Sheetal fought off the hands closing around her but then 83 hugged her and clamped her arms down with his. Sheetal tried to fight free when she saw Jay 84 running off to restrain Ash's jerking limbs Sheetal looked down at her arms, then after a glare at the cyborg. Looked past him.
Laying there Ash, now that he was not glowing, looked so gaunt. He looked like a famine starved boy. The kind you saw in pictures from some war torn region of displaced farmers. The kind Sheetal tried to ignore so often.
War Mode ─ Deactivated.
You may enable war mode next when hostilities commence.
Ash convulsed so hard that Sheetal heard his bones rattle. Taran E65 grabbed his legs and wrestled them down. Jay 84 who had just arrived held his arms down while looking at Parvati M141 for directions. She raised her hand and one of her fingers split releasing a needle. With her other hand she pulled Ash's white t-shirt upwards and stabbed the needle straight into his heart.
Parvati M momentarily flinched with the needle extended. She took a moment to adapt back to her normal hud and then stabbed the syringe into Ash’s chest. Sheetal levitated herself and the massive cyborg tried to her only to be stopped by the words of 84.
“Wait. Stop! She is a medic. Let her look after your brother.”
“He’s not…” Sheetal suddenly felt a jolt of electricity rush into her heart and stopped with her eyes wide.
The jolt was followed by another. Then another. Every jolt made her muscles cramp. Slowly the intensity of the electrical jolts shooting into her heart relaxed and in that moment of confusion, she had fallen to the ground and was caught in the large arms of Jay 84.
“What?” Sheetal muttered and looked at Ash “What are you doing to him?”
“Keeping his heart beating.” Parvati M said distractedly.
Sheetal looked at Parvati M, the long needle extending from her forefinger and then at Ash. He looked so weak. Now that he had stopped burning up like a stupid Saiyan out of an old Japanese anime, he looked so different. His thick and bushy hair was lying flat on his head, slick with sweat. His gymed up body had eaten through all its muscles and fat leaving a skinny frame covered by a hint of muscle. The face on his skin had shrivelled up and was stretched across his face in pain.
But the most notable thing about him was his proportions. At five feet seven inches he could generally be categorised as of average Indian height. Ash had liked it that way and made it into one of his strengths. He was neither short nor tall. That had helped him get lost in the crowd. Now with his trousers covering his toes and his muddy t-shirt covering his skinny frame in pleats, Sheetal finally could see how small he had become with his gaunt look and sunken cheeks. That fact was even more accentuated with him lying there under large forms of the cyborgs he looked so frail.
Sheetal turned her eyes from Ash to 84 and growled "Let me go."
"No." Jay 84 replied.
"Listen to me you Robocop wannabe." Sheetal said menacingly.
"He will be fine," 84 said in a calming tone and finished "Let Parvati M attend to him."
"Of course, he will be fine. If he is not fine I am going to kill him. You hear that, you stupid buffoon? You better get up or I will... I will... I don't know what I'm going to do." Sheetal voice cracked and she sat on the floor of the corridor, her arms hanging limply by her sides.
Jay 84 followed her down. The other continuum soldiers exchanged glances and moved away. Sheetal watched the large soldier kneel beside her and place a hand on her shoulder.
"Lady Warder?"
Sheetal didn't respond.
Taran E65 cleared his throat "84, just let her go."
84 nodded and released Sheetal. Sheetal looked at the two people holding down Ash’s limbs. Both Jay 83 and E65 looked at Parvati and then with a head gesture told her to approach. Sheetal slowly floated forward to Ash and while looking at his face.
“Careful.” E65 called out in a sombre voice.
He pointed at the tonfas Ash was holding. They hummed in his hands while emanating a restrained aura of danger. Sheetal eyes shot to the tonfas. They were literally vibrating with power and discharging sparks randomly.
Sheetal’s hud pinged.
Soul Weapons - Soul Eater and Soul Drinker
Soul Bonded to Warder Ash.
You are soul bonded to Ash. The weapons recognise your soul bond. You may wield Soul Eater and Soul Drinker.
Sheetal blinked the notifications away.
She was soul bonded to Ash? What? When? How? Sheetal shook away the questions. Right now there were more important matters at hand. She looked at Ash. He had stopped spazzing out and was now lying lifelessly on the ground. Both T and 83 had leaned back but still had their eyes locked on the little guy to stop him from hurting himself.
"What is wrong with him?" Sheetal asked in a small voice.
