Closer

Chapter 11

Sorry its been so long since I've updated. I went out of town for a few days and didn't take my computer with me. I missed a few days of school too so when I got back I was so busy with make-up work that I didn't have a chance to write >.<

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I leaned out of the train car as we waited for Eric’s cue to jump. The darkness swallowed everything in sight. I could barley make out the outline of the trees as they whipped by. My attention was drawn to Aidan as he came up next to me.

“We have to win this,” I smiled.

“Oh trust me, I know. We’ll never hear the end of it from Jake and Olivia if we lose,” he joked. There was that, and also the fact that I wanted to beat my older brother. I would never let him live the loss down and vice versa.

I was about to respond to Aidan when suddenly I was shoved from behind and sent flying out of the train car. I tried to hit the ground running, but tripped and stumbled face first into the dirt and gravel. Pain pulsed through my palms thanks to the new scrapes I had received. As I pushed myself up from the dirt, I heard the rest of my team exit from the train. Aidan appeared at my side as I stood up.

“What the fuck?” I snarled. I wanted to know who the hell did that. There was no one on my team that I would expect that from.

“That’s what happened when you’re hanging out of a train and not paying attention to your surroundings,” I heard Eric say as he stepped through the group of initiates. Of course it was Eric. He ignored my dirty look as he began to lead the way.

“You okay?” Aidan asked as I brushed the dirt off me. I nodded and began to follow Eric and the other initiates. My fist clenched as I stared at the back of Eric’s head. I was pissed that he had embarrasses me like that, but there wasn’t anything that I could do about it, at least not at the moment.

“So, what’s the plan, Captain?” I asked.

Eric pulled a glowing green flag from his pocket and unfolded it. “We need to hide this where Four’s team won’t find it. Where we hide it and what we do after that is all up to you guys,” he announced to the team.

I looked around for a sufficient hiding place. Where we were looked like run-down fair ground so there had to be plenty of nooks and crannies that we could stash the flag in. My wandering eyes stopped at the fun house that was about 100 yards away. “There,” I pointed to it and my teammate’s eyes followed the direction of my finger. “The fun house.”

“Adam,” Eric held out the flag out to him and nodded in the direction of the fun house. Adam, understanding what Eric wanted, grabbed the flag and took off in the direction of the attraction. I was surprised that Eric didn’t question my choice in hiding place.

“I say when Adam gets back, we break up into two groups; offense and defense,” Dean suggested.

“We need people to scout first,” Aidan objected. I agreed. We needed to know where to go first.

“Fine, Aidan take Paul with you and go scout. But make it quick,” Eric instructed. I sent a pleading look in Aidan’s direction. I didn’t want to have to deal with Eric without him, not after he already shot me and pushed me out of a moving train within this past hour. Aidan gave me an apologetic look and mouthed ‘sorry’ before he took off with Paul.   

“Instead of splitting us in half, we can just leave two behind to guard and the rest can go. We have a better chance at getting the flag if there’s more of us there,” It was me that made the suggestion this time. I looked at Eric, expecting him to shoot it down.