"What? I thought you wanted to win?"
"Give me.." I try to reply while gasping for air. Gods, I need air. "..a second"
"Your eyes look dead. You've been it for how long now?" She slights me in the most condescending way possible. I get what I deserve, I guess.
My body aches, I'm out of breath, and I'm sweating profusely. This she devil has been in the lead ever since I provoked her and I've barely been able to catch up.
I've been bent over for a good while now, trying to regain my breathing, my sight's been planted square on the dirt the whole time; in my gasping, however, I notice something - a smell, the faint scent of smoke - odd. I ignore it for now as I'm still trying to catch my breath.
"..shut up" I respond, finally forcing some air back into me - albeit not breathing all that properly. I think I hurt my throat more than anything.
"Awwe, little Adie couldn't keep up" the little witch jabs at me.
"I said shut up!" I belch out, hurting my throat even more. She's right, though. But what I'd give to wipe that smug expression off her face.
I don't know when to quit - the trait is both a boon and a blight; sometimes it works to my benefit, often times it works to my or another person's detriment. This situation I'm in now - bruise on my forehead, breathing clogged, and limbs aching is a shining example of the latter.
Come to think of it, we've been at it for almost three hours and she's been leading the whole damned time. I need a break. We both do.
"Adie.." Vera tells me, her cadence suddenly changing from boastful to a tinge mellow.
"What!?-" I yell at her, almost completely on impulse.
"Another rock!?" I add, but Vera doesn't seem to be minding my snark remark, her attention pointed on what's ahead - typical.
"We're in a campsite" she tells me. I could sense an off-putting calmness in her voice, almost like a chill. I raise my head to take a peek at this camp.
Seems she was right. A good walk ahead of us is an open tent and a campfire. I figure this is where the scent of smoke was coming from. Guess I was too caught up trying to catch my breath to pay attention, too fixated on the ground to notice that Vera's been staring at a campsite for the longest time now. Silly me.
I inch closer towards it - but only slightly, to get a better look, and I notice something a tad odd: flies - all over the camp, more than the usual. Other than that, there doesn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary - at least not at first glace; the open tent looks to be worn out, and there doesn't seem to be anything of interest inside it, I can see some receptacles and a few scraps scattered around the area by the campfire though I can't make out exactly what they are from this distance.
Out of morbid curiosity, I walk even closer toward the camp just to take a peek at the objects lying there. Vera tries to stop me. She grabs me by my sleeve and starts tugging.
"Adie, I don't think we should be here, this is asking for trouble" she opines, trying to persuade me, pulling at my sleeve even harder.
I decide to take a closer look anyway, shrugging off Vera's incessant tugging, much to her disappointment. You'd think that the unexpected would be commonplace for victims of a coup but Vera isn't one for the unexpected, she hates it when things are thrown out of plan. She'd often freeze or panic when something fortuitous happens. One of her few foibles. Vera starts trailing behind me but stops a few feet away from the campfire.
"Well, this camp shouldn't be here in the first place" I answer sarcastically "and the fact that we've been playing for this long is asking for trouble already."
"Adie, I swear to all the Gods"
As I reach the area by the campfire, I kneel down to inspect the objects, I didn't quite hear what Vera was trying to say but I'd imagine she'd be clenching her fist by now.
"These are bandages" I tell her. Scraps of bandages, at least. Some of them have blood stains.
"What of them?" She asks, but I can sense her disinterest.
"Don't you find it strange that they're just lying there?"
"The person who set up camp was wounded or injured. So what?"
I could tell from the tone of her voice that she's not at all thrilled to be here - that she'd much rather leave. I'm starting to feel bad for her, but I don't feel like letting this go just yet - there's something more to this.
"Setting up a tent and starting a campfire while wounded? That's a bit impressive"
"Your point, then" Vera replies, her inflection becoming more pensive. I don't think she appreciates the way I'm talking to her.
"What?" I reply. Despite sensing how serious she sounds, I couldn't exactly hear what she was saying from this distance.
"Your point! What's your point!?" She yells at me.
Now I'm sensing genuine disdain in her voice, I know she dislikes me but she doesn't often talk to me like this. I take a quick glance at her and notice that her facial expression is similarly distraught. I must have angered her.
Guess I need to answer her. I shift my focus back to the bandages. "A group was here. At least one of them was injured."
"So they set up camp to treat their friend's wound. What of it?"
"Who said anything about setting up?" I think out loud, murmuring, Vera barely hearing me. I hope she didn't.
"Setting up camp just to treat a wound? With the base only a few miles away? I highly doubt it" I add, this time addressing her directly.
Vera looks very distraught. She doesn't want to keep conversing with me like this, I'm sure.
I look to my right to see the receptacles - some empty liquor bottles - seems like I was partly right after all, they were doing more than just treating wounds. I point Vera to the liquor bottles, she shifts her attention toward them.
"What do you think?" I ask her
"I think you're way too into this." She tells me angrily "They were drinking, so what?"
"I'm not sure, but something wrong definitely happened here"
"Let's assume something did-" Vera responds while approaching me. The spite in her voice waning, "what do you want us to do about it?"
"I don't-"
"Adnan" she interjects "Let's just go home" she adds, imploring - almost begging me.
She sits beside me and I glance at her. I can see the expression she gives off - perplexed and full of fear, I'm almost completely overcome with guilt.
I don't know when to quit. The trait is almost intrinsic, but when I look at Vera like this - when I see the face she makes when she just wants to run, I couldn't help but think back to what happened the day we were forced to leave, I couldn't help but feel the same sense of guilt I felt then, so I decide cut her a deal.
"One more round"
"What?"
"One more round and then we go home. Come on"
Immediately after telling her that, I get up, pat her by the head like before, and start sprinting.
"Come on" I yell at her, almost passing the campsite.
I keep glancing back to see what she does, and finally, a few seconds later, she starts getting up.
"Dammit Adie.." I hear her murmiring faintly. She starts giving chase after a few seconds - did she give me the lead again?