Chapter 17 Emery #2
I half wonder if other cadets randomly teamed up after the chaos yesterday. Just for the sake of safety in numbers. But a group is easier to spot than one person. The liability is higher.
Their voices are loud and careless. I cringe and almost want to kill them now so they don’t draw others to us. At least their screams would let others know that people are dying and not just being idiotic and talking loud.
Bree seems to sense the same urgency. I glance over at her and watch her jaw flex beneath her mask a few times impatiently.
The woman laughs, drawing my eyes back to the group. My cheeks are flush with anxiety but as she takes a few steps ahead of the others. One of the two men lifts his knife and stabs it into the crux of her neck and shoulder where the jugular artery lies.
Astonishment races through me and my legs start to tremble with adrenaline. “Assholes,” I whisper, feeling the betrayal on her behalf. She dies quickly and they keep walking as if nothing had even happened.
Bree’s brows remain pulled low as she watches them cross our field of vision. “Yeah, they’re people I wouldn’t feel bad about offing. Let’s keep up with them.”
Agreed.
“You’d make a good sergeant someday,” I say. No one is saying that we’re friends by any means, but besides Cameron, she’s the closest thing I have to one.
Bree hesitates before finally looking at me. “If I survive that long,” she says almost somberly, but I can see the hint of a grin shining in her eyes.
We follow the two men for the better part of an hour. The forest falls quiet again as the sun warms the air by a few degrees.
A small creek runs through a break in the trees. It’s a steep decline to the edge of the stream, which is littered with rocks and frosted with ice clinging to the slumbering moss.
I crouch beside Bree as we watch the two men slide down the icy slope and wade across the knee-high water.
That must be freezing. A frown tugs at my lips. Those two have a death wish.
“Shit. I guess we’ll have to let them go.” I breathe slowly, assessing the slope and determining that it’s definitely not logical to follow them across.
Bree shakes her head, a wild glimmer flashing through her gaze. “We can’t let them go. What if we don’t find anyone else out here? Do you want to risk your tracker exploding?”
I flinch and smooth my hand over the bump on the back of my neck. “What about frostbite? We can’t risk something like that out here, Bree. That would be detrimental on a real mission and—”
“Not to mention that you still have three trials, including this one, to survive, and frostbite would certainly be your end.” Bree gasps at the sound of Cameron’s voice at our backs.
We both look at him over our shoulders. He doesn’t let his eyes move from the two men in the creek below.
“They were dead the moment they stepped into the water.”
Bree’s eyes narrow distrustfully at him, but she doesn’t say anything. I don’t blame her for being careful around Cameron. He’s unstable at best.
“Where have you been?” I ask, suppressing the chill that rises in my chest now that I can see him in the broad daylight.
Dried blood is smeared over his vest and halfway up the side of his mask.
I know my uniform probably doesn’t look much different.
His eyes are bright and alert, flicking to me briefly before resuming to browse the area.
“Making sure no one is tailing us. I see you’ve foolishly decided to broaden our team.” He stares at Bree with empty eyes. I doubt he’ll spare her life if the opportunity arises.
“It’s only the first trial. We could use as many allies as we can get,” I retort back.
Cameron doesn’t seem convinced, but he doesn’t bother commenting further. His fingers remain by his side and ready to snatch his blade if needed.
“Let’s find more cadets to follow then. I don’t feel like chance is on our side today,” Bree mutters, looking Cameron over before she stands and walks parallel with the creek below.
At least our side facing the water should be safe from an attack. It’d be impossible to keep quiet passing through the water and up the slick slope. Cameron seems to have the same thoughts. His eyes remain only to the other side and behind us.
By the time the sun is in the center of the sky, we find a large group of cadets, all men.
Most of them are almost as tall as Cameron and have blood all over their tactical gear.
Judging by the way they hold themselves, they’re likely what remains from the countdown slaughter.
Five of them lead the group and four trail behind.
They’re all laughing loudly and clearly enjoying themselves.
The tall, lanky man at the head of the group has his arm bent lamely the way Wraith holds his. It doesn’t look like his broken arm has given him any trouble at all.
