No more running...

Alex

Breakfast was at seven sharp in the mess hall. K-Unit had arrived on time and so did the other units. They sat down at their usual seats and ate their food in silence. There was no talking. The atmosphere was stale.

Leopard and Cobra were nowhere to be seen, and neither were their respective units and Alex was worried for a moment that Cobra had been binned for protecting him. The entire hall had resumed their conversations about other irrelevant subjects. Alex had eaten half his fill when he pushed aside his plate. "Ben. I'm not hungry. I'll go back to the bunk and meet you guys there." He whispered into Ben's ear, loud enough for only his unit to hear. Ben nodded. "Alright."

Alex walked out of the mess hall and was walking back to the dorm room that he shared with K-unit. About halfway down the path past the empty shooting range, he was grabbed by his arms. Then, he was staring face to face with L-Unit. Leopard was the one who had grabbed him. He dragged him into a deserted corner and shoved his face against the wall.

"Your precious little K-Unit isn't here to protect you. Look whose the tough one now?" He hurled Alex up by the collar and threw him onto the ground and then they begun their torture.

After the whole ordeal, Leopard and his unit let him go. Alex limped back to his room. When he had reached there, K-Unit was already back. "Cub! What on earth happened?" Alex said nothing, he just hobbled to his bed while Snake, the team's medic went over to look at him.

"It was Leopard, wasn't it? They weren't at the mess hall just now." Snake was gritting his teeth so hard that Alex thoight they might break. The rest of the K-Unit members had the exact same look of murder plastered onto their faces. Ben got up, ready to castrate whoever had dared to hurt Alex.

"When I get my hands on him, he'll regret he ever crossed us." The rest of K-Unit were cussing under their breaths. Some were mumbling to themselves angrily.

"Guys. Please. Don't do anything. I'll deal with him myself. I'm fine. In the meantime, please just don't do anything reckless." Alex pleaded while Snake bandaged his arm with fresh gauze. They nodded. "Okay." Ben said very reluctantly. "But if this goes too far, Alex, I'll do something about it myself." Alex sighed and nodded.

There was something else on Ben's mind. That nightmare the night before. Had Alex really forgot about it or had he simply refused to admit the truth? Who was Jack? And why did he scream out her name like that? It sounded so straining, so very desperate, as if it were a child loosing his parent right before their very eyes. But he knew that it was Alex's secret to tell. There was no use pushing him.

Just then, the door to their room flew open and it hit the nearest bed with a loud crack. The entire of K-Unit sprang up, fully alert to the danger around them.

"What the-" They heard a spray of gunfire and immediately, their beds were ripped to smithereens by the peppering of the bullets. K-Unit had hid underneath an overturned table like a shield.

The shooting had abruptly ceased and they had their guns raised. There was no one there. Only a writing on the wall splattered in red ink was a single name, 'ALEX RIDER'.