Exposure

Chapter 19

Aesop's POV

The game begun in a flurry. Aesop wandered around the match area as if he had never seen it before. He felt dazed, he felt like he was going to wake up soon in Joseph's arms and it could all be a horrible dream. He touched the photograph in his pocket, briefly remembering when Joseph had told him about how the cameras worked, that they captured souls. Aesop wondered that if he died with Joseph that their souls would be able to live happily together within the photograph.

His teammates made no delay in decoding. They had already finished the first cipher and there was no sight of Joseph. He hadn't done any damage or even bothered to activate his cameras. He was clearly trying to let them win. Aesop felt as if a noose was tightening around his neck with every calibration completed. He didn't know whether to try and stop his teammates or find Joseph to convince him to start playing. Or at least spend a few more minutes with him before while he still had the chance.

When the second cipher was completed the fog in Aesop's mind began to clear. He quickly became fuelled with panic, he resolved he wouldn't let Joseph die without trying to save him. He knew that he would preserve more time by disrupting the decoding of the survivors than he would trying to convince Joseph to play. Aesop
rushed towards to the nearest cipher, his feet wobbly and catching on the dirt in his panic. He eventually found Kurt and Servais decoding. Aesop quickly became filled with indignation upon seeing them work so diligently after all the matches they had previously spent making others do the hard work and berating them if they worked too slow. Aesop began slamming his fists into the cipher, purposefully ruining the pair's decoding and making sparks rain down on them. It was a silent rebellion and the pair knew exactly what Aesop was trying to say.
Kurt turned, his anger flaring,
"Stop being a child! You can't stop all of us by ruining a few calibrations. Your Hunter is as good as dead." He snapped, shoving Aesop backward into the grass.

Aesop knew there was no reasoning with them as he stared at the sky from the grass. His breathing was delayed and heavy; he willed that the sky would simply fall down on them  and suffocate them all with its grey clouds rather than making him suffer this emotional torture.

A blinding light filled his eyes as Kurt and Servais finished their cipher and quickly scampered away to elsewhere in the map. Aesop let out a growl of frustration and chased after them. They looked back on Aesop as if he were a pitiful thorn in their side which only fuelled Aesops anger even further. He wished that he was strong enough to hold them back, he absently imagined himself wrestling them into rocket chairs so they couldn't win. Maybe Aesop wasn't so different from a Hunter after all.

The group eventually reached the next cipher that Eli was decoding. By the sounds of it, the cipher was just about ready to pop. Aesop made a strangled sound and threw his body towards the chugging lump of metal but he was met by the solid back of Servais who had blocked his attempt to halt their progress,
"Please!" Aesop begged, "Please don't do this!"
He sent clawing hands over Servais and towards the cipher, trying to scrape and grab anything he could to stop the cipher from completing. Eventually Eli came around the back of him and grabbed his arms, forcing Aesop to his knees with a precise blow to his legs. Eli came down heavy on Aesop, pinning his legs to the ground with his own and holding his arms tight behind his back. Kurt and Servais looked uncomfortable at his action but continued decoding as efficiently as soldiers.

Aesop yelped at the force being exerted on him but didn't stop his begging. He began to struggle against Eli, knowing from their previous confrontation that Eli was stronger than him. Still, Aesop managed to do some damage to Eli, he sunk his nails into Eli's clothed arms and cursed enough to make a Saint cry. Eventually his shoulder connected with Eli's jaw, sending him sprawled back into the grass cradling his chin. Aesop flew to his feet and bolted to the beeping cipher. However, the two men had just completed the final calibration. The floodlights covered them all in a ghostly hue that highlighted the look of pure betrayal in Aesop's face.