“His heart stopped.” Parvati said with her eyes closed and with an angry look added “Again.”
“Why? Why did he push himself so hard? I told him not to do that again.”
“Lady warder. You are rambling.” 84 said in a paternal voice from right behind her and asked “Will you be okay?”
Sheetal looked at the large cyborg. She had never seen his face but still she got a distinct fatherly feeling from him.
Sheetal nodded at the man and muttered “I am sorry for trying to lift you.”
The man’s faceplate changed from blank to strange emoji of man smiling and giving him a thumbs up. With a smile Jay 84 responded “It’s okay. I have my own tricks to keep myself grounded.” And started walking away from them.
Sheetal smiled and then asked Parvati M “Is he…”
“Alive? Yes. I am defibrillating his heart to keep it pumping and his blood stream running but if his potentiality doesn’t start saturating his blood stream soon…”
“What? What does that mean?”
Parvati looked at Sheetal. She noted her wild hair and panicked eyes, and sighed.
“Lady warder. When that asura used that spell that forced all potentiality to stop momentarily. Warder Ash's body was using his potentiality to keep his heart beating. That meant when the potentiality stopped, so did his heart. Now I am keeping his blood pumping in the hopes that his potentiality will start moving too. But… It is a small hope." Parvati M explained
"But...But... He was okay after that four armed monster left." Sheetal tried to argue in a little voice.
Parvati M nodded "Yes, I don't know how he did that. And maybe that is the reason his heart stopped again. I will have to run tests on him later but right now I am just barely keeping him alive. "
"So… What do we do? How do we fix him?"
“We pray that he recovers in the next twenty minutes because then the trial will start falling apart and we will have to move.” Parvati M replied.
Sheetal looked at the medic with widening eyes “No, you can’t.”
“Lady warder?” Parvati M asked while looking at Jay 83.
Sheetal watched Jay 83 start to get up and moved away in a rapid burst of her powers. If he thought he could restrain him like the other guy he had another thing coming.
She pointed a finger at Jay 83 who had just got his feet under him and said “Stop.”
The air around Jay 83 stilled and he looked at Sheetal for a long moment. Then slowly the man raised his hands and started.
“Lady Warder. Sheetal. Please listen to reason. If we want to live, we need to get out of here and we can’t move your brother. Not when he has got a needle in heart and not when he has a death grip on those.”
Sheetal looked from 83 to Ash’s tonfas and stopped.
“Soul bonded.”
“Yes.” Jay 83 nodded “Those are his soul bonded weapons and they will not allow anyone to touch them.”
“That is not true.” Sheetal opened the last notification and reread it. In a distracted voice she muttered “No. They will allow me.”
83 shook his head “No lady warder. I have seen my share of soul weapons. They are…”
“I am soul bonded to Ash.” Sheetal stated in a soft voice and then in a confused tone asked “What does that mean?”
83 took a step back and looked at Parvati M.
“That’s not possible.” E65 shook his head.
“Why are you all looking at me like that?” Sheetal asked.
Parvati M eyes sharpened at Sheetal “Tell me if you feel this.”
Sheetal gave Parvati a confused look and then a sharp jolt of electricity went through Sheetal's body.
“Aah! What was that?” Sheetal asked.
“What? No way. No!” E65 yelled in frustration.
83 looked at E65 “Will you calm down?”
“Calm down? Calm down? We have two warders. One is at death’s door and the other one is going to follow him. And you are asking me to calm down?”
“Yes!” Parvati hissed at T.
“What do you mean that I am going to die too?” Sheetal asked in a wary tone.
Parvati M licked her lips “Go down to the bottom of your hud. It will have a section called links. Underneath that section called soul bonds. There you will see your bond with Ash. Tell me the exact bond you have.”
Sheetal who was already looking through her hud for more on bonds quickly found the section and replied in a sigh “Fate bond.”
Everyone stopped. And everyone except Sheetal was silent for a few moments. She looked from one face to the other and asked “I guess that it is bad?”
Taran E65 exploded into curses “By the abyss, ash and sands and dead worlds!”
Sheetal smiled weakly “I don’t know what you just said but that’s exactly how I feel right now.”
E65 spun to her and pointed “This! Is not… Happening! After all this?” The young cyborg waved all around himself and continued “After all of this! What do I do now?”
