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Dempsey thumped his head rhythmically against the cold, hard walls of the room they were trapped inside. Damn Gersch and his damn Casimir mechanism overloading the damn teleporter. He hated this. He hated going anywhere with the three lunatics he was with now. As if travelling with them wasn’t bad enough, now they were confined to a small room together, while they waited for whoever was on the other side of the heavy metal door to help them. Dempsey didn’t like feeling helpless.
‘Careful, Dempsey. You might lose whatever brain cells are left inside your thick skull.’ Nikolai grumbled. Like the rest of them, he had tucked himself as tightly as he could into a corner to escape the pool of vomit that Takeo had made in the middle of the floor.
‘At least I still have brain cells,’ Dempsey sneered over at him, ‘How many have you watched die in the bottom of a bottle?’
‘Now, now – ’ Whatever Richtofen had been away to say was drowned out as Takeo retched again, spitting more vomit out onto the floor. The stench of it was overpowering now, and Dempsey found himself lucky that he and the others had strong stomachs.
Automatically, he tried to move even further away to save from getting flecks of bile on his boots or his clothes, and his leg brushed Richtofen’s. The scientist was completely and utterly at ease with the contact from each of them – probably wishing they were even closer together no doubt – but Dempsey cringed and balled his hands into fists at the reminder that he couldn’t get away.
‘I’ve been meaning to ask you, Takeo…’ Richtofen started in a smooth voice, ‘The artvork on your back is quite remarkable. Tigers truly are magnificent creatures. Vas it painful?’
Takeo glowered with watery eyes. He looked paler than Dempsey had ever seen him before. A sheen of sweat slicked over his skin and his fingers were trembling.
‘How do you know of that?’
‘Does it matter?’
Takeo’s face became impossibly paler. Dempsey flinched away as another wave of nausea rocked the man’s small frame, and the air became even thicker with the smell of vomit. Anger began to shake Dempsey. Whoever it was that was meant to be fetching the things Richtofen needed to get them out of here was taking his sweet ass time. Or… what if he was dead? What if he never came back and they were stuck here forever? Dempsey shuddered at the thought, then vowed silently that he would shoot himself if their apparent “savior” didn’t come back. He would take his gun and he would shoot himself right between the eyes. He’d rather that than die slowly next to Edward fucking Richtofen in a tiny room that reeked of vomit.
‘I… I think... Yes. I believe it caused me pain,’ Takeo said in a weak voice, ‘but… for such beauty, the pain was worth every second.’
‘Ha!’ a laugh burst from Nikolai that surprised them all, ‘Who cares about beauty, eh?’
With that, Nikolai yanked his sleeve up to reveal a sickle and hammer design on his forearm. It looked as though it had been infected at some point, fading in parts, and inked onto his skin by someone who probably hadn’t been completely sober.
‘Good cause.’ He nodded to himself as he gazed at the art on his arm, then pulled his sleeve back down.
‘Dempsey?’ Richtofen was now looking at him expectantly. Dempsey ground his teeth. Of course he knew he was inked up too. But how? How did he know?
His attention was then diverted from the warning bells that seemed to be ringing constantly in his head now. Takeo groaned again and folded his arms over his stomach. Nikolai leaned away, wary as the rest that another fountain of sick would be heading their way any second.
‘Ugh.’ Dempsey spat through his teeth and rolled his eyes. If it would keep Takeo’s mind occupied, he supposed there was nothing wrong with showing off the tattoo he had on his bicep. It looked generic, and he remembered that four other people received the same one on the same night. The Marine Corps had been his life, he remembered that much at least. It only made sense for the logo to be etched permanently into his skin.
‘Happy now?’ He scowled at Richtofen for a fraction of a second before pointedly looking away.
‘Ya.’ Richtofen smiled, and the sight of it made Dempsey’s blood boil. His hands were fists again, and if they hadn’t been in such a small space, he would have swung for him, there was no doubt.
‘And you?’ Nikolai motioned vaguely with his hands.
Richtofen continued to smile, small and meek. Without saying a word, he swiftly hoisted up the leg of his pants. There, on his ankle, was a solid black “X.” Dempsey squinted, not entirely sure what the reasoning behind it could be.
‘An ancient rune.’ Richtofen said, as if reading his thoughts.
‘A rune?’ Nikolai and Dempsey raised their eyebrows. Takeo mumbled something in his native tongue and swayed on the spot.
‘It means gift.’ For once, the doctor had nothing more to say. It was quiet in the room then, the only noise being their breathing and the gurgling of Takeo’s stomach. However, the quiet did not last long, for outside the door came a loud voice with a Southern accent; the voice of their faceless saviour.
‘All right, the domes are in little bitty pieces. Wha’d’ya need now?’
The man beyond the door was somehow still alive, still coming back, still willing to help. A survivor. Dempsey grinned fiercely as a vicious sense of hope tore to life within him. Maybe there would be no need to fire a bullet through his brain after all.