Chapter 11- Justified Joke
Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider however I do own Snake and the plot.
Note: Post Crocodile Tears

Wolf opened his eyes to the ceiling of his cell, the same ceiling his eyes had been focused on for most of past day. He'd just woken up from his sleep and was deliberating what time it was, so far they had had no indication as to the time, it could be 3am and he wouldn't know. It didn't help his body clock was unreliable, because he just fell asleep anytime, he'd gone to sleep more times than needed in the last few days. Normally his body would be able to know around about what time it was, but this time it just wasn't. Wolf wondered if this was down that drug they had been given, maybe this was all part Cub's scheme and he only wanted to inflict a sense of confusion as to how long they'd been in the cell. Maybe Cub had already started mentally torturing them.

He gazed at all the cracks lining the ceiling, which unsurprisingly were the same cracks he'd looked at a just a moment ago. Everything was the same in this cell and Wolf was growing rather agitated about it, his mind had nothing new to think about and he was so bored it felt painful. He was sure he'd eventually just have a mental breakdown from the endurance of being in the same environment, with the same walls, the same ceiling and the same idiots with him.

He sat up and made it to his feet, his legs were screaming in pain and Wolf knew that he needed to attempt to do some kind of exercise with them to stop them from seizing up, but that was hardly possible in a very tiny cell with three other people.

His eyes wondered over the corridor, by the door and finally fell to one of the cages opposite him. Just the same cell, with the same walls and… wait what was that?

Wolf felt his heart jump, there in the cell was a blanket. Normally he would have passed it off, but this was something new and this was an opportunity to relieve his boredom.

Wolf wondered how it gotten there. When had it got there? It certainly hadn't been there before his sleep and he hadn't heard anyone enter, which must have happened in order for it to appear there. Unless it was some kind of illusion. Wolf decided that he should probably get the others up, it wasn't as if they were busy or needed the sleep.

"Oi!" He shouted into Eagle's ear who jumped.

"What? Let me go to sleep," Eagle slurred, still half-asleep.

"There's something you need to see, help me get the others up."

Eagle pushed Snake roughly in order for him to get up and Wolf shouted once again but this time in Spider's ear. Once they had been vaguely assembled and Snake had mostly woken Wolf pointed to the blanket. Snake took no notice however.

"Why did you get us up? Seriously there's nothing that would even need for us to be woken up. I don't know about everyone else but I'm still tired and I'm going to sleep again," Snake said, starting to find a comfortable position to sleep again.

Snake was always grumpy when he was woken early, which meant it was most days in camp, and at camp it had always a pain to be on the receiving end to his annoyance in the morning.

"I agree with Snake," agreed Spider in a quiet voice.

Wolf sighed, his unit really didn't trust him. Couldn't they understand he wouldn't get them up if it was for no reason? Maybe if he tried to explain it they would see sense.

"Guys, over there… is erm a blanket in the cell," Wolf begun, in full knowledge he was saying something that sounded rather silly, "but it wasn't there before-"

"Wolf! It's a goddamn blanket. You get us up for a blanket?" Snake argued, standing up to shout in his face.

"Well it wasn't there before. Honestly this could help us get out."

"No it's not. It's a blanket, a cloth stupid blanket and why would we want to see a stupid, ridiculous blanket. Even if it wasn't there before. Why would we want to see? Answer me Wolf, why-"

Eagle who had been ignoring the argument was staring at the blanket when he noticed something important.

"Hold on, I think Wolf's got a point. That-" Eagle interrupted Snake, only to be interrupted by him.

"Eagle shut it!" Snake roared. Wolf could see the effects of the cell already, even if Snake was woken up early and he was in a bad mood he wouldn't take his rage like this. Snake would probably shout once (or on occasion twice) and become quiet, brooding over and would then be a grump for the rest of the day, but apart from that it would be the extent of his anger.

"But listen have you not-" Eagle once more started determined to get his point across.

"No, you listen you over-dram-" Snake started until Wolf couldn't take it any longer. He didn't want a unit like this and this wasn't helping anyone, Snake had no right and needed to be stopped- this couldn't go on.

