Luna crouches beside me, shivering and muttering a song under her breath, "Tired of all the frost... Tired of all the snow... Melt the whole world down... melt the whole world down..."
"What's that?" I ask.
"I'm rewriting an old song so that it fits my needs," she answers with her teeth chattering.
"What's the song?" I ask.
"Failure, Breaking Benjamin. Twenty-fifteen, I think."
"Wow, that's old," I note and she smiles through her shivering.
"Tired of frozen breath..."
I ignore her and adjust my jacket so that I can stay as warm as possible out here in the forest. Our classes have started again and we're doing a survival training session in the woods near the school. It's sort of a Battle Royale/Last one standing sort of thing. Of course, we're not going to die. It's more like an ultimate paintball tournament done in partners. There is no time limit and we have to find food packages hidden throughout the forest which can be scanned by one of the little gadgets in our packs. If we don't find the packages after a certain period of time, it's game over. It's actually pretty fun for me but Luna is freezing her butt off.
"Why Canada?" she asks. "It's so damn cold here. I can barely move."
"Just keep moving and be quiet," I say and she starts bouncing on the tree branch, rubbing her arms in the process. We decided it would be a good idea to climb a tree to get to a hidden food packet on the top.
I'm the one doing the climbing because Luna is apparently afraid of heights. I have no idea where that fear came from, but I shrugged and started climbing. After a few minutes, Luna decided she wanted to stay at least on the first branch to gain the high ground and an advantage over anyone who'd come by.
"Can you hurry up?" she asks as I reach for the next branch and pull myself up.
"You wanna switch places?" I hiss and I grab for another branch which breaks off in my right arm. Oh yeah... I probably shouldn't pull down too hard on the branches with this arm.
"I'm good," she squeaks.
"I thought so," I mutter and I continue climbing.
The food packet is near the very top of the tree, resting in a bird's nest. I grab the white package and stuff it into my backpack. The tree is maybe twenty feet tall with strong, thick branches which can be broken by my arm. Climbing down is a little scarier than climbing up but I get back to Luna who's muttering the song again under her breath.
"Here," I say and I offer her the hot water bottle from the pack which she takes eagerly.
"You have no idea how much I love you right now," she says and she clutches the hot bottle to her chest.
"You're welcome," I say and I jump off the branch, landing in the powdery snow.
"How do you do that?" Luna asks with wonder in her eyes. I just grin and help her down from the tree. Her landing is less than graceful, but she's alright.
"Come on," I say and we start walking until we come to a tree that towers above the rest.
"What are we doing now?" she whispers.
"I'm going to scout out the area," I say.
"Oh. What should I do?"
"Comb this area for any food packets and if someone comes, either shoot them first, or climb up a tree with lower branches. I shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes," I take off the pack and offer it to Luna.
YOU ARE READING
The Wrong Side
Science Fiction"I'll tell you when you're an adult." These are the few words that have been repeated to Damon Ophia for his whole life. Damon's life is made up of secrets. In some cases, secrets are being kept from him, in others he needs to keep secrets, and in...
