Well, if going to get some dinner was an order, Sergio couldn’t refuse it anyway. He smiled to himself at the entertaining thought and went to turn the light out before leaving his room again. At the last moment before turning the switch on the lamp, he noticed Marco and Senya’s pistols lying on his desk. He let his fingers slip over the surface of them both; Senya’s pistol was a scratched up Tokarev, and might have been a family heirloom as that model hadn’t been in service for a number of decades. Marco’ Maro pistol was the same as what the military and police forces had been using before the end of the world, although upon closer inspection it looked as if the silencer she had attached to it had been made in the Subway. He gathered up her weapon and placed it in his own belt holster, mentally noting to return it to her when he saw her. He hoped that would be soon.
Leaving the room in darkness, he closed the door and headed for the central hall. The route downstairs to the mess hall was already engrained in his head, although he had to wait a few minutes for the lift to stop at his floor. It seemed that the commotion from upstairs still hadn’t ceased as the elevator car had gone past his stop a few times loaded with boxes. He had never found out what all the movement was about but perhaps someone in the mess hall would be gossiping about it, then he wouldn’t have to ask.
When the elevator finally stopped to let him on, he rode it up one story to the Alpha level, one deck below the station platforms of The Subway-2. From there, one had to walk around to the other side of the cylindrical hall, in the center of which a great spiraling lift curled around itself with two entwined sets of rails that could take you to the central switchboard or to the lowest level before reaching the reactor at the very bottom. You couldn’t see or access the reactor level from the center of the bunker, but there was a sealed grate lying flat between the two sections, and he had been told that the square recesses in the floor there could be opened on the occasion that the reactor began to overheat in order to ventilate it.
As he entered the mess hall, he noticed a small crowd of soldiers huddled together at a table on the right side. It seemed they were gathered around a particular person; perhaps someone had just come back from a patrol and had begun to tell some embellished half-true tale of what happened on their watch. Drawing closer, he could begin to make out the main voice amongst the murmurs of the other listeners and to his surprise it was Marco speaking. At first, he felt a halting tightness in his chest, and couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous that she had been here casually telling stories when he’d been wasting time wandering around waiting to see her again. But now that he was here it felt awkward, and it was obvious that what Maro had said to her rang true – she seemed to fit right in with these soldiers and be ‘a part of the family’ as he had said.
Sergio ventured a small closer, trying to catch the topic of conversation before he could feel comfortable enough in the room to actually get himself something to eat.
“…real electric sewing machines, although there were ones with a foot pedal too. I can never forget the sound of the motors. Anyway, it wasn’t so bad there, although sometimes the foreman would take on a ‘favorite’ girl for a while…” Marco’ voice faded as she noticed Sergio walking up to the group. Her face looked tired, and somehow her eyes were apologizing to him, although her lips were drawn up into a permanent smile as she had been telling her story about what it was like in the Realm.
“And, were you…?” A soldier Sergio didn’t know asked tentatively, leaning so far forward in his chair that Sergio thought he might tip it over at any second.
“Not me, no.” Marco confirmed and Sergio felt a small more at ease. “I suppose you could say that is when I learned the value of remaining unnoticed. Most of the girls tried to comb their hair nice, or have their clothes ironed so that they might be chosen next… but if you ask me the extra rations were not worth one’s self-respect.” She concluded with an indignant huff.
“Wow! So how did you get away from there?” Another young man with short blonde hair asked.
“Ah, that is a story for another time I think. It is getting to be late after all. And you have a watch in fifteen minutes, Yevgeniy!” She scolded the blonde soldier with a finger and the group of soldiers groaned in disappointment.
“Alright, alright.” The soldier conceded, and as he got up to leave the hall, the rest of the group started to disperse as well.
“We’re holding you to that!” Another Hunter teased as he exited the hall with a friend.
Sergio quickly went over to the serving table and got himself a bowl of whatever stew had been brewing that day, not caring exactly what it was, just that it was warm and nourishing. He chose a place to sit on the opposite side of the room where nobody had been at all.
On the inside, he was a jumbled mess of half-finished questions. Now that he was in her presence again, he wasn’t sure at all what to say to her. It would be too casual and forward to just begin speaking about the cartridges or to give her the pistol back without any prior conversation – or was it? And if he began by asking her what she had been doing in the last six hours he risked sounding too inquisitive or even aloof. As soon as he had begun to narrow down the first thing he might say to her, he noticed her coming over towards him and everything flew out of his mind at once. He shut his eyes, hoping somehow that time would pause until he had gotten that thought back into his head and sorted out how to respond to what she might say.
“Hello Sergio.” She said softly, putting one foot up on the bench beside him and leaning both arms over her knee.
“Hi.” He squeaked, quickly taking a spoonful of stew into his mouth as an excuse not to speak.
“Did you talk to the Colonel?” Her voice was flat, with no hint as to any emotions or further thoughts.
Sergio nodded his head, keeping his eyes somewhere between her boot and his supper, afraid to look into her eyes and lose what small power he had regained over his mind.
“And? Are you in any trouble?” Marco shifted on her other foot, trying to lean down to see his expression. “I told him that the delay wasn’t your fault, so I hope he didn’t lecture you or anything.”
“No, he didn’t.” Sergio answered, setting down his spoon as he had finally decided to tell her about the cartridge; at least then he would be in control of the conversation topic. “I asked him for the cartridge that Sacco gave me.”
“Yeah?” Marco said with a smile, taking her foot down and sitting sideways on the bench beside him.
“It even still has the note inside.” Sergio pulled the string with the capsule from his pocket and held it out to her.
Marco grasped the cartridge with the same level of reverent care with which she handled her own, and Sergio was humbled by it. He just now understood how close they were, symbolically bonded together by their mutual connection to the missing Hunter. So it wouldn’t really matter what he said to her, because that bond would always be in place no matter where they were. Whether Sacco proved to be alive or dead – she would still be a part of him and, hopefully, she would remember him in the same way as well.
“So I suppose it was the same thing, only he never told you what to expect. He must have been really worried about going up to the surface to have written this.” Marco dropped her shoulders and her excited smile faded. “I can’t think of any other time that he thought he wouldn’t succeed. Perhaps he knew what fate would meet him in the Gardens. The way he said goodbye to me…” Her voice trailed off sharply.