“I don’t think we should be anywhere near them,” Bree says, concern evident in her tone. At least she’s not friendly with them, that’d be a problem. Cameron hooks his thumb through his vest strap and glances at me indifferently, waiting for my answer like it’s up to me.
“If it comes down to the wire, I think I’d rather have to kill them than anyone else.
At least we’d get some of them off the board,” I say as I watch the ignorant men shout and shove each other playfully.
They look like a pack of fucking wolves, just like Cameron always references to.
It makes sense now why he would pick up on saying it.
Cameron nods. “Let’s trail them then.”
Bree groans but follows us anyway.
I look down at my wrist. Sixty-five cadets left. The decline has slowed significantly, and there are only a handful of hours left.
The sun dips beneath the mountains again, and we’re thrown into darkness for the finale.
Heavy snowfall lowers our field of vision, but it should also aid in keeping us hidden until we can get close enough to attack.
We lucked out with the weather and shadows of the night.
It’s practically impossible to hear anything beneath the shroud of millions of snowflakes buffering the air and deflecting the sound of footsteps.
I always thought it was miraculous how snow could silence the world. It seemed so magical up until I learned about sound and how it travels through the air and bounces off things.
It makes these storms so easy to kill in.
Bree freezes, her combat boots half buried in the swiftly accumulating snow.
“What?” I ask just as I feel my wristband buzzing.
My eyes flick down. The number has moved down to fifty-seven, but a message rolls across the top in red.
Five minutes remaining in Trial 1.
Cameron doesn’t even look at his band, just stares at us knowingly. He’s experienced in this, after all. I wonder what his first time around was like in the Under. I picture his fierce eyes, teeth bared as fury and blood mix in snow.
A shudder rolls through me as I shake the image from my mind.
He unsheathes his combat knife. It’s stained a burgundy red.
“Let’s get this over with,” he says in a calm voice. Like we aren’t about to murder other cadets.
Bree shifts on her feet and flashes me a concerned look. “Everyone got the message. Maybe we don’t need to participate,” she mutters hopefully. I wonder if she thinks Damian is with them by chance and fears one of us will kill him unknowingly.
Cameron’s jaw flexes, his eyes turn cold and distant. “No. I’m not risking it.” His grip tightens on the knife, and he shoots me a hard stare. His expression burns with agony. I feel it deep in my bones.
“You’ve lost someone to the trackers before,” I say in a hushed tone. His eyes dart away, searching the ground for something nonexistent before returning to my eyes. He doesn’t confirm it verbally, but the answer is clear.
I unsheathe my knife and look at Bree. “You don’t have to participate if you don’t want to, but I’m not going to die by chance.” A flutter of excitement races through my veins. I’ve never had a team like this before. Every job I’ve had to do in the past required only one person—me.
The rush of what we’re about to do pumps through my veins.
Bree shakes her head before her mask pulls to one side in what looks like a smile. “Fuck it. Let’s go.”
The group of men move slowly, focused as if they are hunting a group as well. The band around my wrist vibrates again. Two-minute warning.
We only need five more kills.
I clench my KA-BAR, ready to charge into a ferocious fight, but before I break into a sprint toward my first victim a scream tears through the night.
My head jerks to the side, eyes catching on Bree’s body crumpling to the ground with a knife buried in her thigh.
I spare a moment to see if she needs help, but she’s already fighting off the cadet and bringing him to the forest floor with ease.
Cameron doesn’t bother looking at the source of the scream, he goes straight into killing. He barrels straight into the group ahead. With everyone masked up and it being dark, he immediately blends in besides the skull mask. Even then, the snow helps camouflage that too.
Confusion and horror explode through the group as they scramble to grab their blades.
That was smart of him, I muse before I hear snow crunch to my left.
My head whirls and I raise my arm just in time to block a knife intended for my throat.
The force of the soldier throws me to the ground.
Cold flashes up the side of my neck and lower back.
I kick my foot against the ground to get the upper hand on the cadet, pinning him to the ground before ripping my knife across his bare throat.
His panicked eyes blink furiously as his blood spurts everywhere.
Before I can watch the light go out in his gaze, another soldier tackles me off him. A scream is torn from my throat as a knife slits horizontally through my ear and into the earth behind it. That was too close.