Augmented Heart

9

Night had fallen by the time we got home. John took me to his room right away.

"Sit down. Are you hungry? I'll go get you food."

"I'm okay," I plopped onto the sofa. "You're still worked up."

"I'll get us food," He put the game controller in my hand. "You play on this thing."

I tried out the fancy VR set. We got to use these during bootcamp. They were highly accurate and good for shooting practice. John had better games than just UNSC simulator though. I played some games until he came back with soup.

"Fortnite battle pass season 2,506 is pretty good," I took off the headset.

"What are you talking about?"

"I forget you're sheltered."

He set the bowls onto the coffee table and pulled his helmet off, "Well, maybe you can teach me about whatever Twilight and Fortnite are."

I smiled, "If you want me to."

"Of course. I want to know about the things you like."

"Well what do you do in your free time?" I sprinkled some crackers into my soup.

"Usually if I'm not on a mission for a long time I get put in cryo sleep for months," He took a bite of the soup. "If not though I sometimes read. Usually only nonfiction though."

"Nonfiction is fun."

"They're probably thinking of putting me in the cryo chamber now since things are quiet."

"Maybe you could talk them out of it."

"Maybe."

"This soup isn't very good."

"Are you a picky eater?"

"No, I just have high standards for food."

"There's a kitchen in the Spartan dorms, if you ever wanted to cook."

"What? You guys get a kitchen?"

"Yeah, it never gets used either. Most of the time we're not here. It's not like we've ever been taught how to cook either," He leaned back. "If I ask for ingredients they'll bring them to me."

"Maybe I'll cook next time I'm free," I pulled a small book out of my duffel bag. "This is a cookbook my dad made for me."

"You could cook me a recipe from it."

"I could."

There was a knock at the door. John peered through the peephole before opening it.

Noah stood in the doorway, "Sage, Sergeant Martin says you have to come work."

I groaned, "Okay. Bye, John."

He waved at me.

"Amos, just because you and the Chief are friendly doesn't mean you get to skip out on work. You should have reported to me as soon as you got back."

"I'm sorry, sir," I definitely didn't miss being underneath vehicles getting filthy.

"You'll be taking out the recycling tonight then. It's real heavy, hasn't been taken out in a month. No asking that Spartan for help either."

"Yes, sir."

I heard his footsteps walking away. When I was sure they were distant enough, I rolled out from underneath the Warthog, "Noah, where am I supposed to take the recycling?"

"Out of that back door," He pointed to the door at the back of the warehouse. "You have to walk kind of far then there's this thing that grinds all the metal up. Don't fall in or you'll die."