Work progressed slowly on the fourth day, but quickly started to build momentum. It was difficult at first, as there was very little open space. Each tree felled gradually gave more and more room, until there was enough space to start processing what they already had. The trunks were cut for use in the palisades, while the branches were used for everything from supports to stakes.
“I want to build a Bocralon tower here,” Sven informed his team, pointing out the line.
“How do we do that?” came the immediate question, since most of Team Shadow were unsure what the tower was meant to look like.
“It’s easy enough. We need to build a small fort along here.” Sven walked around in a large square, dragging his heel around him while his teammates moved out of the way. “The entrance will face the boundary. Because of how hard a proper door would be, we build a wall around the back and sides, with a narrow gap. Attackers are forced to enter a narrow passage on the front side, and they have to try and fight down the corridor and around the back. We can hold off a large force with just two people on each side. And even if they do get through, they still have to get into the entrance.
“Inside the fort we build a small platform,” Sven explained, marking the square inside. “This is against the far wall and lets the defenders inside fight from two levels. This part,” he added, pointing to the side furthest from the boundary, “won’t have a wall around it, but it will have holes cut out for the people inside to fire from, both at ground level and from the platform. Then, all along here,” Sven said, pointing to the walls down each side, “we will have more holes for spears to go through. Anyone forcing their way down the narrow and dark passages will be attacked from the sides as well, with no room to maneuver. They won’t even see where the attacks come from.”
“What about the holding cell?” Yaric asked.
“We’re going to need that in just two days,” Lauren added.
“This can be a holding cell as well.”
Anton walked into the middle of the lines Sven had drawn and looked around doubtfully. “It’s a little small for so many people.”
“So we make it bigger. I just marked out some lines to give everyone an idea of what it should look like. We can’t make it too big though, or it will be too hard to defend.”
“How many do you want defending inside?” Lauren asked, trying to picture the finished structure.
“Probably ten to twelve,” Sven replied. “Defending here would be a last resort, so I don’t expect there to be many of us left if it comes to this.”
Delmar was also looking around the markings, a concerned look on his face. “Aren’t we going to build more defenses? So no one can get this far? What about a wall around the top of the cliff?”
“We will, we’re just starting here. But no wall or anything around the top. I don’t want anyone to be able to see that we’re up here. That’s why we will also leave most of the trees that are growing close to the edge,” Sven replied.
Delmar still didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue either, trusting in Sven’s judgement. “What do you want us to do with the extra trees? We’ll need to clear more trees for this than we will be using.”
Sven looked thoughtful for a moment, but quickly smiled. “We will prepare them like any other tree we cut down. Prep everything for building palisades and barricades for now, then when we have the rest of our plans in place we will only need to worry about assembly.”
“Other teams will start wandering around once they have their own base camps built. I doubt anyone will come all the way out here, but cutting trees down makes a lot of noise. The earlier we get done with that part, the better,” Lauren added, drawing several nods of agreement from her teammates.
Team Shadow spread out and got started, now having the space to cut down several trees at once. The rest of the team got started on preparing the trees that were already cut down. For once, the confines of the boundary were actually useful, as Team Shadow had a nearby and convenient dumping ground for all of the offcuts that were too small or too damaged to be useful, simply throwing everything across the boundary.
Then, once a main area had been cleared and the stumps dug up, they staked out the outline for the Bocralon tower, and started digging. The first poles were up before the sun started setting, even featuring small notch holes that were aligned to provide firing points once the poles were in place.
Anton pointed out that building the platform inside would be much easier to do before putting the walls up, so they had already dug the holes for the supports and prepared the pieces.
Yaric’s prediction about water proved true, as they went through much more water than on any other day. The distance to the nearest stream, along with the difficulty in getting up and down, had Sven put off fetching water until nightfall. Then twenty people were sent with all of the canteens, filling everything up for the next day.
