It had been almost a week now. We were still on these long-winded stalemates with the BLUs as they had yet to show any progress pass the second point. Their administrator must be getting furious with them with how badly they were doing. I have been on teams similar to BLUs and it can get pretty rough. Soon or later, Administrations just stop sending supplies all together. If that happens, you have to rely on either; eating the wildlife to survive, or using your hard earn cash to eat out at nearby towns. It can really suck at times, especially if you end up stuck in the middle of nowhere like Egypt. Ammo can be risky to use as well, being in limited supply outside the battlefield. I personally enjoyed whacking people over the head with my bat, but others preferred not dying in a gun fight without a gun in hand.
Again, today was slow. Not slow enough to ignore BLU completely, but slow. Engineer had sat his sentry in a different place for once– just for fun– while Demoman had his stickies' spread all over in a complete unexplainable mess. The two were around, probably relaxing and sleeping their day away. Me, I was just sitting on the grass, staring into the sky, wondering when the heat was going to die down. It was always so damn hot in this place that I wanted to throw my clothes off and just fight in the nude. I did try to do that once, but I just got a lecture about how 'unethical' it was labeling the team from the administrator. Shit man, who cares, its fucking hot.
"G'day." A shadow hovers over me, greeting me. I look and see Sniper, giving me a slight wave and smile.
"Hey man." I reply with a wave and smile back. Even if it had been just a few days since I met the guy, we quickly ended up being good acquaintances. Days like this, we just talked on about the nothing's going around. Well, I usually did all the talking. The guy liked the listen more than he liked to speak. Actually, I should replace listen with sleep because he would usually end up just falling asleep in the middle of my talking. It was annoying at first, but I just grew to accept that the guy just likes to sleep a lot. "I heard it was his mom as well, could you believe that? That'd put a dent in my pride if some scumbag messed with my mom." I commented on as I finally finish telling my story to Sniper.
"Right nasty." Sniper puffs a laugh.
It got quiet again as the conversation came to a halt. My mouth needed a break anyway, so I take in the moment and relax. Even if I was having fun talking with myself, there was an itchy feeling tingling in my fingers. This feeling, it felt so familiar, so energetic, so exciting, so adrenaline pumping. Shooting; Fuck, I really wanted to shoot someone in the face right now. Sadly, I think the BLUs have already given up for the day. How fucking lame.
I held out my hands in the air like I was holding up my gun.
"Pewsh." I spitted out, mocking the sound my scattergun made. "BLU is so fuckin' lame. I was hopin' they were really plannin' to kidnap us or whateve'. But anyone who went in too deep just came back via respawn." Sniper said nothing as I looked over to the guy, wondering if he had fallen asleep on me again. Instead, he was digging into his shoulder pocket as he pulled out a cigarette pack and a small lighter. He flicks his lighter, lighting a cigarette in his mouth, coughing slightly as a few puffs of smokes escape him. The guy then looks at me, taking notice of my staring.
"Ah, sorry, I should've asked." The guy looked as if he wanted to drill his cigarette into the grass, but his hand seemed to be fighting against him. Sniper usually did ask me if it was OK if he had a smoke when I was around. Perhaps he presumed I would say it was alright and just went on with the motions. The shit did stink something fucking awful. But the guy had already lit the stick, so he might as well finish it. I shrug, wave my hand lazily at him, close my eyes, and take a big breath of air before the smells of nicotine overlapped my senses. I assume he got the message as he sucked on it loudly and puffed out more smoke in the air.
Minutes passed before we continued our conversation again. However, Sniper was the one to continue it as he told me a very strange and surprising thing.
"I, uh, I tried to become a Scout myself." The way he said that, it sounded like someone was forcing him to talk right now. I picked myself up and just looked at him, wondering if he was trying to tell a joke or not.
There were many Scouts I've met who were far different than me. Some were just straight up carbon copies, Boston accent and all. Others, however, looked all snobby and perfect like. Those guys were the ones who would cry back home to their mommies whenever they scraped their knees. The sight of this long legged man trying to be a Scout seemed far too out there for my imagination.
"You tried to be a Scout lookin' like that?" I could not help but sneeze out a laugh, finding this far too ridiculous to take seriously.
"I was much younger at the time. Could you imagine if they let any old geezer hop around like a roo off its leash?" With how serious he was, he must be telling the truth in some way.
"Dang man, how long have you been doin' this?" Sniper just laughed.
"What year was yah born?" He mocks back, knowing full well how younger I was compared to the other mercs. With how sarcastic the guy was acting, I wondered if I was influencing him like some irresponsible adult. That or he was telling the truth and that old inner Scout was bursting out from him.