Wolf slammed his fist into Snake's face. Snake reeled back and hit into the wall of the cell behind him clutching his face, Wolf noted the broken nose he now showed was rather a nice side-effect. Wolf waited until Snake was able to move from the wall and although he was still holding a bleeding nose went towards him in a step.

"You are K-Unit. Other units have fought before, remember G-Unit, remember how they argued when they were infiltrating the base in Israel. Remember that because of their arguing and noise they got shot dead. I don't care if you're tired, if you're angry, but you do not act like that! Do you hear me?," Wolf asked with such anger that he felt his face boiling and could just picture himself going completely red.

The story was true, Wolf had known some of the members from the unit and knew of the tensions that they had had at camp between them before they had left. Nobody had expected it to happen, not to one of their own and Wolf didn't want anything like that to happen to his unit. Even if it meant he needed to be harsh on them.

Snake averted his eyes from his leader and nodded, but that wasn't what Wolf wanted.

"Did you hear me?" Wolf demanded again forcing his head to look at him and glaring at him with such ferocity Snake tried, and failed as there was a wall, to step backwards.

"Yes," was the meek reply from Snake and once Wolf heard he let the man go and went back to his place in the cell.

Spider and Eagle hadn't moved from their positions, both of them looking down in order to avoid Wolf's rage. Wolf let out a breath, counting down to ten and calming himself down as unlike Snake he needed to be in control of his anger, no control would not help them escape.

The cell was silent, nobody wanted to speak. Wolf feeling he had calmed down decided it was time they start talking again, because the last thing he wanted to do was completely alienate his fellow comrades.

"So Eagle, you were saying?"

"Well I was going to say that, you know the blanket," Eagle murmured, "Well there's-something-important-you-have-to-see-under-it."

Eagle spoke the last part exceedingly fast, confusing all the occupants of the cell. Wolf struggled to grasp what Eagle had just said and what it meant. He wasn't the only one though.

"Erm… what?" Spider asked.

"There's a… there's a body over there."

As soon as the sentence was said aloud Wolf went straight to the edge of the cell, he moved to the left as he could see more of the blanket from that angle and long behold there underneath the blanket was a body.

"So is… it alive?" Spider whispered, as if it would awake what may be someone alive, hesitantly. Wolf also wondered about that, or was it possible the body was alive. Perhaps this would help them if there was someone who could help with escaping.

Spider's question was directed at anybody but Wolf refrained from answering as he wasn't a medically knowledgeable and his vision wasn't the best for seeing details from long distances. He wasn't short-sighted but he knew his sight wasn't as good as his comrades, so left it up to them for the diagnosis.

"There's no chest movements, there's no way a person could be alive without having to breathe and in addition to that there's hardly any colour to the body. I'm sorry, but that body is dead," Eagle reported, saddened by the death of the prisoner and realising it could be them soon.

Wolf nodded but something else Cub had said came to mind.

"Wait, so that's the clue? What a sick, stupid joke."

The others nodded in response, they had hoped the clue might be an actual clue, turns out it was just another sick joke from Cub. Must be part of his mental torture he was putting them through. Which along with Wolf's loss of sanity and the threat his unit might kill each other if something were to set them off again, their hopes for survival didn't look good.

Nevertheless the body played an important part in the scheme of things to Wolf, it wasn't just a sick joke. That was just not Cub's style, no instead it was a warning. A warming directed at them: they'd soon be dead if they didn't get out.

A/N: Well it is sort of a clue, but then again it's not. I'm just going to say the answer to why Cub is how he is, is very soon. Will be updating latest on Sunday but will be editing a few chapters at the weekend.

Sort of touched on this but I haven't yet had time to edit the previous chapters, that includes errors and such, but I will be doing so at the weekend.

Thanks to reviewers: Dani9513, Musiclovesbest, .Difficult, Aestiva, LinzPhantom, It'sFun2BCrazy, Owltalon, Hmmmmm and BookNerdWorm. Also to all the alerters, favouriters and readers. :)