A/N: Characters are Steph's personalities are mine!

2: Losses

"Push one of epi," she said. The sweat was beading on her face. Prickling out from underneath her hairline, trailing down underneath her gray under armor. The sweat travelled down her face, to her arms, her chest, her back. She was covered in the salty moisture, as we all were, but somehow more. She was nervous—we could see that. We all could. We all cast glances to each other before giving ourselves a millisecond glance at her small, angular, red face. Her blue eyes shining with defeat. Her nappy dirty blonde streaks tied angrily into a ponytail, was shuddering forward with every one of her motions.

It was useless.

"Push more," she breathed, "push more, goddammit…."

"We can't," began the intern next to her, shuddering in her place, afraid to complete her sentence, "we ran out at ten this morning."

She looked up, stared straight at the dirty wall next to the mattress. She climbed off the dead human, and sat on her knees, body angled to the wall. She stared away from the seven of us for what seemed like hours. She took a deep breath and whispered in an angered calm, "What?"

The intern, stupidly, answered, "You said to push epi twice on the last—"

A crash. A slam. The intern was on the opposite side of the area. "I know, you damned idiot; I know what I said." She had risen off her knees, and was now crouching at the stupid intern, who was now bleeding profusely down her arm. She stalked toward the intern, "I know. And I knew yesterday when we ran out, too. And the day before that, as well as the day before that." She turned to face the rest of us. "Take them to the dumpster," she said, nodding to the two mattresses of dead humans. She looked back at the intern, who was now bleeding seriously. "And fix her up, too. No doubt she's been exposed. She'll be dead in the next three days." She lowered herself to a whisper and said to a resident, "Put her in open land, not the dumpster."

She left.

The losses always hit us hard. Another one dead. Another one lost. Another point for them. You may ask why we do this, but it's not for us, or for the humans. It's for them. To prove a point that was never proven before. To prove to them that we matter, we are apart of society. A society that I know nothing about, and maybe never will, but a society nonetheless. A society of humans.

Human.

The word always messes with me. What is human? It is considered someone with a beating heart? No, it can't be because those with beating hearts commit crimes everyday. Is it someone with a conscience? Not quite, consciences can be easily swayed and messed with, making them believe in something that should never be believed in in the first place. Is it just someone who breathes? Or speaks? I don't believe so. No one is perfect, no one human is perfect, and no human will ever be perfect.

We commit crimes, catch diseases, are never happy with ourselves or others, lie, cheat, and a million other things that can't be thought of. The list is endless. The list of possibilities is endless. The list of corruptions is endless. Everything is endless. It's bountiful, plentiful, and we'll never get enough of it. Of crimes, of cheating, of lying, or not being happy with ourselves.

It's never enough.

"Why did I have to get the three hundred pound guy?" she wheezed out at me. She had stopped—again—dropping the human, and clutching her knees. "I mean seriously. I'm the tiniest human here and I get the World's Largest Sumo Wrestler. What is this?" she began laughing—or trying to laugh, I should say. She grabbed Sumo Wrestler, and pulled him along in the darkness with me. She continued, seriously, "We lost two today."

I nodded.

"It's only noon."

I nodded again.

"Do you think this is going to work?" she said, dropping Sumo on the ground. The dirt puffed up around him, creating dust bunnies in the air, swirling around us. Mocking us. "Honestly," she finished.

I stared at the dust motes in the air, swirling in the air, and getting all over my clothes and shoes. I dropped my human, and created even more dust bunnies. I opened my mouth to speak, and felt the dirt on my tongue and in between my teeth. I closed my mouth, and felt the familiar crunch of the dirt in my mouth, like when sand gets in your mouth. I opened and croaked, "I don't know," I sighed and looked at the dark abyss beyond us. "I don't know," I repeated louder. My head looked back at her. My headlight caught the redness in her hair, and the dirt and grime and sweat on her face, making an awkward glow appear around her. Her blue scrub pants and dark grey long sleeve shifted with her and she swayed back and fourth.

"I don't know how much longer I can take this," she whispered, "the humans…dropping like flies day by day. Are we even helping? Are we proving anything? Or are we just helping them? There's only so many humans left. And when they deplete, what do we do next? Test on our selves?" she began to walk back and fourth, pacing through the dirt. I focused on the dust bunnies she was making in the air. "She about lost her head today…I don't know how much she can take."

I nodded, my headlight catching the dust motes in the air, making shadows of dust dance across the brick. "Yeah, I know."

"Are we helping? Or are we just murderers?" she continued. We still hadn't moved, standing in the middle of the aisle headed to the dumpster to dump them. The dust had remotely calmed now, creating a thin layer of dirt and grime to stick to us and our sweat.

I took a deep breath, picked up my human, begun walking and whispered, "I don't know,"

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