“I’m alright at it.”
Matthew rolled his eyes, “I’ll spar with you.” He offered “and for the record, Zeltron has better training grounds.”
“We’ll be judging that in two days time.” Stryker retorted in a tone that suggested he didn’t agree.
“We’re not exactly staying in Zeltron long enough to-“
“Some of us are.” Stryker interrupted Jack “we’re getting picked, remember?”
“I’llget picked.” Jack said stiffly “thank you very much.”
“To do what?” I interrupted.Why didn't I ever get told anything?
“Some of you lot are taking a ship straight to the eastern border. They’ve been finding burned down villages and need some trackers.” Matthew explained “I’m surprised they haven’t-“
“John hasn’t gone over anything yet.” Stryker muttered before he could finish “hasn’t had a chance to explain the situation to Theo, we have meetings for that.” He sounded defensive.
“You not good at tracking?” I asked after a moment, jumping at the opportunity to tease him, “not gonna get chosen?”
“Why’d you say that?”
“You said some ofyoulot.”
“He gets seasick.” Jack supplied boredly “he won’t be doing any sailing.”
“Thank you, Jack.” Matthew sighed sarcastically.
“The bodies are skinned.” Stryker added, diverting the topic and turning towards me, “some of them have had their skin literally peeled from their flesh.”
I screwed my nose up in disgust, a shiver going down my spine, and I saw Matthew shudder from the corner of my eye.
Jack grinned “yeah, I heard.”
“And what are we supposed to do?” I asked uncertainly.
“Try to find out who’s been doing it.”
I folded my arms “I’m not sure I’d be able to stomach a load of bodies with their skin peeled off their flesh, though.”
Stryker glanced at me whilst I was busy pulling a face “they’ll definitely pick you.”
“Why?”Panic spiked. As if I was ready for something like that.
“Because you’re a rookie and you need to learn.”
I groaned loudly “great.”
Matthew smiled sympathetically “sorry, mate.”
“Lucky me.” I cleared my throat, “I don’t feel like shooting right now.”
Stryker just laughed “I’ll be there too, don’t worry about it. I won’t make you do anything too gross.”
“Thanks.” I grumbled “now I feel loads better.”It was sarcastic, but I did. A little.
“You’re welcome.” Stryker grinned brightly “now, I recall Johnathan mentioning having to run through documents with you, if you’d like to get that out of the way. Lovely talking to you.” He added to Jack and Matthew with a grin “keep training, Jack, you’re getting there.”
“Ha ha ha.”