Day five proceeded exactly as the day before had, with the whole team working on finishing the new ‘prison’. Everything was up and finished by midafternoon, after which the team spent the rest of the daylight hours clearing even more trees. Several giants were left standing for the moment, since Sven wasn’t sure what to do with them.
Then, once the sky started changing colors, Lauren called everyone together to practice defending the fort. It wasn’t difficult, but the already dark passageway was even darker in the failing light, and the small firing ports took a few seconds to find at first. By the time Lauren had finished with the team, everyone was feeling confident about moving around and defending the fort in case of attack.
It was completely dark by that point, so Sven called for everyone to get some sleep while they still could. They had a busy day planned - none of them had ever taken prisoners before.
It was still dark when Marlon shook Yaric awake. Sven would be going to meet their own porters this time, so Yaric would be joining Lauren in the southeast sector on the far opposite end. Everyone picked up their kindling and spades, along with their weapons, then slid down the ropes and down to the forest floor.
It was pitch black on the ground, with the moon in one of its darkest phases, the mesa casting additional shadows, and the tree canopy above them blocking what little light there was left. The forest was also oddly quiet. Almost nothing moved, not even the air stirred beneath the canopy.
Lauren tugged on Yaric’s arm, pulling him to the front of the group, then gave him a small push to indicate for him to lead. The rest of her squad followed behind with lighting stones in their hands, wrapped in cloth and unlit, but ready for emergencies.
They cut straight through the center of the exercise area, but it still took over 7 hours for them to reach the supply trail they were looking for. The sun had already started to rise when they did, pushing them to jog the rest of the way.
It still took too long.
There was no ambush this time, since they almost ran headlong into the group of porters already making their way down the trail. Not that it changed anything, with swords quickly drawn and bowstrings pulled back.
“We surrender!” the shocked man in the front blurted.
They had been ambushed just 3 days earlier, cut down and ‘killed’. Every one of them was already on edge, just waiting to surrender at the first sign of danger.
“We accept your surrender and take you prisoner,” Lauren informed them, before continuing as planned. “Can you continue to carry the supplies as our prisoners?”
The man in the front just nodded in reply, swallowing nervously and looking back at the rest of his team.
“Don’t worry,” Lauren said, trying to reassure them. “We know this is disappointing for you, but we won’t make things difficult. You have a nice, shaded area waiting for you back at our camp.”
It did very little to reassure anyone, but they shifted their loads and waited for instruction anyway.
Yaric led them off the trail and closer to the boundary, intending to move in a large arc through their own sector in order to get back. Lauren followed behind, doing her best to hide any sign of their passing.
The unusual group travelled for 3 hours before Yaric called everyone to a halt, judging them to have already left the southeast sector and moved almost all the way through their own southern sector.
Everyone put down their loads, and Lauren and her squad started to sort through the supplies while the porters rested.
“This looks like an exact copy of the supplies they had last time,” Lauren said, going over the loot with Yaric. She looked across to the porters for confirmation.
“Yes ma’am, it’s the same.”
“Please, just Lauren. I’m no ma’am.”
“All the same…” the man replied, looking uncomfortable. “We weren’t given new instructions, as you know ma’am, so we brought the same items again.”
Lauren looked like she was about to say something, but thought better of it, just sighing instead.
“Do you know what the team is called?” Yaric asked.
“Team Spearhead,” the man replied, smiling. “An’ before you ask, no, I don’t know any other, an’ I couldn’t tell you anyway.”
“That’s fair,” Yaric said, nodding in acknowledgement. “Is there anything here that we can leave behind?” he asked, turning back to Lauren.
“Some,” she answered, distracted by the parcel she was unwrapping. “Yes! There’s more of these large nails. Sven is going to be very happy.”
In the end, it was decided to take everything anyway. They were planning to make their way back slowly, to make it easier to avoid any patrolling teams. They were already close to the next sector, so they would move quickly to get past them and closer to the edge of Cormac’s sector, then wait until late afternoon before continuing. Lauren still had some of the supplies moved over to four of her squad, lightening the load for the unconnected porters and helping them to move faster as a group.
