Ch. 191..200
Chapter 0191
“You have no idea what you’re talking about and you for sure don’t deserve respect or any kind of obedience. What time is training in the morning, 5am? I believe you wanted me there early. Is that still the case or is 5am satisfactory for you, ma’am?” I ask standing up with my half empty tray. I’m done sitting here listening to this b*tch try and sabotage me by insinuating stuff. No one knows why I’m here and she isn’t going to bait me into talking about it. And she’s lost her mind if she thinks that I’m just going to blindly follow her. I just stand there staring at her. The ball is in her court, she can either back down on her ridiculous need to feel in power by giving me commands or be a decent team leader and lead.
“5 am, outside at the ropes course. Do not be late.”
“I wouldn't dream of it.” I walk off to dump my trash and see if I can find one of the kitchen omegas to see if I will be able to get some food or a snack early tomorrow morning.
Lillian, Nathaniel and Wyatt all get up to follow me. We head into the common area, but I cut back towards the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Lillian asks. “We’re not supposed to bug them while they are cleaning.”
“I have to ask about getting something for breakfast, even if it’s leftovers. Otherwise Audrina is going to make sure I can’t last during training tomorrow and I can’t have her starting or spreading any more rumors about me. She’s already telling people that I slept my way here. My fighting needs to speak for itself and I can’t do that if she keeps messing with my meal time. I’ll be back in just a couple minutes.” I head into the kitchen which is bustling with about ten people moving quickly but not in a rush, just a well oiled machine that is on the move.
I look around and spot an older man and woman deep in conversation over a few sheets of paper on the central prepping island. I walk to them.
“Excuse me, I just have a question when someone has a minute.” I say loud enough to be heard over the din of all the pots, pans and utensils being moved around the room and put back into their respectful places.
“Oh dear, you know you shouldn’t be in here. You really should put in meal requests with your floor leader.” The woman looks at me sternly. Of course that’s who I would have to go to.
“Oh, I am so sorry, I didn’t know. My name is Skylar. Today is only my first full day and I am still learning.” I try playing the young and innocent card. “My floor leader actually wanted to meet with me early tomorrow and I think I might miss breakfast. I was hoping to plan ahead a little and maybe have something set aside, even just a small container of any leftovers would be perfect to get me started. I didn’t want to wait until after everything was all cleaned up before I asked. I can even mix my own protein shake if we have the ingredients, I don’t want to trouble anyone.” I look between her and the man.
Chapter 0192
“Not to worry Skylar, we will make sure there is something for you. What time do you have to meet with your leader?”
“She wants me outside at 5am and I know we don’t start breakfast until 5. I didn’t want to get in the way of your prep for the rest of the warriors.” I really don’t want to get in the way or make things difficult for them. It can’t be easy feeding this many people, let alone warriors who need to eat more than the average wolf.
“This is what we are going to do. Come on down at 4:30 and you ask for me, Stella, or Jack here and we will make sure you get what you need, alright?” Stella pats me on the shoulder.
I just nod and smile feeling a weight lift off my shoulders. “Thank you so much, you are a lifesaver!” I wanted to jump over and give her a hug like I would with Lenny in the kitchen of the Packhouse back home. Especially when she would sneak me extras when the guys weren’t looking.
She must read my thoughts. “Come here sweet girl.” She opens her arms and I don’t hesitate, I step right into them, savoring the feeling.
I didn’t realize how much I would miss little things like this being here. Sierra and the guys would hug me, but it’s not the same as what it feels like to get that motherly hug like from Luna Ave, Martha or Lenny. I take a deep breath in and just let the stress of the evening go when I let it out.
“Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out. I don’t want to be a burden.” I look up at her, ready to earn my place here.
“Scoot! I will see you in the morning.” Stella smiles and then turns back to Jack, who has a funny look on his face. Maybe confusion or disbelief, but with a touch of humor in his eyes. I’ll have to figure that out later.
I step back out to find Lillian, Wyatt and Nathaniel waiting for me. I need to get to bed, but I also need to figure out this alarm situation.
