Recon

(Rody)

"No…" Rody said and placed a hand over his mouth.

Leon bit his trembling lip. He closed his eyes tight and nodded slightly. Rody immediately stood up and sat down beside Leon. He placed an arm around his shoulder and held him firmly.

"Damn dude… That's—I don't..." Ray shook his head. He couldn't continue speaking.

"Did you see it happen?" Rody asked softly.

Leon nodded. He spoke in a quivering voice, "My—my dad got bit… as we were trying to escape our flat. Our neighbour had turned into one of those freaks. She attacked him and bit into his neck. We somehow managed to fight her off and escape but my dad collapsed the moment we got inside the elevator. Mom and I tried desperately to wake him up. Just as the elevator reached the basement… he began moving again. We thought he had gotten his consciousness back. But… when he opened his eyes… he wasn't… him… anymore."

Leon sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of the shirt. Rody hugged his friend's shoulder as comfortingly as he could.

"Oh lord…" Rody said, "I'm sorry man. I can't imagine what you must be going through."

"He tried to eat me, man…" Leon sobbed loudly, "My own father… tried to eat me. How fucked up is that? I've been trying to act like it didn't happen. My brain hasn't accepted it yet. I—I know I'm just in denial. But how am I supposed to deal with something like this?"

Rody's eyes began to tear up as well. He couldn't bear to see his friend weeping like this. He closed his eyes and hugged Leon with both arms, letting him cry into his shoulder.

"My mom… she protected me. She pushed me out of the way… before dad could get to me. She sacrificed herself… for me! If it wasn't for her… I would have become one of those flesh eating monsters."

It seemed Ray was barely holding back his emotions too. He stood up from the floor and walked over to the two of them. He sat down next to him and stroked the back of Leon's shoulder. He looked at Rody with solemn eyes. Neither of them spoke for a while. They simply held onto Leon and sat with him for several minutes.

With one last big sniff, Leon lifted his head from Rody's shoulder. His face was ripe with tears. As he straightened himself, he winced once and clutched his chest with a hand.

"Use the ice pack," Ray told him.

Leon nodded and lifted up the ice pack from his lap. He slid it inside the shirt and placed it over the wound.

"Agh!" he said as the ice touched the bruise.

"It'll get better, don't worry." Ray reassured him.

Leon nodded again.

"You're going to be okay, buddy." Rody said, patting his back. "You can come along with me if you like. We've got plenty of room in my grandparents' place."

"Yeah, thanks" Leon said in a muffled voice.

"Is there anything you need?"

"I just want… to rest… for a bit." He replied.

"Ahh, sure thing!" Said Ray quickly. "We'll be in the living room. Come join us when you're ready."

Saying so Ray turned and headed out of the room. Meghan stood up and followed him. Rody glanced over at his girlfriend and saw her tapping her foot impatiently.

"We'll be right outside," Rody told him before standing up from the bed.

As he walked towards the door, Samantha scurried up next to him and locked her arm in his. Rody gave her a sideways stare but didn't say anything. He usually didn't mind when she got clingy but there was a time and a place for everything. And this was certainly not it. But he held back his words and walked out of the main bedroom, closing the door behind him.

As he approached the living room, he saw Ray and Meghan sitting side by side on one of the couches. Rody walked up to the two-seater adjacent to them and sat down. Samantha quickly plopped into the spot to his right.

"Poor guy," Ray said, "I never knew he was carrying around such a burden. He acted all goofy and clumsy when I met up with him in the pool. To think that something this tragic had happened…"

"Yeah," said Rody, "it's just… terrible. I didn't even know what to say, man. What are you even supposed to tell someone whose parents died right in front of them?"

Ray breathed out loudly. He didn't have an answer to give. Rody understood his reaction all too well. Neither of them were very adept at empathy. Guys usually don't show their emotions in front of other guys. But because of that, neither of them knew how to comfort Leon properly. The only thing they could do was give him the space he needed.

