What Reason Do You Need?

Chapter II

The Engineer took his hard hat off, as a sign of respect, when he entered the common room. He took a deep breath in. They all knew what was coming.

"We did what we could. We...", he closed his eyes, frowning, and used his finger and his thumb to massage the sides of his brow, "goddammit", he muttered, his voice starting to quaver. It seemed like, for the first time, the Engineer couldn't figure it out.

A couple of glances were exchanged around the room. Some comforting, others saddening, but what was true was that all the men accompanied each other, they all felt the same way. The Scout looked at the Sniper, his eyes sheathed behind his aviators. He wasn't looking at anyone in particular, and his lips were slightly trembling. Not due to sadness, oh no, it was stronger than that. They may not be able to see his eyes, but he was definitely angry. It didn't take a genius to know why, since it was - as he had admitted himself - his fault that Miss Pauling's brains had been blown off.

He was the first one to stand up, quite abruptly, and leave the room. Not storming, no, it was more of a silent, yet deadly fury. A shot of rage had come upon him, yet the wish to suck it up, to stay emotionless, was present in his mind.

Naturally, he retreated to his camper van, to be in his signature state - alone.

The rest of the men followed his lead, each one going their separate ways to battle grief their own way. They moved almost mechanically, like this had been all rehearsed or expected, and that little bit of humanity left inside of them was beginning to show. Their ability to mourn, to miss a loved one. Though, as they moved, they didn't seem human.

Ultimately, the last person left to leave was the Scout. He sat on his chair, pondering on little things to keep him distracted. When this no longer helped, he got up to take some more extreme measures.

Scout made his way to the kitchen, already expecting it to be raided by a no-longer-sober Demoman. He was surprised to find it lay untouched.

Helping himself to a beer, Scout sat down and tried to appease himself with the alcohol. Soon, he found himself getting something stronger, and downing that even faster. He just kept on going, until the only thing he felt was the cold light of the kitchen, blinding him.

He grunted something indescribable, walking unsteadily towards the door, trying to get to his room. Once half way there, the drunk man decided against this, and instead turned on his heels (which caused him to fall over quite comically) and went over to the front doors, then towards Sniper's van.