I lead my friends up the stairs towards my room. “So what am I going to do about the wake-up call? I didn’t see any outlets in my room to plug anything in and I didn’t get the impression that we would have much in the way of electronics.”
“You’re not wrong. All the phones are kept down in the media room. We can actually have them at any time, but they only get charged there, no outlets outside that room are to be used for portable electronics and the charging station is cubbies on a wall with two foot cords, so most people choose to charge them overnight. You may want to do the opposite though and charge during the day so you have an alarm in the morning.” Lillian rambles.
“I really just need to get my hands on an alarm that is battery powered. Maybe Sierra can help me out.” I’m thinking out loud.
“Technically, you are supposed to get approval from your floor leader for anything ‘frivolous’ that you bring in your room.” Nathaniel rolls his eyes.
“It’s not frivolous, and I’m going to feign deafness during your last comment. I can play innocent for a couple more days and I may need to get up early to get some studying in on my non-school days, so it’s not frivolous.
“Can you two stop saying frivolous?” Wyatt laughs. “It’s starting to sound weird.”
We sat in my room for a little while longer just talking about how the training has been going since the trials and whatI can expect from the regular training tomorrow when I finally join them after whatever Audrina has in store for me. When the chime goes off for us to head to our rooms for lights out, my friends all get up and start to file out. Nathaniel stops at the door and turns back to me.
“Here.” He hands me a phone and I raise an eyebrow at him, taking it tentatively. “It’s for tomorrow. I just set the password to 111111. Use it as an alarm, we’ll figure something out. There isn’t anything on it that I’m worried about you seeing. I’m actually pretty boring.” He smiles at me.
Chapter 0193
“Should I put something not boring on here?” I tease him.
“Preferably not. I may be 18, but my mom still checks the thing like she thinks I’m a drug dealer.” We both laugh. “Actually, pictures of girls who aren’t my sister, might be helpful though, now that you mention it.”
“I’ll work on that, thanks for this,” I waved the phone. “Not many people seem to be ready to jump in and be helpful.”
“It’s not that they don’t want to. It’s just that you’re new and they don’t know you yet. Not gonna lie, the sh*t Audrina is spreading my make it a little tougher, but I've seen you fight and you seem to be a decent person. They’ll see that too and come around eventually. Your whole situation is crazy, and some people here don’t like change. We’ll get through it.”
“Thanks, Nathaniel. I appreciate it. I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll bring your phone with me so you can have it during the day. I wouldn’t want your mom to get mad at you for not responding.” I tease again.
“NO!” I jump a little at his forcefulness. He’s not one to raise his voice. “Sorry, no. Just no. Drina will have your head if she thinks you brought a phone to training with you tomorrow. And I wouldn’t put it past her to check you for one. I’ll just get it at lunch, or whenever. My mom actually might not mind if she knows I was helping out a pretty girl.” He winks at me, effectively breaking the tension and making me giggle.
“If you’re sure. I’ll leave it in the top drawer on my desk if she separates us for rotations and we aren’t back at the same time. Night Nathaniel, and thanks again.” He waves me off as he closes the door.
I set the alarm for 3:30, so I have plenty of time to actually wake-up. It’s been over a month since I’ve gotten up at my usual time and I’m not sure if my brain and body are consistent. I got up early today, but I think that was more out of excitement than anything.
I was not wrong, my brain does not like this time of the morning. I think as I stop the alarm and drag myself out of bed. I fell asleep almost immediately after Nathaniel left last night, but it still feels like I just went to bed. This adjustment is going to suck, I just hope it only lasts a couple days and I can get back to my usual routine.
I get dressed in my training gear and for good measure pack an extra set in a bag. I don’t trust Audrina at all right now. I grab my things and pad downstairs carrying my shoes, there’s no reason to get everyone else up if they can have a few more minutes of sleep.
It’s super important for us to get rest, especially if we have been shifting, it takes a ton of energy to shift to and from our wolf form and we have to build a stamina for it during a fight. Lillian and the guys said that one of their early training experiences was having to shift and fight as a wolf then shift back to human and keep fighting. The trainers just blew a whistle and were taking notes on how long it took you to shift from one form to another and if you were able to avoid attack while doing it. I guess they did that for hours and then let the new recruits sleep it off for the rest of the day, because they were so tired.