After a long stretch of silence, Meghan spoke up, "It's almost six. I'm guessing we're all going to be staying here for the night?"

"Ah yeah, that's probably the safest option." Ray replied. "There's more than enough food here for all of us. We can always go for a supply run to any of your houses if we ever start falling short. Momo's flat is right upstairs too. So we should be good staying here for now."

"Didn't you say you wanted to come back to Prime to uhh—gain experience?" Rody asked.

Ray nodded, "I want to learn as much about the Deathless as I can. I think it'll really help us in making a full fletched plan to get through Athani."

"Okay," Rody said, "what do you want to find out first?"

Ray turned to Meghan, "It's six o'clock?"

Meghan turned the screen of her phone in his direction. Her digital clock read "18:10".

"It's going to be night time soon." Ray said, "I'm very curious to see how the Deathless behave at night. If they become more aggressive, then we can rule out the possibility of using the darkness to our advantage. If the opposite turns out to be true…"

"Then we can drive past Athani at night!" Rody said.

"Exactly," said Ray, "We'll get our answer soon enough."

"Are you going to go out again?" Samantha asked.

"Yeah, I want to do some recon downstairs." Ray said, "We also accidentally let a Deathless into the fire exit. Probably a good idea to take it out so that we have a safe way to move up and down the floors. I don't want to rely on the elevator too much."

"Ohhh, so that's why you used the elevator instead of coming up the fire exit stairs." Meghan said. "I get it now. So, when do we leave?"

"Huh?" Ray said, turning towards her. "Uhh—I was thinking that Rody and I…"

He stopped talking immediately when he saw Meghan glaring at him. Rody tilted his head curiously at their exchange. Ray wore the expression of someone who had just messed up. Rody didn't know what his friend had done wrong but it seemed to be something between the two of them. Even though her anger wasn't directed at him, Rody made a mental note to never piss Meghan off.

"Right," he said quickly, "the three of us. That's what I meant. Let's all take an hour and a half to rest up. After that, we three can—"

"Why do you need Rody to go with you?" Samantha interrupted brashly, "You're just going to observe those Deathers, aren't you?"

"Deathless…" Meghan corrected with a frustrated sigh.

"Yeah, that." she replied and continued talking to Ray, "He already came with you to save Leon. Why are you asking him to go with you again for something that YOU want to do?"

"Sammy!" Rody called out loudly. He couldn't believe his girlfriend was being so unreasonable.

"What?" she asked defiantly, "Did I say something wrong? It was his idea to come back here and study them or whatever. Does he really need to drag you along every single time? You have other responsibilities too, you know?"

Judging by her tone, Rody had a feeling she was talking about herself. He furrowed his eyebrows at her. He was aware that she didn't get along well with Ray, but right now she was being extremely selfish. This was not the time to be possessive, especially considering how perilous their whole situation was. He felt the need to set her straight.

"Sammy look," Rody began, "you really need to stop acting like that. We're all in this—"

"No, Rody." Ray said, stopping him. "She's got a point. I only want to go down to observe them. I'm not planning on doing anything dangerous. I don't think I'll need you for the recon mission. And besides, I got Momo to watch my back."

"That's right," Meghan replied with a cheerfulness that confused Rody.

"Uhh—alright, man." He said, "Be careful down there. Both of you."

"Don't worry," Meghan said flexing her bicep, "I'll keep him out of trouble."

Rody smiled and gave her a nod.

"Wait," he said suddenly, "your weapon. It broke during our fight with that big dude. If you're planning to go out there again you'll need a new one to protect yourself."

"Ahh, good thinking." Ray said, "Let's look around the house. We might as well make weapons for everyone while we're at it."

"Cool. I hope I'm at least allowed to help with that..." said Rody with a nasty look at Samantha.

She puffed up her cheeks and folded her arms across her chest.

'After Ray and Momo leave, I really need to have a talk with this girl.' Rody thought.