Yaric enjoyed their afternoon. They hid the supplies in a dense thicket, and then sat around in a small clearing, surrounded by high underbrush. Half of the squad kept a lookout, before swapping 30 minutes later. The other four would unwind and talk quietly, relaxing in the shade of the trees.
Surprisingly, none of their captives looked afraid or unsure, just dejected. No doubt they had been looking forward to going back, only to realize that they would be spending 3 days in the forest as prisoners. They stuck together, but never once gave any sign of trying to escape.
Everyone was tired by the time they made it back to the side of the mesa. The porters had carried lighter loads than usual, but had travelled over a much greater distance, and over far more difficult terrain. Lauren and her squad, meanwhile, had been forced to slow down to a speed more comfortable for unconnected, leaving them frustrated.
They were never so happy to climb the dumb rope as they were at that moment, having watched the last porter get hauled up after the supplies.
The makeshift camp was just as rough as when they had left, but now it was filled with porters. Too many porters.
“Where did all these guys come from,” Yaric asked when Sven made his way over along with Li Na. Sven was looking far too happy with himself. Li Na always looked that happy with herself.
“There were two close calls, but every single squad captured their porters.”
“I didn’t realize seventy-five people took up so much space,” Yaric mumbled, looking over the men sitting outside what was meant to be their prison. He already knew that there were even more inside the fort itself.
“That’s because there are ninety!” Li Na exclaimed, rocking back and forth while beaming at everyone.
“Huh?”
“Well,” she started, looking around her audience. “We captured the porters for Andrew’s team, and moved off the trail, when suddenly we heard people talking behind us.” Li Na paused, looking from person to person.
“And then what happened Lina?” Lauren prompted.
“Andrew had come to escort his supplies back, and almost got there in time to catch us. So we moved away quietly and then started to run. But the porters aren’t very fit, so we had to keep slowing down.”
“They are fit Lina,” Lauren corrected, “they just can’t augment themselves like you can.”
“Which means they aren’t very fit,” Li Na explained as if to a very slow toddler, earning herself a very large eyeroll. “And then, we heard voices again, but in front of us…” Li Na paused again, waiting for someone to ask.
“Lina!” Lauren practically yelled.
“Wow, so sensitive. Well, it wasn’t another team. You see, the porters who had dropped off Simon’s things, because we were leaving them alone, had finished making their delivery. And they were on their way out.”
“And you picked them up instead,” Yaric finished for her with a grin, making her scowl and try to kick his shin.
“So for the next supply drop, only the team in this sector will get a delivery,” Sven concluded. “Well, besides ours of course. And we don’t have to do anything to stop them, because there won’t be a delivery to stop. No one will be able to work out what’s happening - they won’t even know it’s us!”
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“Still no sign of them? Chris asked, looking hopefully at Ming Yu.
“There is. We found signs of people using the trail recently. They were obviously made by people carrying a heavy load, even I could tell that. But there is no sign of the porters. We have no idea what’s going on,” Ming Yu added, looking embarrassed and frustrated at the same time.
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Chris sighed deeply. “Have everyone halve their rations again. If our assault is successful, we can take whatever food they have, but we better play it safe. It might be a few days before we get more food. I’ll work out increased guard shifts. We don’t know how many other teams are in the same situation, so we could be attacked for our supplies at any time.”
“Shouldn’t we complain about the deliveries? Why aren’t our porters doing their jobs?”
Chris sighed again, something he had been doing a lot over the last year. “They are doing their jobs,” he reassured Ming Yu. “The problem is that Sven is also doing his.”
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Cormac looked down at the drawing in the dirt, studying it intently. He was standing just outside the stone building of their fort, with most of his team around him.
