Lost Game

Chapter Two

"Ok we have eight hours to reach the slaughter house." Tom looks at the map. "We should be able to do it in around 6 hours." I lift my backpack. I don't like the idea to carry it for six hours. "Then lets go I don't want to stay here too long. Where does this hiking trail start?" Kyra had dyed her hair black so that possible witnesses won't recognize her later. I think it is stupid there won't be any witnesses and we are 50 km away from home. "The trail starts at the car park at the end of the village." Tom knows the area best of us all. He used his racing bike to visit the area twice before. He is the sport ace in our team. He was also the one who took pictures of the target of our mission. I think it is silly to call it mission but how else to call it? Raid? No we are the good ones, the ones who care, the ones who want to help. So we still call it mission.

We start to go to the beginning of the trail. Each of us has a big backpack on his back. The bags are full of warm and weather proof clothes, food and most important our tools. Each of is also carrying a sleeping bag and Tom is carrying a tarp. I carry a stove and fuel. Each of us wears hiking boots and dark clothes. I wear baggy pans. The many pockets are full with a pocket knife, camera, compass, energy bars, small field glasses and much more stuff I think I will and wont need this night.

We make a short break at the car park. "Each of us should turn off his phone so that we cant be tracked." James our computer genius. "Who should try to track our phones?" Kyra makes a good point but that she dyed her hair to bemuse witnesses makes it look bizarre.

"I know that this thing is bigger than everything we did but we should all come down. The plan is great and nobody knows that we are here. I think we are save enough if we switch of the phones if we are close to the butchery." But Tom already has switched of his mobile phone and is opening the back of the phone to remove the battery and the sim card. "Do you want to swallow the sim card?" Tom looks amused. "Shut up!" James places the pieces in a small plastic bag. After he put the back in a pocked of his backpack he looks at all of us. "Lets go, we have a long walk before us." "Ok lets hit the road." Tom fixes his huge army knife on his belt. "What do you want to do with this thing?" I don't like the idea that he carries this monster of knife with him. "See it as a tool I won't hurt someone with it. Don't freak out because you are a pacifist, nobody will be hurt." This is typical Tom he loves army stuff. His backpack is from the army and I guess that half the stuff in this backpack is some old army stuff. "There wont be someone so everybody should relax now." Kyra stops this argument before it starts to become bigger and seriously. "Lets go!" We start walking again.

After an hour we reach the point at the trail where we planned to leave the trail. After this we walk through fields and climb over fences. This guarantees us that no one will see us. When we make a break to eat some think James brings up the mobile phone issue once again. This time each of us turns off his phone and puts it in his backpack. "Ok it is only two hours from here to the small forest where we will make our last break." We start to walk again in total silent. Not because we fear that someone could hear us but because we all think about what we are about to do. We keep this silent for the next two hours of our walk. We find the way with the help of the hiking map and satellite images from Google maps. My lower back aches when we reach the group of trees where we will wait for darkness. It is already evening and dusk starts. I produce the stove from my backpack and put it on the ground. "Who has the pasta and the water? I am hungry and I don't want to cook in total darkness." Kyra hands me a two litre water bottle. I put the water in the pot and lit the stove. "We should pack our smaller backpacks as long as we can see something." I remove the straps that hold my small backpack on the large one and open the bigger one. I put the tools in the small backpack and place a walkie talkie at one of the straps of the backpack. By then the water for the pasta is boiling. "Who has the pasta?" "They are in the top pocked of my backpack." I go over to his backpack to find the pasta. I try to open the pasta package but the plastic resists my fingers. "Need some help?" I look up and see Tom offering me his army knife, hilt first. "I have my own." Of course it would be easier to use his knife but I prefer not to touch his knife after the argument this morning. My hand searches in my pockets for the knife but I can't find it. "Give this to me." He grasps the package form my hand and cut it open with one fast move. He empties the package in the pod. "You see how easy it was? And I didn't hurt someone with this knife. Its a tool not more." I keep quiet and set a timer on my watch. Tom goes back to pack his back pack. I do the same and place a spray can of red colour in the pocked of my backpack where normal people would place a water bottle. I finally find the pocket lamp in the big and now much emptier backpack and fix it on my belt. I also put a ski mask in the pocked of my jacked. Then I take the large padlock from my bag and the case with the picklocks. I open the case and take the two picklocks I will need to open the padlock. I sit down next to the fire and start the stop watch function of my watch. Then I start to work on the lock. I have practise for a long time with this lock. It is the same lock as the lock at the small gate of the butchery ground. Tom took a picture of it the last time he went on a trainings trail with his racing bike. The lock opens with a soft click. I stop the watch and look at it. 2 Minutes and forty seconds. Not too bad if you think that I only learned two weeks ago how to pick a lock. I ordered the tools at Amazon. It is amazing what you could order there if you want. YouTube taught me how to use the tools. The internet makes me a criminal. I close the padlock and start over again. I am at my fourth practise run when to alarm for the pasta disturbs me. I put the lock back in the pocked of my jacked and strain the pasta. Tom hands me a glass of pesto and I mix the pesto with the pasta. "Oh great a full Italian dinner only the red wine is missing." Tom is already standing next to the pot his bowl in one hand and a fork in the other. Leave something over for the rest of us. Kyra is producing her bowl from her backpack and joins Tom. I go to my backpack and start to search for my bowl and fork. I fill the bowl with hot pasta when Kyra realizes that James hasn't join us. "Come over as long as something is left I don't think I can defend the pasta any longer against Tom." She is joking." I am not really hungry he can have them." He turns back to his backpack. Kyra fills the last bowl and brings it over to him. "You have to eat something even if you are nervous, this night will be long and exhausting you will need the energy." He takes the bowl and starts to eat half-heartedly. He is far too quiet and too nervous I think but I don't share my concern with the other two. It won't matter anymore We didn't walk the whole day just to turn around as soon as it becomes seriously. After the dinner Kyra and I go to a close stream to clean the bowls for everybody. As we are sitting next to the stream and try to clean the bowls in the cold water Kyra tells me her concern about Tom. "I know it is always the same with him. But as soon as it is seriously he will start to work it was the same last time." This is all I can say about this. "Yea I know but the last time was nothing against this thing here." She starts to dry her hands on her jeans. "What do you think should we do? Go back home and do nothing? And believe me he can and will do it." I finish cleaning the last bowl and stand up. "Lets go back to the others."