Walking a fine line✔️

29. Break free

I grinned to myself. Perfect.

As I'd hoped, they led me all the way to their school's base. I hovered behind a bush a few metres away and watched as they ducked between two granite boulders, guarded by a handful of other students. A minute later a boy and a girl dashed towards the guards grinning and waving a red flag. Cheers went up in the air while my stomach dropped.

It was Arrowhead's flag. I could only hope that my school had Hillcrest's flag and we weren't losing.

A couple of minutes later one of the guards looked towards my bush and I held my breath. Another minute went by and I thought I was safe until I saw the blonde guard nudge his brunette pal. "Oi Will, there's someone there."

It was time to go. I jumped out of the bush and broke into a full sprint, the boys chasing after me. I retraced my route back to the campsite, narrowly missing crashing into a girl running in the other direction. My persuitors however weren't so quick on their feet and went sprawling into the mud soaked ground.

I let out a laugh and dashed the last few metres across the boundary line. I spun round, giving the two boys covered in mud, a teasing wave. They scowled and disappeared into the trees. I grinned to myself, while capture-the-flag had begun badly thanks to Griffin, it had now gotten a whole lot better and I was ready for some imaginary bloodshed.

But only once I'd eaten some breakfast.

At a walk, I made my way further into Dartigton's quadrant, looking for my schoolmates. After crossing a few streams I entered a glade and spotted June jogging across it. I called out to her and she turned, surprise washing over her face .

"Rory? Rory! Where have you been?" June exclaimed, marching over to me. "What's on your face?"

My hands went instantly to my face but I felt nothing. "Nothing?"

"You have doodles all over it!"

I sighed. Griffin really had gone all out last night. "Remind me to never sleep with Griffin again."

Her eyes widened. "You what!"

"Not like that," I quickly reassured her. "Long story short, Griffin and Oscar suck. But more importantly right now what time is it?"

June looked at her watch. "10:23am. Where have you been?"

"Griffin trapped me in a tent," I quickly explained as we walked across the glade back to our school's main base hidden in a dense, overgrown corner of our quadrant.

June shook her head. "I was wondering if he was involved in your disappearance this morning."

"He sure was." I laughed. "Also Beckfall got a hold of Arrowhead's flag."

"I know, Henry said he saw them running by about twenty minutes ago. Wait, how do you know?"

I grinned. "I watched them bring it to their base."

We reached some of our other classmates, including Noah, as June exclaimed, "You know where their base is!"

"Yep."

Noah high fived me. "Legend, our first scout group couldn't find it and got caught."

I nodded. "It makes sense they couldn't find it. Beckfall has put it between two massive granite boulders at the far boundary line. It's almost impossible to see."

Noah shook his head. "Those sneaky buggers."

June began organising a team to raid Beckfall's base while I made my way to our food station. I needed fuel in my stomach before I began running around. I stuffed a muesli bar in my mouth and grabbed a few for later then walked back over to the group.

"...Okay we'll free people from jail," Noah said, then followed by four other people, vanished between the trees.

"Hillcrest is our other target," June moved on, boss mode on. "We need a team of seven to go to them. Three people as a distraction, two to go for their flag and two to find a place to hide ready for another attack."

"I'll go," I volunteered, wiping water off my face. It had begun to drizzle.

And so began the next four hours of hiding behind bushes, chasing down other students and having the best time. I crossed paths with my brother and the rest of the apocalypse squad multiple times, but surprisingly never Griffin until early afternoon.

June, Jordan, and I had just crossed our border line after doing a prison break. "That was so close," laughed June.

Jordan nodded. "I can't believe those Arrowhead dudes didn't see us!"

"I was sure we were screwed after June broke that stick," I said. As if on cue, a stick broke behind us and I swung round to see Griffin leaning against a tree a few metres away.

"I'm impressed princess."

I scowled. "Griffin."

"He's on our side," June said quietly, not moving.

"Let's take him down—" Jordan began but I interrupted him.

"He's mine," I snarled, not taking my eyes off Griffin's face.

A/N:

I'm back! Sorry for the week without updates - I went on holiday and it turned out the place we were staying with had no wifi or phone reception!

I recommend everyone tries escaping from zip ties (make sure someone is on standby to cut you free if need be) - it leads to some amusing few minutes!

Vote and comment if you enjoyed :) 

SouthernAlps over and out...