Everyone looked at E65 but it was the thudding steps of Jay 84 and his words that put everyone's thoughts into words “Great. Make it all about yourself. It’s not like the poor girl is going to die when her brother dies”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Taran E65 opened his mouth “I…Uh… I didn’t…Uh…I am…”
Jay 84 shook his head and looked at Sheetal “I am sorry but spies, when they get focussed on the mission that they lose all common sense.”
Sheetal nodded “I know. Most operatives are single minded because it’s them against the world.”
T stopped and looked at 84 with wide eyes.
84 retracted his helmet revealing a sharp dark face structure and a trimmed moustache and smiled “You know spies?”
Sheetal smiled “Oh I know one or two. The good ones that aren’t simple minded.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.“ T bursted out from the otherside.
83 chuckled and retracted his helmet to reveal a smug smile on an almost identical shaven face “Seriously kid?”
84 shook his head and thudded his burden down next to Ash and ordered “E65, take the damn ATI from the major but don’t turn it on.”
Everyone looked from Jay 84 to a body bag in his hand. He unzipped the bag to show everyone what was left of Parvati 333. Both of her legs were gone. Her left arm looked like it had been mangled by a bear. Her right arm, the only functional limb, was tightened to her body.
T looked down, gulped and looked up.
“Hurry up, E65. This place isn’t going to stick together for long.” 83 urged T in a deep voice.
E65 looked from one Jay to the other and then pressed on Parvati 333’s gauntlet. The hand came lose from her chest piece and he began doing something on her forearm screen. Everyone turned from T to looked at the boy lying on the ground with an expression that was a cross between a smirk and a snarl.
Sheetal looked at E65 and sighed “T, you are the worst spy I know.”
T shot her a look “Hey, it’s not easy when your cover and all your information is outed by a crazy warder and his crazy magical abilities to take over your hud. Isn’t anything holy to your brother?”
84 chuckled “Oh we knew before that. Why do you think we, with your abilities, didn’t want you anywhere near us.”
T jerked his head up.
83 chuckled “I told you he was going to look stupid.
“No, that’s not stupid. That is… I don’t know what that is. But it’s not stupid.”
“Shut up and pay up. You owe me half a creck.” 83 said in a stern voice.
84 exhaled gave T an annoyed look . Then 84 touched 83’s raised palm “Here. Now help me.”
83 walked to 84 and looked down at the major who was now lying lifelessly next to Ash.
Jay 83 shook his head “What a waste of a good soldier.”
Jay 84 nodded “It’s horrible when they get ambitious.”
83 nodded empathetically “It’s always the prime numbers.”
“Please don’t start.”
“Look, I am telling you. It’s the prime numbers.”
“Stop.” Jay 84 said in a pained voice.
“Why don’t you believe the prime conspiracy?” 83 asked in a frustrated whisper
“Seriously? The prime conspiracy?” 84 asked and with a shake of his head “83, my wife is a prime number.”
“That doesn’t count. She has an alphabet in her name.”
84 rolled his eyes “You are a prime number.”
“I know. That is why I know. Soon, I will be on the inside. And then I will have proof. Then I will show you the truth. I will show you how deep this goes. I will show you…”
“By the gods man. Shut up.” 84 snapped.
83 stopped and exhaled. Then he looked down “So, how are we going to do this?” 83 asked.
“Hold on a minute, both of you.” Parvati M said in a sharp voice
83 looked at Parvati M “Paru. You know what needs to be done.”
84 nodded “She betrayed us.”
“She can be saved.” Parvati M stated.
“Needles.” 84 said in an affectionate tone and smiled “Not from this.”
Parvati M closed her eyes.
“Paru, she betrayed us.” 83 pressed.
Parvati M opened her eyes with a stern look and in a pained voice began “I hate this. But, fine. At least don’t let her potentiality go to waste. Let the boy warder do it. A burst might help spin it up.”
Everyone looked at Ash and then at his hands. The tonfas sparked together at just that moment and everyone flinched.
83 frowned “Now how are we going to do that? We can’t even touch his hands, much less free them to hold a knife.”
84 frowned and in an unconvinced tone muttered “Maybe we put a plasma knife in between his teeth?”
“Excuse me? Remember me?” Sheetal’s annoyed voice cut across the gathering cyborgs “I have a soul bond with him remember?”
84 gave Sheetal an annoyed look and in a sarcastic tone “Right, I am sorry. I forgot that in all of this talk of a fake conspiracy while we are concocting a real conspiracy to kill a senior officer…” Jay 84 paused to give 83 a stern look.
