Karlie was running next to Cara, Jourdan and Daya. They somehow ended up convincing Daya to join them and do the test, so the four girls were running in a line, moving along the narrowest part of the route. They were keeping a good pace, the person more out of shape was Cara, but she was pushing herself for not slow down the group. They were already on their second lap, and the exhaustion was starting to sink in, at least for Karlie. Her lungs were burning and a layer of sweat covered her body, her legs seemed to have weights tied to their ankles, and she was thirsty again, but they had to keep going, they needed to make it. Karlie was still thinking this test was ridiculously complicated and dangerous. What if someone get lost? What if someone gets hurt and nobody sees them? She tried to set aside those thoughts, and focus on the piece of ground visible under her feet. Jourdan was leading the way, followed by her, then Cara and Daya the last. Karlie had to press her imagination down if she wanted to keep going.
When the path got wider, and less sinuous, they could return to their previous position. They were alone in that route section, the road ahead them flat and smooth, a contrast from the scruffy trail they had just came from.
"How you going?" Karlie asked looking at Cara at her left, who was clearly not having the time of her live. The dirty blonde nodded mutely, giving her a thumbs up indicating she was doing just fine, something questionable considering her heavy breathing and her shirt damped in sweat.
When Karlie looked up again, tired eyes roaming over the dark and wet soil in front of her, she found herself stunned as they stopped in a girl who was coming out from the woods, crawling away from a thick brushwood, like the forest has just spitted her out of nowhere. The girl laid down on her back, like she had just gotten out from hell. Closely behind, another two girls emerged from the brush too, these ones more gracefully since the first one opened the way for them. They were shorter, brown or black hair in a high ponytail. Karlie looked perplexed at her friends, who returned the confused glances, making sure she was seeing the same scene and she wasn't hallucinating.
"What the hell?" Jourdan voiced the thoughts of all of them, as they slowed down when they got closer. The blonde girl on the ground had stood up, and was looking at them tensely. As Karlie got closer, she couldn't believe her eyes as they recognized the slim figure. Taylor?. The girl was awful, she was covered in dirt and had several wounds in her arms and legs, one of them in her forearm was clumsily covered with a cloth that could stop the flow of blood, and her forehead had traces of smeared red. The girl's condition contrasted with her calm and cold sapphire eyes, which were studying the group of stunned participants in front of her, her full lips were contracted in a thin line and her shoulders tense, ready for run away at any given moment.
The other girls seemed alright, they weren't even sweaty. Karlie stopped a couple of feet away from the blonde, the obvious question in the tip of her tongue. They gazed one another without mediating words a couple of seconds, a tense air enveloping them.
"Thank you, girl" One of the unnamed girls spoke before no one could, oblivious to the stare contest being carried out between Taylor and Karlie. Her words resounded in the ancient forest, and Karlie couldn't help but notice the way her short sentence sounded, the tan girl talked with such a mockingly and false voice that made her cringe. The words the short brunette said were for Taylor, who was still looking at Karlie and her group doubtfully, like she was trying to came up with a plan. The blonde turned around slowly, hardly taking an eye from Karlie to meet her companion stare.
"You better remember our deal" The brunette said with a threatening tone and the same irritable voice. Karlie and her roommates were still mute and confused at the situation. It was all too weird. Taylor just stared at them tensely, not muttering a word, Karlie thought she saw the blonde nodding her head, but it was a movement so unnoticeable that she couldn't be sure. Taylor seemed recruiter to recognize their aforementioned deal.
