Agents of DEATH

Chapter 14 - Wake Up Strange And Take The Walk Downstairs

Thankfully, the chicken fajita wraps (isn’t that name a bit redundant?) aren’t the only option on the lunch menu today. Un-thankfully, the only other option is basically the same thing, but vegetarian. Since I don’t eat vegetarian if I can help it (something about those soy-based meat substitutes doesn’t sit well with me), I decide to risk internal-organ dissolution and have the chicken one.

“Huh,” I say after taking my first bite. “This isn’t so bad. Bit spicy.”

Nico looks down at his fajita - he picked the vegetarian one. “I’m almost scared to try this thing.”

Avalon nibbles the corner off of hers. “Spicy? You lie, Zack Attack. There’s no spice to be had.”

“Eat a little more and you’ll see what I mean,” I say.

To Avalon’s right, Cress silently chews on her fajita. She keeps looking at me, but never for more than a second at a time, and never without blushing heavily afterwards. Of course, every time she looks at me, she’s just taken a bite. I wonder how much of her red face is because she’s still embarrassed about what happened in the torture chamber, and how much is from her trying to wolf down the hot Mexican food.

Like Nico, Lukas still has yet to touch his food. “Okay, am I the only one who thinks that what we did this morning was all bullshit?”

“No, you’re not.” Leo Angel has left his Canadian brethren to come join us. I turn around and see Camille doing the same thing. Introductions are passed around between Cress, Lukas, Leo, and Camille (whose last name I now learn to be Harris.)

“I know, right?” Lukas says. “I mean, think about it. What was the point of all those exercises? They said we were supposed to find out any powers we didn’t know we had, but most of us already know what we’ve got. So why make us all do it? Like that one room where Cress had to Heal us all, for instance.”

“¿Cómo se huh?” Camille asks, her fajita slowly sliding out of her hand and landing with a soft plop on her plate.

“Hah, get a load of that,” Leo says, pointing his own intact fajita at his friend. “Camille just made a funny.”

“Are you sayin’ that just ‘cause we’re eatin’ chimichangas or whatever the hell these things are?”

“The question is,” Leo says, his eyes glittering, “are you?”

Camille shakes her head. “That’s not the point. And speakin’ of points, let’s don’t distract from the point of the conversation.”

Avalon nods approvingly. “That’s right. Finally, another girl who won’t take crap from boys.”

“Or anyone else who gets in my way,” Camille says darkly. She tears a large piece off her fajita with her teeth, leaving small shreds of chicken and beans and cheese hanging out of the wrap. “So that room that you guys spent so long in, you guys were doin’ Healing?”

“Can we not talk about the Healing?” Cress asks, her eyes darting around nervously.

“I second that,” Nico says. “It was hella gruesome.”

“Then what would we talk about, if not that?” I ask, putting my own food down and leaning forward so I don’t have to raise my voice. “Makin’ us all go underwater. That maze. What does any of that have to do with DEATH?”

“I have no idea,” Leo says. “Then again, none of us are beyond the initiate stage, really. So how can any of us know what goes on in the organization?”

Lukas nods sagely. “Hell, when I finished my test yesterday, the first thing they told us was that if we got in, we would only get the time and place for where we would get into Hades. No other details. ‘No preparation necessary,’ they said.”