Girl Apocalypse

Discovery

We climb for ages, and the mountain gets steeper and more treacherous the higher we get.  My hands are scraped nearly raw from grabbing onto sharp rocks and gnarled, scratchy tree branches, hauling myself up hand over hand. Ellie is quiet for most of the time, save for the occasional soft grunt of effort, but I can see she’s getting tired, shaking from the effort, ready to drop.

Gus is far more vocal. He groans and mutters to himself, cursing in a colorful tangle of street words when he trips on a rock. The worst bit is looking back and seeing we’re not even halfway up the mountain yet.

At least the ridgeback is way behind us now. When I look back over my shoulder I can see it’s huge form lumbering over the sand, luckily moving away from us. It’s had it’s meal and it’s probably going to find somewhere to rest. The thought makes me sick, and I swallow hard and push ahead, climbing a little faster, trying to concentrate on the ache in my hands and feet and not think about the horrible fate of that other team

Gus is complaining still, and now it’s louder, loud enough for me to hear it clearly, “this was a brilliant idea. Climb the ruddy mountain. Oh, yes. Thanks for that.”

I turn back and snap at him, “Shut it, Gus! I don’t see you coming up with something better. Or should we have stuck around and been chewed on? If you think my plan is so bad you’re free to climb back down. You can go and shake hands with the ridgeback for all I care.”

Gus looks down while he navigates a particularly rocky outcrop, “Well,” he says loudly, “I don’t see any fortress up here yet. I thought you said there were supposed to be people up here, you know, the bloody masterminds behind this so called “competition”. Where are they, then? If you’re so brilliant…”

“They’ve got to be here somewhere,” I grunt back at him, “we’re just not high enough yet, at some point we’ll have to circle around, start heading for the other side of the mountain.”

“Brilliant,” Gus stops in his tracks, “so we’re climbing all this way up this side for nothing. Why the hell don’t we tramp around now? Maybe we’ll actually see something.”

“Not yet,” I say crossly, “keep moving. If we go around the mountain too soon they could see us climbing up. We have to surprise them.”

“Like they haven’t got security men,” Gus says, “all we have is a butter knife and a piece of stupid rope. This isn’t going to work.”

I take a huge breath of air, telling myself to restrain from stabbing him with said ‘butter knife’. “Keep climbing.”

“So who died and made you king of England anyways?” Gus says, “why are you in charge? You’re just a girl.”

I grit my teeth, and do my best to keep my voice even, “Yes, very well spotted. Listen to me, you stupid git. It doesn’t matter if I’m a girl. I can outfight you blindfolded.”

“I doubt that…”

Ellie spoke up suddenly, sounding out of breath, “stop it, you two. Look, we’re nearly halfway up the mountain.”

We both shut up long enough to look back over our shoulders, and I feel a stab of surprise at how far we have just come while we were arguing.

“You two put on double speed when you started arguing,” Ellie panted, “and now, kiss and make up, because I can’t keep up this pace.”

I was happy we’d come so far, so I only muttered, “I think I’d kiss a ridgeback first,” and kept climbing. Of course, as soon as I said the word “kiss” the thought of Gus kissing me popped into my head, and I felt my cheeks flush. It wasn’t as if he was bad looking…