No one slept until late that night. Such an overwhelming victory left the whole team feeling exhilarated, especially after they had eliminated the 6th year team without any casualties.
There was no doubt that the decimated team would want revenge, but Delmar had an idea that ensured there would be no danger from them for a while.
“Let’s strip their weapons,” he suggested, grinning like a madman.
“They’ll just reequip when they come back as reinforcements tomorrow,” Yaric argued.
“Yes, they’ll all be carrying their weapons and shields, so they won’t be carrying much in the way of supplies,” Delmar laughed.
Sven started smiling wider. “Great idea! They will have to wait for another supply drop to get more of the basic provisions, before they can even start working on replacing their tools and weapons! It will take them at least 3 days before they can start to rebuild.”
Team Flagbearer quickly began stripping their immobilized opponents. Shields were stacked in small piles of six, which would each be carried by two people. Spears were bundled together, along with the backup weapons they found.
Angry eyes followed each movement, their helpless glares promising retribution. Team Flagbearer weren’t intimidated in the slightest, they mostly just found it funny. It was hard to be afraid of forty paralyzed and unarmed students.
Visibility had dropped slightly, as the sun moved behind the thick smoke from the burning fort, leaving both teams in a strange gloom that fluctuated with the billowing of the clouds of smoke. Everyone and everything seemed to be cast in a dull monochrome. Yaric found himself entranced by the reflection from the red light of the mage shields glittering on the piles of stripped steel, the only bright color anywhere around them.
“Come on, let’s go,” Sven chuckled, clapping Yaric on the shoulder and breaking him out of his musing.
It wasn’t possible to carry their looted prizes back in one go, so they carried everything they could manage. Sven was worried that the piles of equipment and food would be easy to find while they made a 2nd trip to get the rest, which forced them to spend some time splitting it all up and hiding the supplies in small caches.
The 2nd trip ended up being very informative. The fort had burnt out by now, but the still smoldering remains continued to send up columns of smoke. Columns that had attracted opportunists.
“Which team is that?” Chelsea asked, peering through the trees along with everyone else.
An entire team stood below, armed and ready for a fight. They were formed up defensively, watching several of their own team members as they picked their way through the ash and debris. There wasn’t much left to find.
“I think that’s Lauren’s team!” Yaric exclaimed, pointing.
Someone had broken away from the defensive formation, skipping her way toward the desolate remains of the fort. She was moving slightly away from the hidden observers, but she wasn’t wearing a helmet, leaving her blonde hair and pixie cut easily visible to Yaric and his team. If that wasn’t enough, she also had a large mace strapped into a sling on her back.
“Lina!” Sven realized.
“You think they had the same idea as us?” Yaric asked, turning to Sven.
“To launch an attack on the survivors after two other teams had already fought?” Sven asked, looking for confirmation. Yaric nodded. “Probably. I’m guessing that they could see the smoke from where they were and came to investigate. They were very quick if they came all the way from their own camp, but they can’t have been waiting nearby.”
“They’re probably the 5th year team on the other side of these guys,” Yaric observed quietly, trying to map out the locations of each team in his head.
“I think so too. That just leaves Cormac and Chris. One of them will be on the side directly opposite us, and the other one will be on the other side of the team that attacked us first.”
“Does it matter?” Anton asked. “We need to take their flags either way.”
“Yes. We have some idea of how each of them thinks. I’m starting to believe we should switch to ambushes wherever we can…” Sven broke of, contemplating the options. “Maybe we can still take any opportunity to hit teams after they fight. But look at what we just did! That ambush wiped out most of a team without a single casualty on our side! It still doesn’t seem real…”
“It probably won’t work out like that in the future,” Yaric cautioned. “We had a lot of things that just came together this time.”
“Still. Do you think there’s any chance of an overwhelming victory like this if we attack a base camp? It doesn’t matter how much damage another team does first – if they defended successfully then they are still going to inflict casualties on us.”
Yaric hesitated, thinking about the possibilities. He watched Li Na make her way out of the camp again, this time accompanied by Lauren. They were deep in conversation, absentmindedly picking their way through the smoking remains of collapsed poles.
“No…” he finally replied, still deep in thought. “Not unless the attackers win. Then we can hit them from behind. They will have taken a lot of casualties, and they would have just dismantled anything that stood in their way…” Yaric paused again, staring into the distance. “The corporals taught me so many things about setting up an ambush, but the hardest part was always the same.”
