I woke to the sound of thunder rumbling outside the tent. The light from outside held the familiar grey hue seen just before the sun rises. I sighed in relief, I would be able to make it back to my schools campsite before capture-the-flag began.
An excited grin broke out on my face and I tried to stretch. The key word being tried. I tried again but my arms would not separate. I looked down to find my wrists zip tied together. "Griffin," I growled, rolling over to face him. Empty space met my gaze and I realised that I was completely alone in the tent.
Time to get out of here.
With wriggle skills that would rival my ones trying to get into the sumo suit, I made my way out of the sleeping bag. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my thoughts; my next step was to break free. I chuckled. God knows I want to break free.
I began humming Queen as I lifted my hands to my mouth and pulled the zip ties as tight as they would go. A part of me laughed at how loosely Griffin had tied them, if they were any looser I would have easily been able to slip out of them. Once tight I gritted my teeth and raised my hands above my head before slamming them down against my stomach. My hands remained together. I tried again and was still not successful. With my teeth, I pulled the ties even tighter and then pulled my arms down. With a snap my wrists came apart.
I was finally free.
I rubbed my wrists, trying to ease the slight stinging. They were gonna bruise. As quickly as I could, I got dressed and slipped on my coat. It was now time to go to war. I crawled over to the tent door and tried pulling on the zip. It moved a few centimetres then refused to budge.
You have got to be joking.
Not only had Griffin tied me up, but he'd also zip-tied the tent shut. It was time to get creative. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail then got to work. With my hands now free, I grabbed one of my hair pins from out of my bag. Hair pins I'd learnt over the years, were the perfect tool to unlock things, whether it be locks or zip ties in this case. Now armed with one, I stuck my fingers through the small hole at the bottom of the tent and began fiddling around until I felt the zip tie lock mechanism. Once I had it, I began trying to lift the small bar in it and, after a few seconds, I had succeeded.
I would always come out victorious against zip ties.
A few summers ago Dad had insisted we learn how to escape from them. Jack had found the breaking method easy but struggled with the small, picky size of the bar in the lock. I on the hand had been the exact opposite. I said a quick thanks to Dad and his random lessons before unzipping the tent and stepping outside.
Oh shit.
Oh shit, shit, shit.
What I had previously thought was early morning grey light was actually just storm clouds blocking out the sunlight. Sunlight from a sun that seemed to be already high in the sky. It must be around mid morning, I realised with horror. I'd become too reliant on that screeching wake up call from hell, and now without it I'd slipped into my natural sleep pattern of waking up later.
I brushed the remainder of sleep out of my eyes and scanned Beckfall's campsite before me. It was time to win this game. While the original game plan had been completely screwed over, the situation wasn't all bad. As I'd told Griffin last night, I had made inside enemy territory after all.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a flash of yellow dashing between trees. I followed the moment and realised it was a girl dressed in a bright yellow coat. Glancing quickly over my shoulder, I left the abandoned campsite and began to follow the teenager. We wove in between trees, and after a few minutes she was joined by another girl. They didn't seem worried about being caught so I assumed that they were Beckfall high schoolers themselves.
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...