Kill Team XIV.

Chapter 6.

In the morning, they still didn't talk. They woke up and stayed still for a long moment. Then, Grid started up his exercises and Praid sighed before grabbing two briefing packets. He handed one to Wras and sat next to her. Sleus grabbed his a few minutes later, then Grid and finally the only sound in the room was a very loud silence, until they reached page three. Their heads snapped up and to the left for Wras and Praid, straight ahead for Sleus, as they stared at Grid, who was looking down at his paper with a forlorn expression. They quickly looked back down and kept reading their packets over and over until the alarm rang.

In the waiting room, the weapon waiting for them was a sword, sharp and shining in the artificial light. Grid immediately started exercising, harder than usual, puffing hard but not stopping. The others watched on with pity, empathy or a blank expression, depending on who you looked at.

The wait was shorter than it had ever been and when they entered the arena, they saw why. Five puddles of blood were gleaming right next to the entrance, at the opening of the street leading to the rows of buildings. They looked away and quickly walked on. This target had a habit of spending time on a rooftop, with nowhere to hide except for behind the door. They crowded up there and waited, in silence.

They waited an hour, huddled up behind the door on the rooftop, before slow and cautious but heavy footsteps echoed through the empty staircase and out the open door. Slowly, the target walked up the stairs until finally he emerged on the roof.

Immediately, Praid shut the door with a loud bang while Grid charged at the target, sword held up. The target was taller than him, heavier too, with more defined muscles and scars all over his exposed arms. With a flat hand, he pushed Grid's wrist to the side, deviating the course of the sword, then closed his fingers around the joint and twisted sharply. Grid released the weapon with a pained cry and the target followed quickly by charging him, shoulder to Grid's chest.

They wrestled for long minutes, moving too fast and standing too close for the others to intervene. Finally, Grid grabbed the target's leg behind the knee and pulled, while at the same time pushing his upper body forward into him, making the target lose his balance and fall over the rooftop's edge. The others started walking towards him when the target reached over the edge, one hand and forearm braced on the concrete rim, other hand grabbing the back of Grid's shirt and pulling. Before anyone could react, both giants had fallen to their deaths on the ground a dozen stories below.

The three remaining stayed stunned for a second before Wras spun around, quickly leaving the building, slamming violently every door behind her. Praid crouched down, sitting back on his heels while balancing on his toes, rubbing at his face harshly. Sleus went to get the backpack, then nudged Praid's shoulder. They walked slowly down the stairs to where Wras was waiting right outside the building, then back to their room.

"We shouldn't have made him do it," Praid said, defeated.

"We didn't have a choice, that guy was huge," Sleus replied tonelessly.

"We could have done the beam thing!"

"There were no buildings high enough for that around," Wras interjected.

"So we could have-" he stared, but she cut him off.

"No, we couldn't have! There was no other option, otherwise we would have used it!" She yelled, before lying down with her back to him.

Praid shot her an apologetic look she didn't see before lying down on his back with his arm over his eyes. Sleus simply sat quietly with his hands in his pockets.

*

Wras and Sleus woke up to sounds of scraping and the smell of hot food. They shifted to see Praid, sitting cross legged under the table stuffing his face with plastic forkfuls of a meal composed of actual meat, vegetables and gravy.

"What are you doing?" Sleus asked, amused.

"Smell woke me up, I had to eat it," Praid said, mouth full and cheeks bulging.

"You'll make yourself sick," Wras warned.

"No, I won't," he said confidently.

Wras and Sleus started eating cautiously, slowly, from their own plates. They only ate a fraction of it, careful not to overdo it after days of not or poorly eating, no matter how much they wanted to shovel the food down their throats. Praid begged to eat their leftovers, so they gave him their food with warning looks.

Twenty minutes later, Praid was puking his guts out in the toilet hole.

"Worth it," he croaked out in between two moan-groan combinations.

Sleus smiled, a tiny twitch at the corner of hismouth; Wras rolled her eyes.