The Turn: Chapter Eight

The Turn

Chapter Eight

~Capture the Flag~

Three Years before the Turn

Zara jumped over a fallen trunk and ran through the woods. Her katana hung from a twin back scabbard in the form of an ‘X’. She wore a tight black sweater and tight fitting pants. Her feet seemed to skim the ground and she barely made a noise. She saw movement in the trees to her left and a flash of white to her right. A brown sack sailed for her head. Zara unsheathed her left katana and cut the sack on its string, spilling its sandy contents onto the forest floor.

She landed in a crouch and raised her right hand in a fist. There was silence as she tried to listen for what might be ahead.

4-34, 4-35, 4-36…

Zara dropped her hand and proceeded forward. She slid under a tree log into a small clearing surrounded by rocks. Cautiously she walked around inspecting each stone. Eventually, she felt more comfortable and whistled. There was a pause before the whistle was repeated. When she heard the echo she crouched down in the nook of one of the rocks, hidden and able to observe what was going on. After that, she waited.

It had been a little over a week since the day they first started training. Now they were in team training with less than two days to the team assessment. As the team leader, it was Zara’s job to know each members weakness and strength. It was far harder than she had anticipated. She had sat in on Deontay’s training Vicky in the school boxing gym. Vicky had vastly improved not only in strength but in confidence. As time went on, she was actually a very friendly and bubbly girl.

There was a rustle in the trees. Zara stayed still as to not be noticed. Suddenly, Naru dropped down from the trees into the small clearing. He stood up slowly, looking around carefully. Zara could see three needles in each hand. She knew it was safer to let Naru find her than for her to come out of her hiding spot.

Naru’s strength: his speed and his pin point accuracy. He was like a tree snake in the trees. You could look but you wouldn’t be able to find him; until it was too late, that is. He was their best sniper. Chaud had been helping him learn to use the weapon. From what she heard, there were a few close calls on Chaud’s part. Naru’s weakness: he didn’t have the best arms strength. Granted he could climb a tree like no one’s business but if he were to fight in hand to hand combat, there was a strong possibility that he would lose.

His blue eyes fell on her hiding spot. He had no trouble making her out. She stood and Naru retracted his initial weapons. There was a noise behind Zara and she turned suddenly, grabbing the handle of her weapon. She sighed with a hint of annoyance. Chaud looked down at her with that obnoxious smile on his face.

Chaud’s strength: give him a gun and he can clear a path for you in less than thirty seconds. He was also resourceful. If Zara came up with a plan, Chaud would be the one to get his hands on what they would need. And also he was crazy rich. Chaud’s weakness: that darn smile that made everyone wants to kill him. Or was that just her?

Vicky peaked around one of the smaller rocks. Her strength: she certainly had a healthy kind of spunk. Other than that, she looked average. But as it turned out, she was almost as good at boxing as Deontay. She was a force to be reckoned with. Her weakness: she still lacked some confidence. At least she didn’t have a smile that one would want to slap off of someone’s face.

Deontay and Hina clamored over one of the rocks one after the other. Deontay’s strength: what wasn’t he good as? He was a rock. Try moving a boulder one day and you get a hint of how great his defense was. After that have someone push a boulder off a cliff with you under it to get a sense of his attack strength. The best offense was a great defense, unless the defense and offense were exactly the same wrapped into one person. His weakness: speed. He could keep up with the others but if he was up against someone like Naru…it wouldn’t be pretty.

Hina’s strength was by all means her power. It was awesome; good for offense and defense. Her weakness however was her temper. As long as she kept that in check, they should all be fine.

Zara took a deep breath, “Okay, how are we going to get that flag?”

“It’s just over the next ridge,” Naru commented, “I saw it from my perch in the trees.”

“See anything unusual?” Zara asked.

Naru nodded his head, “It’s out in the open in the middle of a field.”

“That’s unusual?” Chaud asked.

“How many times have you known something to be that easy?” Zara rolled her eyes.

Chaud rolled onto his heels, “I’m not going to answer that.”

Zara looked up at the sky in an attempt to control herself, “Alright, I guess we’ll charge it.”

“Isn’t that what you don’t want to do when it seems too easy?” Hina looked board.

“Exactly,” Hina nodded, “We’ll do the very thing they don’t expect us to do.”

