[ It's an odd thing to say, that he tries not to lead with violence. Almost comical, considering the toll of the Valley and all its lessons, the things that Carver and the others learned to name as truth after the world ended. If you don't fight, you die. If you don't fight hard enough, your friends will die because of you. And sometimes it doesn't matter how hard anyone fights, it doesn't matter how they scrabble and strive and spit in the faces of the enemy, sometimes it just ends.
These things happen, the commander used to say.
He twitches, refocusing. There's a task in front of him now and the thought settles him the way nothing else has since Carver woke up here. ]
Then I'll handle it. [ He's used to that, anyway. He was a doorkicker long before he was trained as an interrogator. First in, hit hard, act as a battering ram for the rest of the team. Hal gets into position, opening the door, and Carver gives him a single nod before stepping through it neat and controlled as a dancer. Ready to kill whatever he finds on the other side.
For better or worse, there's nothing. He lowers his arm, scanning the area. ]
There's no dead here, [ he says after a moment. ] You notice that?
[ It's strange. Not even the smell of them in the distance. ]
no subject
These things happen, the commander used to say.
He twitches, refocusing. There's a task in front of him now and the thought settles him the way nothing else has since Carver woke up here. ]
Then I'll handle it. [ He's used to that, anyway. He was a doorkicker long before he was trained as an interrogator. First in, hit hard, act as a battering ram for the rest of the team. Hal gets into position, opening the door, and Carver gives him a single nod before stepping through it neat and controlled as a dancer. Ready to kill whatever he finds on the other side.
For better or worse, there's nothing. He lowers his arm, scanning the area. ]
There's no dead here, [ he says after a moment. ] You notice that?
[ It's strange. Not even the smell of them in the distance. ]