Chapter 89: Waiting
Ryan let out a wry smile.
"See, at least someone is enjoying their meal."
Mia, on the other hand, immediately offered her can.
"You can have mine too, if you like it so much."
"No, he can’t, Mia. You need to eat too."
Chloe said with a frown, getting a pout in return from Mia.
Ryan seized that moment of distraction to grab her outstretched arm, and gently lowered it back down. Miles had no doubts she could easily break free from his grip, especially with her abilities.
Yet for whatever reason she chose not to; her lips curled into a slight smile instead.
"I can have it if he doesn’t want it."
Just as quickly as her smile appeared, it vanished, and she shot Brandon an annoyed look.
"I’d rather just pour it in the snow instead."
"Ugh, why are you so dramatic?"
Sensing the possibility of another argument brewing between the two, Ryan took it as the perfect opportunity to step in.
He cleared his throat.
"We still need to cover the finer details before we head out."
Chloe raised a brow.
"And when are we doing that exactly?"
"After breakfast, the earlier we start the better. With conditions like this, it doesn’t matter if the sun is up or not. Anyway..."
The conversation drifted to preparation, with the group, mainly Ryan and Chloe, strategizing on how to go about it this time around. Mia, Brandon, and much to Miles’s surprise, even Grimm occasionally pitched in to offer information.
As for Miles himself, after bringing up his concerns regarding drift worms and their previous formation, he largely checked out of the conversation.
He kept an ear open as he dipped a hand into his bag, pulling his cracked phone out after a few moments.
It flickered to life upon pushing the power button, though an ugly blot around the area of the crack kept part of the screen dark.
There were no new notifications. Still, he navigated all the way to his message app, opening his last chat with Henry, and stared silently at the screen.
There really were no new messages.
He lingered there for a few seconds, then sighed and closed the app.
The battery was now a mere 2 percent. He shut it down and dropped it back in his bag.
"Does anyone have a signal?"
The question stopped Mia, currently in the middle of giving a witty reply to something Chloe said, in her tracks. Her gaze grew heavy.
Chloe answered first.
"Nothing since the day before yesterday."
"Same here."
The others answered with a mumbled mix of similar affirmations, though Miles found his gaze lingering a tad bit longer on Grimm than he likely intended.
The boy noticed as well, but just shrugged.
"It was downloaded."
Ryan glanced between the two at the exchange, clearly curious but hesitant on whether to pry. Luckily, Miles interrupted him before he could make that decision.
Grimm reminded him of something.
"I leveled up my EGO last night."
"What!?"
"And you’re just telling us now?"
The group, besides Grimm and Sarah, looked at him incredulously. Miles tilted his head a bit at their reactions before pointing to Grimm.
"It’s not that big a deal, he leveled his too."
Grimm narrowed his eyes at him, almost looking betrayed.
"Did anything change then?" Ryan said.
"No, not really. It’s locked because I have no level two skills. Besides that, uh, I smell like sea salt now, I guess?"
"Sea salt?"
Ryan pushed himself upwards, barely getting to his feet before Mia dragged him back down.
"Don’t sniff him. That’s gross."
Ryan coughed.
"I wasn’t going to."
"Right..."
Grimm, being the closest to Miles, leaned in a bit, took a sniff, then returned to his position, like it was a perfectly normal thing to do.
"Smells like sea salt."
"See what you caused?"
Mia sighed, chiding Ryan instead of Grimm, to which the boy could only raise his hands helplessly.
Miles tilted his head, watching it all unfold with a faint sense of amusement. Chloe covered her face as her shoulders shook a bit, while Sarah just held that anxious, timid look she’d had since yesterday.
"What about you, Grimm, did anything change?"
Brandon asked, and the room fell silent in the wake of his question. The look of slight vindication that had been on Grimm’s face hardened into a glare at him.
He didn’t answer.
"Did anything change?"
Ryan asked in his stead.
Grimm shifted his focus to him, his glare softening a little before he shook his head.
"No. Nothing much."
Brandon facepalmed.
"You have got to be kidding me!"
"Maybe learn not to be such a jackass."
Mia snorted.
"You..."
"Alright, alright, that’s enough time wasted. We need to get moving."
Ryan interrupted as the situation devolved into another argument.
Reluctantly both listened, though not before Mia stuck out her tongue at him, and Brandon replied with a middle finger.
The former class rep rubbed his head in frustration but didn’t bother intervening this time.
Chloe was the first to leave, heading for her bag to check for something. Then Grimm for his gun, Brandon for something else. One after the other, they all got up from their spots.
Miles reached under his blanket, pulling out a familiar dull blade.
’They must’ve pulled it out of that thing back then.’
There were still black stains along the length of the lusterless metal. Not just that, besides changing his shirt, he hadn’t had the chance to clean up at all yesterday.
Moving left him feeling like he was shifting through grime, like the blood from yesterday and the day before still clung to his skin.
He took a deep breath, calming his thoughts before tightening his grip on his knife.
’I can wash outside.’
The others were already gathering by the door, so he joined them. As he did, he noticed the objects in Brandon’s hands.
Two broken parts of a wooden broomstick.
Just like yesterday.
"Where did you get them?"
The boy raised a brow at the question but pointed him towards some brooms and mops in a corner.
Miles glanced at the weapon in his hands, then at the cleaning tools. An idea came to mind.
A few moments later he was pulling a broom head from its stick. He began looking around for something he could use to tie them together when he remembered the bandages on him.
Those on his chest and back were out of the question, and he didn’t want to touch the bandage wrapping his head either, so he began scouring the floor.
It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for: the bandages he’d wrapped around his hands before. He’d taken them off when he’d first washed outside.
He wasted no time in pressing the knife against the stick, then wrapping them together as tightly and securely as he possibly could, creating a very crude spear with all his efforts.
The others watched with a mix of amusement, indifference, and intrigue. But they made no comment.
He joined them once more.
Ryan nodded, then pushed the door open, revealing the snow-covered kitchen outside.
Morgan’s mangled torso lay right there, the remaining eye on its cracked skull staring blankly at them. Like it had been waiting.