Dying Tears (Unfinished)

~• 24 •~

"Hello? No. Hi? God! Which cell is it?" Footsteps continued to get closer to the camera faced male, he heard them approaching a few seconds ago before they began calling out to each cell. Cory didn't want to peek out or say hello back, mostly because he didn't trust anyone in this damn place, yet here he was looking face to face with one of Ross's men.
"You're the new inmate..., right?" The silhouette asked, eyes darting around to the other cells. Cory didn't respond right away because he was still trying to get a good look at them through the darkness.
"I haven't seen, or heard, anyone else sooooo yeah." Cory finally spoke, stepping forward from the back of the cell, and proceeding to get closer to the bars.
"Alright, that makes my job a hell of a lot easier." The soldier replied, Cory now getting a better view of them. The person in question wearing a baseball hat that seemed to have been ripped a bit at the end, under the hat was their hair that reached to about their shoulders, and, from what Cory's guessing, a navy blue sweater over their uniform. He looked to see what their hands were holding, only to be met with a tray of cut peaches and a few minor snacks.
"Right! I almost forgot! I came to give you some lunch." The cap wearing male said, seeing Cory eyeball the two trays.
"You can keep it, I'm not hungry."
"Oh. I mean it's pretty good though, I even got the same thing, see!" The other presented both trays that seemed to have no differences in the slightest, having to go back to holding the trays the way they were supposed to be held because he had almost dropped them.
"As tempting as it seems, I'm not gonna eat it." Cory stated, going back to where he had been in the room.
"If you say so." The soldier in front of the bars said with a shrug before he began to eat his own meal on the floor.
It had gone quiet, the only sound that could be heard was the chewing from the soldier. It began to slightly freak Cory out, silence wasn't his forte, so he thought he'd strike up a conversation - even if he didn't trust the other.
"Hey, buddy," Cory snapped, looking over at the other who had stopped eating, "How'd you end up meeting that lunatic of a boss you got?"
"Ross? I would think like everyone else here, but I'll go ahead and explain it - since you haven't really talked to anyone else. You see, my group left after Red was killed, and Ross so happened to find us. Of course not everyone wanted to side with him, but we had nowhere else to go, and since Ross promised us shelter and food in exchange for our services, we went with him." They exclaimed, going back to munching on their food.
"What happened to the ones that didn't trust him?" Cory asked, wondering if they were shot on the spot for questioning Ross's ways.
"He just asked them a few questions and if they answered wrong, I would think you know what happens. I got way too damn lucky and immediately sided with him."
"You didn't believe him?"
"No! Why would you?! He's insane. All of us know that, but he's the one with the most power, so who would you go with?"
"The more powerful one." Cory stated plainly, knowing that feeling all too well.
"Exactly." The silence came up again, the soldier halfway through their meal.
"Hey, I couldn't get that tray still, could I?"
"Sure, it's tempting isn't it? It may not be as good as the food before this mess, but it's something!" The other exclaimed joyously, handing the tray that hadn't been touched over to Cory, who reluctantly took it. After Cory had eyeballed it for a while he finally dug in.
"Well...?" The brunette questioned.
"It's good." Cory answered, neither hating it nor enjoying it.
"Knew you'd like it."
"Quick question." The inmate stated, having finished a few bites from his meal already.
"Yeah?"
"What's your name? It's getting pretty annoying to just continuously snap at you."
"God I'm so bad at that, I'm Erick. Now what's your name because, c'mon, it's only fair." Erick replied, setting his tray aside as he had finally finished what was on it previously.
"I would have thought Ross was spitting my name around already, it's Cory, nothing too crazy."
"Oh, yeah, I've heard of you! Ross loves talking about you, sometimes it sounds like you're the only person he's ever met."
"Well he's definitely met a few people, but my experience with him wasn't the best." Cory explained, glancing over at Erick to see him pleading for Cory to continue.
"I've got nothing better to do. I joined the military, started doing the course in high school, and got in. I somehow convinced my buddy to do it with me as well, I should've let him go for his career though, but we were teenagers so we were fucking stupid. Anyways, we got in, trained and all that shit. He became a General I and, I, a Sargent. I had seen Ross around a few times, but never spoke to the guy. Oh, this was before my camera face by the way, I looked like a fuckin doofus-" Cory responded, getting cut off by Erick.
"How'd you look?" Cory looked over at him, "If you don't mind me asking..."
"It's fine, I was a generic dude. Dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, glasses, few freckles here and there, I would say I was the one who fit in the most. My bud on the other hand was a highlighter, had the blue hair that made him stick out like a sore thumb. The dude's a dork, still is." The camera man stated, pausing for a moment to remember how everything was before.
"Yeah, you do sound like a generic bitch." Erick joked, finger gunning Cory's way.
"And you sound like a whiny little fuck face, so shut the fuck up before I throw this peach slice at you." Cory retorted, showing him the finger before going back to eating his meal. Erick continuing to sit there in shock; nonetheless, motioning for the other to continue their story.
"Anyways, I ended up running into the battlefield of an incredibly bizarre war we were fighting. I'm not sure what I was hoping to achieve, but I know it had something to do with a distraction of sorts since I remember we had injured men that were trapped in a corner and had no way of getting to safety. It just caused me to be put out of commission, yet I was thanked by a handful of them which was pleasant. As for my friend, he tried to go in after me, hell, he's the reason I'm even here. I've fucked up multiple times, but that was one of the biggest times, for me at least." Cory continued, setting his tray to the side as well, having lost his appetite now.
"I'm assuming he's the one with the eyepatch." Erick inferred, reaching his hand out to motion that he'd take the tray from the other's cell, to which Cory handed him.
"You know him?" The puzzled and now concerned male asked.
"I've heard of him, also saw him when I found you guys in the forest."
"You're the one who reported about us!" Cory questioned as he tried to not begin throwing hands at the other - even if it was behind bars.
"No! No, no, no! Well yes, but I was the one who had to keep watch on where you were, which... still... doesn't sound good." Erick responded with a shrug, to which Cory only sighed.
"Well if you don't need anything else, I'll be on my way then." Erick stated, standing up with the two trays on hand.
"I'm good for now," Erick nodded and began his way out of the hallway, "Wait!"
"Yeah?" Erick turned around.
"Be careful out there, and don't tell Ross about our talk." Cory said from the cell, to which Erick nodded once again, continuing down the desolate hallway.