Chapter Text
The fast route looked easy.
That was the first mistake.
Loose shale rolled under boots as the incline rose sharply through the treeline, a narrow trail zig-zagging between jagged rock and stubborn roots that clawed through the dirt like old bones.
Skylar didn’t hesitate.
“Come on!” she barked, already halfway up the slope. “Move!”
Shale cracked under her boots as she climbed. A rock slipped and tumbled past Harper’s leg with a sharp clack-clack-clack down the hill.
Harper flinched and tightened her grip on the metal case.
“Sky—wait—!” she called, scrambling after her.
Skylar didn’t slow.
“Time’s wasting!”
“Exposure beats hesitation!”
Harper nearly tripped on a root.
“That’s not how that works!”
Behind them Maggie climbed carefully, boots testing each step before committing weight.
“We need spacing,” she called calmly. “If one of us falls we take three with—”
“I don’t care if one falls!” Skylar snapped back.
Isa’s head lifted sharply at that.
She didn’t say anything.
But the look she gave Skylar could have cracked stone.
The incline kept rising. Every step slid half a step backward as the shale shifted under their weight.
Jackson cursed loudly as his boot slipped sideways.
“Who picked this path?!”
“You did!” Harper shot back.
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did!”
“I said it looked faster!”
“That’s the same thing!”
Logan slid past both of them without joining the argument, stepping over a boulder with quiet balance.
“Argue later,” he muttered.
“Preferably when we’re not on a mountain.”
A sharp crack echoed behind them as loose rock gave way beneath Trevor’s foot.
He slipped.
“Whoa—!”
His ankle twisted sideways and he dropped hard onto one knee with a pained grunt.
“Ah—damn!”
Liam lunged forward instantly, grabbing Trevor’s arm before gravity could drag him backward down the slope.
“Got you!”
Trevor sucked in a breath through his teeth.
“My ankle—”
“Can you walk?” Liam asked quickly.
Trevor tested his weight.
Winced.
“…Yeah.”
“Good,” Skylar called from somewhere higher on the slope without even turning around.
“Then move.”
Harper’s jaw tightened.
“Sky, slow down!”
“No!”
“You’re pulling the group apart!”
“Then keep up!”
Freya moved through the climbing line almost silently. Her boots stepped carefully between roots, her breathing controlled.
But her attention wasn’t on the argument.
It was on the forest.
The ravine.
The way the wind carried sound strangely between the stone walls.
Something about the terrain felt wrong.
Too quiet.
The thought barely formed before chaos struck somewhere behind Harper.
Jackson suddenly lunged forward.
“Coming through!”
His boot slammed into a loose rock.
The rock shifted.
Jackson stumbled and flung out a hand to steady himself.
His palm slammed straight into Harper’s compass.
CRACK.
The glass face shattered instantly.
The needle inside spun wildly.
Everyone froze.
Harper slowly lifted the compass.
“…Is it working?”
Jackson stared at it.
“…I don’t think so.”
The needle kept spinning.
Skylar snatched it from his hand, shook it once, then tossed it back at Harper.
“Useless.”
Raj crouched beside them immediately.
“Wait,” he said sharply.
“We just lost bearing.”
“Then eyeball it,” Skylar snapped.
Raj pointed toward the ridgeline.
“That ravine bends south. If we keep climbing blind we—”
“We’re not stopping.”
Momentum had taken over.
And that was mistake number two.
The slope suddenly collapsed beneath them.
Shale slid like marbles under their boots.
Harper stumbled hard and nearly dropped the metal case.
Liam grabbed her elbow.
“Careful!”
“I’m fine!”
“You almost dropped it!”
“I said I’m fine!”
The trail narrowed abruptly as the climb funneled them into a tight ravine between two rocky ridges.
Branches scraped against their gear.
Fallen logs forced them to climb, duck, and crawl over obstacles.
The team stretched thin.
Skylar surged ahead.
Harper pushed after her.
Jackson stumbled along behind them.
Maggie tried to keep the middle from collapsing.
Isa stayed toward the rear with Liam and Trevor, keeping the injured man moving.
Raj tried to hold the whole mess together.
“Stay together!” he called.
“Form a line!”
“No time!” Skylar shouted back.
“Move!”
The ravine tightened even further.
Loose stones shifted under every step.
Phillip slipped sideways and slammed shoulder-first into Jackson.
