Caught In The Mission

Ten

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Alex asked next to me, my eyes squinting as he shone the light in my face.

We were making our way back up the hill to connect the cameras to our laptop. It was currently 2am in the morning. Perfect time to go out undetected. We had been walking up the hill for 10 minutes and apparently that was too much for him, also it was apparently too steep for him too. "You know for a guy that works out twice a day, six days a week you're really unfit." I joked, walking ahead of him.

I was slightly out of breath but I wasn't going to complain or let it stop me. Push through the pain was my moto. "You've been keeping tabs huh?" He said behind me, taking a few deep breaths at each word, I knew he was amused at his statement.  I shook my head coming to a holt, waiting for him to catch up.

"I can go up there alone, I wouldn't want you to pass out on me." He let out a sarcastic laugh, walking ahead of me.

We reached the top five minutes later, it was darker than I had expected, there was no ounce of light anywhere. The only light that was helping us right now was the flashlight in Alex's hands. He shone it, around the area inspecting it, holding it up to look for the cameras.

"I don't think you lead us to the right spot." He said looking around. I rolled my eyes for the tenth time tonight.

"Can you stop saying that?" I snapped. "You say one more negative thing and I swear to god you can go back to Pennsylvania by yourself and I'll carry on this mission." I shone my flashlight in his face. He raised his hands up on the air surrendering. I turned my back to him looking around for the camera with my flashlight. I searched for a few seconds before doubt started washing over me. Did I lead us to the wrong place? I wondered. Like Charlotte and Cole had said the cameras would be in the trees, they didn't mention whereabouts on the trees, nor how to find them. Making this evening a whole lot difficult.

Alex didn't say anything, crossed his arms to his chest and leaned on a nearby tree, watching me as I searched. "So much for team work." I spoke low enough for him to hear.

"Every time I try and help you scream at me." I turned to looked at him tilting my head. He couldn't be serious.

"I scream at you when you're being negative, you've done nothing but moan the minuet we arrived-"

He pushed himself of the tree, lowering his flashlight. "Shhh" He said bringing his fingers to his lips.

"Don't shush me."

"Julianna I swear to god shut up." He whispered in a very angered yet authoritative manner that shocked me. He looked behind me, his eyes scanning the area, we weren't stood too far away from each other, we were close enough that he reached forward and grabbed my arm pulling me towards him. My back hit the tree behind me. He pressed his body on mine, his left hand resting on my side while his right was covered my mouth, stopping me from talking. The flashlights we were holding were crushed between us, leaving us in the dark.

I made an annoyed noise shaking my head but he shushed me. Turning his head to the side. It was then, that I head rustling sounds approaching. My eyes darted to where the sound was coming from. It got closer and closer, the sound of heavy boots was defiantly distinguishable. As the footsteps got louder Alex pressed his body closer to mine, shielding us from anyone's view. I wanted nothing more than his hand to move away from my mouth, I also wanted nothing more than to move his body off me, he was crushing me slightly.

The sound came to a holt for second before we heard a click. It was a sound we had grown accustomed to, the sound of a gun. My eyes trailed to the direction of the sound despite Alex's body pressed up against mine. "Jake is that you?" A male voice called out. He took a few steps forwards inches away from where we were hiding. "Who's there?" He called out again, raising his voice. His voice was deep and a bit rough. "Jake!?" When he didn't get a reply he took more steps forwards, at one point he was stood inches always from us.