83 who had opened his mouth shut it audibly.
84 turned his gaze on Sheetal and continued “The fact that you and your twin brother, who you say is not your brother, share a mythical fate bond which I have never seen and only heard of in legends. The same one that allows you to wield the deadliest pair of soul bonded weapons I have ever seen, which I must add kill on touch. This all sounds so ridiculous that I don’t even know how to process it, much less add it to the equation.”
83 place a hand on 84’s shoulder “Calm down JJ.”
84 closed his eyes and took a deep breath “I am sorry lady warder. This whole situation. You being warders. Your bond. Those weapons. And this damned…” 84 kicked Parvati 333’s torso “...is driving me nuts. And now, even though I know this is a bad idea, I have to kill my commanding officer.
Sheetal put her hands on her hips and asked “Then why are you doing this?”
“Because she threatened my wife's life.”
“Your wife?” Sheetal asked.
“Me.” Parvati M responded.
“You…” Sheetal pointed from Parvati M to Jay 84 with a surprised expression “You married… Him?”
“Yes!” Parvati M and 84 replied together in the same offended tone.
“Uh… Congratulations?”
Jay 83 who was silently shaking in suppressed laughter cleared his throat “Perhaps, it’s time to put Parvati 333 out of her misery?”
E65 shouted “Yes! We have less than five minutes before this place starts collapsing.”
While everyone glared at T, Sheetal floated down to pick up soul eater and heard Parvati M take a sharp breath in “Careful, girl.”
Sheetal flinched back at needles words. She looked up and saw everyone looking at her.
Sheetal huffed and reached down “Will you calm down? These weapons wont do anything to me. Ouch!”
Sheetal pulled her hand away from the tonfa. She didn’t know how it did what it did. It was a rounded piece of metal after all and yet her hand had felt tiny teeth close on her skin. She looked down and saw little dents where teeth had pressed against her skin
“What happened?” 84 asked
Sheetal looked down at the weapon in anger, annoyance and bafflement “I don’t know.”
“Maybe try the other one?” 83 said while trying to rush Sheetal.
Sheetal nodded and moved to the other tonfa. This time when she closed her hands around the second weapon. It felt warm and gave her the sensation of petting a furry cat. Sheetal instinctively stroke the weapon and felt raised hackles under the palm of her skin.
Everyone held their breaths for a second and then Parvati M instructed Sheetal “Now remember. Keep your brother’s hand on the weapon. Make sure he is gripping it tight.”
Sheetal tried to listen to Parvati M but a nudge in her head grabbed all her attention. A not so much voice but vibrations that her mind shard picked up and translated in a young girlish voice asked “Potentiality. Take?”
Sheetal’s looked at the weapon blankly “Ummm… Hello?”
“What’s wrong?” 83 asked
Sheetal shook her head to listen to the next words “Sister. Potentiality take?”
“I’m not his god’s danged sister. I am his friend. His sometime caretaker. Sometimes boss. Sometimes just an employer. Well at least on paper.” Sheetal blurted out.
There was silence both inside her head and outside with people looking at her weirdly.
Then tonfa asked the same question “Potentiality take?”
Sheetal’s eyes widened “Oh you mean from me? No. No. Wait.” Sheetal touched the tonfa to Parvarti 333’s cheek and said “Now take.”
The tonfa hummed in appreciation “Yummy, not enough. I take.”
Sheetal suddenly felt a pressure on her hands that made her scream. It felt as if needle teeth had pierced her palm and were stabbing into her skin. Blood spurted out from her and was soon sucked out. Her Hud flashed warningly and her potentiality bar pulsed in her vision.
Potentiality
2359…2211…1987….1703
Sheetal felt arms on her. Palms grabbed her forearms and pulled her hands away from the tonfa. She looked her hands. They looked hail and still the way a concerned 83 was inspecting her hands made her pause.
83 turned her palm upwards and then moved them downwards. Then asked “It didn’t bite into your soul?”
“No, it wanted potentiality.”
The man stopped turning her hands this way and that. And gave her a baffled look.
“Hey people?” E65 pointed at Ash.
Sheetal pulled her palms loose and looked at Ash and then at the tonfa “Right. Hold on a minute.”
Sheetal rushed to the body bag. She looked at the desiccated flesh flaking into ash, rusting metal and then at the shards coming loose. For a moment she stalled. She had just killed someone. No, she had killed two people. No, three people in the last two days. She…
Sheetal mental shard hummed inside her and her panic subsided. Sheetal looked at the tonfa and nodded. It had told, no not told, but more like pointed with baby talk? Anyways Sheetal, knew what she needed to do.
