Knight in Sneakers

Chapter 68 'Layla.'

Entry 60

6th November, 2016.
Sunday
9:15 a.m

Clarke Augustan

I woke up to a mild migraine and slightly winced at the harsh light that seeped into the room. My vision got clearer within seconds despite the current sensitivity in my eyes and looked around in confusion. I was still at the tech room in the camp. In the corner, I found Hedge busy working with something I had no knowledge about. And then all the details of yesterday filled in my head one by one.

"What happened?" My croaky voice indicated I needed water. Hedge looked at me and brought me a bottle of water while he moved to a seat in front of me. He sighed tiredly as he watched me gulp down the whole water bottle in few seconds.

"You fainted after you ran out. Chief was actually searching for you. He seemed really pissed off with the Aaron situation and how lightly our team handled it. But then he heard uh..." He stopped and took a deep breath to regain his composure, "He heard about Drew... He met Drew's parents first and now he has locked himself in his house." He whispered dejectedly.

"I forget he has a house." I mumbled with a small smile trying to keep the situation light. Hedge manages to form a similar smile at my words before we both lose it again.

"Have you informed Mike? Franz? The rest of them?" I asked him as I sat up more straight.

"We contacted three teams, but I suggested we wait until you wake up to talk to Mike-"

"No. I can't do it. I cannot be the one to- Uh- I can't." I quickly start shaking my head in denial. Mike and Drew were brothers if not the best of friends. There was no way I had the courage or the guts to reveal such a horrifying news to Drew. I didn't want to be the one to tell him his worst nightmare is his reality now.

"I understand... I'll talk to Chief when he comes back. We have to keep the funeral at the end of this week. Wait until everyone comes back. Drew's parents were devastated."

"I can imagine. I'll go visit them some time today, want to accompany me?"

"Would love to. I'll get the Zubair kid too."

"Yeah..." I whispered agreeing to him. Both of us lost ourselves again in our thoughts, dazed and zoned out to the difficulties of the situation.

"Hey, at least Aaron seems to be getting better. They removed the bullet and now all he has to do is wake up-"

"They removed the bullet that night itself, Hedge. I was there. But it was too close to his heart, his whole body is weak. There is a fifty percent chance he won't wake up."

"He will wake up. Murphy's law. Anything that can happen, will happen."

"Yeah, if you're quoting interstellar. The actual law states 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

"Damn it, Clarke. You're a pessimist."

"Happens when all you hear is terrible news. I mean, come on, do we have one good news?" I asked tiredly as I let out a bitter chuckle.

"Oh! That reminds me. I was working non-stop cause I had nothing to do-"

"Cause you were upset and angry. You always overwork when you're-"

"Yeah. Well, whatever, it helped either way. I figured out how Ethan managed to vanish himself from our radar. The Riot V.C depends on the satellites and every other gadget in this world that transmits electronical signals to track someone-"