Call of the Starling

Chapter 4

After Swift's death, we begin to work harder than ever, toiling hour after hour, day after day. We know that four more of us will be gone by the time that the battle begins, but it's only fair that we do our best to give everyone a chance. A month of dead-tiring work passes, and no one’s taken. We all continue, pretending that we don’t know what’s going to happen soon. We refuse to say it out loud, but look anyone in the eyes, and you can see it hovering around their troubled mind.

I do my best to bury myself in learning more, trying harder, and thinking faster. I try to forget the day Swift died- everything about it. I can't letanything distract me from surviving and bringing my teammates with me. This is it. And so we’re going to play it like none have ever played it before.

And really, we’re pretty well off. All of us are effective fighters with quick minds- we only have one main flaw in our plan. What Jay is missing right now is the fact that even if we're all incredible as single units, the very most important thing is unity: five people fighting alone would hardly stand a chance against an equal force of fighters only half as skilled, but working as a team. The key thing here isn’t exactly ability. It’s unity.

Murre, Meadowlark and I intend to talk to Jay about the issue soon, because frankly, none of us are that keen on the idea of dying. If we can’t earn to train as a team, we won’t be one. We’ll be fifteen people living in the same tents, but not a team. So we need to train as a group. We need to practice flanking, and experiment with strafing techniques. We need to learn how to help each other out of sticky situations, rather than just saving ourselves. We need to learn to act as a single force, a single lifeblood.

Day after tomorrow we’ll be heading out to one of the practice battlefields. There are various biomes that they bring us to; generally, never the same place twice. 

The battle is imminent enough that I have begun to wonder what sort of place we’ll have to fight it in. Will it be a forest, scarcely navigable? Will it be an open plain, with nowhere to hide? A mountain? A basin? An ocean?

I hope it’s not an ocean. We all know how to swim, but it wouldn’t be fun. I mean, seriously, trying to fight for survival while treading water… Sounds horrible, doesn’t it?

We’re sitting on Murre’s bed, discussing the uses of traps, when Jay taps into the loudspeaker system with a crackle. “We need to talk. Come to the library- you’ve got five minutes.” The connection drops, and I stand, quickly followed by the others. 

The library’s already full when we get there- most of us aren’t that busy when we aren’ practicing. Jay looks at the assembled crowd, and says, “I’ve noticed that there’s an issue that our team hasn’t yet tackled. We’re great as single units, but as a team, we haven’t had a lot of practice. We need to learn how to fight with more unity, more togetherness.” Murre and I exchange a glance, and we both stifle our laughter. 

“I agree,” I call out, still snickering. 

“What’s so funny?” Jay asks.

“Nothing.”

“I’ll take that is ‘you don’t want to know’, then.”

“Right on. Not, like, in an awkward way, though.”

“Sorry, but I’m not going to take your word for that.”

I shrug. “Suit yourself.”

“Will do.” He clears his throat, and awkwardly says, “Umm.. As I was saying before Starling interrupted me-“

“Hey! I so did not interrupt you! You stated something, and I added my support, and then you started questioning me!”

“There you go again. Am I ever going to finish a sentence with you in the same room?”