Chapter 10 First Encounter
I made it back to the garage in no time flat. But upon reaching it I realized that I would never be on time if I dropped of Revolution and took the truck. So instead of that plan I picked the truck back up and began boosting to Trene. I made it back to my house and kneeled Revolution down in the street in front of the house, much to the horror of the neighbors. I put Revolution on standby and ran inside.
"blaze!" I yelled upon gaining entrance to the house.
"What?" I heard her yelp from upstairs.
"tell me your dressed, please be dressed..."
"well, I am right now but I think that is the first time you've been this excited with my having clothes on."
I threw her comment behind me. "hey, hurry up and get out here. We have a dinner date with the guy who fixed up my AC. we have to go to the garage to you can get your AC. that is the only way well be on time."
"where is your truck? And was that you just now? That rumble out front?" she walked out over the catwalk and began talking to me from the banister.
"yeah that was me. I came back in Revolution so that I would make it. C'mon, hurry up we need to get to the garage so you can get your AC."
"my AC?"
"no more questions! C'mon, we need to go!"
"alright, alright. Let me get my pants back on."
"eh?" oh god. What did I miss?
I heard thumps coming down the stairs. I looked over and sure enough, blaze was jumping over the last piece of the stair wall and landing right in front of me. "ready."
I gathered myself after she made me jump when she landed. "alright, lets go then." I walked out the door and out to Revolution.
"how am I supposed to get there?"
"well, I could carry you with the AC or you could ride in the cockpit with me?"
"I'll ride."
I climbed up to the cockpit hatch and blaze followed. I got in and instructed Revolution to extend the extra grab bars for blaze. This time though, four bars came out and straps with them.
"well, I guess he did a few unmentioned upgrades." Blaze climbed into the harness and strapped herself in. "you in tight?"
she looked at me with a sly grin. "always." She smirked then went back to tightening her chest strap. "ready."
I strapped in and activated al systems, then stood Revolution up. "your ready? No your not..."
"wha-" she got half of her word out when she was silence by my boosting straight upwards. As soon as I was twice as clear of the buildings as I needed to be I hit my boosters toward Cercall. Which I'm sure made here eyes blur and knocked the wind out of her.
We were in Cercall in five minutes. I landed in front of the AC hangar door. The door opened slowly and I walked inside. "where is your AC?" I didn't get an answer.
I looked back to see blaze's head back against the wall and her eyes opened about as they would go. "hey? You okay?" she was breathing very heavily.
"you... ASSHOLE!!" she came out of those harnesses faster than I thought humanly possible. She jumped over from the bottom bar and wraped her arms around my neck as she flew through the air. "I'll kill you!" she swung her arm back and brought it around. Luckily my arm was there to catch it. Making Revolution's arm move to match.
"hey, I'm still strapped in remember! Go and get your AC. you can kill me later."
"fine!" She yelled in my face. "Then she jumped to the open hatch." She leaned out a bit and looked down. Then she leaned back in and looked at me. "you want me to jump?"
"oh!" I realized that I was still standing straight up, making the hatch about twenty-five to thirty feat off the ground. I kneeled down slowly as to not knock blaze out of the hatch. "hurry up." I told her as she jumped out of the AC and to the ground.
She ran inside and I boosted up over the garage and landed in front of the AC entrance to the garages to wait for blaze. "how long can it take to get in an AC?" I said impatiently just as the door began rolling upward about ten minutes later.
I expected blaze to walk out in her AC but was instead greeted with the view of the strange, red and black AC that I had seen in the garage a few days before. It walked out of the hanger doors, stood in front of me, and put its hand up to my shoulder. It patted Revolution's shoulder and then took a step aside and walked away. I turned to look at it again and it was gone, nowhere in sight. I didn't know how a twelve to fifteen meters tall machine can just disappear but it had managed it.
"what are you looking at?"
I turned around again and blaze was standing in front of me. "geez, how long does it take to get in an AC?" I asked, shaking off what had just happened for another time and place where I could think.
"obviously it takes a few minutes." She said, leaning to the side a bit. "you ready to go yet?"
"yeah, lets get moving." I said, turning and walked away from the garage. "hey, wanna race?" I asked her as she walked behind me.
"yeah, why not. I doubt your AC is fast enough to beat Tempest here." Her AC moved its arm up and patted the chest.
