Chapter 14 – The Pain Of The Game

Ajay was the first off the transport ship and into the hanger. She walked swiftly through the building, everyone else was lingering behind her. Their victory was a narrow one, in fact it almost felt like a loss. Ajay just wanted to get to the conference room and get this debriefing over with so that she could get home. She didn't feel like celebrating and it didn't seem like anyone else did either. The tension in the transport ship was thick and it didn't seem like anyone wanted to invite Caustic out to party so it was just better if no one went out and partied. "Caustic? She would pull up his data later and look up his real name."

The debriefing didn't take long, it usually didn't for her. Ajay quickly changed back into here civilian clothes on the clothing screen. She wore dark, baggy pants, a dark tank, and a dark loose fitting hoodie with the hood pulled over her head. She grabbed her back pack and made sure D.O.C. was secured firmly in the bag before throwing the backpack over her shoulder. She made a quiet exit from HQ before anyone could stop her to talk. She made every attempt to avoid everyone.

The air outside was cool against Ajay's face. She was glad to have warm clothes on. She clutched her left side as she hurried down the street to the liquor store. She was in and out of the liquor store in no time, leaving with a bottle of rum. Her head started spinning but she managed to make it to her apartment where she pounded her passcode into the pin pad. She had to do it several times before she finally got the code right. She got inside and set her stuff down. She released D.O.C. to roam the apartment while she took two pills out of her pill bottle. She kicked off her shoes by the door and started towards her bedroom.

On the way to her bedroom Ajay opened the bottle of rum and popped the pills into her mouth and took a generous drink of rum. The rum burned for a little bit afterward. She flipped the lights on in her room and set the bottle of rum down on the floor in the corner of her room next to a floor length mirror. She went over to her bed and shimmied off her pants before stumbling to the floor. She reached under the bed and pulled out a huge first aid kit. She pulled the kit out, dragging it with her as she crawled over to the mirror and sat down in front of the mirror. She ripped her hoodie off sighing as she tossed it to the floor. She grabbed the bottle and took another drink of rum before setting it down. Ajay then peeled off her stiff tank top from her body, holding back a yelp. She winced in pain as she was finally able to get the blood soaked tank off.

She took another drink of rum and sat in her blush color panties and bra in front of the mirror. She peered in the mirror at her left side. At just about the 7th and 8th rib was a large open laceration from a stray bullet from the arena. The arena was not perfect and sometimes the Legends got hurt; it was apparently in the contract. She didn't mention it in the debriefing because she didn't want to sit out for any of her matches. She downed some more rum and opened her first aid kit.

She again looked at her laceration in the mirror to assess what supplies she would need to patch herself up. It was dripping blood, not at alarming rate but she needed to take care of it if she would be in any shape to compete again. They had almost lost that match. She felt like she almost let her team down. She wasn't nearly as skilled as her teammates. All she could do was drop care packages, heal teammates, pickup teammates fast, and heal 25% faster than another other Legend. She was nothing special. She could be useful at times but she didn't feel very tactical like her other teammates. Maybe someday she could be as good as the other Legends. She would just have to keep practicing and working hard.

The first aid kit wasn't a standard kit, it was something that Ajay slapped together for her own personal needs. It was outfitted with items that she knew she would use for herself or others. She knew she would need some stitches so she pulled out the suture kit and opened it. She began to thread the crescent shaped needle with medical thread. She pulled out a pack of gauze, scissors, a bottle of saline, telfa (a non-adherent dressing), a pair of gloves, and tape. She pulled her tank top to floor just underneath her left side. She took another drink of rum; she was already half way through the bottle.

Ajay unscrewed the bottle of saline and poured a generous amount over her bleeding wound to cleanse it. She watched as the saline turned light red as it mixed with blood and hit her tank top on the floor. She set the bottle to the side and took gauze and gently patted her wound dry. She finished the bottle of rum and pulled off four long pieces of tape, partially attaching them to the side of mirror in front of her. She slid the gloves over her hands and picked up the needle. Her head was still spinning. She was excellent at stitching up anyone but is was a little more difficult to do it on herself in the mirror. She knew someone who was good at it but they weren't here. She needed him but once again he wasn't here.