“This part here is a gate?” he asked, looking to Chelsea for confirmation. Functioning gates were very difficult to build with the tools their teams had easy access to, and were usually a weak point in any defense. Most teams just left them out and used ropes or makeshift bridges to scale their own defenses. A 5th year team with a proper gate seemed highly improbable.
“Yes, but it’s more like a draw bridge. They built a very rough palisade all the way around, but left this gap open,” she explained, pointing to her diagram in the dirt. “Here they built another section of palisade, but it has cross beams anchoring the pieces together, and it isn’t sunk in. It’s wider than the gap here, see? The bottom of this section is braced against the outside of the proper wall, and they have ropes from the top of the gate to the top of the wall, here,” Chelsea pointed out, drawing in the ropes.
“When they want to open the gate, they let the rope out and the whole thing drops like a draw bridge, then they pull the far end back up to close it. It’s slow, but it works.”
“So we can pull out the bottom,” Cormac said, pointing to the base. “We only need to get it wide enough to slip through.”
“They actually thought of that,” Chelsea countered, sounding almost impressed. “The bottom gets secured here and here when the gate is in place.”
“Alright, we can still work with that. You’re certain that everything is secured with ropes?” he asked, thinking back to the small stack of clay pots his team had brought with them.
“Yes, they’re only using ropes.”
“I don’t see any way for them to stand on top of the palisade.”
“Because there isn’t. They’ve just sunk sharpened poles into the ground. They are several centimeters between each pole and none of them are secured to each other. I don’t think they’ve had any supplies delivered either.”
“I’m certain they haven’t,” Cormac replied.
“But how do you know?” Chelsea asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.
“Because Sven would never target only us.”
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“Search everywhere! They can’t be far!” Andrew yelled, gesturing for his team to spread out into the surrounding forest.
“Maybe the supplies simply didn’t come,” Rikard offered, looking cautiously at Andrew.
“Of course they came!”
“But there’s no sign of them, and we’ve come all the way to the boundary.”
“Well, obviously they were already waiting at the boundary when our supply drop arrived! They probably camped here last night just so they could get our stuff. Next time, we’re camping here ourselves. I won’t let them rob us again!”
“Them?” Rikard asked, even more nervous after Andrews outburst.
“Yes, them. Those bastards, Sven and Yaric!”
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Team Shadow worked hard over the next two days. A very large area was cleared across the top of the mesa, almost to the other end. They also thinned out some of the trees along the edge, as Sven planned to prepare everything they could. He’d taken to standing on the far end of the mesa, looking down into the little alcove it formed while deep in thought.
Yaric was always taken aback by how much had been done, since he usually wasn’t around. Scouts were watching over the other camps at all times, even overnight, so Yaric was usually either sitting bored and trying to stay awake, or sitting in their busy camp and trying to sleep.
Their captives had been a huge help, as Sven was shocked to discover that they were required to help with labor if instructed to do so, so long as there was some form of armed guard. They had also been able to tell them the names of every other team, even if Sven had to ask each group separately for the name of just their team.
Going clockwise from the bottom, in the southern sector, they had their own team, Team Shadow. In the southwest was Team Victorious, then in the west was Cormac’s team, who had named themselves The Titans, and in the sector they were currently hiding in, there was Team Griffons. Chris was in the north sector, with Team Unyielding. Simon’s team, in the northeast sector, was called Team Earthshattering, while Andrew's team in the east sector was The Behemoths, which caused a lot of laughter amongst those who had been in Team Flagbearer the year before. And finally, as they had already found out, the southeast corner had Team Spearhead.
The porters had been a big help with the labor, which was made abundantly clear when watching ninety additional people helping out. They needed to keep quiet most of the time, but Sven allowed them to talk freely when inside the fort serving as their prison, as the walls were actually very effective at muffling the sounds coming from inside. No more than thirty could fit comfortably inside at the same time, however, which led to the unusual situation of captives arranging shifts and taking turns for the privilege of being inside the prison.
