WE ARE THE RISEN

Happy Birthday, Erica. (Part Five.)

     The smell hit her first. Snake could barely remember the last time she encountered the smell of something baking, although not for lack of trying. She just seemed to burn everything she tried to make.

     She stopped walking to turn to Duke. "Do you smell that?" she asked.

     Duke furrowed his brows. "Smell what?"

     "Something baking. Bread?" she guessed.

     Duke sniffed the air. "I'm not smelling anything. You sure you got to sleep last night?" he jokingly said as he looked around.

     Snake frowned at his hasty attempt to cover a smile. "You're hiding something," she accused.

     "Me? No idea what you're going on about. Let's hurry and grab Mailman, he promised he was buying this time."

     She frowned, making a mental note to interrogate Duke later on the subject. "He says that every time. What makes this different?"

     Duke smiled. "I have a hunch."

     As soon as they walked into the seemingly-empty bar, though, Snake's mind screamed trap. All of the lights were off, and all she could hear was the soft mechanical hum of the ship. This is wrong, she thought. Something's wrong. She heard something shuffle in the back of the room, and turned to Duke, who had a strange look on his face.

     "Duke?" she whispered, gently shaking him out of his haze.

     He crouched. "Get down," he said roughly.

     Snake immediately went for the nearest cover, a large barrel, wishing she'd had the sense to grab her pistol from her room this morning.

     Suddenly, she heard a small, muffled laugh. Confused, she turned to face Duke, who Snake noticed was failing to stifle a grin.

     "Alright, alright, you guys need to come out now, before she knocks your heads off," he said with a laugh. The lights flickered on, and Snake's eyes widened.

     "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Mailman and Shifter yelled, jumping out from behind the bar. On top of the bar, Garv did a happy spin. Snake's first instinct was to duck, which wasn't as effective after finding herself in full view of the others.

     "I am going to kill you all in your sleep," she threatened slowly. "You will never see another sunrise if I have anything to say about it."

     "Oh please. You love us, you know that," Shifter said, smiling.

     Mailman cackled as Duke dragged her over to the table, which she noticed had a few boxes stacked next to Garv.

     "Come on, guys," Snake protested. "You didn't have to do this, you know."

     "Well, I don't feel like taking all of these gifts back, so you're out of luck," Mailman said, showing a small, square box in his hand.

     "Same here," said Shifter. "You're going to celebrate your birthday if it kills you."

     Snake slumped, defeated. The last time they had attempted to celebrate her birthday, they had set the bar on fire, they being Shifter. It was ruled an accident, however, and there wasn't any investigation into the matter. Still, her birthday had never really been a point of celebration to begin with. Snake had to admit, though, that the boxes sitting on the table had piqued her curiosity.

     "Alright, fine," she said, taking a cautious look around. "We can have the party. I'm just saying that I might not-"

     Mailman cut her off. "It'll be fine, amiga. How about you eat some of your cake and relax, hmm?"

     "Cake?" Snake looked over at the table. Sure enough, there was a flat rectangular box on the other edge of the table. That must have been the source of the smell from earlier. "What kind?" she asked, curiously walking over. A cake was a rare, precious commodity on board the U.B. Georgia. After the PIPS was established, the use of cakes was severely restricted, now reserved only for extremely important occasions. Making it for something so ordinary as a birthday party seemed wasteful.

     "It's chocolate. I couldn't ask, so I guessed what your favorite flavor was based on your ration orders," Duke said, looking abashed.

     Snake laughed. "Well, good observation. Guess we shouldn't just let it go to waste, huh?"

     The next hour felt like a slice of her old life had come for a visit. Talking, laughing until tears came out of Shifter's eyes, Mailman presenting every gift by hand, acting as if he were giving gold to the next emperor of a kingdom, Duke telling stories from his travels with his mother, and Snake, in the middle of it all, laughing and joking right along with them. The cake became nothing more than a faint smell in a matter of minutes, with Shifter and Duke both asking for thirds. 

     The presents were exactly what she expected from them; a joke pen from Mailman, a practical-looking medkit from Shifter, "So you don't have to wait if you need a Band-Aid," she had joked. Mailman looked around for a third present, but Duke shook his head.

     "I left it on my bunk, I'll grab it later," he said with a shrug.

     Mailman punched him on the arm. "Party pooper. Go get it!"

     He shook his head, smiling. "It's fine, I'll just give it to her later, alright? Who's up for darts?"

     Shifter sat up, alert. "You're on!" she laughed.

     Snake let the two of them go at it, silently exchanging playing cards with Mailman as they bet on who they thought would win. She put hers on Duke, while he whispered that Shifter would beat him by a mile. Since there was no gambling allowed on the ship, the squads had found a solution, albeit a less fun one. The value of the cards stayed the same, with jacks and queens and whatnot, so it was an easy translation for any crew member. No true value at the end of the day, of course, but it did help raise spirits.

     "So," Mailman started, his words slightly muffled due to the cap over his face, "how does it feel to be an old lady?"

     She rolled her eyes. "Twenty-seven isn't that old."

     "Keep telling yourself that," he said with a grin, dodging Snake's attempt to grab him.

     "Well, not all of us can be little kids like you," she fired back.

     Before Mailman could reply, a loud laugh interrupted the conversation.

     Duke stood in triumph with his red darts bundled closely together in the center, laughing as Shifter collected her darts off of the floor, which had apparently bounced off of the neighboring wall, judging by the new pinholes in the wood.

     "You cheater!" Shifter pointed a finger at Duke, who was beaming.

     "It's called skill," he said with a wink, "and about a decade's worth of practice."

     Shifter slumped on a bean bag, covering her eyes at the bright lights. "Too bright in 'ere," she muttered.

     "Yeah, it's getting late. We should all get some sleep." Snake looked at Mailman pointedly, who was currently pretending to snore on a barstool. Garv was currently trying to dislodge him off of the table, but to no avail.

    "I agree," Duke said with a yawn that he made no attempt to hide. "This party was great, but Command might need us tomorrow. We should go while Bennett still likes us."

     Snake looked around, just now realizing the bartender's absence.

     Shifter spoke up. "We bribed him. Don't worry, he's still alive."

     "Why am I not surprised," Snake laughed.

     The group cleaned up with the same energy as before, talking and laughing all the way down the hallway. Shifter motioned for the others to wait, and peeked inside of what Snake had thought was an empty room.

     "Thanks for that, Bennett," she waved with her free arm in a certain direction. "I'll be sure to put in a good word for you."

     Snake heard a small chuckle. "I've heard that one before," he said softly.