I make it to the kitchen and it is already bustling with life. Steam is coming from pots and I can hear sizzling from the pans on the stove top. Dozens of metal pans have been lined up on the prep island and are being filled with various hot breakfast items by the kitchen Omegas.
“Excuse me.” I flag down one of the Omegas who isn’t carrying a large hot pan. “Is Stella or Jack around?”
“Are you Skylar?” I nod. “Perfect. I just got this done for you.” She hands me a protein shake and a large paper bag.
Chapter 0194
“What’s all this?”
“Stella thought you may need more than just a shake, so she had me pack a few things for after your early morning training that would be fast to eat.” She winks at me and gives me a knowing look. “Just let me know when you run low and I can get you more and put the bottle in with the lunch dishes today and I ‘ll have another ready for you tomorrow, okay?”
“You are seriously a lifesaver!” I take the Shaker bottle and bag, giving her a big smile. “Thank you so much! Please let me know if I can help you all out here, I mean it.” She smiles, but waves me off.
I head out back, ready to meet Audrina.
“You’re late. I know Warrior Brogen told you we do not tolerate lateness here. That’s your second strike and you’ve only been here for a day. And what are you carrying? I didn’t tell you to bring anything.”
“What was my first strike?” I try to keep the b*tchiness out of my voice, but it is very difficult. This girl is going to try and get me kicked out for infractions. She’s got another thing coming if she thinks it’s going to be that easy. “And I came prepared. You didn’t expect me to go through an entire morning of training on an empty stomach did you?”
“You were late yesterday and missed classes. And no one gets into the kitchens early. Did you steal food?” Ah, that was her plan. To have the school report me for skipping.
“Actually, I didn’t miss a thing. My schedule was inaccurate, but thank the Goddess I had a question for the secretary anyway and double checked my lessons. I’m so thankful that you were looking out for me and made sure I started training right by having to use my observation skills. That was really helpful. Wyatt enjoyed his time amongst the high school girls too. He was the perfect tour guide. You are great at pairing people up.” I walk up to her side. “You wanted to assess me yourself, I
assume. Where to?” I’m not even going to grace her ‘stolen food’ comment. I’m sure if she was nice and actually asked, the kitchen Omegas would help her too, but she acts like they are her servants and below her because they aren’t warriors like her.
I have no idea who is watching, I have to assume she is no better than Kaley and has someone recording our interactions and I will give them no reason to think that I instigated anything. Two of us can play this game.
“To the gauntlet. I want to see you complete it myself. I think Warrior Brogen allowed you to get in without a real assessment or discussion. The leaders of the compound were not even aware that you were joining until you showed up on my floor. I want to see what I have to deal with before we get to team training.”
She’s mad she didn’t get a say in whether I was allied to be here or not, got it. I wonder if that is all this is, or if it goes deeper? I guess I’ll know after this morning.
We walk over to the gauntlet again. AT least this time I have an idea of what I’m doing. The difference here is there are no lights and the sun hasn’t started to rise. My werewolf sight helps, but working in the dark isn’t ideal for anyone, enhanced senses or not.
“Do I have a goal or time limit? Anything I need to keep in mind while I’m doing this?” I ask the same thing I asked Warrior Osiston.
“Just get through the course, like your first day.” She rolls her eyes. Okay, she doesn’t believe I did that either.
Same as when I was here with Warrior Osiston, I lined up at the end of the poles stuck into the ground and waited for her signal to start.
Chapter 0195
I knew this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk, but I thought I would at least have some kind of advantage having done this once already. But, Audrina knew what she was doing bringing me out here this early in the morning. The dew had settled on everything and without the sun to evaporate it, everything was slick as sh*t and the course had to be navigated completely differently than the first time.
“Get your scrawny ass moving. I thought you did this once already or was that made up bullsh*t too?” Audrina taunts. I just keep moving. I wouldn’t let her distract me on a normal day, let alone when I really need all my brain cells to complete this course.