Several other changes had already been made as well. After the close calls they had while capturing the porters, Sven had made it clear that no one was to talk while moving outside of camp. Twice they had been warned due to the noise made by the approaching teams, and Sven was determined that they would never be the guilty party.
The second change was more obvious. Scouts would no longer be pulled back the night before a supply drop, even though they needed every team member to help. Instead, they would watch the camp right up until the last minute, and then run to meet the squad attacking that sector’s supply drop on the trail. That way, they would also be able to warn their squad if their opponents were on their way, and let them know how far away they were.
Sven was certain that each team would soon start meeting their porters right at the border, signaling the start of phase two. His only concern was that his own squads might be ambushed in turn, as none of the other teams were stupid. He had to constantly keep in mind that they would react to the pressure, just like he himself would.
The scouts had already brought back important information as well. On Day 7, Cormac had launched an assault on Team Victorious. Kaeden watched Cormac lead his team right up to the wall, shields in front. The 5th years defending their fort had lined up inside the wall, with their spears ready to thrust through the gaps.
But Cormac had stayed out of range and simply thrown small pots at the ropes wrapped around each side of the gate. Each pot smashed open on impact and soaked the ropes in more oil, until members of The Titans started lighting small wicks on the pots and throwing them as well. This ignited the oil that had been soaking into the ropes, and Cormac simply pulled his team back and had everyone sit down, right in front of the enemy camp, where they watched the fires eat through the ropes. The team inside had tried to put out the fires but had no easy way to get water up to the top of the wall.
Once one rope snapped and one corner of the gate hung at an angle, Cormac got his team back up and into their positions, just in time for the other rope to snap, bringing the whole gate down. Team Victorious found themselves with a large portion of their force spread out along the wall, where they could watch Cormac and his team. The leaders had been trying everything they could to put the fires out, and hadn’t noticed the rest of their team lined up along the walls on either side of the gate.
The Titans breached the gate in a single, cohesive force. Team Victorious didn’t stand a chance. Kaeden wasn’t sure, but he estimated that Cormac lost less than ten of his teammates in the assault, and he clearly saw The Titans leaving with an additional flag.
Andrew, meanwhile, had launched two separate assaults on Simon's team. The Behemoths had struggled against Simon’s defenses, as unknown to them, Simon had received his requested supplies with both drops. His defenses were much further ahead than Andrew had expected, while Andrew and his team were already running short of food, with no replacements for weapons and shields that got damaged or broken.
Despite this, Andrew had clearly realized that Simon was receiving his supplies. It would have been obvious to anyone who saw the defenses that had been constructed, and Andrew saw them up close. He launched a second assault the very next day, understandably desperate to get hold of the supplies within Team Earthshattering’s camp. Unfortunately for Andrew, he was beaten back both times. Hungry and ill-equipped, assaulting a poorly situated but well defended camp, Simon’s advantages were simply too much to overcome. Both Day 7 and 8 were disappointing and costly failures.
Chris had also launched an assault, attacking The Griffons on Day 8. His team was equipped with tower shields, which they used to approach the makeshift defenses without any casualties. They had then used spears to drive the defenders back, and actual saw blades to cut through the poles making up the palisades. The gaps between these poles weren’t as bad as those in Team Victorious’s wall, but still large enough to drive a spear through. This team had tried to make a larger perimeter than they had the resources for, and they suffered for their poor choice. That said, this was also their first time in the competition, so they were sure to learn from this defeat.
Chris soon discovered that he had caught a lucky break. Not only did he succeed in capturing the fort and their flag, but he quickly found that The Griffons had been receiving their supplies as well. He was able to fully resupply their food, as well as reequip with some much-needed weapons. Every single building tool was carefully collected and kept separate.
Lauren, watching the entire battle, had been excited when Cormac had turned up, soon after Chris had taken the fort. As she had expected, Cormac had quickly moved in to attack Chris from behind, hoping to take his 3rd and 4th flags just one day after his 2nd.