Both of them went down in a tangled heap.
“Watch it!”
“You pushed me!”
“I did not!”
“Both of you shut up!” Maggie snapped.
And then something snapped through the air.
POP.
A bright streak of blue paint exploded against a tree trunk beside Skylar’s head.
For half a second nobody moved.
Then—
POP POP POP.
Paint rounds cracked through the ravine like snapping branches.
“AMBUSH!” Raj shouted.
Everything detonated into motion.
Skylar dove behind a rock.
“What the hell—?!”
Harper screamed as a paint round smashed against the metal case in her arms.
Blue splattered across her sleeve.
Isa grabbed Liam by the collar and dragged him down behind a fallen log.
“DOWN!”
Jackson scrambled blindly for cover.
“Where are they?!”
“TREELINE!” Logan shouted.
More paint rounds tore through the ravine.
One slammed into Trevor’s chest with a heavy thud.
He cried out and dropped backward.
“Trevor’s hit!” Tina shouted.
She slid through the dirt toward him.
Raj grabbed Jackson by the shoulder.
“STOP RUNNING!”
“I’m not running!”
“You’re panicking!”
Another paint round cracked against a rock inches from Harper’s head.
She shrieked and ducked.
“Sky!”
Skylar peeked over her rock.
“I see them!”
“Where?!”
“Everywhere!”
Three silhouettes moved through the trees above the ravine.
Then two more appeared behind them.
Then another.
Fast.
Silent.
Perfectly coordinated.
“We’re surrounded!” Jackson yelled.
“Shut up!” Logan snapped.
“You’re making it worse!”
“How can it get worse?!”
A paint round smacked into Jackson’s shoulder.
“AH—!”
He dropped flat behind a rock.
Raj scanned the terrain rapidly.
“Fallback positions!”
“What fallback positions?!” Harper shouted.
“We don’t have any!”
“Exactly!”
Skylar fired wildly toward the treeline.
The shot missed by a mile.
“Move up!” she shouted.
“Push them!”
Isa stared at her.
“You want to charge trained soldiers?”
“Yes!”
“That’s stupid.”
Skylar glared at her.
“Then what do you suggest?”
Isa jerked her chin toward the ravine floor.
“Survive.”
Paint rounds kept cracking overhead.
Leaves exploded.
Dust kicked up around their boots.
Liam crawled toward Harper.
“The case!”
“What about it?!”
“Protect it!”
“I AM!”
Another round struck the metal case.
CLANG.
Harper flinched violently.
Trevor groaned nearby.
Tina pressed a hand to his chest.
“He’s bruised,” she said quickly.
“Knocked the wind out of him.”
“Can he move?” Raj asked.
Trevor wheezed.
“…Probably.”
“Good,” Raj said.
“Because we’re moving.”
Skylar risked another glance around her rock.
“Right flank’s thinner!”
“How do you know?!” Harper snapped.
“I saw movement!”
“That’s not intel!”
“It’s good enough!”
Logan grabbed Harper’s shoulder.
“Stop arguing.”
“We’re pinned!”
“Then move.”
“Where?!”
Logan pointed toward a narrow break in the ravine wall.
“There.”
Harper stared.
“That’s barely a path.”
“Exactly.”
Raj made the call.
“Go.”
Isa hauled Trevor upright by the collar.
“Move,” she said.
“Or I carry you.”
Trevor limped forward.
The group scrambled through the narrow opening as paint rounds cracked behind them.
Jackson nearly tripped over a root.
Liam dragged him upright.
“Run!”
“I AM!”
They burst out of the ravine into thicker forest.
The gunfire stopped.
Just like that.
Silence fell heavy between the trees.
Everyone froze, breathing hard, paint splattered across their gear.
Trevor leaned against a tree clutching his chest.
Harper turned slowly and looked back toward the ravine.
“What the hell just happened?”
Raj wiped sweat from his brow.
“Training,” he said grimly.
Skylar glared toward the trees.
“They cheated.”
Logan snorted quietly.
“No.”
He looked at the team.
“We did.”
Harper looked down at the metal case still clutched in her arms.
Blue paint smeared across the surface.
Her hands trembled slightly.
For the first time since the mission started—
She wasn’t thinking about winning.
She was thinking about how close they had come to losing everything.
And they still hadn’t even reached the bridge.