"even after riding with me?"
"eh, ACs always seem much faster when your not in control."
"alright then. Here is the location of the guy's house." I told the computer to send over the coordinates. "okay, we'll start here, first one there is the winner."
"what is the prize?"
"for winning? Eh, we'll figure that out when I win." I said with a sly grin.
"oh really? What are you concocting in that sick mind of yours?"
"you'll find out." I said as I took a starting position. She stepped up next to me and took the same position.
"ready?"
"your asking me? You go first." I told her.
"you want me to go first? Well, normally I would argue that but since you seem so intent on losing then I guess I will." She took off running then hit her boosters, kicking dirt up into my ACs face.
"hehehe...." I hit my boosters and zoomed off into the night. Blaze was well ahead of me but I was closing, really fast. I caught up with her and began boosting backward in front of her as I went past.
"you ass!" she yelled as I flew past her and took the lead with a vengeance.
"haha! What now!" I yelled as I took off for Matt's house.
I continued flying for about 5 minutes and was sure I was almost to matt's house. I had long since left blaze in my past. I was alone along the flat open ground when the area directly underneath me exploded. I was through up into the air and tumbled head over heels about three times, I couldn't really count but that was my best guess.
"what the hell!?!?" I landed on my back. I struggled to get to my feet, my legs felt like jello after being flung around by the force of my landing. I stood and scanned around me... nothing. I turned to look behind me and was faced with the horrifying head of the strange units I kept seeing on my missions. I reacted as anyone would and promptly fell backwards onto my ass once more. I started moving backwards, dragging my ass along behind me when I finally realized that I had boosters on my back.
I hit my booster, which picked me back up to my feet and up into the air. I regained myself while in the air and decided to land and see what the hell this thing wanted.
I hope this thing don't want to fight, it doesn't look like it will be pretty if it does... I thought to myself as I lowered myself to the ground.
I landed and opened a comm. channel. "what do you want from me? Why do you keep appearing everywhere?" I said calmly, hoping to get a response.
The only response I got was the thing lifting its hand and a blade like object protrude from its palm. Blue liquid came out with the blade, as if it 'cut' itself as it came through. The unit lurched forward and brought the blade up and around to swing it down onto me.
I was stunned, I couldn't move until it came to just above my 'collar' when I jumped back, the tip of the blade scraping against the front of Revolution's armour.
God help me, here I go... I thought to myself as I lifted my shotgun and fired.
The spread shot pummeled the unit but did little to slow its advance. It flew at me at ungodly speed and whipped its other hand around as another blade came out of its other hand. It continued coming at me as I brought my machinegun up as well and began firing both of my weapons at the incoming abomination. My shots were connecting but didn't seem to be doing much damage...
Screw this!
"You little bastard! Come get me!! I dare you to move!" I screamed over the open comm. as I threw my weapons to the side and ignited both of my blades at the same time that I hit my boosters towards the incoming unit. We came to close proximity and I swung my right blade downward and the other I stabbed upward. The units' left blade went through Revolution's right shoulder as my right blade connected with its left shoulder coming downward. The units' right blade was being swung horizontally from the outside but my upward stab was faster and it went up through the front of its core and came out through the top of its head. The units' right blade continued to swing horizontally but by the time it got to my core it had lost all its strength and merely clanged against my armour when it connected.
I turned off both of my blades and stepped away from the unit as it fell to the ground. A giant hole burned through the core and head, its left arm lay a few meters from the body. Upon closer inspection it seemed that it was quite like an actual body, the hole looked more like a wound than the usual melted hole surrounded by scorched metal that is usually present after an attack like that. In fact, it looked like a wound that was cauterized shut. There was no more of that blue liquid seeping from the wound as there was when the blades came out. I bent over to get a closer look at it but as I did, the unit began to shift and disappear like sand in the wind. The sand blew all around me in a spiral before floating up into the sky.
What the hell are these things?
I had been trying to forget about these things for a better time to think about them and look for answers but it seems that they have followed me, and they do not intend to give me the time I was asking for. I walked back to pick up my weapons and clipped them back to my waist. I hit my boosters once again towards Matt's house.
"Matt has seen a lot, maybe he knows something..." I thought as I came up towards Matt's house. I looked around and as expected, Blaze had not yet arrived. I put Revolution down behind his house and exited the cockpit. I stepped from the AC and walked toward the back door of Matt's house.