Yaric’s eyes regained their focus, and he turned to face Sven before he continued. “You have to know where they are going to be in advance. The best ambush site in the world is useless if your target doesn’t pass through it. I don’t think we will get to choose what we do.”
“We always have a choice,” Sven replied firmly.
“No, I don’t think we do. We aren’t the only ones involved in the decision.”
Sven looked puzzled. “No one gets to decide what we do.”
“True, but other teams do influence the options we have. If someone never leaves their base camp, how will we be able to ambush them? If no one attacks the team we are waiting next to, how can we attack the survivors? We didn’t get lucky with our ambush today - we got lucky when the first team we started watching all left their fort almost right away. What are the chances of that happening again?”
They all stood together in silence, watching Lauren lead her team back into the forest, heading in the direction of the next camp in the circle of base camps. No one said anything for over a minute. Each of them realized just how lucky they had been, and no one had a concrete idea of what they should do next.
“Ambushing someone shouldn’t be that hard…” Delmar hesitated, trying to put his thoughts into order. “We didn’t have that problem earlier. No one had to guess where they would be, because we ambushed them on their way back. We can see what route a team takes on the way out and set up the ambush for when they come back.”
They were all smiling now.
“If someone gets attacked before they give us a chance to ambush them, then we use that instead. We just have to be patient,” he continued.
Sven clapped his shoulder, smiling widely. “Patience isn’t our limiting factor, it’s you scouts,” he teased, catching everyone by surprise.
“What?” Yaric exclaimed.
“You were right, we got lucky even before the ambush. But it wasn’t when they left their fort, it was when they spoke about their flag in front of Trevor. Up till then, we were stuck, because we didn’t know which teams still had flags. And now that we’ve taken this one, we’re back to square one. You guys need to find out who is still worth attacking.”
“That won’t be easy. People don’t wave their flags around at the base camps. We can only see who has flags when they leave,” Delmar pointed out.
“Yip,” Sven snickered, “you guys need to be good at your jobs. I think we will assign a couple of people to each camp. They can watch all day until we find out who has what.”
“Only the camps that might have flags,” Yaric replied, smiling. “We know some don’t have flags anymore.”
Delmar and Anton started chuckling, but Sven just raised his eyebrows. “Do we? It’s been a few days since we took our 2nd flag. Who’s to say that the dragon team hasn’t taken someone else’s flag since then? We need to watch every team except this one,” he said, pointing and the smoldering ruin below.
“We can leave out Lauren’s team as well. They didn’t have a flag,” Yaric added, smirking. “We scouts check things like that.”
“Ha ha! Ok, every team but this one and Lauren’s.”
“You’re sure she didn’t leave her flag behind?” Anton asked, concerned.
“There’s no way she left it behind,” Sven immediately replied.
It was Anton’s turn to raise his eyebrows, looking at Sven dubiously.
“She’s the smartest in our year,” Sven added confidently. “She definitely would have had it where it could be defended.”
“That’s high praise.” Anton looked surprised by how sure Sven was.
“Well, it’s true,” he shrugged, turning back to the equipment they had left hidden in the forest.
The sun was starting to set when they finally got the last of the equipment back to the temporary camp. It was even darker in their little gully, making it impossible to divide everything into smaller parcels. Sven still refused to allow any fires or lighting stones, so there was no way for them to see.
The whole team eagerly dropped everything where they stood and began to celebrate taking their newest flag.
Two weeks of food had already been hidden, and some of the food they had just liberated was perishable as well. The venison they'd rescued had been cooked perfectly, and even if cold, it was still better than the normal rations they had to eat every day. Vano soon insisted that the jars of wine he had found were perishable as well, to the unanimous agreement of the entire team, forcing Sven to reluctantly relent. And Vano wasn’t wrong, as the wine quickly perished under the onslaught of fifty thirsty students.
Afterward, Yaric lay outside the gulley, right next to the bushes he had helped transplant to hide their makeshift camp. A cool breeze fluttered some of the leaves lying on the forest floor, making the bushes next to Yaric sway slightly. Distant stars were peeking through the treetops, watching everything that happened on the ground below.