“Unless they expect us,” Chaud stated, “Then we’d be doing exactly what they expect us to do then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?”

“Exactly,” Zara said after running through what Chaud said one last time.

“May I suggest partners?” Vicky said quietly, a nervous smile on her face.

“What do you mean?” Deontay asked.

“Well, if we have a partner to watch our back, and vice versa, it would be easier and safer to rush them,” Vicky was rubbing her hands together nervously, “But the partner would have to be almost opposite, you know, to cover the others weakness.”

Zara thought about it for a moment. It seemed to make sense. Why not give it a try? She opened her mouth to assign partners when Chaud interrupted her.

“So who wants to partner with who?” he said with a smile.

Zara rolled her eyes.

Deontay put an arm around Vicky, “I guess we’re pretty opposite. Don’t you think Vick?”

“I guess,” her voice was barely louder than a whisper.

Hina stretched, “I guess that means Naru and me are partners. Who can be more opposite, right?”

“It’s Naru and I,” Naru muttered.

Hina shrugged it off.

Zara felt Chaud fist bump her arm, “I guess that leaves you and me, partner,” he said.

“Okay,” Zara ignored him, “Chaud and I will take lead. We’ll be a distraction while Naru and Hina get to the flag. But don’t actually get it, make an effort and make it look like your trying to get the flag while Vicky and Deontay make their way unnoticed. Deontay I want you to stay back and keep an eye on things. Just don’t let your partner down. Vicky, you will be the one to get the flag. Make sure you avoid as much fighting as possible while the rest of us make a scene. Everyone understand?” Everyone nodded. “Chaud and I will come from the center, Hina and Naru from the right, and Vicky and Deontay take on the left. Let’s go.”

Everyone scattered into the forest. Zara felt Chaud’s presence to her right. He kept up with her pace easily. She glanced at him for a brief moment when she heard something on her left. Zara looked to see another contraption shoot up from the bushes. A crossbow released a bolt before she could register what the device was. She felt someone grab her by the waist and pull her to the ground. The bold smacked into a tree with a loud thwack! For a moment, Zara lay on her back registering what had just happened.

“Could we go now?” Chaud asked. He lay on his back, propped up on his elbows.

Zara took one look at him and rolled her eyes.

“What? I did just save your life!” he exclaimed as he stood up.

“I saw it,” Zara lied.

“No, you didn’t.”

“Shut up.”

“Fine.”

Zara and Chaud reached the edge of the field. The rest of the journey was uneventful. They stayed in the uncertain shadows of the trees and waited. Zara crouched down. She could see the green flag easily on the top of a small rise. It didn’t look like there were any guards or anything like Crow said there would be. The wild grass swayed in the wind and was about as tall as the average man’s waist.

After a moment of assessing, she looked up at Chaud. She was about to tell him what to do when he brought his finger’s to his lips and blew. A series of notes echoed into the forest. It was the exact notes of a local woodland bird. There were a series of other birds that responded but there were two in particular that Zara was looking for. She smiled. The others were in position too.

Chaud brought out one of his guns and checked his supply of bullets, satisfied he held it loosely in his hand.

“Don’t kill anyone,” Zara muttered.

“Don’t worry,” Chaud smiled, “Their blanks.”

“What good are blanks?”

“They scare the heck out of people.”

Zara waited for a few more seconds, “Start the clock.”

Chaud whistled again. Then the response. They started counting after the last whistle.

0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4, 0-5…

“Ready?” Zara asked.

0-6, 0-7…

“When you are,” Chaud responded.

0-8, 0-9…

Zara sprang out of the tree cover with Chaud hot on her heels. Learning from before, she didn’t risk a glance to her sides to see if the others were following suit. They were half way across the field and still hadn’t run into any opposition. Something flew past Zara’s head from behind. She looked quickly and saw several of the shrine residence with arrows behind them.

“Get down!” Chaud shouted.

Without question, Zara dropped to the ground just as a bolt flew overhead. Several devices had risen from the tall grasses and fired their supply of bolts in rapid succession. She glanced behind her at the coming line of people. Zara started crawling low to the ground. Their best bet at the moment was to disable the crossbow because if they waited, they would be found and killed already.

She reached the tripod on which it stood. It was staked into the ground. Chaud caught up and got one of his guns and made it a sword. He hacked at one of the three legs nearly cutting it through and through. Zara got into a crouch, still below the grass line and waited. When the device tipped to one side she got to her feet. She met face to face with one of the ones after them.

