"Finally-" Elea sighed to herself, her hair damp from jumping into a soaking hot shower after returning home to Camp Northern Lights hideout, nicknamed 'the Tower' by its growing members.
Elea walked through the stale hallways; shivers ran up her arms from the chill as her stomach growled out pleading for food. She groaned, spinning on her heel as she changed direction to the kitchen. "-he can wait." She muttered to herself with a pep in her step as the thought of steamy food floated around her mind.
"You broke it!" A high-pitched voice broke through Elea's mindless stare as she was lost in thought. She looked up from gazing down at the tiled floor.
"I did not-!" Another deeper male voice snapped back; "-you did!"
"I did not-!" The hitch pitched floor stung Elea as she looked around the stainless-steel kitchen, taking in the three camp members who were too busy fighting over the broken coffee pot to notice her standing in the doorway.
Elea glanced between the group, not sure if she wanted to interact with them or not. She had missed the camp members but wasn't sure if she had the patience to deal with their high energy. Elea's eyes glanced to the counter to her right, she slowly reached for the fruity granola bar box.
"You are in so much trouble!" The male voice belonged to Logan Garfield, he through his head back as he laughed at his campmate. "You are going to have to buy a whole new pot!" He snickered, ruffling his dirty blonde hair with his hand.
"I am not helping pay for a new one." A female crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the sink. "I don't even drink coffee." Her brushed her short black hair to the side.
"But Rae-" The high-pitched voice belonged whined. Logan smirked; his vertical pupil grew over his yellow eyes the more excited he became.
"No Ali." Rae closed her snow-white eyes as she did so.
Elea grinned at the three members as she pulled a wrapped treat from the box taking her quite leave from the kitchen.
'Knock', 'Knock', 'Knock',
Elea pounded on a door.
"Come in." A voice called through a speaker above the doorframe, after a moment Elea opened the metal door, she was instantly greeted by a warm breeze and familiar beeping from machines pushed up against the wall.
"Benny?" Elea called looking around the dimmed room.
"Over here." A deep voice called followed by a line of curse words. Elea began to feel the weight of the day on her shoulders but followed the voice to where Benny had a large computer system set up.
"What are you doing?" Elea huffed, seeing the brightest mind she had ever met leaned back in his chair, his glasses shined with the reflection of the video game, he played.
"Killing these kids." Benny motioned, "I think it's pretty obvious."
"Why did you call Lewis?" Elea crossed her arms over her chest feeling like she was being kept out of the loop again. "You could have called me-"
"You were busy."
"If it was so important to-"
"It's not." Benny quickly promised, "It could wait until after your workout, I figured you needed it." Benny glanced over towards Elea; a pain stung his heart as he studied her hardened eyes. Benny quickly turned back to his main monitor were the game resided on the screen.
It hadn't been a secret Elea hasn't been herself lately. Between their campmate Bella's death and her nasty breakup piling on top of the camps financial issues, Elea had turned to working nonstop in order to run from having to face the fact her life was off track and falling apart all around her.
"Do you know what's going on in the kitchen?" Benny quickly asked, trying to shift the flow of the depressing conversation.
"Nope." Elea quickly replied as she finished eating the granola bar in her hand. "Haven't been to the kitchen yet, why?"
"It is a mad house." Benny explained, "I was going to make a sandwich but when I got there everyone was fighting."
"No idea." Elea shrugged, "What are Ali, Logan and Rae doing here anyway?" Elea wondered, "I thought they grouped up or whatever and was doing jobs together."
"They are." Benny yawned, "They are here for a couple hours, they will be heading out again."
"So, if the sky isn't falling then why did you need me to come back so soon?"
"Carver and Raiden will be late coming home." Benny said shaking his mind clear.
"Yeah-" Elea nodded, pulling up a chair to sit beside Benny. "-Lewis did touch on that. Do we know why their mission is running longer than expected?"
"They are on a man hunt for a supercharged murder who escaped prison." Benny replied, "We all knew it could take longer than what Raiden bet us."
"Hm." Elea hummed; Benny was right. Why had she listened and believed Raiden when he said he could catch the convict in only a few days?
"You know you could have come and joined me?" Elea leaned back in the chair.
"What!?" Benny laughed throwing his head back, "Joined you? Like in a real gym!?"
"That's where I was." Elea smirked leaning on her arm, "I don't think you have actually been there since we opened it."
"I haven't been to a gym since my high school days where my gym teacher would yell at me for skipping class to run to the comic bookstore."
"There is no gym teacher there." Elea chuckled, licking her lips as she did so. "Just Lewis."
"How is Dakota?" Benny wondered, "He didn't take the offer to move here."
"He said he is good." Elea informed, "He is happy where he is."
"Well, that's good."
"You should visit him."
"Gym's smell weird."
"They do not." Elea laughed,
"Your nose blind to the smell because your always in them." Benny casually explained.
"I cannot with you today." Elea said resting her head against the head rest, tired from bouncing job to job as well from her most recent work out. "Do you need me or what?"
Benny quickly reached over to his second keyboard, typed a few keys pulling up a map of the state Illinois.
"Since Raiden and Carver won't be back tonight as planned, we now are short and don't have anyone to patrol IL-76."
"O'Hare, Illinois?" Elea asked leaning closer to the screen, "I thought another Camp had that section under their jurisdiction and it was back under control?"
