In Need of Assistance? (TF2)

Four: Fuel to the Fire

No matter what, Miss Pauling's voice rings in my head from the first time I dumped a body with her, Always finish your job in one go. Don't save it for later, because you will 100% forget something and get yourself caught. That was only a few months ago. Only a few months ago did I stop being squeamish about handling dead bodies.

I strap on my seatbelt and lean back in my seat, closing my eyes to rest up for later. I'm awoken by Heavy slamming the fridge door in the garage. "Get out of van."

Unclicking my seatbelt, I stumble out the van as I forget how high up it was from the ground. I open the back and pick up my tools, along with the bag of teeth. Engineer shudders when he sees me, pointing to my forehead to reference my bloodstain.

"I have to incinerate this stuff, do you guys have a fire pit?"

"Ask Pyro, he might have his own little spot. You should wash up, though."

"I will," I say, picking up my shovel. "Right after I burn these teeth along with my clothes."

"Aw hell, your clothes, too? Sounds like a waste."

"Especially your clothes," I chime, patting the side of his face with a bloody hand. He flinches. "I'll light up like a Christmas tree if I get sprayed with Luminol, Engineer!"

"Didn't I already tell you to call me Engie?"

I shrug. "Yeah... It just doesn't feel right. We're not close like that yet."

He sighs dejectedly. "Well, the drone had a camera inside of it, but that's standard stuff. I tried snooping in its code, but it got wiped when Sniper shot the damn thing. Their van didn't have anything worthwhile inside, so I'll just recycle the parts."

"Good, good." He smiles at me, almost as though he's expecting something. I smile back at him and shake my magical bag of mouth bones. He groans.

"You should... get rid of that."

"I'll talk to you later, Engineer." I pat his shoulder, more shudders of disgust coming from him as I venture to collect Pyro. I pass by Sniper in the halls while he's on his way to his tower, a rather nasty glower catching me off guard as he shoots it my way. Spy also completely ignores me as I greet him when entering the locker room. As far as I'm concerned, no one does any changing in here, so it should be fine for me to enter. Confused, I approach Pyro and find a similar thing happening with him. He doesn't express any positive gestures upon seeing me but still agrees to help me with my evidence-tampering procedure since it greatly involves fire. I tell Pyro to set up near Sniper's tower on the far end of the compound. He searches his own locker and takes a box full of matches, a jerry can, and the shovel I handed him so he can dig the pit. We both exit and travel to the main plaza outside.

I make a detour and go into my room to get a change of clothes. My binder rests on my bed, meaning Heavy came by to drop it off for me. The vial I had in my front pocket comes out, and I examine the bottle. It's about the length of my palm and has a screw cap to conceal the paper inside. Upon opening, unrolling the paper reveals a chemistry formula, "CHCl₃". I don't know about chemistry, I only know chemical compounds by their common name. The first 2 elements are Carbon and Hydrogen, but that's the extent of my knowledge. Even if I knew what that last element was, I'd highly doubt I'd just so happen to know what it yields. Is it a corrosive agent? Or maybe an explosive? I'd have to ask either Demoman or Engineer about this, either one of them has to know. Maybe Medic if the opportunity arises, but I don't think he deals with chemical equations too often.

I'll worry about it later, I have to get rid of a few things first. I stash the paper in the bottle once more and then hide it at the very bottom of my underwear drawer, picking out a pair while I'm here. I have to be quick, so I grab some plain pajama pants and a tank top to throw on. Rushing to the bathroom, I try to take as quick of a shower as possible, knowing Pyro isn't the kind to wait around. Speeding through a full-body biohazard wash, I dry most of myself off and redress. The burn marks on my fingers tingle slightly. I decide against rewrapping my ankle wound. It'll have to air out eventually, and it looks at though it's started the healing process. My hair is wetter than I'd like, but that is on the bottom of my list of worries. Slipping on some sandals, I scoop up my old clothes and pick up the bag of teeth from my room, finally arriving at the fire that Pyro has started. He pokes it around with a stick, the tip of it eventually catching a flame and Pyro having to dig it into the dirt to put it out.