Kill Team XIV.

Chapter 5.

The next day was an arena day. This time, there were more piles of briefing packets on the table. Two targets. Again, the day was spent glancing at Last every few minutes, reading the information and studiously not talking to avoid one of them breaking down under the continued and continuous pressure.

Contrary to the other days, they were still reading when the alarm rang. They attempted to bring the briefing packets with them to the waiting room but the door refused to open unless they were all set down.

They reached the waiting room and sat down in silence, before they noticed a small knife at the other end of the bench.

"They keep giving us better weapons", Grid said.

"And more rewards on the off days," Wras added.

"They're levelling us up," Sleus repeated, "as we succeed, we get more rewards, better presents, but harder targets. The two from today won't be easy to kill."

"There's two of them and six of us, how hard can it be?" Praid asked.

"Did you not read the briefing packet?" Glaten muttered petulantly.

"What?" Praid snapped at him.

"Nothing!" Glaten hurriedly said, shrinking back into himself.

Praid didn't answer, simply sat down next to Wras on the bench and waited.

*

Finally, the alarm rang and Grid stood up from doing push-ups on the floor, Glaten on his back for added weight. In the time they'd been living there, short as it had been, his muscles had thinned but become more rugged. Last picked up the knife and the others eyed her warily but kept walking to the park, where they would wait for their targets.

Once there, there was nowhere to hide to discuss the plan, so they simply hid separately, Sleus under a bench, Grid up a tree, Last and Glaten crouched in bushes and Wras and Praid inside the fountain, lying down in the water under the small edge of the area made for people to sit.

Shortly after, two tall boys came jogging into the park. One looked up and around as they stopped while the other walked towards the bushes to look for their backpacks. As he approached and before the others could start to leave their hiding places, Last pounced, wildly swinging her knife. Startled, Glaten also jumped out. The first target jumped back reflexively and grabbed at Last's wrist, catching the one holding the knife. He twisted her arm, impaling her on the knife even as she still held it. Glaten jumped him, crashing onto he target's back, barely making him stumble.

Not far from that, Grid was engaged in a fist fight with the second target while Praid snuck up behind him, grabbing his arm and holding him steady. Grid reached out, grabbed his face and twisted. His neck broke with a snap and as Praid let go of him, his body dropped to the floor.

Glaten glanced at Praid and Grid's fight for only a second, but long enough that he didn't see the first target withdraw the knife from Last's chest and swipe it at him. He got slashed on the side of his neck, blood spurting out. A second later, Wras had distracted the target while Sleus wrestled the knife from him and stabbed him in the throat with it.

By that time, Glaten was on his back, shiny brown eyes staring up at the sky, the sounds of his choking on his own blood gurgling out of his gaping mouth. Then the noises stopped. Glaten and Last were both lying down, not breathing, in a puddle of their mixed blood. The others stared.

Sleus spun on his heel and walked off. Wras fell down to her knees where she stood. Praid dropped a hand to her shoulder and squeezed hard. She didn't make a sound. Grid sat down heavily nearby.

They stayed there, faces blank, until the alarm rang. Praid grabbed the backpacks and they walked to the waiting room in silence. Sleus was waiting for them there. They took the food packets, left the empty bags, and walked to their room.

Once there, they sat down on their mattresses and stared off into nowhere. Sleus opened a food packet with a loud ripping sound. Nobody flinched, but Grid looked over at him. As he did, the only thing of bright color in the room caught his eye. He stood up quickly, picked up the box of cards and threw it hard against the wall. It fell down with a thud, and he sat back down heavily on his mattress.

They didn't move until the gas knocked them out.

*

They woke up to the same positions, albeit more slouched. Wras and Praid were half sitting, half lying down, shoulder to shoulder on her mattress. Sleus had his back to the wall, his hands in his pockets. Grid was face down, half of his body on the mattress, the other half on the floor.

As the alarm cut off, they all sat up, their eyes drawn to the table. On it, the pile of clothes was smaller than it should have been, had half of them not been dead now.

Praid rubbed at his hair roughly, being the first to grab a change of clothes. As he did, he noticed the second reward: four buckets of lukewarm water. He silently waved in their direction, drawing the others' eyes to them. They all took one to a corner of the room, backs to each other, and washed themselves for the first time in days, sounds of droplets loud in the otherwise quiet room.

They all went back to sitting in silence after.