Misfortunately Fortunate
In the benign hours of the early morning, the moon was slowly fading away into the fresh morning clouds, giving way to the sun to shine the cracks of old cracks of Teufort. As the time passed, smoothly and sincerely, the sun moved into the perfect position – its rays bursting right into the eyes of the old snorts. The snoring was thunderous in the musty farmhouse, shaking the building with every roar and threatening to bring down the already-crumbling roof, but it stopped as soon as the sunlight met the dull eyes of the men and was almost immediately replaced with the equally-loud complaints.
"Scout, I swear on me mum –"
"Damn it, Soldier, it was your turn –"
"Don't bring it on me! We all decided that Pyro was supposed to –"
"Mmmph!"
The Pyro quickly stood up and approached the source of their complaints – the East-facing wall of the barn. It was a rather thin wall – one or two planks of wood crudely nailed together, and then mish-mashed in a strange fashion to create something resembling a wall. However, with its poor quality came poor sunlight-protection; it was filled with tiny cracks everywhere, and constantly needed to be covered in order to actually make the room evenly-lightened. Blanket in hand, the Pyro looked over the wall, examining and deciding the best course of action, and after brief consideration began stuffing the corners of the blanket into the holes.
That was a mistake.
The wall gave in and shrieking in half-awareness, the Pyro tumbled out of the barn. The company inside all went silent for a moment, thoroughly confused, but then reality hit them hard. They all rushed to the hole in the wall and stared down at the unconscious lump and a ragged blanket two floors down, bent into a shape they all regretted imagining how it must've felt like. They all immediately knew what to do; with less than 15 minutes before the fight was to begin, they needed to get the Pyro into shape! They all dashed for the exit.
"Scout, you cheeky bastard, this is all-"
"The Soldier was supposed to-"
"The hell are you talking –"
In the wild scramble down the stairs in the rectangular courtyard, the Soldier missed a step and rumbled down the rest of the staircase, noisily crushing bones under his bulk. To the team's luck, he avoided everyone, unwilling to share the misery of broken bones with anyone else. Quite humble of an act.
Visibly in agony, the team empathized with him, but the Scout and Sniper continued to rush to the Pyro, who was lying unconscious, possibly even dead outside on the red dirt. Time was of essence – the match was to begin in less than fifteen minutes!
"Come on, Scout, hurry up and check for vital signs!"
The sun shined down upon the limp body of the Pyro and the blanket nearby, revealing the thin coat of red dust on both which must've floated down on them when the boards above cracked open. The Scout brushed it off and jammed his fist to the Pyro's mask, trying to feel for a pulse?
"Is he alive?"
"Yes, she's dead."
The Sniper stopped and stared in disbelief at the Scout. His disbelief originated from the fact that the Scout was supposed to give up his blanket today to cover up the wall. The more he thought this, the more enraged his stare became, quickly transforming into a nasty glare.
"I'll bash your head –"
"It wasn't my fault –"
The Sniper didn't let the Scout finish his sentence. He landed a hook to the Scout's gabber and sent him tumbling back. It wasn't until the Sniper heard water splash that he thought over his action. "Whoops" thought the Sniper to himself as he peeked from above.
"Sniper, what on earth happened?" A female voice asked from behind. It was Miss Pauling, kneeling beside the Pyro with her trusty clipboard in hand. "Where's the Scout? The rest of the team told me he ran with you."
"Well, uh -" the Sniper glanced down at the water again, "well, he's dead?"
Miss Pauling glanced into the water below, adjusting her spectacles to check whether she was seeing this correctly. She then proceeded to squeeze her forehead and grow in frustration.
"You incompetent dimwits. We're going to have to cancel the match for today. Go and collect everyone – we're postponing until we can respawn."
She turned around and walked back into the building, her shoulders tense and clipboard hanging loosely in her right hand. In contrast, the Sniper stood in place, watching her as she disappeared behind a wooden corner. He continued to stand in place, reflecting upon what just happened. It was temporarily misfortunate to have all of this happen all of the sudden, and yet temporarily fortunate to skip out of a fight. He shrugged and walked back in.
"Soldier, it'll be cheaper and quicker for you to respawn than to send you to the infirmary."
The sun continued to shine as a shot rang out brilliantly across Teufort, benign as it was a mere fifteen minutes ago. The team paid their respect to the fallen teammates, the sun, and went back to sleep in.