"Every inch of this place feels wrong...tainted. Makes your Light itch. Just ignore it and keep firing."
I awoke before Memphis and Tyrk did, and the events of the past night hit me as soon as my eyes opened. What was that? I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and decided to get something to eat, maybe if I focused on filling my stomach, I would feel better. The Mess Hall was extremely quiet, only a small but scattered group of Guardians sat, some coming back from a nighttime training exercise, others just waking up, like me, though some looked like they hadn't slept for days. I murmured a good morning to the Exo server and took a bowl of cereal and a hot mug of coffee. Trying my hardest to push the dream out of my head, I sat, mug in hand, the bridge of my nose pinched between my thumb and forefinger. It was more than a dream, it felt so real. The fear that I had felt, knowing that I had to run but from what? I had not seen anything threatening, so why did it feel like I missed something? I had to put this behind me, at least for today. We could not afford to drop down in our scores simply because my mind was running rampant with me, I would not risk Echo's reputation.
"You're up early." Memphis slid down into the bench across from me, a steaming mug in front of him.
"Yeah...Didn't get much sleep." I confessed, taking a sip of my coffee and glancing around the hall. It had filled up some more but the majority of Guardians still slept soundly. "I'm glad we haven't gotten the nighttime training yet." I nodded my head in the direction of the team that still sat in their armour, practically asleep over their coffee.
"It'll come, Shaxx is pushing us hard." Memphis gave a snort of laughter and rolled his shoulders, and I remembered his wound.
"How are you feeling?" I asked, pushing the conversation towards him. I didn't want to talk about me.
"Better than yesterday. I managed to change the dressing when I woke up. Hopefully, if I just take it slow today during training it'll start to heal up nicely." The Titan canted his head to one side as he looked over at me. I looked away, unable to honestly meet his gaze. "Should probably grab our armour, it's nearly six." He frowned a little but must have decided to let it go.
Shaxx stood in front of us, eying us up as he gave us the rundown of today's regime. Those of us who were wounded yesterday, including Memphis, would be taking it slower than the others, which meant each team with an injured member would have to work harder together. That wasn't too difficult for us, so long as our Titan remembered that he'd been shot in the chest.
We stepped into the arena and I couldn't shake the pit in my stomach, something felt off and I just knew that today was not going to go in our favour. Perhaps it was me, maybe my thoughts were too jumbled to focus properly or maybe, just maybe, something really was wrong. It was Echo against Alpha for this round and I knew as soon as Shaxx said their name, we were in trouble. Fireteam Alpha was right behind us in scores and if we dropped, they would be in the lead. My gut was twisting over and over itself.
Our tactics changed. We were in the Cauldron, taking point in the center-most room to monitor the five doors around us. Memphis was crouched upon a stone dais, watching the door to the bridge and the two doors to the left and right, I was positioned next to him, my rifle fixed on the singular door in front of me, and Tyrk was watching the opposite one. I had to admit, our choice of position wasn't entirely a bad one, but it depended entirely on our ability not to panic and spray and pray as soon as the doors opened. I heard movement, but nothing came through the doors yet.
"Can you hear that?" I whispered to the other two, pulling my rifle into my shoulder and clicked the safety off, resting my cheek on the plastic of the upper receiver to look through the scope.