Ash, like the meat head he was, had seen shiny weapons and saw them only as tonfas. Soul Eater and Soul Drinker weren’t tonfas, they were symbiotic beings latched to him. And they were scared and trying their best to save him. Because without him, they would turn to dust. And like little cubs, in fear they were yowling, snarling and biting at everything.
“What are you doing?” Parvati M asked
Sheetal stopped and looked up at the three continuum soldiers “I need a channel shard. I have one. I need another.” Sheetal held out her hand.
83 pointed out the shard from the five floating shards in front of her
She followed a finger and picked up the shard
Shard - Channel
Type - Class 0.7
Consume
Yes / No?
Sheetal hit no and placed her hand on Ash. If she could somehow communicate with a piece of metal she could definitely communicate with Ash. No matter how denser he was. Instead something else popped into her vision.
Warder Ash
Soul Bonded Partner
Potentiality - 565/2500
Status - Incapacitated (Hindered)
Shards -
Speed*4
Sense*1
Density*1
Channel (Shard Storage)
Use Stored Shard
Yes/No?
Sheetal hit yes and two silhouettes came into her vision. One was her and quickly moved it to the side and out of her vision. Then she looked at Ash. And groaned. Of course he had gone with the ribboned soul structure. Most probably because it looked like a pretty ribbon. But thankfully, this time, his stupidness had a benefit.
Both the ribbons had an empty slot just above the wrist. Sheetal took out bothe the shards and placed them on Ash’s wrist. Only then noticing the twinkling multi coloured shard that almost glistened . The shard sunk in and the weapons hummed louder shooting a stream of potentiality inwards.
Ash’s body began to glow. First, gently then reaching a steady brightness that made his skin glow. Finally the glow began to fade from everywhere but his heart. Parvati M withdrew her needle and scooted backwards. She looked at her finger with a bent needle and looked at it with a baffled expression.
Parvati M141 scooted away from the young warder. The heat coming out of the boy hit her face and heated it.. She hit her hemet control on her wrist and the two sections of her helmet lifted from her shoulder. With the silent vibrations of hydraulic mechanism and spring they settled on her head and a visor dropped over her eyes.
With her eyes shielded against the glare she followed the stream of potentiality from his weapons rushing into the boy’s arteries. It flowed up into his chest and then into his heart. His heart stuttered but pulsed. Then the potentiality sufficing the warder heart tipped over a tipping point. The heart slowly started becoming denser and denser.
Every beat shot potentiality into the heart. With the next beat sections of Ash’s heart tore itself, and the following beat it healed itself. With every rapid tear, with every rapid healing the warder’s heart got denser and still the weapons didn’t stop. They kept feeding the boy potentiality.
Finally the heart stuttered out a gasp of potentiality into the warder's blood stream. It was consumed by the warder's body inches below the heart. The heart with a deeper beat sent out a spurt next and before it could be processed by his body, the heart steadily beat again.
“Are you watching this?” Parvati M looked up and saw both her husband and his brother had their visors up.
“What are you watching?” Sheetal who had no idea what was going on asked while squinting her eyes against the glare.
“His heart…” 83 said.
“It’s not only his heart.” Parvati M shook her head and pointed “Look.”
Ash’s glowing heart started beating steadily. It shot pulsing of iridescent light into his body. His body started drinking it up. However the stream never stopped and the luminosity in the boy’s body started building up. Parvati M 141 darkened her visor as the boy erupted in The blinding light. Light Swooped down from his heart into his veins, muscles, organs and even his bones. She watched as Ash’s eyes fluttered open in agony. He screamed.
Parvati M looked up to restrain Sheetal only to see Jay 83 holding her as the girl screamed and almost collapsed. E65 ran to the girl and supported her as she lost consciousness.
She looked back down. Ash skin flaked off and blood seeped out of his cracking skin. He kept screaming as new blood appeared filled with luminous light. Inside him potentiality rushed into every organ. They started transforming like his heart did. Rapidly tearing themselves up while healing themselves. Impurities from his organs started streaming into the young warder’s blood stream. At places Ash’s skin parted and arteries burst. Until it looked like every pore was spewing out blood. Slowly his inside stopped glowing and then his skin began to heal.
