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Chapter 2: New Bunk
The group walked in silence for an hour before they finally took a rest to have a meal. Tom was preparing a fire as Kokobiel went through his bag for food. He knew he had at least packed a few MRE's, but with so much stuff in his bag things got thrown around making it hard to find.
"How much further do we have to go?" Tom asked.
"It's another hour or two walk, when we get there get rid of the freelancer badges," Morgan answered back.
Kokobiel heard this and removed the patch on his shoulder and let it fall to the ground. The patches always annoyed him, it felt like being owned by a faction, it didn't give him pride in working for them.
"They didn't look too bad at least, bit much though in the design," Kokobiel said as he finally got out an MRE. Morgan looked over to Kokobiel as he pulled out the MRE.
"You guys have MRE's. It's been forever since I've had something with a little bit of taste. Bread and boiled meat only gets you so far," Morgan said as he went up to Kokobiel and rummaged through his bag.
"Hey, fuck out my shit!" Kokobiel said as he kicked Morgan out of his bag. Morgan stumbled back as he held where he got kicked.
"S-sorry it's been a while since I've actually had to just ask and not take, especially when my group just go through each other's things, but that won't happen anymore." Morgan said he then sat down next to Kokobiel, Kokobiel sighed as he went through his bag and passed him an MRE. He may have been annoyed by him but this doesn't mean he should starve, this doesn't mean Kokobiel was just going to let him get away with it.
"Next time ask or I'll make sure I bust something in you." Kokobiel said in a very stern tone.
"That's pretty gay dude," Tom said as he finally got the fire started.
"Yeah, barely know me for a day and you're already trying to get in my pants, am I just that hot?" Morgan said as he played into what Tom said. They annoyed him, sure he walked right into that one and Morgan didn't look bad, he looked nice in the outfit he had on, but that wasn't the point of his argument.
"Oh shut the fuck up the both of you, I don't want to hear it right now from either of ya," Kokobiel said as he began to make his MRE, Morgan looked away from him as he began to prep his MRE, Tom soon joined them as he watched the fire.
"It's been so long since we've actually sat down and shared a meal, I think the last thing we had was fried potatoes, I've missed those potatoes," Tom said.
"I think it was something about the way they were fried because they were so damn crispy but like potato cheese in the middle." Morgan replied back.
"Probably, Kokobiel any foods you remember from when you were younger?" Tom asked. Kokobiel thought back for a moment when he still did underground fights and lived with the nice lady.
"After a dangerous fight the lady who took care of me would make a soup of some kind, she also had some bread to go along with it, sad I never learned the recipe," Kokobiel replied as he began to eat. He didn't exactly miss those days but the nice lady he definitely missed, she had her faults but she still took care of all of them. Sometimes it seemed she ran a daycare with how often kids were in and out of there.
"Remember what was in it?" Morgan asked as he looked towards him, Kokobiel shook his head in return, Morgan shrugged as he began to eat his food now. Kokobiel looked over to Tom, his face was contorted in unease as he stared at his food. Kokobiel looked away, he wasn't going to question it, he knew exactly what Tom was thinking. The death of Ologa and Berum, he killed them, now he had to live with it, it's his life now.
"Do you think what I did was right?" Kokobiel asked as he looked over to Tom, Tom thought about it for a few moments before responding.
"Morally no, but surviving yes, it was either us or them and sometimes you have to pick yourself, it's the brain's way of protecting itself, self preservation if I'm correct," Tom replied back.
"Do you think they'll be found?" Kokobiel asked.
"More than likely but they deserve that, I don't think we could have given them an honorable burial if we tried, I mean we did kill them," Tom replied back as he patted Kokobiel shoulder.
"You mean I killed them." Kokobiel said as he moved away from Tom's hand.
"Don't be so hard on yourself. I think any way it was put, someone was going to die, and someone was shooting someone," Tom said, giving a sheepish smile, trying to comfort Kokobiel.
"Thanks for the talk," Kokobiel said as he sped up a bit to walk in between Morgan and Tom. The group continued to walk for a while, Kokobiel was lost in thought as he was thinking about what happened and what he could have done differently. All outcomes always lead to someone dying and that's the last thing he wanted, too much death for one lifetime. They eventually made it to an outlook, the jungle was far behind them now and they seemed to have reached the end of their walk. Kokobiel looked for something but he didn't find anything around. Morgan proceeded to jump down the outcrop as Tom scrambled to him as he jumped down.
"Morgan!?" Tom yelled as he chased behind Morgan, Kokobiel joined right behind him. He leaned down to look down to see Morgan standing on a fairly large ledge.
"I should have warned you, that's my fault, but get down here," Morgan said before he walked forward disappearing into the outlook. Tom looked down in confusion before he slid down onto the ledge, before he helped Kokobiel down. The outlook was actually hollow and the ledge connected to an entrance to a cave.
"You sure it still isn't a trap?" Kokobiel said.
"My brother wouldn't kill us, surely." Tom said back as he walked forward.
"Maybe not you at least," Kokobiel said as he followed Tom.