I finally make it through to the end, covered in mud from the last section of the course climbing over and under beams. I know my hands are shredded from some of the ropes and we haven’t even started real training yet.
“Stand up straight. At least act like a warrior who has some basic training.” She snarls at my bent over form. I have my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath, but my pride wins out and I straighten to look her in the eye. “At least I can say you actually completed the course now. Let’s go.”
My retort dies as she takes off like lightning through the trees. I don’t know this area at all so I have to keep her in my sights. I have no idea what her plan is, but losing me in the woods off-trail is not something I’m going to let happen. We run for what feels like forever. It is exhilarating! I didn’t realize how much time has gone by since I have actually let loose and just run, full tilt, to my body’s limits. My wolf is purring in my head and hoping we get to shift and run soon too. She hasn’t been out longer than me and is starting to go stir crazy in my head.
Don’t worry. I’m sure we will be shifting a ton now and you don’t have to be a secret anymore.
I didn’t mind being your secret. As long as I get to be out once in a while. It was for your protection more than anything.
We begin to slow down and I can see the lights of the compound coming up ahead. We run by the ropes course and pick up our bags. I’m trying to control my breathing, I don’t want her to know how out of shape I am and feel right now. I pull out the shake and Audrina looks at me incredulously.
“Where did that come from? There’s no food in the dorm rooms.”
“I stopped by the kitchen on my way out.” I shrug. I don’t owe her an explanation of any kind.
“The kitchen’s are closed outside of meal times, you are not to be in there. That’s grounds for punishment. You are just racking them up left and right.” She’s starting to look smug but angry.
“I plan ahead, I assumed we would miss breakfast. Stella and Jack set me up.” I keep my eyes forward.
We walk around the back of the house where I hear a low din of voices when I am wrapped up in a tight hug. “You survived!” Wyatt’s whisper-yell comes from somewhere above my head, but I can’t see through all his bulky arm muscles.
“Not yet. I have to make it through the rest of the day, then we can celebrate.” I say as I finish off my shake and put the bottle back in my bag.
At least now, no matter how brief the moment is, I can be out of Audrina’s orbit. Warriors Osisten and Nickolas are at the front of our group in quiet conversation when we walk towards the front. I don’t want to miss any instructions and Audrina is less likely to mess with me this close to the leadership.
Chapter 0196
“There she is! I was hoping to see you today.” Warrior Nickolas walks over and gives me a tight side hug. “I’m glad you’re finally here, I wish the reason for it was better though. Let me know if you need anything.” He whispers the last part and gives me a pointed look. I figured he would, but it still bugs me a little that he knows why I’m really here too and had probably been given all the details.
“Alright folks, let's get started. Skylar here is new to the ranks, Nickolas and I will be catching her up this week, then she will be added into regular rotations.” A chorus of ‘yes, sir’ comes from the large group. “Let’s go.” He points at me and I follow. We start with a light jog and soon the path becomes familiar. At least running like this, at a normal pace, I can notice my surroundings and start to learn the territory.
We ran the loop twice which took almost an hour. My lungs are burning from the exertion and lack of use, but I refuse to look like it on the outside. Especially after everything that Audrina implied. I am out of shape and going to have my ass handed to me today, but I won’t look weak.
After the group run we broke into three smaller groups and true to their word, Warriors Osiston and Nickloas kept me with them, but I was by no means separated from the group.
We were sparring one-on-one in human form for the first rotation.
“Alright Little One, I want to see the extent of your injury recovery. You haven’t grappled in over a month and we need to see what muscles are still healing. I want you to start slow. Don’t look at me like that.” Clearly my face isn’t doing a good job of hiding my irritation of being told to take it easy. “This is a body and movement assessment. Once I see how everything moves, I will let you know what you are allowed to do at full force and what we need to get stronger before I allow that. I will not have you reinjuring yourself just for your pride. If you are out with a serious injury you are useless to us. At least working slowly you can actually train and be an asset. Got it?”