Team Unyielding spotted them in time though, and formed up properly just outside the wall. Cormac spent a few minutes looking them over, before deciding that their chances weren’t good enough to risk attacking. Chris certainly wasn’t going to attack, not after he had just hit the supply jackpot. And if Cormac had known about the supplies Chris was guarding, his own decision would certainly have been different as well.
Day nine brought yet more changes.
Sven had been planning to ambush the supplies belonging to The Griffons, whose sector they were currently hiding in, but Chris’s attack had destroyed those plans. Team Shadow had to send a large group to secure their own supply drop, in case other teams were already attacking logistics as well. With Chris’s assault the day before, The Griffons would be coming back into the competition with the porters, and he simply couldn’t spare the people required to launch a successful ambush against an entire team.
Besides Team Spearhead, every other team had suffered casualties over the last few days, so they would have team members coming back into the competition with as much as they could carry. They would also be coming back with the news that their porters had disappeared, which Sven hoped would sow confusion amongst his opponents.
The porters, meanwhile, had all been glowing red that morning. Their shields had all activated automatically, signaling that they could leave. Hardly any of them even said goodbye. The ground below the mesa sloped steeply upward on the other side of the boundary line, eventually joining with the far end of the mesa. None of the porters took a rope down, they all simply walked over the boundary and continued until the ground levelled out, and then walked back to their camp from outside the competition area.
Team Shadow’s camp suddenly felt very empty with only two team members left behind.
The rest of the team were fetching their own supply drop, which contained several very large items. Sven had ordered large water containers to alleviate their water issues, and apparently requested a few more for their next drop as well.
They got back that afternoon and immediately went to start filling their new containers, while Sven took the time to inspect their alcove from ground level.
“I’m worried about defending our camp once we’re found,” he explained, seeing Lauren, Li Na and Yaric walking up. “Our camp is great. It’s already hard to get up without someone up top helping out, and it will be almost impossible if someone is actually defending the top. We can also escape rather easily if we have to. It’s only a few meters from one side to the other, but any attackers on the ground would have to go all the way around. No single team can cover a perimeter that long. And all of that ignores what archers would do from up there,” he added, pointing to the top of the mesa while looking meaningfully at Yaric.
“But our fort is wooden. All they have to do is get something burning to land on it, and the timer will stop and reset. So I was thinking, what if they don’t attack us up there? What if we get all of the flags, stick them in our fort, and let them attack us somewhere else? What if we make them think that our camp is in a different location?”
“It would be impossible to properly defend either one,” Yaric protested.
“But what if they were right next to each other? What if the decoy site hid our real fort by sitting right in front of it?” Sven asked, gesturing to the cliff walls surrounding the alcove they were standing in.
Lauren’s eyes grew wide. “You want to build another fort in here!”
Sven just smiled and started walking around again. “I was thinking that we could build some simple barricades up top, small sections that can be moved easily. If we keep them away from the edges, no one down here can see them, but we can move them into place very quickly. Then we will only need two or three people on each side up top, and they can keep anyone from getting up. I also have an idea that I think would make the climb impossible.
“That would free the rest of us up to defend down here,” Sven said, gesturing around them. “We can build a deep trench across the front, outside the edges of the alcove. Then we can build a high palisade between the horns, blocking off this whole area. If we do it right, no one will be able to see inside. It would be impossible to know that our fort isn’t in here.”
“How long can we hold it though? Last time four teams ganged up on us,” Yaric pointed out.
“That’s not my whole plan,” Sven said. “With the trees we’ve already cut down, we can build a very impressive wall between the horns, with some extras that will give our defenders an even bigger advantage. But that’s not the only part.”
Sven turned to face the cliff at the back of the alcove. “I want to have a walkway along the rockface, halfway up. We can defend ourselves from the top of the wall and from the walkway at the back. Even four teams would struggle to suppress both lines at once. I have some extra ideas to make that even harder as well.
