As we walk back to the dorm, Rabbit seems a little out of it.
"You ok?"
"What? Oh, yeah I'm fine."
"You know I'm here for you if you need me."
As we enter the room, we begin to take off out combat gear. Rabbit breaks the silence.
"Have you ever wondered what your life would be like without Section 20?"
Ghost freezes, "I would probably be dead by now. You would probably be dead as well. You grew up in East St. Louis right?"
"Those were hard times, but I never had to kill anybody though."
"But you stole from others."
"Listen I only did that to feed myself. Besides I would never be here right now if I didn't steal."
"Archer told me the story."
"What about the part with Irish dangling me over the side of a ten story building?" a smile forming on Rabbit's face.
"That's new to me." chuckled Ghost.
"Where are you from?"
"Bristol, United Kingdom. Stapleton Road to be exact."
"That's as bad as where I come from."
"We share something in common. We both grew up on shitholes."
Rabbit slips on some cargo shorts and a Illinois Fighting Illini shirt. Ghost puts on some jeans and a black shirt.
They make their way down the stairs and head to the cafeteria. They grab their dinner and head to a table. Trouble soon followed.
The red head walks over to Rabbit, "Why are you still here? Did you not kill enough of us or something."
Rabbit continues to eat his pasta puttanesca with cauliflower, not looking at the girl.
"Petra leave him be." said Triela placing a conforting hand on the other girl's shoulder.
"No Triela, this bastard needs to pay for what he did. Seeing him eat after what he did makes me sick to my stomach."
Petra grabs Rabbit's food and throws it on the floor.
"There, can you pay attention to me now." she retorts.
Rabbit gets up and looks at Petra. Rabbit is slightly taller than her in comparison. Without a word, Rabbit delivers a brachial stun to Petra. Petra freezes, then falls to the ground hard. Triela's jaw drops as this happens.
"Is that enough attention for you?"
The only sounds from Petra are her choking and gasping for air.
"It makes me sick to hear someone bitch about casualties like you do. What did you expect to happen, everyone lives happily ever after. News flash, it doesn't work like that."
Rabbit pushes his chair in and turns to look at Petra, "And once you get up, clean this shit up." pointing to the food on the ground before he leaves. Ghost throws his food away and checks on Petra. He then goes after Rabbit.
5 minutes pass when Petra finally gets up. Instead of getting food, she gets a mop and begins to clean up her mess.
"Rabbit what the hell was that!" yelled Ghost.
"She had it coming." said Rabbit not looking at Ghost.
Ghost grabs his arm and turns him around, "Do you think Archer would have liked that?"
"Don't start this shit with me. You know exactly what the answer is, he would have done the same thing."
Ghost pauses, Damn he's right, thought Ghost.
"Listen I'm sorry that I brought up Archer. I'm just trying to protect you."
Rabbit looks at Ghost, "You're right, that was wrong for me to do. I'll go straighten things out."
Rabbit walks back to the cafeteria to Petra, who is still working on the mess. Petra turns in shock at the sight of Rabbit, but Rabbit offers her his hand. I can't hear what they're saying, but they're definitely apologising to each other. Rabbit helps her finish cleaning then walks back to me.
"Solved."
xxxxxxxxxx
Rabbit walks back to the dorm, while I head to the roof. I take out a cigarette and light it. I inhale and exhale with pleasure when someone else comes in from behind.
"You must be his handler." said Triela.
"Oh no, just another soldier."
"Really, because you look more like his guardian angel."
"What makes you say that?" taking another drag from the cigarette.
"The way you carried him out after our battle."
"We both have nothing, so we try to have each other."
"What's with the name Rabbit anyway?"
"You know the book The Velveteen Rabbit?"
"I think my roommate is reading it."
"Well the rabbit in the story was neglected for other toys because of their higher quality. Our Rabbit grew up in a place just like that, treated like dirt because he was poor and homeless. In the story, the oldest toy in the nursery told the rabbit that he could become real. The same thing happened to our Rabbit by Section 20. He's trying to become real just like the rabbit in the story."
"That makes sense a little. What about your name?"
"I'm haunted by the ghosts of my life before Section 20, so they named me Ghost."
"You two going on the mission tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
"Tell Rabbit I said Hi." she said walking out.
xxxxxxxxxx
Ghosts makes his way to the dorm and enters the room. Rabbit is passed out on his cot. Ghost silently makes his way to his cot and gets in.
"I will watch over Rabbit for you Archer." said Ghost to himself.