I fight an eye roll. He’s right, but I don’t want to go slow. I’m tired of not being able to move and work, it’s becoming frustrating and I didn’t realize how much I rely on the release from the workout.
“Got it.” I grumble moving into position.
“Alright, let’s start with arm blocks, holds and releases. Then we will move into leg work. From there we will start to grapple full body.” I just nod. I want to talk less and move more.
For the next three hours Nickolas pushes my body to the limits. I hate to admit that he was right, even in my own head. I needed to go slow, I have lost so much muscle and flexibility, but the muscle memory is there, I know what each move is supposed to feel like which is helpful.
This time, I think we have been going for at least five minutes. He has finally let me start to use my full body and he is trying to pin me on the ground. I was just told I have to hold him off until Warrior Osiston calls time and who knows how long they are going to let me go.
Finally a whistle blows and Warrior Nickolas stands from his attack position. “Great work, we have a few things to work on, but far better than I expected. We’ll do this again at your next training session, then I think we can start to mix you into the rest of the group.” He pats me on the shoulder as we walk over to where the water station is.
“Thanks. Is there anything I can do on my own to make this recovery crap go faster. I hate that my training is broken up.” I look over at him before I basically start chugging water.
Chapter 0197
“There’s a lot she needs to work on. I evaluated her ropes course this morning, and she barely survived it. Are we sure she should even be here?” Audrina chimes in. I notice Warrior Osiston is nowhere near hearing distance.
“Why did you assess her? Her ropes course was already documented and I don’t recall assigning that task to you or anyone else.” He looks sternly at her and I want nothing to do with this conversation.
“None of the warriors saw her assessment. How was I supposed to know that it had been completed? Usually the floor leaders run the assessments and the whole compound witnesses.” She shrugs.
“So you chose to assess me at five in the morning with no witnesses to right that wrong? Good to know.” I look at her and Warrior Nickolas raises his eyebrows and looks between the two of us.
“Really Audrina?” He just stares at her.
“She isn’t at all of the training, so I utilized the time I had. She’s too young and green to be here, so young her training load had to be lightened. I needed to know what I was going to be forced to work with. She’s on my floor and a part of my team and I don’t need anyone holding us back.”
A low grumble comes from his chest. He clearly doesn’t like being told what to do by a trainee. His eyes go vacant for a minute while he mindlinks with someone.
“Gather up!” Warrior Osiston’s deep gravelly voice thundered around the group.
I can tell this is not something normally done as everyone is looking around while they are tentatively moving as a mass towards him.
“Apparently some of you like to run your mouths and question authority. You are given the information you need to go about your business and become a better warrior that the Alpha King can rely on. You are not privy to all information at all times and you do not have the right to all information at all times. At any given time a third of you have orders that do not coincide with the rest of the team. Get over yourselves, do what is asked or you can go back to wherever you came from if you really need to be nosy nellies. Now get to your next session. Skylar you stay with me, apparently you’ve already done your ropes course for the day.” Warrior Osiston starts to walk off and there is a whole lot of murmuring of what that was about.
So much for not gossiping. I caught up to Warrior Osiston. “I can do the course again. I don’t want anyone else thinking I’m getting special treatment. That seems to be the consensus. That and I apparently had to sleep with people to get here.”
“You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, Little One. You’re new and it’s rare that anyone comes in this late to training. You will be of interest to most of them for a couple weeks, then you will just be one of the trainees.”
“I want to train with my group, if that’s an option. I have to learn to trust these people, even the less than helpful ones, and they have to learn to work with me. I’m not trying to prove anything, not really, not like that. I have to prove myself to be accepted here, it’s the only way.”
“If you say so, let’s go.” He changes direction and heads towards the ropes course. Once we get there he looks over at me. “So, normally, we break down the ropes obstacles and do different team building exercises. Today we are working the bridges.”
Chapter 0198
“So do I work by myself or pick a group?”
“You work with the people on your floor.” I snap my head to him. “It’s both men and women. This is a large group exercise for when we do larger evacuations. And unfortunately there have been far too many of those in recent history. Yes, the floor leaders are in charge of the exercise.” He answers my unasked question.