I was about fifteen feet from his door when it sprang open and Matt was standing in the doorway. "Hey Xero, I see you had some trouble on the way out here." He said as he pointed towards Revolution's shoulder.
"Yeah, nothing important was damaged. The arm still works flawlessly." I said when I stopped and turned to look back at the machine which was kneeling in Matt's backyard.
"so, what happened exactly?"
"well, actually that is something that I would like to talk to you about."
He raised an eyebrow.
"can we talk in the garage?"
"yeah sure, let me tell Robin to hold diner for a few minutes." He stepped back inside for a moment then reappeared in the doorway. "alright, lets go." He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. I followed him to the garage. We stepped inside and he lead me to an office like room off to the side of the main door. The room was more like a recreation room actually. It had a pool table, two couches that sat opposite each other, and some laze-y-boy chairs scattered around. He walked over and took a seat at one of the couches. I sat at the opposite couch. "what is it you want to talk about, Xero?"
"okay, I don't know if you are going to have any answers for me or if you are even going to believe me but here I go anyway." I took a deep breath.
But he interrupted me before I could say anything, "if it is anything regarding women I cannot help you..."
We both laughed.
"no not this time Matt, maybe later but not now." I laughed again, I guess it was easy to see that something was bothering me since he was trying to help me out. I was glad he was trying. "alright, serious now; when I was on my initial raven test I saw a strange looking unit at the end of the test. Now, before you say anything, I am talking like, 'not of this world' kind of strange. This thing was the size of an AC but it had these really weird parts that had horns and stuff. And they are just really weird. Then I have seen them on missions, I have seen them in the place of something else. Like I look at something and I see one of these units instead then I blink and what its gone."
He didn't say anything, he just closed his eyes and bowed his head.
I continued, "then today, when I was on my way here, I fought one. I thought that it may have just been me getting illusional because I am screwed up in the head but when it flew at me and this blade came out of its hand, I started thinking they might be real."
Still no response.
"I am telling you this because I was hoping since you have seen a lot and have been around for a while, not saying your old, but have been around the block. I was hoping that you could tell me a little of what is going on exactly." I paused for breath. "so Matt, you got anything for me?"
he slowly raised his head
"I know what you are fighting, I know some of what they are." He finaly responded.
My heart jumped.
"but..."
my heart sank.
"I cannot tell you what they are and where they are from yet. You are just not ready. You will know when to come back for some answers. But that time is not now."
He sounded much more serious than the normal joking person that he usually is. "I don't quite understand, why can't you tell me? What am I not ready for?"
"in due time, you will understand. Now, bring your AC in here and I will have then computer auto repair when we are at diner."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "NO, damn you! Tell me what the hell is going on before it kills me!"
"Xero! Do not yell at me! You will regret it." He bellowed. "now God damnit, I am no happier about this than you! But there is nothing we can do about it for now. We will have to wait and see what happens. But I assure you that no matter what happens, it will not kill you until you decide to let it!"
"I still don't understand..."
"I don't expect you to. Now, go get Revolution in here."
"whatever..." I stood quickly and walked outside and back into Revolution's cockpit. I stood and saw Blaze's AC in the front yard. I walked Revolution over to the hanger door of the garage. I stepped in and stood up to the scaffold after the door opened. I locked Revolution in position and powered down the AC. I got out of the cockpit and made my way back to the house. I walked right past Matt, who was typing away into the console in front of Revolution. I didn't say a word as I passed. I wasn't in much of a mood for talking. He stepped away from the console as I walked past and he followed me out of the garage and back to the house.
He stopped me before we got through the door, "hey, don't be mad at me. Don't be mad at my wife. Don't be mad at your girlfriend. Don't be mad at your friends. You will get the answers you are searching for, just... not today. Alright?" he looked up at me with a smile.
I couldn't stay mad at him forever, I'm sure he has his reasons for not telling me. He said he would tell me right? He hasn't let me down yet. "Yeah, its alright. Lets eat."
"Lets." He followed me into the house.
We walked inside and he showed me to the table. Blaze and his wife, Robin, were already sitting at the table and were waiting for us to begin eating.
"you hungry?" I said as I took a seat next to Blaze.
"you bet!" she replied.
Matt sat down at the end of the table. "who wants to say grace?"