Yaric let out a contented sigh, gazing up with his hands behind his head. ‘Things are going better than any of us hoped. Even if we don’t have a proper camp anymore,’ he smiled to himself. Knowing that his guard duty was only a few hours off, Yaric closed his eyes and tried to relax, hoping to get some sleep before his turn came. Two minutes later, his wish came true…
----------------------------------------
Four days. Four days spent watching camps where nothing happened all day. It was boring, mind-numbing work. And not entirely successful either.
The other two 6th year camps were both confirmed to have two flags each. But that left one flag unaccounted for.
The remaining 6th years still didn’t seem to have replaced their flags, and Lauren’s team had already been crossed off the list. Chris’s team was confirmed to be the team directly opposite the circle of base camps, but he didn’t have a flag with him when his team marched out to launch an assault on their neighbor.
“I still don’t think that means he doesn’t have one. He could have left it behind,” Yaric argued.
“And I still think you’re biased. You just want to attack him,” Sven countered.
“Of course not! I don’t want to knock our team to take casualties just for him!” Yaric countered, hurt by the accusation.
Sven relented, softening his tone. “But you are assuming he’s being stupid and leaving his flag undefended.”
“He’s been stupid before!” Yaric retorted.
“Yes, when he does his own thing. But he’s not alone, is he? He has a whole team to keep him in line. Besides, I really don’t think he is that stupid. He’s just made some bad choices in the past…” Sven caught himself when he saw Yaric’s reaction. “And none of them were anything like this!” he hurriedly added.
Yaric still looked like he wanted to argue, so Sven cut him off before he could reply.
“Come on, which is more likely? Chris somehow thought it was a good idea to leave his flag behind in an empty camp? And no one on his team stopped him? Or that Cormac still has his flag? His team is the only one that hasn’t left their camp in all this time, and there’s one flag missing.”
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“Fine…” Yaric relented.
“Tell you what, if they don’t have a flag, we’ll aim for Chris next,” he added consolingly.
Yaric just nodded in reply, but with that sorted, the rest of the team started getting ready to relocate their camp again. Sven had decided that they would move their camp to the sector that their next target was in. Not only was Cormac closer, but they had all voted to target another 5th year team if they got the chance - no one wanted to risk another fight with a 6th year team before they had to.
They had burnt down the fort on day fourteen and received their next supply drop the next day. Today was day 18, which meant that they had another supply drop on the way. This time the plan was to pick it up on the way to Cormac’s sector.
Sven had chosen the provisions based on the idea that they would be picking them up on the way to another sector of the training ground, so they didn’t have to take too much with them. Everything that they were leaving behind had already been hidden.
Team Flagbearer marched in columns of four, with shields already in hand. Every 2nd team member in the two middle rows switched their shields for bows. As expected, no one saw any sign of another team. Everyone was holed up inside their base camps.
“Coming out!” Sven called before stepping out onto the path. The porters carrying their provisions paused, but smiled when they saw it was Team Flagbearer.
“Good to see you,” Grizzly, the leader of the supply team, called out, walking forward with his hand outstretched. Yaric noted that he always greeted them enthusiastically.
“We thought we would meet you as close to the border as we could,” Sven smiled, shaking Grizzly’s hand.
“I see that. The border is only 5 minutes behind us,” he laughed, looking up at the team as they all stepped out of hiding. His eyes moved across everyone assembled, but froze and grew wide when he saw the three flags they had with them. “You’ve been busy!”
“Ha ha! Not busy enough! But the stuff you’ve brought should help us to collect a few more flags,” Sven replied, smirking.
“Just remember, we will be back in three days, but after that we are only coming once a week.”
“We know, don’t worry. Here, I made a list for the next drop.” Sven handed the list over, and Grizzly read over it for a moment before nodding.
“This looks good. We can bring this. See you all in three days!”
Grizzly waved at the team and started back, joining the rest of his group. Team Flagbearer hurried to distribute everything amongst themselves, and soon set off as well. They needed to move through the sector with the dragon team to get to Cormac, but Sven hoped that moving along the border would allow them to pass unnoticed.
They arrived late in the afternoon, having curved all the way around the perimeter, and quickly set up a hidden camp. As they had found a small clearing that was almost completely surrounded by thick underbrush, setting up the camp mostly entailed dropping your things wherever it was that you wanted to sleep.
“Everyone, gather round,” Sven called. Team Flagbearer was soon huddled around Sven, waiting for him to continue.
