the wooden stick she had close at hand. She looked a bit silly now, and slowly dropped it.

Kylie let her gaze wander over all of us. She looked a tough one. One that wouldn’t have gotten herself crushed and pulverized in the nunnery. She looked like she could have crushed and pulverized the entire nunnery, building and all. She looked us each in the eyes separately to see if she could measure the strength is us. I saw a challenge to look her back into her eyes, just as hard.

“Kylie... Don’t try to scare them with that look. I know you want to develop a **** glare like the one of Alex, but this look doesn’t suit you. Perhaps you should try squinting your eyes a bit, while at the same time frowning like he does.”

“Fine, Kate... But you have to admit there’s some courage in them. Our ‘commander’ will be pleased, will he, Kate?”

For some reason Kate was getting red in her face, but I didn’t have the faintest idea what she meant with that. Does the commander like younger women that would fight back to his advances? And had these women some kind of agreement, to protect them, but only if they provided him with other young women?

“Aheum... right, I count only six of you. We were told that there would be eight.” Kate looked like she really wanted to change the subject. I felt a shiver crawl up to my spine. Were we trapped by some kind of psychopath? These women were armed, dressed in camouflage, and were way more skilled in defending themselves or attacking others than we were.

You have to be realistic, Ella. There is no good way out here.

Sophia replied to Kate that two of the youngest eight women were taken in by the villagers.

“Ah! Your brother and you were right, his **** glare worked against the selected council.”

“Like you had doubts, but I am a bit disappointed the villagers could only take in two more. Marie has taken in the two youngest boys on her own.”

“Yes, Alex will most definitely not be pleased with that.”

I couldn’t follow the conversation anymore. I was getting really confused. The intentions of their commander didn’t make any sense. So I had to ask:

“Why did the commander adopt us in the first place?”

Kylie and Kate both sighed at that, but it was Kylie trying to put me on my ease.

“Look, I know you are worried about his motivations. We were as well at first. It was his idea alone to adopt you all eight. To make sure you are independent and able to hunt your own food. To make sure you can handle the coming dangers. The Russians are not going to disappear all of a sudden, and you women being abandoned by the villagers, at the risk of being starved and defenseless, or **** to do things you wouldn’t want to do to get food... Let’s say it made Alex very angry. So on impulse, like he usually does, he adopted you all and ordered us to make a small section out of your group. So you could be in group and be able to protect yourselves as a group.”

Kate continued the explanation: “As for how we will do that, we will be your training officers. We will learn you how to keep a low profile in the woods, shoot, to handle various types of weapons, how to provide your own food, make shelters, set up stockpiles, cloaked positions for an ambush, tactics, medical knowledge and skills, and at the same time improve your English, although I must say it is pretty well, considering we had to be taught as well.”

“And what does he need in exchange” I asked.

Not trusting this one bit. The amount of skills and knowledge would far exceed our needs. Letting us operate as a group would be even dangerous for him, if he meant it to train us well. He must be needing something out of it.

“What does our little paranoid bird mean with needing something in exchange?” Kylie asked, trying to squint her eyes.

Huh... Paranoid up to the point of being right.

“She means sex, Kylie. Providing the help in exchange for sexual favors.” Kate interceded.

“I know what she meant, I tried to squint it out of her.” Kylie replied. But looking back at me, she smiled suddenly and said the oddest thing I ever heard:

“Our commander is not that interested in sex. Which leaves me as his girlfriend very much in need.”

At the end of her sentence she smiled at Kate. At which Kate reddened again.

Now I was even more confused. But if I wanted more answers, I would have to wait. Kylie and Kate were asking us questions in rapid succession: names, ages, level of fitness, previous survival skills, shooting skills and so on.

This time I didn’t lie about my age, and told her I was almost eighteen, I was a gymnast and had no skills whatsoever.

“Don’t worry, neither did we. But at least we were all fit, and Kate here had medical training.”

“You too had a decent knowledge base of anatomy and some biology...” Kate grinned at Kylie.

“Right then... let’s start with the training.” Kylie squinted her eyes at Kate, but the frown failed miserably by her smile she couldn’t hold in.

“Now?” Clara said.

“Yes. As per orders of our commander your training has to start immediately. We will guide you to your own separate camping location. During that walk we will train you how to keep your profile low. See, but not be seen. Hear, but not be heard.”

And so it started. Just like that. A continuous flow of information was shoved into our brains. How to walk, how to crouch, how to crawl... how to avoid mines, how to avoid sentries, how to be aware of your surroundings, how to listen, how to watch, how to divide your attention, how to see prints, how to recognize them, how to deduce their weight and length, how to scout, how and why to make detours,... It just didn’t end. And practice them, each on our own, constantly watched by Kylie and Kate, to improve ourselves. It was a real challenge to keep it all stuffed into our brains.