I made it back to the garage in no time flat. But upon reaching it I realized that I would never be on time if I dropped of Revolution and took the truck. So instead of that plan I picked the truck back up and began boosting to Trene. I made it back to my house and kneeled Revolution down in the street in front of the house, much to the horror of the neighbors. I put Revolution on standby and ran inside.
"blaze!" I yelled upon gaining entrance to the house.
"What?" I heard her yelp from upstairs.
"tell me your dressed, please be dressed..."
"well, I am right now but I think that is the first time you've been this excited with my having clothes on."
I threw her comment behind me. "hey, hurry up and get out here. We have a dinner date with the guy who fixed up my AC. we have to go to the garage to you can get your AC. that is the only way well be on time."
"where is your truck? And was that you just now? That rumble out front?" she walked out over the catwalk and began talking to me from the banister.
"yeah that was me. I came back in Revolution so that I would make it. C'mon, hurry up we need to get to the garage so you can get your AC."
"my AC?"
"no more questions! C'mon, we need to go!"
"alright, alright. Let me get my pants back on."
"eh?" oh god. What did I miss?
I heard thumps coming down the stairs. I looked over and sure enough, blaze was jumping over the last piece of the stair wall and landing right in front of me. "ready."
I gathered myself after she made me jump when she landed. "alright, lets go then." I walked out the door and out to Revolution.
"how am I supposed to get there?"
"well, I could carry you with the AC or you could ride in the cockpit with me?"
"I'll ride."
I climbed up to the cockpit hatch and blaze followed. I got in and instructed Revolution to extend the extra grab bars for blaze. This time though, four bars came out and straps with them.
"well, I guess he did a few unmentioned upgrades." Blaze climbed into the harness and strapped herself in. "you in tight?"
she looked at me with a sly grin. "always." She smirked then went back to tightening her chest strap. "ready."
I strapped in and activated al systems, then stood Revolution up. "your ready? No your not..."
"wha-" she got half of her word out when she was silence by my boosting straight upwards. As soon as I was twice as clear of the buildings as I needed to be I hit my boosters toward Cercall. Which I'm sure made here eyes blur and knocked the wind out of her.
We were in Cercall in five minutes. I landed in front of the AC hangar door. The door opened slowly and I walked inside. "where is your AC?" I didn't get an answer.
I looked back to see blaze's head back against the wall and her eyes opened about as they would go. "hey? You okay?" she was breathing very heavily.
"you... ASSHOLE!!" she came out of those harnesses faster than I thought humanly possible. She jumped over from the bottom bar and wraped her arms around my neck as she flew through the air. "I'll kill you!" she swung her arm back and brought it around. Luckily my arm was there to catch it. Making Revolution's arm move to match.
"hey, I'm still strapped in remember! Go and get your AC. you can kill me later."
"fine!" She yelled in my face. "Then she jumped to the open hatch." She leaned out a bit and looked down. Then she leaned back in and looked at me. "you want me to jump?"
"oh!" I realized that I was still standing straight up, making the hatch about twenty-five to thirty feat off the ground. I kneeled down slowly as to not knock blaze out of the hatch. "hurry up." I told her as she jumped out of the AC and to the ground.
She ran inside and I boosted up over the garage and landed in front of the AC entrance to the garages to wait for blaze. "how long can it take to get in an AC?" I said impatiently just as the door began rolling upward about ten minutes later.
I expected blaze to walk out in her AC but was instead greeted with the view of the strange, red and black AC that I had seen in the garage a few days before. It walked out of the hanger doors, stood in front of me, and put its hand up to my shoulder. It patted Revolution's shoulder and then took a step aside and walked away. I turned to look at it again and it was gone, nowhere in sight. I didn't know how a twelve to fifteen meters tall machine can just disappear but it had managed it.
"what are you looking at?"
I turned around again and blaze was standing in front of me. "geez, how long does it take to get in an AC?" I asked, shaking off what had just happened for another time and place where I could think.
"obviously it takes a few minutes." She said, leaning to the side a bit. "you ready to go yet?"
"yeah, lets get moving." I said, turning and walked away from the garage. "hey, wanna race?" I asked her as she walked behind me.
"yeah, why not. I doubt your AC is fast enough to beat Tempest here." Her AC moved its arm up and patted the chest.
"even after riding with me?"