Perfect.
I walk over to where Audrina and the rest of our floor is standing waiting to get on the course. In the light of day and not in the middle of running the course I can see different rope ladders and access points to each part of the course. So I can actually come out here and take the time to figure out each course piece, that is when I get the time. I look forward to that.
“Hey Newbie, up here with me.” A very large guy standing next to Wyatt calls over to me.
“Put her in the back where she belongs. Then she can’t hold us up.” Audrina throws over her shoulder at him.
“That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard. First, we don’t put newbies in the back especially when we don’t know all of their skills. Second, this newbie happens to be the most agile person on ropes I have ever seen and should be one of the first people to go. You weren’t at trials, you didn’t see what her skills were at all, be petty and judgy later. We need to complete this course in record time, I’m done losing to Jack and his crew by seconds.” He must be the male lead on our floor for Audrina to not have a snarky response to him informing her I’m good at something.
“Whatever, if we lose this challenge because she’s here, I’m going to blame you and you both can do the punishment together for the whole team.”
“Suits me.” Tall guy says. “Name’s John, but everyone calls me ‘Tracker.’ We have to get all 20 of us across and down in the shortest amount of time. We have been doing training drills for a few weeks, stick close to me, you seem to read the room pretty well. Any suggestions, I’ll take them, but watch first to gather intel.”
“Got it.” I ignore Audrina, the best I can. She’s on my team and eventually we are going to be forced to work together, but at least for now, there are so many people and she is in her element of being in charge and verbalizing her game plan. I do not matter enough for her attention since Tracker seems to have taken me under his wing. Unfortunately, listening to her, I understand why she’s in her position. She’s at least smart and knows what she’s doing.
As a group we scale these small metal pegs hammered into the uprights. The pegs are so tiny, even my feet are going to have a hard time fitting quickly. I don’t know how Wyatt, Tracker and some of these other guys are going to manage to move up quickly. From there we are scaling across the rope bridge that has a single rope for feet and single rope for hands and the bars in between to keep them about seven feet apart. If we had children with us on the evacuation, there is no way any of us would choose this bridge style. I say as much to Tracker.
“Do we assume we have children or elderly in these exercises? Or so we assume everyone can traverse this setup since it wouldn’t be practical for those demographics?” I ask the back of Tracker’s head while our group moves forward.
“We should always assume the worst case scenario, that means children, elderly, sick, injured, every type of person we could come across. Why do you ask?”
“In a real life situation, there is no way one of us is going to set a bridge like this, even in the worst situation, if we have children or injured people, they are going to need to be carried across. I am the smallest person here and I have done this alone twice this week and I can barely touch both ropes at the same time, that makes me slower. An untrained person would be worse and whatever we
were evacuating from would probably capture or kill us. Do we go single file or can the rope handle more than one at a time?”
Chapter 0199
“So far Jack’s team and ours are the fastest and both teams go single file and send people every two feet give or take. The rope can hold a significant amount of weight if it is tied properly like this one is.”
“Is the rope tying something we train as well? I would love to learn that?”
“It is, but focus, what are you suggesting?” He gives an amused smirk at my excitement over tying rope.
“That we double up. There’s twenty of us, we could go across in pairs, instead of sending each across one at a time. We’ve all made it to training, so I have to assume everyone here is strong enough and coordinated enough to do that. It will be a huge test of trust for the person piggy backing. It is the most realistic scenario though. If you have a small child who is scared, they are going to be difficult enough to get moving, let alone adding a huge height to the mix.”
“You might be onto something, let me talk to Audrina.”
I grab his arm before he can get away. “Don’t tell her it was my idea, for whatever reason she hates me and will shut it down if she thinks I suggested it.”
He huffs and rolls his eyes. “Sounds about right, no worries.” Then he walks away to give Audrina my plan.
