Peace

"You guys done pouting like children?" the bus crawls to a stop at the entrance of the school. I stand up turn to my friends. Liz thinks for a moment then laughs. "You know, it really feels like life has changed so much, in a way I regret it but, overall, I'm happy you told us." I can't but smile after hearing this. I give my friends a meaningful glance and say to both of them. "I felt I had no choice in the matter, I didn't want to let you guys sit and worry about me, and besides I'm not the best secret keeper you know. The only reason my mother has yet to find out about the whole thing is because she has beeen spending more and more time at work recently"

"In a way man, it's kind of poetic, were stuck in a downward spiral of trying to keep ourselves alive by risking our lives" Nathan speaks up. Me and Liz both bust out in obnoxious laughter. "What? Did I say something weird?" After a bit of laughter, Liz and I finally manage to catch our breaths. "Thanks, dude, that was exactly what I needed. Oh, and yes what you said is completely unlike you." I manage to stifle my laughter while thinking about him calling something "poetic"

"Alright, I don't want to be late to class so I'm going first." Seeing Liz quickly getting further and further away I realize that class is starting very soon so I also begin to sprint away. Barely managing to reach the class I sit down in my seat and wait for the lecture to begin.

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The bell rings signifying the end of the class and the start of lunch. It's surprisingly peaceful today, most people would be going about their day as usual and here I am wondering if I am going to live until tomorrow. Looking outside, a leaf from a nearby tree blows by the window. *Sigh* I heave my aching body out of my chair. The opening of the exterior doors blows the autumn air into the building a short way. After walking for a few moments, I managed to reach the table where my friends are usually seated.

Walking over to them with my bagged lunch I quickly find a seat at the near-empty table. Both of my friends seem a bit exhausted without a wish to speak but I can't help but break the looming silence. "I don't really feel like playing any games today." This appears to pull Liz from her thoughts and she looks up

"Oh, what's up. How come you don't want to play?" Liz says looking towards me with a somewhat defeated look on her face. Just as I was about to get the attention of Nathan, he turned to me and with a surprised look greeted me. "Yo, Josh I didn't see you show up."

"I was just thinking about how much our situation is like an FPS." A sigh escapes as I begin to feel ever more detached from one of my favorite pass times. Nathan and Liz seem to feel my pain and sigh as well.

"The night has gotten warm huh," Liz attempts to start some small talk but she has a point. I guess last night was pretty warm for this time of year. But it could have just been the exercise. Who knows, I can't be bothered to worry about such things.

"Yeah, last night was pretty toasty" Nathan, feeling Liz's gaze on himself looked up from his phone and with a yawn gave an uninterested answer.

"I don't know" Liz appeared to be looking for my answer so I responded with the truth. I truly did not know.

For a while we chatted like this, the mood rose quite healthily and I began to feel some semblance of normalcy return to our conversation but alas all good things must come to an end. *bzz bzz* A brief silence comes over the group as my phone gets a notification. I can't help but awkwardly laugh as the attention falls on me.

A sigh escapes my lips as I mentally prepare to bring the mood of the table down to a more manageable level. "I don't want to be a downer but use today to rest up. Meet me at my place tomorrow to buy your gear, the mission timer is almost up." The death bells once again ring as we are reminded of our constant quota. Will we ever be at peace?

"Got it" Liz sighed and spoke for both of them. You could tell that our situation has exhausted every bit of our will just by looking at us. I turn to my visibly deflated comrades and let slip a wry smile. I can't tell if I should be upset by this notion or not.

"We should make some more friends." I play with the thought before casually throwing it out there. The two in front of me look up from their thoughts with confused expressions. Before they can even ask, "I mean what we do is just to keep ourselves alive, it shouldn't stop us from trying to have a relatively normal life right?" The question escapes my lips but it doesn't appear as such, it sounds similar to a plea.

"*sigh* He's right, it might be a bit rough but it can't hurt to try" Nathan seemed to take the idea in stride. It seemed a change of scenery sounded good. "Know this, we shouldn't tell anyone about this. We should only take acquaintances; we can't throw people into this death game willy nilly. Understood?"

*mhm* Liz and Nathan nodded in agreement. Maybe in the future, while we are growing colder with each consecutive mission, we might just have a warm place to return to at the end of the day. That, I think, is my true intention in all of this. You never know, maybe a friend could liven up things around here.

Until then, only time may tell.