"eh, ACs always seem much faster when your not in control."
"alright then. Here is the location of the guy's house." I told the computer to send over the coordinates. "okay, we'll start here, first one there is the winner."
"what is the prize?"
"for winning? Eh, we'll figure that out when I win." I said with a sly grin.
"oh really? What are you concocting in that sick mind of yours?"
"you'll find out." I said as I took a starting position. She stepped up next to me and took the same position.
"ready?"
"your asking me? You go first." I told her.
"you want me to go first? Well, normally I would argue that but since you seem so intent on losing then I guess I will." She took off running then hit her boosters, kicking dirt up into my ACs face.
"hehehe...." I hit my boosters and zoomed off into the night. Blaze was well ahead of me but I was closing, really fast. I caught up with her and began boosting backward in front of her as I went past.
"you ass!" she yelled as I flew past her and took the lead with a vengeance.
"haha! What now!" I yelled as I took off for Matt's house.
I continued flying for about 5 minutes and was sure I was almost to matt's house. I had long since left blaze in my past. I was alone along the flat open ground when the area directly underneath me exploded. I was through up into the air and tumbled head over heels about three times, I couldn't really count but that was my best guess.
"what the hell!?!?" I landed on my back. I struggled to get to my feet, my legs felt like jello after being flung around by the force of my landing. I stood and scanned around me... nothing. I turned to look behind me and was faced with the horrifying head of the strange units I kept seeing on my missions. I reacted as anyone would and promptly fell backwards onto my ass once more. I started moving backwards, dragging my ass along behind me when I finally realized that I had boosters on my back.
I hit my booster, which picked me back up to my feet and up into the air. I regained myself while in the air and decided to land and see what the hell this thing wanted.
I hope this thing don't want to fight, it doesn't look like it will be pretty if it does... I thought to myself as I lowered myself to the ground.
I landed and opened a comm. channel. "what do you want from me? Why do you keep appearing everywhere?" I said calmly, hoping to get a response.
The only response I got was the thing lifting its hand and a blade like object protrude from its palm. Blue liquid came out with the blade, as if it 'cut' itself as it came through. The unit lurched forward and brought the blade up and around to swing it down onto me.
I was stunned, I couldn't move until it came to just above my 'collar' when I jumped back, the tip of the blade scraping against the front of Revolution's armour.
God help me, here I go... I thought to myself as I lifted my shotgun and fired.
The spread shot pummeled the unit but did little to slow its advance. It flew at me at ungodly speed and whipped its other hand around as another blade came out of its other hand. It continued coming at me as I brought my machinegun up as well and began firing both of my weapons at the incoming abomination. My shots were connecting but didn't seem to be doing much damage...
Screw this!
"You little bastard! Come get me!! I dare you to move!" I screamed over the open comm. as I threw my weapons to the side and ignited both of my blades at the same time that I hit my boosters towards the incoming unit. We came to close proximity and I swung my right blade downward and the other I stabbed upward. The units' left blade went through Revolution's right shoulder as my right blade connected with its left shoulder coming downward. The units' right blade was being swung horizontally from the outside but my upward stab was faster and it went up through the front of its core and came out through the top of its head. The units' right blade continued to swing horizontally but by the time it got to my core it had lost all its strength and merely clanged against my armour when it connected.
I turned off both of my blades and stepped away from the unit as it fell to the ground. A giant hole burned through the core and head, its left arm lay a few meters from the body. Upon closer inspection it seemed that it was quite like an actual body, the hole looked more like a wound than the usual melted hole surrounded by scorched metal that is usually present after an attack like that. In fact, it looked like a wound that was cauterized shut. There was no more of that blue liquid seeping from the wound as there was when the blades came out. I bent over to get a closer look at it but as I did, the unit began to shift and disappear like sand in the wind. The sand blew all around me in a spiral before floating up into the sky.
What the hell are these things?
I had been trying to forget about these things for a better time to think about them and look for answers but it seems that they have followed me, and they do not intend to give me the time I was asking for. I walked back to pick up my weapons and clipped them back to my waist. I hit my boosters once again towards Matt's house.
"Matt has seen a lot, maybe he knows something..." I thought as I came up towards Matt's house. I looked around and as expected, Blaze had not yet arrived. I put Revolution down behind his house and exited the cockpit. I stepped from the AC and walked toward the back door of Matt's house.