Within five minutes of them talking she shouts, “Gather round, new plan.” Once we are all together she squats in the middle and we huddle around listening to her give us the plan in a hushed voice. “We are going to pair up once we get to the top. We have done this single file plenty of times and it hasn’t made us any faster. Pair off one male one female. This isn’t a men are stronger thing, so don’t complain. The guys are statistically taller than the women and this will work in our favor. Ladies, we are going to ride piggyback and go across in pairs. Since this hasn’t been tested, give
just a bit more space between partners to stay safe. Also ladies, work as lookouts, make sure the trainers don’t have any plans to strike at us. We need to knock Jack’s team off their pedestal.”
Everyone is nodding their head in agreement and starting to pair off.
“I’ve got the Midget.” Wyatt wraps his arm around my neck as Tracker points at me.
“Are you sure you can handle her?” Trackers rolls his eyes, but gives a playful smirk.
“Alright as*holes, don’t fight over the new toy.” A woman in her mid twenties says to them both. “I’m sure you’ll both have plenty of time to work with her.” She smiles at me and moves close and whispers, “Nice plan, she may or may not give you any credit, but several of us heard you come up with it.” She winks and moves off to another guy in our group. I just smile, I don’t really care about credit as long as we win.
“We’re next.” Audrina shouts to us. “Get ready.”
No sooner does she say that than the horn sounds. We have to scramble up the little ladder spokes, but as soon as each pair reaches the top the female partner launches onto her male partner and they start to shimmy across the rope. It dips with the combined weight, but the guys are more than capable of hanging on. If it was me, I would have been hanging by just my hands. There’s no way I was going to be able to reach both with the large guys on here too.
“You ready Midge?” Wyatt asks. We are the second to last pair to go, but it seems to be working. Our team is flowing up and across like ants on a mission. “You head up first, that way I can keep pace with you.”
I don’t argue and start the ascent. Once we are both at the top he reaches out a hand, I take it and use his thigh as a step up onto his massive back. My arms just barely connect around his neck, but his waist narrows out just enough for me to wrap my legs around and cross my ankles.
Chapter 0200
He grabs the upper rope and takes a tentative step forward letting the lower rope dip with our weight before he starts stepping one foot in front of the other. As soon as we reach the first upright pole and he has to let go, I hear a click echo around us. I look below and see each of the trainers aiming what looks like guns at us. What the hell?
“Wyatt, we’ve got trouble. I think they are going to try and shoot at us, move your ass!”
“Where are they?”
“One at twelve o’clock, two at three o'clock, one at six o’clock and three at nine o’clock, but I don’t know if they would aim at us or the other team. Would they really shoot us?”
“It’s probably just paintballs, but they turn the guns up to full velocity. Yes they will really try and hit us, and those f*ckers hurt.”
He picks up the pace, but we can only go so fast without making the whole bridge start to sway. I relate the info to the pair behind us and then to the pair in front of us. Everyone on piggy back is on the lookout to see who is going to strike first.
The pair in front of us makes it to the platform just as they start to open fire. We are just crossing the halfway point and still have about twenty feet to go. I feel the first splat of paint hit my arm and Wyatt wasn’t wrong, this sh*t stings. I take a few more to each arm and then I hear the consistent splats and can feel the paint splash over Wyatt’s shoulder at me.
“Ahh! I can’t see!” Wyatt shouts.
They tried and failed to get me to let go so they started going for Wyatt’s face.
“Hold on tigh for just a second, I’m going to adjust.” I let go with one hand and reach under his arm.
“What the f*ck are you doing? Don’t let go, you’re going to fall!”
“We are both going to fall if you can’t see or if the rope gets too slippery to move, just trust me.” I shimmy under his arm, moving my legs as little as possible, but reaching both arms underneath and grabbing his biceps and using them to pull myself to his front. I take the hem of my shirt and wipe his face. “Blink. Can you see better?” I ask as I start to take a volley of hits to my back.
He does what I say. “Yeah, I’m good, but you are getting pummeled, move back.”
“Not a chance, focus on the rope and I will keep them from hitting you in the face, now get us off this ride.”
“You got it boss.”
I take a look behind him and the last pair did the same. She is protecting his face too, but she looks like a Jackson Pollock painting. I’m sure I look no better.