"I ain't that young." I huffed out, pouting to my side. Sniper just laughed again, keeping his hand close to his mouth so his cigarette did not fall from his lips.
"How old then?" If we were not allowed to say our names, what made him think we could mention our age. The guy was obviously just playing with me now with these dumb jokes. I think as an adult for once, wondering what adults usually liked to do for entertainment.
Taking the first option that popped in my mind, I finally answered back, "Old enough to, like, smoke a cigarette." Sniper then removed his cigarette from his mouth as he passed it over to me.
"Well? Gonna show me?" This guy was straight up daring me now. Perhaps he really was a Scout at one point, considering he knows all these slimy college tactics. And it was working on me hard right now. Damn this man is good.
I swiped it from his hand and held it in-between my thumb and index finger. To be honest, I never tried a cigarette before. Mostly because it smelled awful and the fact that inhaling shit on paper did not look so appealing. I take a breath before I sat the white end of the cigarette between my lips. But before I could even get to sucking on it, I just ended up hacking it right out.
"Holy shit that's fucking awful!" Whatever had landed on my tongue, it tasted like pure burnt charcoal.
"That's because yah sucked on the burnt end yah mug!" Sniper went into a hysterical fit over my stupidity. Perhaps this was for the best because I really did not want to smoke that shit. "Here, give it back. I didn't want ya to start an unhealthy habit anyway." He quickly takes it from my hand and starts sucking on it again.
"Whatever, smoking' ain't any good for you. Just a frickin' cancer on a stick. Shit's goin' to end up killin' you." I unthinkingly complained at him, feeling all pissed off now. Sniper settled down his laughter as he heaves out a sigh.
"Yeah, it probably will." He replied in a low, weary tone. Damn, now I feel like a jackass. Of course the guy knew it was bad, everyone does. He did not have to hear that crap from me. The mood went a little sour as the conversation ended up halting again. "Forget I said anythin'." Sniper stood up as he looked ready to head back to base.
"No need to get all moody on me now." I tried to apologize, but I ended up sounding like an asshole instead.
"The Scout thing was a joke." I just looked up at him, confused. "I lied." He then turns his back at me and starts heading towards the base. As much as I wanted to follow after the guy, I had no idea what to even say once I caught up with him. Was he really joking or was he joking that he was joking about joking. Or maybe he was that upset over the smoking comment. Shit, this guy still confuses the hell out of me.
"Heya, boi!" Someone suddenly calls out to me as I look around to see Engineer. The guy was waving over to me at the top area of the base. I stand to my feet as I wave back at him. I then watch him hurry, or waddle towards me. The guy looked tuckered out as he finished stepping off the last step of the staircase. I give Engineer a moment to breathe again before saying anything.
"Needed somthin'?" I finally asked him, a little curious why he abandoned his girlfriend to come over and talk to me.
Engineer takes a look around the area and then asks, "Stretch ain't here anymore? I could have sworn I last saw the guy with yah."
"He just left." I double pointed over to the entrance. "Did you need him for somethin'?"
"Nah, was just wonderin' where he went. Besides, it seems rude to ask a guy anythin' when he hasn't even spoken a word towards yah." Thinking over that comment, I do not recall anyone else just casually speaking with Sniper. Sniper did say Spy gave him a spare pack of cigarettes a while back, but I doubt much conversation was happening between the two. "He sure speaks a lot to yah though." He adds on, a slight chuckle escaping him. The way he said it made it sound like Sniper was giving me special privileges to talk with him. I suppose that was not far from the truth, considering how many times I try to force a sentence or even a word out of the guy.
"You ain't missin' much. He's like talking at your mirror. Only you don't see yer beautiful self, but an old lookin' dude."
"I'll be honest, I was gettin' curious with ya'lls talkin'. " He admits, looking a little embarrassed now.
"Don't tell me you were gettin' all lonely?" I snicker back.
"Well, I don't want to talk ill about my baby or nothin'. But she's been givin' me the cold barrel." He says with another laugh. It made sense, considering you won't get much conversation with an inanimate death machine. "Talkin' to Demoman didn't seem to help either. His snorin' was too complex for my nuggin' to understand."
"Well, if you really wanted to know, he told me this weird joke." I sat down on the grass again. He came over and sat himself next to me.
"Joke, huh? Now I'm interested." Before I could open my mouth, Engineer quickly added, "Keep it short." He got lucky that this story was already short to begin with because I would have just yapped on and on until ceasefire rolled around.
