This is a piece of trash intended only to make the category visible to better, more invested writers. Such as those who actually played the game.

"Have you lost your mind, Brecken? What you're suggesting is madness!"

"I've made my choice."

"You are barely fit to walk, man. You need to rest or your injuries will -"

"I've made. My choice, Lena. Not you or anyone else is going to stop me."

The argument filtered out into the corridor, the clash of raised voices muffled by a closed door. Without knocking, Jade yanked down on the handle and threw it open. Both Brecken and the medic turned as she stepped into the room, the latter crying out her name in sheer relief.

"Jade. Thank goodness you are here."

She tapped the door with her heel, pointing her chin in Brecken's direction as the door swung shut behind her. "What has he done now?"

"Brecken wants to go out again tonight, by himself, to recover the drop."

Jade raised a thin brow. "By yourself."

Brecken stopped pacing back and forth across the room in front of the two women. "I led all those runners out there last night, watched them die, and didn't bring back even a drop of Antizin. They sacrificed their lives for nothing."

"So you want to join them."

"You don't get it!" Brecken said, gesticulating at them. "I was there. I have to see this through."

Lena cursed aloud in frustration. "Why are men so stubborn?"

Jade shook her head. "Leave him with me."

Muttering under her breath, the medic cast a dark look at Brecken before turning towards the door. "Make sure he gets some of this on those bruises," she told Jade, impatiently slapping a squashed tube of salve against her chest as she left the room.

Jade turned the tube over in her hands as the door slammed shut behind her, rattling in its already weakened frame. Brecken stood with his hand at his hip and another rubbing his forehead beside the dining table littered with maps, staring down at the floor.

"Well?"

"I have to go."

Jade folded her arms. "No, you don't. You want to go."

"I put a dozen more fucking zombies on the streets last night," Brecken growled.

"Did you bite them all yourself?"

"You know what I mean! It was my plan, my mission, and because I screwed up everyone is dead."

Jade suddenly strode forward, stepping right up into Brecken's face. "So you guilt-trip yourself into committing suicide. Is that it? Hey, hey! Look at me," she demanded, swiping aside the man's arm when he tried to push her away.

"That's not what this is," he said tightly, avoiding her eyes. She found them anyway as he made to turn his back to her, moving around Brecken to put herself in front of him.

"Don't give me that shit," Jade told him fiercely, her middle-eastern accent adding bite to her voice, "this isn't about the Antizin. You think I don't know you, Brecken? This is about punishing yourself."

"So what if it is?" he said, roughly stripping his arm out of her grip and jabbing a finger into his chest. "I fucked up, Jade. I keep fucking up!"

"We all make mistakes."

"I don't get to. We're running out of Antizin, Jade," Brecken said incredulously, "hell, we're running out of Runners. We can barely keep secure the few floors we have left in this damn building. I don't have the right to ask anyone else to put their life at risk for me."

"Yes, you do," Jade said firmly. "We all follow your lead, Brecken, and you've yet to let us down."

The man turned away. "I'm just a bloody parkour instructor, not some leader."

"If it wasn't for you, I would be dead by now," Jade said, walking up to him. "Rahim would be dead. Half the Tower, probably, if not more. Brecken, what you have taught us has helped us survive. None of this would be possible if not for you."

He looked sullen when she reached forward to take his hand, turning the frowning man around to face her again.

"You don't get to throw your life away like an idiot," Jade told him, "understand? Not while you still inspire hope and the will to fight to see another day within us all."

It took a while, but Brecken eventually gave a small, reluctant nod. "Alright. I get it."

"Good," Jade said. "Now, where am I supposed to be putting this?"

Brecken sighed as she held up the tube of salve. Wordlessly, he reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt, peeling it up and over his head. Jade swore softly in her mother tongue when he turned his back to her. "Sit," she told him afterwards, pulling out a chair from underneath the table. He sat sideways, leaning forward with his arm resting against the back of the chair. Jade pulled off one of her fingerless gloves and unscrewed the cap of the tube, tutting as her eyes roved over the curve of Brecken's back. He had taken a beating, and some those bruises looked older than a few hours.

The salve was cool against her fingertips, carrying a sharp smell as she smeared it over the man's skin. Neither spoke as she applied the ointment, though Brecken winced periodically when she massaged circles into darkly bruised splotches. He rocked back and forth under her ministrations, arms swaying between his knees. Jade could feel the tightness of his muscles, like he was ready to spring up and run at any moment. She carefully traced a jagged line running down the left side of his back after replacing the cap on the tube of salve.

"You've got another one to add to the collection."

"I don't...collect them," Brecken said with displeasure. "Not exactly the most pleasant experience."

Jade's mouth curved into a wistful half-smile. "I like a man with a few scars," she said. "Each one tells a story."

"Well, some of those stories I don't share," Brecken replied, already reaching towards the table for his shirt.

Jade sighed as the man shrugged back into the faded yellow garment. "Are you going to take Lena's advice, or do I have to knock you out for you to get some rest?"

Brecken looked at her, his mouth a tight, grim line. "Now isn't the time for me to take a break."

"Knock you out it is, then," Jade replied, rolling her shoulders after slipping her hand back into its glove and stretching it over her knuckles.

He held her eyes for a long, tense moment. The Scorpion arched her brow. Brecken soon gave in.

"Fine. One hour."

"Two."

"No. Jade -"

"I know several ways to put a man to sleep," she cut across him, "and none of them are painless."

The man threw up his hands. "You win."

Jade smirked, folding her arms. "That is no surprise, Brecken."

It was small, his eventual smile, but it was enough to take her through the day.