“You all know the plan. We’re going to attack Cormac’s team at the first opportunity we get. But that means that we need to be in place and waiting for them. I need you all to make sure you have food and water for tomorrow. We’re going to be waiting nearby and watching their camp… and pretty much doing nothing else.”
“What if they don’t leave?” someone asked.
“Then we keep waiting. I don’t want us assaulting a well defended camp. We will wait for as long as it takes, so don’t be disappointed if we’re still sitting around a week from now.”
No one looked worried, just determined to take another flag.
The first rays of dawn broke over Team Flagbearer as they made their way through the dark forest floor. Chelsea had come up with the idea of making some camouflage, so the whole team was now carrying one of their canvas pieces unfurled and stretched out. It had been pierced all over for fresh branches to be woven through. Held up as a barrier, it looked terrible, but draped unevenly over a small area, and it was hard to tell that it was fake. It was especially effective when real bushes were in front of the canvas, with the canvas being used to fill in the gaps between the bushes.
Cormac’s camp site was one of the better ones. It was still very hard to defend, but it wasn’t as bad as the others. The camp sat against a single hill, with a very steep slope almost all the way to the top. It wasn’t too steep to go down, but it was too steep to build a proper defense. Instead, Cormac had created a field of sharpened stakes all along the lower slope.
The side opposite the hill had the now traditional trench, with a three meter high wall built behind it. They had changed things up, however, and dug another deep trench directly behind the wall, filling it with yet more stakes. A 2nd wall stood behind that. The only way through was via a couple of narrow bridges, each leading to a length of knotted rope hanging down from the inner wall. There was no easy way in, not even for Cormac’s team.
“We’ll move further down the hill and watch from the forest’s edge. I want to be able to get off the hill quickly if needed. We only need some lookouts at the edge, the rest of us can wait further in,” Sven said, directing his team to start moving down. Most of the team sat 50m’s inside the forest, while three lookouts spread out and kept watch.
Nothing happened for two days. Sven sent a team back each night to replenish their supplies, not wanting to risk moving back and forth from their staging point. Bushes were moved and latrines were dug, but otherwise they all just sat around, occasionally talking in hushed whispers.
Everything changed on day 20. Other than small groups leaving to fetch water or firewood, no one had moved from Cormac’s camp. Then, just before midday, another team showed up. The dragon team that had attacked Team Flagbearer in the 1st few days of the competition.
Just like when they had attacked Team Flagbearer, they came in with a plan. Their favorite tower shields were again arrayed at the front, six shields wide, but this time adding several more over the top. Those on the edges held yet more shields, covering their flanks.
Delmar came running back to call the rest of his team. Moving quickly, they made it back in time to watch the dragon team make it to the wall. Several defenders were trying to stab down with spears, and a couple were trying to fire arrows from the sides.
“What are they trying to do?” Yaric asked, confused by the strategy.
“I can’t see either,” Delmar shrugged.
Sven didn’t even answer, ignoring everyone while he focused on the scene below. Their question was answered a few moments later, when the sound of an axe thudding into wood come from within the armored huddle below the wall.
“They’re trying to chop it down!” Sven exclaimed.
“That won’t help them,” Yaric replied. “The second trench starts almost immediately.”
Two separate poles eventually dropped, falling toward the attacking team. They shrugged them off, and seconds later Yaric heard the sound of a saw.
“What they hell are they doing?” he asked. No one answered, too busy watching the assault playing out below.
Two more poles fell, this time falling inward, covering the inner trench. Then another fell, and another, until a five meter wide section lay across the inner pit.
Cormac’s team had already pulled back to their 2nd wall by now, and both bridges were pulled up the other side along with the climbing rope. Not that it helped.
The dragon team moved up to the poles and started pulling them together. It wasn’t easy to see, but they were clearly tying them together.
“They’re making a bridge!” Sven blurted, pointing out the obvious. “But how will that help them at the 2nd wall?”
The two poles the had fallen outside the camp were both picked up and hauled back, joining the attacking team under their shields. These poles were dug low into the side of the trench, directly below the 2nd wall. They were awkwardly stabbed in and dragged from side to side, cutting into the dirt below the wall on either side of the makeshift bridge.
“I think they’re undermining the 2nd wall,” Delmar whispered, despite being too far away for any opponents to hear.