"OK, short." I complain a little as I go off telling him what happen. "So I told a couple stories I heard floating around, he goes on a quick cigarette break, and then we ended up jokin' about our ages… Oh, Sniper told me he was a Scout first, than the age's thing happened."
Stopping me with a finger over, he asks, "Wait, Sniper used to be a Scout?"
"Yeah." I give him a shrug. Engineer pondered to himself for a moment before motioning his hand over, telling me to continue again.
"So he goes on sayin' he was a Scout a while back or somethin'. I dunno, I didn't give the guy a chance to explain why or how, but he did say it happened a long time ago. So the two of us taunted at each other about our ages and then he dared me to have a smoke, and I kinda did, but didn't. Shit was gross either way, wouldn't recommend it. Anyway, after my failed smokin' attempt, I go off on him on his smokin' addiction. Well, I didn't mean to go off on him. I just got all uppity over the stupid dare, which was stupid of me." I then stop myself. This whole smoking thing really got on my nerves. It was hard to explain what I was feeling right now, or rather, I did not want to tell myself what I was feeling. Shit, I really wish I could have enjoyed smoking the damn thing, but I hate cigarettes so damn much.
"Was he makin' fun of yah?" Engineer looked quite concerned over my sudden quietness.
"No, like, he just… Shit, I just hated bein' poked fun because of my age." My tone fluctuated as it started off loud and then slowly became softer as I ended. Engineer had to listen in closely near the end, but he seemed to understand what I said.
"Well, you ain't going to prove yer an adult by gettin' a tantrum now." He tries to lighten the mood with a joke, but I was honestly tired of jokes at this point. Maybe it was because the joke felt a little too personal to me. How lame. I ignored the comment and sulked to myself. There was a pause before Engineer spoke again, more seriously this time around. "Hey, yah don't need to drink, or smoke, or whatever else to be a man. A man's a man when he makes his own choices in life. He doesn't let others tell him what to do." I look at him, a little surprised to hear him say something like that to me, of all people. If anything, the guy should have smacked me behind the head with his wrench and told me to grow a backbone or whatever. I kind of wish he did now, because I'm getting that stupid thing called 'emotions' again.
"I don't need you tellin' me what to do." Again, I responded like a total asshole. Thankfully, Engineer seemed to be used to it as he tips his hat with a smile. I expected the conversation to just end there until Engineer told me something.
"He may have been tellin' the truth." He was probably talking about the whole thing about Sniper being a Scout before. "He wouldn't lie. There would be no reason to."
"You sure know all the answers." I was feeling all annoyed with how knowledgeable this guy was acting towards me. "Fine, tell me, why did he provoke Soldier like that anyway?"
"Hah! Soldier-boy was happy to let out some of that steam." That reply was so quick and unexpected that I had wondered if he had held onto that answer for some time.
"Are ya sayin' it was for hardhat's benefit?"
"He has been less strict, hasn't he? Sure it's his job to boss us around, but even he needs a little fun once in a while." The guy was right. After that huge food fight, Soldier became a lot less strict with us. His speeches were shorter, he yelled a lot less, and we did not even have to ask him to go to the toilet anymore. Sure, he was still doing his job, but he let a few things slide every now and again. I had wondered if Spy had just finally snapped, trapped Soldier away in the middle of nowhere, and pretended to be the guy himself. Luckily, or sadly, that was not the case.
"So, like, Sniper did it so Soldier could let out some steam?" Engineer had to ponder for a moment, looking unsure with himself.
"Granted, if you didn't throw yer food at Soldier-boy before, the food fight would've never happened. I only threw my food because yah did." Engineer was right again, the fight would not have happened if I did not interfere. Sniper would still be doing push-ups or sit-ups, or whatever other –ups Soldier could think of to torture the guy with. The thought alone made me angry. That guy was just sacrificing himself to be Soldier's punching bag. Maybe he had something planned, but he did not have to risk the abuse and humiliation to help morale. It was not like we needed it anyway, we were doing fine. Crap, maybe I am just overthinking all this. Maybe the guy never meant to cause all this trouble, maybe he was just being lazy or… or…! Fucking hell, I am so pissed right now.
"Frickin' bastard!" I swear out loudly as I suddenly jumped to my feet. It scared Engineer as he fell backwards, his hands saving him from impacting the ground. Before the man could say anything back, I jump over him and start sprinting to the base. It was rude, I know, and I would understand if Engineer was angry over it as well. But there was something important I needed to do. Like Engineer said; a man's a man when he makes his own choices.