Zara swung her weapon from its right sheath. Her opponent drew a weapon of his own. His darker clothing told Zara that it was Crow. She grabbed her other katana and swung it at his midline. Crow jumped back. For a moment, Zara heard the clashing of swords as Chaud engaged in battle with another person. The ground shifted slightly. A few of the attacking force fell to their knees but Crow and Zara stayed on their feet. Zara rushed at Crow, attacking overhead. Crow raised his weapon and blocked her attach. Zara’s katana slid off Crow’s sword as she dropped to her knees. She thrust forward her left katana and Crow avoided it by moving easily to one side. He spun and elbowed her in her right side. The unexpected counter attack sent her on her side in the grass.

As she hit the ground, she looked to the flag. She saw the green flag in Vicky’s hands; the girl had managed to go unnoticed so far. Zara fought against the urge to call out to her but something caught Crow’s attention. He couldn’t see what Zara saw but he knew something was up. He called the attention of three others that were close by. The three men saw Vicky and started after her.

Vicky swung the flag in a horizontal arc. A blast of wind struck the three men, blowing them back. With her path temporarily cleared, Vicky started running. Two other men were after her but fell suddenly to the ground with needles sticking out from their legs. She vanished into the tree line with a line of men on her tail. Deontay ran into the forest from a different route.

Zara kicked out her leg hitting Crow in the shin. She then hooked her foot behind his ankle and retracted her leg causing him to fall onto his back. She jumped to her feet and grabbed one of her katana. Zara leaned over Crow with the tip of her blade at his neck.

“Alright, I give,” he muttered.

Zara looked to Chaud. His back was to her as he too finished his opponents with the loud pop of his guns. Of course they were blanks but as they had discussed before, they scare the heck out of people. He looked back at her to see how she was fairing.

Zara started, “I think we—”

“Check on her?” Chaud finished, “Yeah, it’d be a shame for her to have a heart attack right about now.”

They both ran back into the forest to see if they could find Vicky. There was a trail of pained bodies throughout the woods, presumably Vicky’s doing. Eventually, they reached a large tree. Deontay stood at its base looking up into the tree. He looked back at his approaching team mates.

“She’s up there but she won’t come down,” he stated.

Zara looked up. She couldn’t see anything, “Where?”

Deontay pointed, “There.”

Again, Zara couldn’t see anything. She shrugged and left it up to Deontay. Naru and Hina walked up just then with Crow not too far behind.

“Interesting tactic,” Crow began his assessment, “You all could be a little less reckless but I guess that’s asking a little too much. You all did know that your odds were like 4 to one right?”

Zara hadn’t taken that into account.

“Anyway,” Crow continued, “Your fighting has improved after the balance training, strength training, defense and offense training and flexibility training. I’m sure you have lovely memories of that to last you a life time. You all could use to drop the double cheese burgers in your diet, but then again, who doesn’t. Other than a few minor things,” Crow paused, “I think you’re ready for the assessment in a few days. You won’t need to come in tomorrow.”

“Won’t need to come in?” Hina couldn’t have been happier.

“Why?” Deontay asked.

Crow shrugged, “I can’t sand any one of you.”

“Awe, Crow!” Chaud laughed, “You love us, you know you do!”

“Would that still apply if I made you run around the Island a couple of times?” Crow raised an eyebrow.

Chaud shook his head, “Maybe not.”

“What do you want us to do for the next few days?” Zara asked

Crow shrugged, “Relax, practice, I don’t care. At this stage, I’ve done all I can for you. It’s about time you figure out who you want to be and the steps to get there. Good luck,” Crow said before turning toward the shrine.

“Will you be watching us?” Naru asked as Crow was walking away.

Crow stopped a moment and seemed to be thinking over how to answer, “I guess I could venture into the city a while.”

“Sounds good,” Deontay smiled. He looked up into the tree, “Are you coming down or what?”

The sun started to set by the time they managed to get Vicky out of the tree. Apparently, she had gotten stuck and didn’t know how to get down. Naru, Zara and Deontay all had to climb the tree to get her down while Hina and Chaud stayed at the base to catch anyone who would be unfortunate to fall.

“Nothing like getting a team member out of a tree to build a team,” Crow sighed as he walked toward the shrine.