He was soon proven correct. The cumbersome poles dug deeper and deeper, causing repeated collapses, until long sections of the wall started sinking. Then, gradually, whole sections started falling down, dropping into the trench between the two walls.
Arrows immediately started shooting out from the gaps they'd made, peppering the attacking team. Meanwhile, several spear points kept the dragon team at bay.
“Now what?” Yaric asked. “They brought down the wall on either side of their bridge, but the wall in front of them is still up.”
“Just watch,” Sven suggested.
The front row soon jumped straight up, causing their makeshift bridge to flex alarmingly. They grabbed the top of the wall and swung themselves over, shields in hand.
More of their team mates jumped from the bridge immediately after, this time jumping from the sides and hurtling through the gaps in the wall with shields raised. Yaric recognized that strategy immediately.
“Come on!” Sven urged, grabbing Yaric by the elbow and dragging him back. “We have to get down there!”
Team Flagbearer ran down through the forest trees, racing each other to the base of the hill.
There was no one outside the hole that had been made, and no one stood on top of the wall.
“Shhh…” Sven implored, waving his team down. They all paused by the hole, and watched Sven as he poked his head through. He listened for almost a minute before turning back to his team.
“We’ll wait out here until the fighting quietens down. Be ready to move when I say!” he whispered, so loudly that it would have been pointless had there not been a pitched battle going on inside the camp.
The sounds of fighting soon started to quiet down, prompting Sven to step out onto the temporary bridge, waving for his team to follow. They crowded onto the unstable bridge, trying to keep their feet on top of the round poles.
A few team members were still outside when cheers erupted from within. Sven froze, looked over his shoulder briefly, then jumped, leaping through one of the gaps in the wall.
Team Flagbearer followed.
Students littered the floor, unmoving and covered in red mage shields. What was left of the dragon team was standing right in the middle of the camp, surrounding Cormac’s flag. They had been caught in the middle of their celebration, but were now all standing dead still, frozen in shock. Some had expressions of horror on their faces as they watched an entire enemy team spread out before them. A couple even looked enraged, obviously recognizing who it was that had just sprung the trap.
“You!” a familiar, annoying voice snarled. The tallest student stepped forward, one of only fourteen still standing.
“Me?” Sven asked, looking around innocently with a wide grin across his face.
Yaric joined him a moment later, adding his own question. “Me?”
The whole team joined in. “ME?!” they all started shouting, pretending to look around in confusion.
Sven raised his sword in the air and waved it toward his team, quietening them. He realized that this team had first lost their flag to Team Flagbearer, then been humiliated just as they started celebrating what they thought was their victory. And now the same thing was about to happen again.
“Thanks for opening the door!” Delmar shouted before Sven could stop him.
None of the remaining dragon team members were still holding shields. The moment they raised their swords in return, archers stepped forward and unleashed a barrage. Twenty arrows shot into the group, taking down eight in the first moment and adding another two amber shields. The remaining members charged, crossing the distance before the archers could nock any more arrows.
Six opponents, two of whom were mortally wounded, weren't enough to phase the front row; none of their attackers even had a shield. The fight was quick and brutal. Red shields flashed before anyone got the chance to strike a 2nd time, leaving half a dozen 6th year students lying paralyzed at their feet.
“I really am sorry,” Sven said truthfully, despite not looking like it with the wide smile he was wearing across his face. “It’s just war,” he shrugged, walking past the downed students to fetch the flag they had dropped.
It was a very dark blue, with a large tusked boar across the front in bright, sunflower yellow.
“Hmmm… wild boar, huh?” Sven mused to himself.
Meanwhile, the rest of his team started looting the camp, falling straight into the same roles they had filled on the previous two occasions.
Yaric had been sent to scout out a possible ambush site the last time, so he just wandered around helping out wherever he could. It didn’t take him long to come across Cormac.
Cormac had fallen against the stone wall of his building, sitting almost upright, but slumped sideways onto a pile of firewood. His wide eyes darted back and forth, following everyone that walked past.
“Hey Cormac,” Yaric greeted just as he passed by his friend, only noticing the devastated look in Cormac’s eyes after he finished speaking. Yaric paused, one foot still in the air, then walked backward to draw even with Cormac again.
“For what it’s worth, these guys attacked us too. Twice! The 2nd time they also took our base camp, but with a lot fewer casualties. You and your team actually did better than us, you just had bad luck,” he smiled consolingly at his silent friend, before turning back to finish hauling the load of weapons he was carrying.