I was about fifteen feet from his door when it sprang open and Matt was standing in the doorway. "Hey Xero, I see you had some trouble on the way out here." He said as he pointed towards Revolution's shoulder.
"Yeah, nothing important was damaged. The arm still works flawlessly." I said when I stopped and turned to look back at the machine which was kneeling in Matt's backyard.
"so, what happened exactly?"
"well, actually that is something that I would like to talk to you about."
He raised an eyebrow.
"can we talk in the garage?"
"yeah sure, let me tell Robin to hold diner for a few minutes." He stepped back inside for a moment then reappeared in the doorway. "alright, lets go." He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him. I followed him to the garage. We stepped inside and he lead me to an office like room off to the side of the main door. The room was more like a recreation room actually. It had a pool table, two couches that sat opposite each other, and some laze-y-boy chairs scattered around. He walked over and took a seat at one of the couches. I sat at the opposite couch. "what is it you want to talk about, Xero?"
"okay, I don't know if you are going to have any answers for me or if you are even going to believe me but here I go anyway." I took a deep breath.
But he interrupted me before I could say anything, "if it is anything regarding women I cannot help you..."
We both laughed.
"no not this time Matt, maybe later but not now." I laughed again, I guess it was easy to see that something was bothering me since he was trying to help me out. I was glad he was trying. "alright, serious now; when I was on my initial raven test I saw a strange looking unit at the end of the test. Now, before you say anything, I am talking like, 'not of this world' kind of strange. This thing was the size of an AC but it had these really weird parts that had horns and stuff. And they are just really weird. Then I have seen them on missions, I have seen them in the place of something else. Like I look at something and I see one of these units instead then I blink and what its gone."
He didn't say anything, he just closed his eyes and bowed his head.
I continued, "then today, when I was on my way here, I fought one. I thought that it may have just been me getting illusional because I am screwed up in the head but when it flew at me and this blade came out of its hand, I started thinking they might be real."
Still no response.
"I am telling you this because I was hoping since you have seen a lot and have been around for a while, not saying your old, but have been around the block. I was hoping that you could tell me a little of what is going on exactly." I paused for breath. "so Matt, you got anything for me?"
he slowly raised his head
"I know what you are fighting, I know some of what they are." He finaly responded.
My heart jumped.
"but..."
my heart sank.
"I cannot tell you what they are and where they are from yet. You are just not ready. You will know when to come back for some answers. But that time is not now."
He sounded much more serious than the normal joking person that he usually is. "I don't quite understand, why can't you tell me? What am I not ready for?"
"in due time, you will understand. Now, bring your AC in here and I will have then computer auto repair when we are at diner."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "NO, damn you! Tell me what the hell is going on before it kills me!"
"Xero! Do not yell at me! You will regret it." He bellowed. "now God damnit, I am no happier about this than you! But there is nothing we can do about it for now. We will have to wait and see what happens. But I assure you that no matter what happens, it will not kill you until you decide to let it!"
"I still don't understand..."
"I don't expect you to. Now, go get Revolution in here."
"whatever..." I stood quickly and walked outside and back into Revolution's cockpit. I stood and saw Blaze's AC in the front yard. I walked Revolution over to the hanger door of the garage. I stepped in and stood up to the scaffold after the door opened. I locked Revolution in position and powered down the AC. I got out of the cockpit and made my way back to the house. I walked right past Matt, who was typing away into the console in front of Revolution. I didn't say a word as I passed. I wasn't in much of a mood for talking. He stepped away from the console as I walked past and he followed me out of the garage and back to the house.
He stopped me before we got through the door, "hey, don't be mad at me. Don't be mad at my wife. Don't be mad at your girlfriend. Don't be mad at your friends. You will get the answers you are searching for, just... not today. Alright?" he looked up at me with a smile.
I couldn't stay mad at him forever, I'm sure he has his reasons for not telling me. He said he would tell me right? He hasn't let me down yet. "Yeah, its alright. Lets eat."
"Lets." He followed me into the house.
We walked inside and he showed me to the table. Blaze and his wife, Robin, were already sitting at the table and were waiting for us to begin eating.
"you hungry?" I said as I took a seat next to Blaze.
"you bet!" she replied.
Matt sat down at the end of the table. "who wants to say grace?"