“Then we can build raised bridges between the wall and the walkways. My idea is that you can only get onto the walkway by coming down from the mesa, and you can only get onto the wall from the walkway. If anyone manages to take the wall, we all retreat to the walkway against the rockface and defend from here. Anyone who goes over the wall would be an easy target. Even if they drive us all back up the cliff, we can keep defending from there. Afterall, that’s where we would start from if we don’t build anything down here.
“Any time we earn defending the ground level is time we don’t need to defend the mesa. Our attackers will only start trying to get up after they’ve gone through all these extra layers.”
“Hmmm…” Yaric mused. “I have some ideas as well. The only problem is if they focus on the mesa, it will all be for nothing.”
“They might,” Sven acknowledged. “But with a fort right in front of them, I don’t see why it would even occur to anyone that we might have a second fort up top. If anyone tries to get up, I’m sure it would be to surround the fort down here and to try and attack from above. Which means it won’t be the main attack. Besides, in the worst case we retreat back up and help to defend. Even then there will be some attackers left here to take the wall, so we will still be better off.”
“And you want to prepare all of the parts up in our camp first?” Lauren quivered.
“Exactly! I want to measure everything out, get every part prepared and arranged in advance. Then, when we build the fort, all we will be doing is putting all of the pieces in place.”
“So we don’t get attacked before everything is finished?” Li Na asked.
“That too. But mostly so we don’t advertise where we are until we have most of the flags. I want to stay hidden until we are confident that we will have the last flags soon, and then quickly build this fort. That way we can defend the flags once we have them. Remember, we need to keep them safe for 72 hours. It’s not going to be easy.”
“Especially once the other teams figure out that we’re responsible for their missing supplies. I wonder what their reaction was today when their 3rd delivery didn’t arrive?” Li Na asked, smiling happily.
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“We waited at the entrance, only our team members came,” Ming Yu said, with Yusaf nodding in agreement beside him.
“Do they know what happened to our porters then?” Chris asked, walking quickly through the stone building to meet them. “If you were right at the border, Sven has to have some other way of stopping our supplies.”
“We went as close as we could, until our medallions started buzzing. But Devin and the others said that the porters disappeared after they left for the last drop. They never came back.”
“How? Even if you kill them, they get up after 15 minutes just like us. They are required to leave.”
Ming Yu just shrugged. “That’s all they told me.”
“Hold on,” Chris said, stopping abruptly just before their fort’s exit. “Can we take porters prisoner?! What is Sven up to?”
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“Where are the porters?” Cormac asked as his returning teammates made their way back into the competition.
“Gone,” was the only reply he got.
“Gone? How can they be gone?”
“Dunno. All anyone could tell us was that they left three days ago with our supplies, and they never came back.”
“Did anyone seem worried about them?” Cormac asked.
“Come to think of it, no, they didn’t.”
“Then they know what happened, they just can’t tell us,” Cormac said while opening one of the packs his returning teammates had brought with them. “Good, this food should last us a while. Let’s keep some rations hidden inside the camp, just in case someone manages to defeat us. Though these building supplies will help to keep that from happening.
“What about the future?” Cormac asked, returning to his previous conversation. “Did anyone say anything about the next supply drop?”
“Nothing. Look, we tried. We’ve been pestering them every chance we get, but they all seemed like they didn’t know anything.”
“Don’t worry, if they could have told you, they would have. And if they couldn’t, there’s nothing you could have done to make them. We’re just going to have to deal with this one day at a time. I just wish I knew what in the abyss Sven was doing…”
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“FUCK! Those bastards! I’m going to fucking kill them!”
…
…
…
…
“Ahhh… Andrew? I think we should go back. Our camp is undefended. The other teams will be heading back as well… Andrew?”
…
“ARGH!!!”