As they went into the tunnel it was fairly dark until they got further in, lights began appearing. They were tiny flood lights, once the cave finally opened fully several lights were strung up, they were made of two colors, a light green and a neon blue. It was still hard to see Tom in front of him before he got grabbed and was met with the face of another chupa, Kokobiel pushed him off before the chupa let out a huff and nodded for him to move one.
Kokobiel huffed back before walking over to Tom who was talking to Morgan.
"So that's how it feels to be manhandled, feels weird to have it done to you." Kokobiel said.
"Now you know how I feel when you throw me around," Tom said.
"I don't do that, I just put you into new locations," Kokobiel responded back, Tom rolled his eyes before walking off to explore the rebel hideout. The part of the hideout they were in seemed to be more of an entrance as tunnels connected further into the cave, going down these tunnels went to offshoots that went to different rooms, they seemed to have been dug out further for more living space and storage. Morgan and Tom walked ahead of Kokobiel, he figured they would have a lot of catching up and it'd be best to leave them alone to talk to each other. He looked around the tunnel as they walked, there was a couple rooms as they walked but the doors were shut and locked when he went too look.
They finally reached the end of the tunnel which led into a larger room with a table and chairs around it, several monitors hooked up to the far wall and a fridge next to them. Standing around the table were three chupas all focused on the thing on the table. Morgan joined the three and Tom soon followed, looking at the table there was a map with different types of markings and side notes about the markings.
"Morgan, good to see you back, and you brought a friend, who is he?" The chupa closest to Morgan said, her fur was a soft red color, she wore a bomber jacket and wore an eyepatch on her right eye, a scar ran diagonal across her eye and went pretty far to the right.
"This would be my brother, I've told you about him before, I think so at least, if not this is Tom, Tom this is Dingo, our specialist in field tactics," Morgan said, introducing the two to each other.
"Dingo? Bit of a strange name to have." Tom said.
"It's not like it's your name so I don't know why you're complaining about it," Dingo shot back at Tom.
"I was just asking and I'm not complaining, dingus," Tom said back, giving a sly smile as he said dingus. Dingo gave a stern look back before she huffed at him and gave a light smirk in return.
"I like this one," Dingo said.
"You better like him, you two are both stupid, but you are also very reliable, sometimes," Morgan said, Tom leaned down looking at the map, it seemed very similar to the one at the freelancer base except it was missing several of the markings the map had. It was strange, almost as if the map at the freelancer base showed different groups bases or possibly more freelancer bases.
"This map looks different from the other one. It's missing markings like the one back at that base." Tom pointed out.
"What other map?" Morgan asked.
"You're telling me you didn't see the massive ass map that was on the table I was hiding behind?!" Tom semi-yelled back at him.
"No, I was too busy figuring out who had come into the room!" Morgan responded back. The brothers looked at each other sternly before they were forced to headbutt each other by Kokobiel.
"Do you two always have to argue?" Kokobiel asked sarcastically. The two groaned before going quiet and looking away from each other.
"Jeez, you both act like children..." he sighed before continuing his sentence.
"...Yes there was a map at the freelancer base. Yes it did have more markings compared to this map. Best guess different rebel base. If not, probably stashes," Kokobiel said.
"You actually remembered that?" Morgan asked.
"It's hard to forget when I- whe- Fuck, yes I remember it is all," Kokobiel said as his face darkened as he spoke. Tom put a hand on Kokobiels shoulder patting it, he gave a slight smile trying to comfort Kokobiel who wouldn't look at Tom as he did it. Kokobiel knew Tom put his hand on his shoulder, it did comfort him but he just couldn't look at Tom, he didn't have to put up with his sorrow of what he did but he did.
"Sorry," Morgan said, his tone sympathetic but serious.
"We can continue this later, everyone go rest up, I know it's been a long day for everyone." Dingo said as she turned to the tunnel before disappearing into it.
"I'll lead you to the place you guys will be staying," a brown chupa said to Kokobiel and Tom before going into the tunnel, Kokobiel followed behind him, Tom shrugged before joining them.
The brown chupa turned down a corner before entering a room with two bunks, a sink, small foot lockers, a radio, and lamps on a night dresser.
"Your room, sorry most single rooms are full or reserved as medical rooms for patients." The brown chupa said, he then gave a small bow before walking out of the room.
"Well, back to bunks it seems." Kokobiel said as he went to one of the beds before setting his bag down then sat down on the bed.
"I'm sure we'll be fine, plus our backs are already ruined from the bunks from the special forces." Tom said, Kokobiel nodded as he took things out of his pockets and set them down on the dresser. He took out a small journal and pencil before setting his bag down before laying it against the head of the bunk. Tom set his bag aside as he laid down in the bed and stared up into the ceiling. Kokobiel stood in silence as he thought, maybe he was too harsh on Tom, he was trying his best to help him in his situation. He sat down in the bed before he spoke.
"You're a good friend Tom, I hope you know that." Kokobiel said as he wrote in his journal.
"Thanks dude, you're a great friend as well," Tom said back. Kokobiel stayed quiet as he wrote.
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