Agent 38: In The Making

Chapter 6: Friends?

     Alexander and Gabriel had started to become friends over the days that they walked towards what they hoped was the surface. Or at least, two guys who talked to each other until one got angry and nearly strangled the other.
     That was friendship... right?
He had no idea. Agent 3 hadn't exactly had any friends before, except maybe Callie and Marie, if trainers count. In his opinion, Gabriel was kind of exhausting, because he NEVER STOPPED TALKING. And it wasn't in the oblivious, cheerful way that Callie usually talked in, but in the "I know you're annoyed, so I'm going to keep talking just to get on your nerves." kind of way. But the Octoling still made great company.
     They'd made it out of some extremely close calls, with Gabriel being the brains and Alex being the brawn. Whenever they saw what could be a tricky situation ahead, Gabriel always planned out a strategy and Alex performed it with ease. About a week ago, they'd had a very close call with an encampment of Sanitized Octarians, and just yesterday, Alex had to initiate in battle with another encampment of Octolings, all of which were Captains. Thankfully, there had only been four instead of eight, but they still did a number on him. Alexander was decorated with bruises and scrapes, and annoyingly sore the next day.
     He hadn't noticed, but there was a gash on the back of his left arm that dripped his color ink almost constantly. Gabriel had offered to help him, but he'd refused, saying that they couldn't use up resources and supplies unless it was an emergency.
     See, Gabriel was a sassy, blunt, sarcastic guy who always made his point. So he'd cleaned out the wound, made sure it had stopped inking (We use the term bleeding, but since Inks and Octos don't have blood, I'm calling it inking), and then put a bandaid on it. During their trek, Alex had found an odd device that also served as a map and a tracker. He was apparently connected to another one of these devices, labeled a "CQ-80" Device, and was tracking that one as well, in the hopes that it's owner was Sarai. The CQ-80 had been guiding them towards the surface, though the seven layers that they had to go through to get there seemed quite treacherous.
     His plan was to take Gabriel to the surface and go back down to find Sarai, but the Octoling had strongly disagreed. After a while of arguing, Alex had made his point, and Gabriel gave up with a frustrated, under-his-breath "You're a jerk..." that Alex still heard. Thankfully, he'd found a shortcut that would go around all the levels and keep them safer, while also being twice as faster. And since neither of them had a weapon, that route would also take them through a pass that seemed to have no Octarian inhabitants, which was good because Alex had been using his fists for the while that they'd been down there, and they were pretty beaten up.
     I wonder if I'll be able to get Gabriel to the surface, He thought. If everything goes according to plan, Gabriel would stay on the surface and I would come back with Sarai. I wonder where she is, and if she's doing okay.
"Hey, Alex?" Gabriel said, interrupting his thoughts. They had made a small shelter to go back to in case something happened to the other, and they both knew to go back and wait to see if the other came back. If they didn't, they'd have to proceed of their own. It was a frightening thought, but if it was what had to be done, it's what had to be done. "How far away from the surface are we?"
     He pulled out his CQ-80 and checked the map. It looked like they were just a few hours away from getting to the surface, maybe a day at the pace they were walking at.
     "Not very far." Alex responded. "We could get there today if we started now. Or we can wait until tomorrow and then start?"
     Gabriel sat down next to him and thought for a moment. "I think we should wait." He said, examining Alex. "You're still in pretty bad shape, and we're both pretty exhausted. Taking a day to rest up couldn't hurt."
     Alex sighed, but nodded. "Whatever you say." He leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes, a raging pain blistering through his head. It was a constant struggle to make their way through the shortcut- it was much more difficult than the original route, so the only reason why they took it was just because it got them there faster. Gabriel seemed to be more and more excited the closer they got to the surface, but Alex could tell that he did his best to hide it. Gabriel had told him that he'd never seen the surface, and was really looking forward to finally "feeling the sun and wind touch his skin".
     Eventually, Alex fell asleep, with Gabriel still fiddling around with something that he didn't bother to look at.