Ash’s weapons went from their bright glow to a candle light sending in a steady trickle of power into the boy. Ash’s screams slowly petered out and transformed into groans. Then those groans stopped too and a handful of moments later the glow from his body completely subsided.
83 looked up at Parvati M “Paru, what kind of shard was that?”
“I don’t know.”
Sheetal who was hanging almost limply in 83’s arm replied in a hoarse voice “Density.”
“So, it was like strength?” 83 asked.
Parvati M141 shook her head “No. That wasn’t anything like strength.”
She paused before she elaborated. In all her years, she had never seen anything like what had just happened ever before. And she had seen plenty of shards levelling up to class one. But then she had never seen a density shard inside a human body. Heck, those were supposed to be used in armour and armoured vehicles.
83 looked at the frail figure lying in a pool of blood and in an unconvinced voice asked “I guess with all that he is stronger?”
Parvati M shook her head again. 83 was a good man but at times he could really be daft. The boy was almost dainty in his proportion. In fact he looked even smaller than before. But at least, his body didn’t look starved anymore. And his skin had a healthy glow. Parvati focussed on that fact and zoomed into his skin.
“Needles?” Jay 84 asked.
“Get some water. We need to wash him off.”
“Do we have time for that?” 83 asked.
Her husband was quicker. He picked up a barrel from the side and began splashing water all over Ash. As the mud, blood and ash cleaned off. Parvati got a better look at the warder’ skin.
In a whisper Parvati M141 muttered “He is sturdier.”
“What’s the difference?” 83 asked.
“Will you stop with all those questions?” Jay 84 snapped. Pick up a few barrels and the girl. We need to leave, now!”
83 nodded and picked up a barrel in one hand and lifted Sheetal with the other.
Sheetal shook her head and started to levitate herself “I am okay. I can support myself.” She looked at Jay picking up a barrel and asked “What is the water for?”
“For you to clean up all that mud, blood and grime.” 84 replied while picking up Ash in one hand.
“I’ve got him.” Parvati M, who was locked in a stupor, suddenly stepped in to support Ash.
“No, you can poke and prod him once we are out of here.”
Jay 84 began to move and Sheetal followed him.
Jay 83 rushed to their side with two barrels and in casually asked “Is he heavier?”
84 shook his head “No, actually he feels really light.”
“He is not stronger. He is not heavier. And that shard almost killed him. So, what good is that shard?”
“He is tougher.” Parvati M responded from behind them and then added “I need to run some tests.”
“What does that mean?” Sheetal asked in a hoarse voice.
“Right now, all I can say is that his body is more resistant to blows.”
“That’s all he got?” 83 asked in a high pitched voice.
“83, how much potentiality have you got?” Parvati asked in a deadpan voice.
“Five hundred. I am class zero. Every class zero has five hundred potentiality.” 83 responded mechanically. As if he had repeated this same sentence hundreds of times.
Parvati smiled and asked “How much potentiality do you think it takes for a body to glow from inside and blind our sensors.”
83 opened his mouth to respond and then shut it “He should be ash and dust.”
Parvati ran past everyone and stopped next to the door of the trials. She held out her hands to Jay 84 “Give him to me?”
Jay 84 slowed down and stopped. He handed Ash over to Parvati who delicately lifed him up in a princess carry.
Jay 84 looked Parvati M and ordered “Secure the site first.”
Parvati grimaced then nodded “Okay darling. You just come back to me.”
Jay 84 grinned confidently and looked at a hazy looking Sheetal “Lady warder. Please help needles and 83. We are on the same side and we all want to protect you and your brother.”
“He is not my brother.” Sheetal replied drowsily.
Jay 84 nodded and sighed “Yes. Now go out there, rest, eat and recover. We will be out there in a bit.”
Jay 83 looked at 84 and nodded “See you out there.”
84 smiled at his best friend and then stepped in front of E65. The man smiled like a predator.
“T, old buddy. We need to talk. Why don’t we have a chat?”
T looked from 84 to the trial. It looked dimmer. Soon, he knew tears would appear in the trials. Tears that sucked everything into the void.
“Now?” E65 asked
Jay 84 threw the barrels out of the door of the trials and said “Look, you didn’t even argue about not calling you T. We are making progress already.”
T licked his lips and tried to reason with the large man “Can we do this outside?”
84 gave the younger man a stern look and placed a firm hand on E65’s shoulder “No. Why don’t we run back in and get a couple more barrels of water, shall we?”
T sighed and was dragged back in by Jay 84.