Loopers part 1

Chapter 7

The sky was getting darker with the sun illuminating orange behind the now troubled trio, all of them walking slowly. Their expressions were filled with exhaustion with even Raven being carried by Drift on his back while Brite was struggling to keep her eyes open. Until they reached an abandoned campsite up a hill,  with a tree overlooking the ocean blue.

"There!" Pointed Brite with her voice having trouble to breathe.

They start to trek up the hill until all three of them collapse onto the ground. Raven was already asleep, flat on the grass, with her body position like a snow angel. Brite sat down the nearby tree with Drift being the only one standing and not looking like someone who's dehydrated as he tries to start the fire, as it was hard to determine his emotions behind the kitsune mask.

"Any of you girls have a lighter?"

"Nope," says Brite as she yawned

"You Raven?" Drift only received silence.

"She looks like she's asleep," Brite commented.

"Alright then, I guess I have to use sticks."

"Sorry about Cat..."

"Hm?" Drift questioned at Brite looking guilty.

"It's my fault, if I used that rifle and stayed at the car, things would've been different, then we could've won over them and we wouldn't be  running all over the island to lose them."

"Y'know she'll respawn next round right?"

"I know that. But... I feel like I should be guilty about my actions back there."

Right as Brite talked, Drift managed to lit the campfire as the sky was turning into a dark blue, and the stars overshadowed the clouds.

"There's no need to worry about that, we all make mistakes and no one's gonna be perfect always."

"Yeah..." Responded Brite as she was sitting curled up into a ball looking to the grass.

"Still feeling sad?" Replied Drift sitting down alongside her.

"I deserve to be though. All I've done was just slowing down the team... I was slow running from the storm. I probably attracted those enemies towards us. And I got Cat killed..." Brite got closer to Drift as she vents about her frustrations.

Drift first sighs as he was about to talk, "the loop is not easy to beat. Winning or not, cheating or following. All of us had experienced something like you, even I have. Me and Cat only took us multiple matches, probably hundreds, to even get better and better, even Raven. Not only that, more matches to figure out how we could not get affected by the loop with masks, this doesn't only goes towards us, but the many other experienced players who are also looking for a new life outside here. With time, you'll naturally grow like the rest of us loopers."

"But I don't think even with that, we'll actually get out of here with me around. Probably I'm only sent or even assigned here to just be on the bottom of the food chain." Brite was then disturbed as she heard a sound which she viewed to be coming from the nearby bushes. Drift then looks into the direction that Brite was facing towards, with a minute of no sound until a chicken jumped out, making Brite jump in a reaction.

"Don't worry, just wildlife," Drift commented.

Brite however was still frightened with her starting to hyperventilate. "You think... People will come ambush us while we sleep?"

"Nothing will come after us okay? I'll keep watch just in case. You and Raven are tired from running and walking."

"Okay, I still feel scared though..."

"Alright, let's try to work something out together to lessen that." Brite started to hug Drift with her head against his chest.

"You... Mind?"

"Whatever's comfortable with you. Now, let's try to take deep breaths. You fine with that?"

"Yeah." Said Brite as she shuffled around from sitting to lying down on top of Drift with him sitting on the tree now.

"Okay. Breathe in, and then breathe out." Both of them exhaled in and out slowly with Brite hearing the faint beat of Drift's heart, making her calmer alongside the other nature noises around them. Once Drift noticed Brite was stopping, she was already asleep. Drift then looked around and then he started to struggle to stay awake, when finally, he rests his head up the tree trunk.