I open my eyes from an undisturbed nights sleep. I sit up and try to rub the sleep from them as I take in my surroundings. A white floor, roof, walls, and doors greet my burning eyes. ‘Looks like we’re back.’ I look to my left and find Jack getting up from the floor while yawning and Charlie standing there watching over us clutching his arm.

“Looks like we managed to not die again, huh Charlie.” I said to him with a grin.

He smiled back. “It would seem so Josh.” He then turned to face Jack. “We even managed to nab ourselves a newbie.”

Jack scowled. “Hey, I’m right here you know.”

Charlie stared back at Jack unapologetically. “Oh I know.”

Jack continued the staring match but eventually he caved and blinked. “Damn it.”

Charlie looked at Jack then said in a serious tone. “You’ve had it real easy kid, although I didn’t say it during the mission I don’t think you’ve proven yourself capable. In fact you haven’t proven yourself at all. Josh might see potential in you but what I’ve seen so far has left me unconvinced.” Charlie then turned to me. “I do not recognize Jack as a part of this team. On this last mission you and I protected him and I don’t believe that did him any good. In fact, and this might seem a bit cold, I don’t think we should be helping the newbies at all. It does them no good and makes them reliant upon us. I want someone to watch my back, not someone to babysit.” After saying that Charlie started to walk up the steps to get healed.

I sighed. ‘I know he’s right but I can’t just sit back and let the newbies die.’ I think back to my first mission. ‘If it had truly been every man for himself I would have died. Bill would be the one standing here not me. Bill and Dave, not me.’ I feel my eyes start to tear up as I think of the man who saved my life and my companion. I shake my head. ‘Not here, not now.’

I look over to Jack. “Charlie does have a point.” Jack turns to me with a look of horror. “Hey don’t give me that look. There’s nothing we can do now, what’s done is done. This just means you have to work extra hard next mission to prove yourself to Charlie and look on the bright side, your going to start out in a much better position to prove yourself once you’ve enhanced yourself then you would have last mission.”

Once finished with what I had to say I turned around and started to walk up the steps. On my way up I saw Charlie getting lowered down by the light and as I arrived on the platform Charlie reached the floor. “Hey Charlie I’m sorry about the Jack thing. If I knew you felt like that I wouldn’t have made the decision all on my own.”

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Charlie waved his hand. “Your the team leader Josh.”

“Unelected team leader.” I interrupted him with a grin.

He chuckled. “Unelected team leader, it’s not my place to question your decisions in the moment. Don’t break team, right? Besides we can’t all make the right decision but that also means you have to live with the consequences of your decisions. By protecting Jack you might have stunted his growth and inadvertently killed him.” By the end Charlie had readopted his serious demeanor and taken a solemn tone.

I looked down at the ground in shame. “I hadn’t thought about that, I’m sorry.”

Charlie rebuked sternly. “Don’t apologize, that won’t fix anything. Learn from this mistake.” His face softened. “Look up, I know being forced into the position of leader and having the weight of other’s lives rest on your shoulders is stressful. Just be think about a decision before you have to make one and if all else fails, trust in yourself that you are capable of making the right decision. Trust in yourself as much as I trust in you.” He stopped speaking then patted me on the shoulder.

I winced as he touched the spot where I had been wounded. “Sorry,” he said as he hurriedly moved his hand away.

I looked up at him and smiled. “It’s fine.” I then connected my mind with the system. ‘System heal my wounds but leave the scars.’ I looked down at my tattered armor. ‘I am not invincible, no matter how much I prepare there is always something worse on the other side. I must never grow complacent and I must never forget about those who sacrificed their lives for me to get here.’ I quickly ascended into the air as the healing light of the system cradled me in a beam of life.

My flesh knit together, healing all the damage done to my muscles and bones. Soon all that was left of my fight with the Predator was 6 scars across my chest and shoulder. As I descended the light faded away and I was blessed with new life in my body. ‘God that never gets old, although the feeling of my body rebuilding itself is a bit uncomfortable.’

I gave a content sigh then glanced down at my watch. ‘I wonder what the gains from this mission are?’ I navigated the watche’s interface until it showed my stat page where the points resided. I whistled our in surprise. ‘Damn 3005 points and a C ranked reward. Looks like my healing only took 15 points.’ I started to descend the stairs slowly as I focused down at my watch.

‘Speaking of points.’ “Hey Jack, make sure don’t spend any of your points until tomorrow. You can do your human creation if you want though.” I yelled out into the room as I continued to look at my watch.

Realizing that staring at the amount of points I Have isn’t go to change anything I looked up, and just in time too. A dark skinned young man was walking up the steps and we nearly collided but I managed to step out of his way. ‘Huh, so they all didn’t die. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed they all would but still.’ I shrugged my shoulders and looked back out at the room. Apparently two other people had survived, a light skinned young woman with dark hair and a light skinned young man with blond hair.

‘I guess i should introduce myself.’ “Hello there friends, I don’t know how you survived but I’m Joshua, you can call me Josh if you want.” I said to the two young people. They didn’t respond though, in fact they seemed to ignore me. ‘Rude but I guess when you’ve just been through life and death you don’t really feel like talking.’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Oh well.’

I walked to my door and opened it. “Jack, take the room next to Charlie’s.” After saying that I closed the door then collapsed onto my bed.