Chapter 17: Laced (Nate)

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Camp Seraphic 

Shivering and tired, I jog through camp with Tom slightly behind me. I only have a loose sports tank and shorts, my bare legs feel the full exposure and I can’t stop shaking my arms. The breaking light over the clouds is incredibly misleading because it must be the same temperature as the Arctic right about now. I have to keep pushing, the entrance to the training grounds is only a little further. A few meters away, I hear a few voices calling for me and Tom so I turn around and coming from a sleepy row of cabins, I see some familiar faces coming out of a few of them: Zoey, Maisie, Troy and the Arlington twins. What could they possibly want at this time in the morning? “Wait up!” Troy calls, Tom and I stop directly in front of the entrance to the mountain and we meet them there.

“What do you want?” Tom asks with his hands on his sides to try and get some air into his lungs,

“Mike sent us.” Zoey replies,

“Are you going to the mission as well?” I ask,

“No.” She responds, “We don’t particularly want to go anyway.” I wonder why. “We’re here to help you train, to motivate you.”

“What did you two have in mind anyway?” Troy breaks in,

“We were going to go for some cross country around the grounds.” Tom says, “Care to join us, we don’t know the routes?”

“We can lead you.” Brodie says to us and looks at his twin complacently. “Come on.” They push off through the archway and begin to traverse the mountain. 

***

Like the first time I scaled this mountain, once we reach the top, my lungs are spiking with uncontrollable pain. I stop for moment but realise that the others aren’t going to do the same so I have to immediately start jogging again. Instead of going down the declining path to the right, we go up the gently inclining one to the left, fantastic, more uphill. The path going up doesn’t spiral around the circumference of the hole below; in fact it only has two turns and at the end of the second path, which ends halfway across that mountain face, there’s a secluded path that’s covered with a black gate, a wooden sign hangs from it and it reads ‘Horn’s Trail’ “What’s Horn’s Trail?” I ask,

“It’s one of our cross country trails.” Levi responds as he tries to unlock the padlock that’s holding the gate in place. “Younger years can do cross country in the woods but the Archangels like to use this trail for the older years.”

“What’s so special about it?” Tom asks just as Levi manages to unbuckle the iron grip.

“Snares and traps.” He smirks and runs in first. Brodie and Troy follow on before the girls and then Tom and I round out the group. The entrance is very tight, with vegetation tickling bits of my bare skin, I power through and almost get caught off guard as soon as the tight crevice opens out into a front of deciduous trees. The ground is fresh with crisp golden leaves and the trees barely have any life on them left, is it really Fall already? Nevertheless, I look at Tom with a competitive smile and we both charge into the woods.

Almost immediately, I know that we’ve truly stepped onto dangerous ground, “Watch out!” Tom shouts as he tackles me forward. A whizzing sound rips through the air behind us as we both collapse onto the floor, I look back up and wedged into a tree trunk is a six foot spear. I suddenly hear the oncoming sound of more spears coming so I immediately push myself up and run. Thankfully, I don’t have to wait for Tom because he’s on his feet as well, like a deer running from prey, we zip through the trees and over large roots, it takes everything in me not to scream.

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