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Sounds of a rattle continue as the snake's decapitated head lays aside it. A young Texan held up the shovel in the air, ready to bludgeon the pest till it stops moving.
“Not worth bothering Dell, the body will stay alive for a while.” His grandfather said, shaking his head. “Don’t touch its head either boy, like how the body still moves, the head still has some bite to it. Lord knows I don’t need you getting a rattlesnake bite, still plenty of venom there to kill you.”
The shovel lowers as he watches the body slither with intrigue. “How long till it dies?” He asks while poking the slithering body with the end of the shovel.
“Too long.”
“Why?”
“Scientifically, something about the nerves reflexes. Personally, I think it’s because they have so much killing spirit that they want to live long enough to kill what did them wrong.” Being an inquisitive child, he goes to ask more questions, “Ah- Ah. No more questions, Let’s get you out of this heat.”
Laughter erupts from the Engineer as he thinks back to his childhood. A long sleeve wipes across his face to remove a familiar wet sensation. He falls to the steel floor of the freezer in front of his lover’s body. Arms wrap around the torso as his laughter fails to keep up. His breath hitches and a sob starts to form at the tip of his tongue as he embraces his lover's body.
Twitch.
When they first met, the Texan used to use the nickname ‘snake’ as an insult… now it brings him comfort since his body continues to move past his deat- decapitation. His decapitation.
He’s not dead. He would have respawned if he’s dead. He can’t be dead. He just can’t.
He grasps tighter, a part of him waits for an embrace back, but all there was is a twitch of the arms… “You best keep the venom up. I know wherever that head of yours is at, you still got plenty of bite in you… I don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” He chokes on his words.
He places his head on his shoulder and cries into the cold body. The body twitching even more as he holds him dearly.“The team misses you. Scout misses you. I miss you… we want you back home. We won’t give up on you. Everyday, we look for you.”
“I love you. I love you so much.” He backs away from the body half expecting to hear an ‘I love you too’. Of course, there wouldn’t be.
Loneliness crept. He can’t stay here forever as much as he wants to allow himself to freeze to death holding Spy… he has to keep searching.
In a quiet motion, he gets up and pulls his goggles over his eyes. Red puffy eyes hidden once more. Ever so gently, a farewell kiss is placed on the gloved hand as he departs. ”I’ll see you soon, darling.”