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This was the first time Leon had been a part of such a fuck-up. He laid there, leaning against the wall, inside the APC. A sectoid corpse lay beside him, beaten to death after he had inflicted a nonfatal wound. He was too tired to do something about it, push it away, put something over it, or just get up. He had been stunned three times, the last time a direct shot to the chest. Kamiya had shot him up on some stimulant, twice. The stuff hurt like hell, but at least he wouldn't be taking it again. That would be 'dangerous' they said. Yeah, and what we do for a living isn't, he thought.
It seemed like he had layed there for hours. He felt stiff enough to have been in that position for weeks. And he hadn't even moved since; he just collapsed after he had finished that goddamned sectoid. Just before he drowsed into another pain and hypothermia induced sleep, he heard sound outside of the APC. He conjured his strength to lift his plasma pistol, the barrel pointed at some blurry figure on a white background. After a few moments his eyes focused, and he saw Squaddie Kienas.
Leon spoke with a bit of anger in his voice, "Where the hell have you been?" It drained some of his strength to speak, and his arm dropped from the loss, the pistol falling to the metal floor, damp with blood and water. His anger mostly subsided when he noticed that Kienas was leaning on a makeshift crutch, and one leg bandaged up.
Kienas yawned, his eyes resting on the bruised and blugeoned sectoid as he spoke, "We've been lookin for you. Kamiya said you disappeared a while after he shot you up again."
"I had some unfinished things to take care of," Leon said weakly. "You know, if I had been thinking straight, I would have known that this would happen. We shouldn't of taken this route to the base. We should have planned it differently, more discreetly. We should have..."
Kienas apparently wasn't listening. "Dude, what did you do to that sectoid? Oh, what were you saying?"
Leon mumbled, trying to stand. "Forget about that. You and I both have seen Wychin do worse."
"Yeah, but, you didn't have the decency to at least put another plasma bolt in it?"
"I was mad. Really mad. That and that cocktail that Kamiya gave me put me on sort of an energy boost."
Kienas looked him over, smirking, "Yeah, I was just about to tell you to simmer down. Stay still for a minute, will ya?"
Leon groaned again, too pissed off for anybody's bullshit. "Just get the medics down here. I think I need a freakin gurney."
"It's occupied."
"By who?"
"By a snakeman."
That was when Leon's legs started to move again.
Written on November 18th by Leon McManus