Palinoia

Chapter 9

We remained where we were as the so-called activities were being prepared. I spoke only to Peter while he spoke to a few other people also but I stayed quiet most of the time.

After some time, an instructor came and assigned us into groups of twelve. Peter was in a different group but that was fine with me as long as my group was tolerable. At least that was what I had hoped.

My hopes disappointed me because just fifteen minutes after being assigned to a group, two of my teammates seemed to have some sort of confrontation between them.

"At least my father actually fought for the town!" One spat at the other.

The second one smirked evilly. "At least mine's still alive," he sneered.

I rolled my eyes and stayed by the side-lines. I never knew people that age still kept such behaviour. It was absolutely childish and they both sounded like High school kids.

Both guys looked like they were just few seconds away from killing each other but a cough soon stopped them from doing so. It was actually one of the few females here who happened to be in my group.

"Can you two just shut the hell up so we can get this shit over with?"

Unsurprisingly, she was the girl who had questioned Cliff about the uniform before and I could just tell she'd be a pleasure to work with.

One of the two guys turned around a roughly shoved her away then loomed over her. "You're in no place to talk," he spat.

She responded by spitting up at his face which angered him more and he was just about to choke her until a loud horn was blown.

The whole place stood still as I realised that every other team had turned to watch the scene. Great. Just great...I was in a team full of assholes who made the day longer than it should've been.

The person who blew the horn kept a calm demeanour as he walked towards us. "Need I remind you that the enemy are not your fellow suburbs?"

The three glared at each other while the remaining nine of us just stood awkwardly. I didn't like how he spoke to us like we were little children even when he looked like he was just a few years older than us. Twenty-five at max.

"Anyway," he continued after giving three of them a stare down. He directed his attention to everyone else afterwards. "Name's Tuck and your first task today is to catch the flag that is placed for each team. After you catch the flag you'll give it to your other teammate similar to the way it's done in a relay race. The only difference is that there are obstacles that you need to overcome before you capture the flag. The team that finishes first is the winner of course. Line up!"

My team and I lined up in a straight line with no complaints for once. I was fourth in line which was good because it meant I'd finish quickly.

Tuck spoke once more. "You may now begin in three...two...one!"

The first person in line took off and I moved my head out to get a closer look of what the obstacles were. The first were three hurdles that didn't seem so hard to jump over and the second looked like a green tunnel. I unfortunately couldn't see beyond that so I decided to just wait.

"C'mon..." the person in front of me muttered. Oh great. The overly unnecessary competitive one. That was exactly what I needed. The only positive side was that there was no fighting. I glanced at the other groups, searching for Peter but had no luck.

After waiting a while, it was my turn next as one of my teammates gave me that flag. I immediately took off and began running towards the hurdles with the flag in my hand. I jumped through the hurdles carefully, putting me in fourth place.