She snapped out of it as she pierced her skin with the needle and began to move the thread through her skin and over her wound. She stitched herself up with ease. She was done in about five minutes. She tied the thread and clipped the excess. She poured saline over her newly closed wound to clean up the blood that escaped during her stitch up. She replaced the cap on the bottle of saline and put it back in the first aid kit. She used the rest of the gauze to pat the area dry. She placed the telfa to the stitched up site and used the tape on the edges of telfa. She managed to put the scissors away in the kit before falling back onto the floor. A wave of pain, alcohol, and narcotics hit her all at once. She curled up on her right side and fell asleep on the cold hardwood floor. D.O.C. came in a nuzzled up beside her.

It wasn't more than three hours later and Ajay shot straight up from the floor. Her breathing was labored. She wiped sweat from her forehead as she shivered. She was still in her bra and panties. She looked down on the floor where she was laying, it was damp with her sweat. The nightmares were more vivid, they felt so real. She focused on her breathing as she wrapped her arms around herself. Her side ached. The light was still on in her room. It was still dark outside. She looked in the mirror at herself. She peered down at her covered wound. She noticed some shadowing on the telfa. She sighed because she knew her wound was seeping. She looked at herself in the mirror again. She was a mess, her hair was falling out of the buns she put them in. Dirt was caked on her face, arms, and legs. A thin layer of blood was dried to her left leg.

She pushed herself off the floor, "Ugh." The pain was sharp but it wasn't as bad as earlier. She pulled off her bra and slid off her panties. She slowly made her way to the bathroom and ran the shower with warm water. "No baths with this wound." Her hair fell down to her waist before she stepped into the shower and sat down with her back against the stream. Ajay pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She pressed her forehead into her knees and let the water run down body. After a few minutes she encouraged herself to stand up and get cleaned up. She watched as the water turn from rusted brown to clear. Although the dressing still covered her wound, she was careful not to get soap in that area; she didn't need the wound infected or agitated.

When Ajay felt she was clean enough she got out of the shower and dried off. She made back to her room and sat naked in the mirror. She replaced her dressing but this time she reinforced it with gauze and then telfa and window taped it. She got dressed in the essentials. She threw on Elliot's tie dye shirt, tying it off at the bottom. It was a nice loose fit and hung off her left shoulder. She pulled on a pair black cutoff jeans, socks, and pair of white Chuck Taylors. She pulled her phone out of her blood soaked pants. She had two messages from HQ.

Legends:

Tomorrow we will be releasing Duos mode. We have paired you up in groups of two. This week you can expect a match every night.

She read further down the message to the list of teams which only consisted of team names. Apparently they were trying to promote the game in a different way. Team names:

Bomb Squad

Hunt and Run

Voice Vision

Medicine is Fun

Ajay had to count teams again. "Am I by myself?" She rubbed her forehead for a moment with her free hand. She was still a little dizzy from everything going. She was trying to make sense of this mess that Apex was putting her again. She let out a sigh and read the second message on her phone.

Ajay:

Congratulations on your victory. Tomorrow you will be paired up with a new Legend. Below you will find the details of your teammate to help you coordinate your game plan. You will meet your new teammate in the transport ship tomorrow evening.

Mirage – Holographic Trickster

Passive – Encore: drops a decoy for 5 seconds after being downed

Tactical – Psyche Out: sends out a decoy to confuse the enemy

Ultimate – Vanishing Act: cloaks himself and spawns a group of decoys around him

Ajay's head hurt even more from all of this new information. Two new Legends in two days. It was a lot to take in. She looked at the time on her phone. It was only 2am. She began to pick up the mess in her room. She decided to run diagnostics on D.O.C before trying to relax again. She laid down in her bed and stared at the ceiling until she drifted into shallow sleep.