Yaric met up with Sven outside the outer wall.
“I found Cormac inside. He didn’t look too good,” Yaric noted, his voice colored with concern.
Sven sighed. “I think seeing us just made things worse.”
“Why? I don’t understand, we only attacked after Cormac had already lost.”
“Yes, but think about it. Cormac lost after putting up a good fight. Then he saw our team walking around just a few moments later. He must have realized that he had never stood a chance. And the team that beat him wasn’t even the one that got the flag.”
Yaric looked a bit dubious. “Are you sure you aren’t projecting a bit? That sounds like a lot of conjecture.”
“Maybe,” Sven shrugged. “It’s still how I would feel though. I mean, look at it this way, Cormac thought he had come off 2nd best against a team that was made up of his seniors. Then he realized that he actually came 3rd, and the team that beat him was only 2nd. It must be demoralizing.”
“Hmmm… Maybe. I still think that’s a stretch though. Either way, do we have to burn down everything?” he asked, gesturing around at the walls.
Sven hesitated for a moment, giving the idea some serious thought. “Maybe we can get away with just taking what we need. I’ll put it to a vote.”
A few members of Cormac’s team started making their way out of their own camp, flashing red and watching the looting of their camp with a despondent glaze over their eyes. Cormac joined them soon after, staring at the ground and seemingly oblivious to everyone around him.
Once all the supplies were gathered, Sven called his team together.
“Guys, we need to have a vote. You all know this is Cormac’s camp. We burnt everything in the other camps we raided, but I want all of you to decide what we do here.”
Most of his teammates looked around uncomfortably.
“There’s no need to burn things like their bedding. We have a supply drop tomorrow, and then they switch to weekly drops anyway. But do we destroy the walls as well? Or do we risk leaving them with their fortifications in place?”
“What risk?” someone shouted indignantly.
“Yeah, we already have their flag! So what if they still have their walls?”
Surprisingly, the entire team was firmly behind leaving the camp intact. No one had to think about it.
“We destroyed the other camps though,” Sven reminded them. He sounded like he was arguing with them, but his smile betrayed his motives.
“Only because that team kept targeting us!” Chelsea retorted.
“And the other team had a fort that was way too strong!” someone else yelled.
Sven put his hands up, waving everyone down.
“Alright, alright! Calm down! We will take what we need and leave everything else as it is. Everyone happy?”
The chorus of agreement brought a big smile to everyone’s faces.
Loot was soon loaded up, and Team Flagbearer marched triumphantly back up the hill. They were going to retrieve the supplies they’d left at their staging point, before cleaning up as much evidence of their stay as they could.
“You realize we have half the flags now?” Yaric asked, talking to no one in particular.
“Yes we do!” Anton announced proudly. He was personally carrying two of them, their own flag and their most recent acquisition.
Sven just grinned, still looking straight ahead. “That’s not all that impressive, it’s exactly what we’re meant to do after all.”
“Yes it is!” Anton proclaimed. “No 5th year team has ever had more than five flags at once!”
“What?!” several people cried out, shocked.
Anton looked puzzled. “You guys didn’t know?”
“No! No one has ever said anything about that!” Sven replied, amazed at the news.
“Wait, you’re saying that no 5th year team ever got more than five flags? That means that no 5th year team has ever won the competition either!” Chelsea’s eyes gleamed as she pointed out the obvious.
“No, of course not. They have more training than any of us, especially magical training. And they come in with experience in these competitions. 6th years always win!”
“Not this time,” Sven whispered with conviction.
“And I wasn’t even talking about the number of flags,” Yaric said, amused with the whole situation.
The rest of his team looked at him, puzzled.
“You guys didn’t let me finish. I was trying to point out that we got our 2nd flag when someone else attacked us. And then we got the next two by launching our own attacks - both of which were pulled off with exactly zero casualties! I mean, people always hope to do well, but this is crazy!”
“Don’t jinx us!” Chelsea retorted, pretending to be angry.
Team Flagbearer marched right into their staging point, cleaned everything up, picked up their belongings, and made straight for their temporary camp, four flags held aloft.
Four flags that no other team knew how to find; four flags that took them halfway to victory. Now they only needed to get the other half, a task that was seeming more and more doable with each passing day.
Four flags that were held in just two camps.
And they knew exactly which camps those flags were in…