"Camp Cardinal did, until they got body slammed by some drug mules trafficking coke into the city from the airports nearby." Benny glanced at Elea who sighed rubbing her sleepy face.
"Are you sure we should step in?" Elea wondered outload, "Without Carver and Raiden here they can't bulldoze their way in, so should we even overstep our bounds? It took so long for all the Camps to agree to their territories."
"I am sure." Benny said rubbing a hand through his chopped brown hair, "Terrin wants a Camp over there covering it due to the rising crime. As you know Terrin overrules any Camp jurisdiction, Camp Cardinal will have to suck it up and accept our help."
"Yeah." Elea muttered rubbing her left shoulder, "Normally this would be easy but if you hadn't noticed there aren't a lot of us hanging around to help. Everyone is off doing jobs already."
"O'Hare really needs the coverage-" Benny replied leaning back in his chair, "-and Terrin is adamant about someone getting over there by tonight. They are even offering a fat paycheck for just a simple patrol shift."
"Our lives are never that simple." Elea responded annoyed at the pain radiating up her shoulder and into her neck.
"True." Benny agreed with a slight nod. "But Pontiac hit us hard-" Benny paused his game, turning to fully face Elea whose eyes glossed over recalling the hellfire she and her campmates went through in Pontiac Michigan. "-and on top of the wildfire in California response, we have been barely making it by and that is with you and everyone else picking up every scrap job we can get our hands on."
"I know." Elea licked her chapped lips.
"We could really use the paycheck." Benny finished.
"Fine-" Elea cringed at her tired voice, "-I'll pick up the job, let Camp Cardinal know I'll come in after midnight."
"With whom exactly?" Benny wondered, "You can't go out there alone."
"I'll figure it out." Elea responded pulling herself onto tired feet, "I need to get some sleep now."
"Running that third shift life again huh?" Benny yawned,
"Well yeah-" Elea smirked, "-that's when the fun comes out."
----
The day grew into a peaceful night, the Tower was silent with its empty hall as Elea awoke from a broken sleep. She stood over the kitchen sink peeling the last half of her cucumber for a snack. Her chest heaved as she fought back the emotion that threatened to leak onto the surface.
Her chest felt like gravy had body slammed her into the ground and her heart ached as if there was a fifty-pound weight tied to it. Elea shook her head, refusing to allow any of his memories to float to the surface.
She pulled her mind from the past, Elea had to figure out how she was going to pull off this job. It sounded simple like an easy patrol shift through the streets of O'Hare, but it was a large community that was having issues again, going alone at night wouldn't be the smartest move.
"Damnit." She cursed into the empty kitchen as she watched the half-peeled vegetable fall from her careless hands and into the garbage disposal. Elea started at it as the vegetable taunted her. "I could still use it." Elea muttered to no one as she tried to retrieve the runaway snack without letting it touch to much around the disposal. "Come here you little-" Elea growled unable to get a grip on the tasty bastard.
"What are you doing?" A lazed voice echoed behind her shattering the thin silence, causing Elea to flinch, spinning around on her heel as her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.
"Damnit Mel." Elea cursed, seeing campmate Melony Liu standing in the doorway. Melony had an eyebrow raised; her pitch-black hair pulled back into two separate ponytails.
"What um...whatcha doing?" Melony repeated tilting her head to see around Elea, who sighed steadying her heart as she turned back to the sink; the cucumber had completely fallen into the disposal.
"Nothing." Elea said in defeat turning on the blade to murder the escapee.
"Sure..." Melony drew out as Elea pulled a salad, she had planned on eating for dinner tomorrow from the fridge.
"What are you doing?" Elea wondered; it wasn't like Melony to come willingly out of her room, Melony and Benny were a lot alike.
"Getting a snack." Melony shrugged holding up a family sized bag of potato chips.
"Yeah?" Elea chuckled, "Fun plans?"
"There is a marathon for Grace and Franky on TV."
"Do you have any other plans tonight?" Elea questioned, a blissful thought blossoming in the back of her mind.
"Mmm..." Melony trailed off scratching her cheek "...just the marathon, why do you want to join?"
"I was more thinking you would like to skip the marathon and join me in Illinois to patrol section seventy-six?" Elea said feeling foolishly slightly hopeful.
"That city isn't on our radar." Melony muttered opening the flavorful bag of fluffy chips. "That entire state isn't in our jurisdiction." Melony stated confused.
"Normally it isn't but Camp Cardinal can't patrol so we have to pick up the slack."
"And why would I want to do that?"
"Because safety?" Elea motioned with her hand.
"I have safety here." Melony retorted.
"How about safety for the people of O'Hare?" Elea countered,
"I don't know those people of O'Hare." Melony blinked.
"Ok." Elea sighed seeing if she wanted to get Melony out of the Tower, she would have to physically drag her through the snow. "Never mind."
"You got this El." Melony muffled through the chips in her mouth, offering a thumbs up.
"Oh yeah..." Elea leaned against the counter watching Melony smile, spinning around in her fluffy socks and exiting the kitchen.
"When you need a portal open, let me know and I'll send you!" Melony called over her shoulder.
"You're such a great help-!" Elea threw her arms in the air even though Melony couldn't see her. "-what now?" Elea muttered to herself, rubbing her painful shoulder leaning against the kitchen island feeling unchaperoned.