“Oh come on Church!” Melanie exclaimed as he threatened them for being late, “it was merely a small delay, you shouldn't kill us for it...!” Melanie tried to stay serious, but even her try at appearing annoyed, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pouting didn't stand the test of time. Instead her frown quickly turned upwards, following the path of her lips before she annoyingly added “or you might just see 'camp-McReary' gain a few more members!”
Grinning and winking playfully to the other members of Sector V, before she took the datapad and engrossed herself in the intelligence they had received for their next mission. It took her a short time to comprehend the words and sentences that was written on the datapad, but soon it dawned on her what the meaning behind the text was.
“Great...” she exhaled in a loud sigh, “why did it has to be religious cultists? They are always so extreme from what I've heard from back in the day...” she grumbled. 
“Hey Church!” she spoke out loud before she looked up from the datapad and handing it on to the next Runner, “why is it always us…”
Melanie shut her mouth with an audible snap, she hadn’t noticed that her leader had started speaking before she had even finished the briefing. [i]Oh...[/i] she thought to herself when she realised what Church was talking about, [i]ground level, huh?[/i]
For most Runners Melanie’s past was still somewhat shrouded in mystery - something that arguably didn’t help her fit in better. The few that knew could be counted on one hand, she had, after all, not opened up to that many and had only told those that needed to know about her past. Usually when the topic of someone’s past came up in a conversation between Runners (not that it did that often since most were painted in the colours sadness and pain) Melanie either evaded the questions or escaped either physically or in the verbally. However, those that knew something about her knew that at least some of her past had been set in the dark, water soaked streets of New London. And now she had to return to her ‘home’.
[i]It sure has been some time...[/i] she thought to herself, the memories of a past that felt so distant erupted within her mind in one raw vortex. The memories of rain, hunger, fear, cold, loneliness. They still haunted her. 
[i]I wonder what happened to the others[/i] Melanie asked herself, while she had no recollections of names, the images of those that had taken care of her, hurt her and mattered to her was still etched into the backside of her eyelids, every time she closed her eyes the images spawned visions of what had happened, not just back then, but also what happened after she escaped the ‘streets’...
And then there was [I]Ethan[/I].
Rubbing the back of her neck, Melanie let out a deep sigh. She did not want to think of him. She had promised him everything, but she had yet to give him anything. 
Letting out another sigh, her hand moved from her neck to the tip of her now shortened hair, it seemed like it had become a habit of hers to play with her hair since she got it cut - obviously she had to do something about it later…
“So,” she started, prolonging the sound for a bit longer than a standard word, before she continued. “Besides heading down below, what other possible problems could occur?”
Melanie suddenly appeared rather uncomfortable, looking around the group before coughing to clear her throat, she added with a slow voice. “Should we expect armed resistance…?” 
The episode from their last mission still breathed heavily in the back of her mind, not what happened, but what the consequences could have been.