-Echoes- ON HOLD- RE EDITING

-Soar-

Chapter 27

Soar

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Chi's point of view

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"What happened to Aria?" Nadia asked.

I was filling the empty beer and alcohol bottles with gasoline when she walked up, finished with the task I had assigned her.

"She left." I said without looking up.

"What do you mean she left?"

"I mean, what I said." I walked over to the small pile of rags and torn cloth.

"But, why would she just leave." Nadia stopped her foot impatiently "Her tent is still standing, and her stuff is still here. Her truck is still in the parking lot."

"I don't know what to tell you except that she is gone." I ripped the cloth into strips.

"How about telling me the the truth." Nadia grumbled "You know more than you are letting on"

"Yes Nadia." I snarled "Aria left by her own choosing and on her own terms." I walked over to the picnic table and poored vodka into a bowl.

"But why?"

"You would have to bring that up with her." I soaked the cloth strips in the bowl of vodka.

"Oh." She walked away slowly having nothing else to say.

Slowly I grabbed one stip at a time, twisted them and shoved them into the glass bottles filled with gasoline.

There were 24 bottles total. Molotov Cocktails they are called.

I lined them up across the picnic table.

"What's all that for?" Kiri asked laying across one of the benches of the picnic table.

"War." I said scratching my head.

I turned around and walked away.

"What do you mean, War!" Kiri cried astounded.

"I mean just that. War. Luc- um.. L won't get anywhere near you if I can help it."

She eyed me suspiciously.

'You're holding something back, Chi.' She chastised me. 'I can see it.'

"You know who L is don't you." She growled.

I just kept walking.

"Brice!" I shouted "Help me with this log."

I sat on the edge of one of the large logs Brice had brought out from the woods, and waited for him to squeeze his way through his small tent.

"Yes ma'lady?" He asked chuckling, running over to where I sat.

"I need you to help me set up this log, here." I said slapping the log I sat on. "And into the woods."

"Okie Dokie." He chuckled.

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Kiri's point of View

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Utterly confused I. Followed as Chi instructed Brice where to carry the log to.

"Ok. Set it right there, right behind that tree."

Chi pointed to a large oak tree outside of the camp in the woods.

Brice half drug, half carried the fallen tree trunk to the place she pointed to.

"Why do you want a tree for?" He asked laughing and layed the tree down.

"It's called a deadfall." Chi chuckled pulling a thin black rope off her shoulder.

She tossed the rope over the oak tree limb.

She handed one end of the rope while she wrapped the other around the old log. She tied it tightly and pulled on it a few times to make sure it wouldn't slip off.

"Chi.." I was about to ask her what she was doing but before I could she took the rope from my hands and pulled down lifting one end of the log up into the air, the other end still on the ground.

"Brice," she growled wrapping the rope around her hand so it wouldn't slip, " bring that log closer to the tree."

He wrapped his arms around the log and pulled it closer to the tree trunk and where the other end of the log was suspended over the small path.

"Kiri, grab that box of nails on the ground and the hammer, and brice can you hammer two nails about 12inches apart four inches from the ground at the base of the tree."

I handed two nails to brice and he quickly hammered two nails into the tree.

Chi pointed to a flat piece of board laying beside the bushes.

"Kiri grab that, and when I say so I want you put that under the nails.

"Ok I guess." I nodded my head confused.

'How would the board stay in place if the nails are above it not below it.

Keeping the rope tight, she pulled it to where it was laying against the tree trunk and came down to where the rope was down between the two nails.

"Ok," she grumbled on her knees "put the wood in now.

I held the piece of wood under the two nails as chi stepped back and released a little bit of the rope with every step she took.

She pulled a long metal stake out of her pocket, Ones that we used to nail into the ground and tied our tents to, to keep them standing even in strong wind, and she beat it in the ground on the other side of the path with the hammer. Keeping the rope tight she tied it tightly around the stake.

She stepped back and surprisingly everything stayed.

I looked up and saw the log hanging from the rope. I followed the rope down with my eyes. It traveled down from the log, over the tree branch, down the tree trunk, under the piece of woold holding it in place, and across the path till it finally reached the stake.

And then I realized what it was.

Someone walking down the path would trip over the rope, knocking the piece of wood out of place causing slack in the rope and the log would fall crushing them.

"Wow." I breathed seeing the intensity of the trap.