At Night's End

by Benham, Tara

  Chapter 15

  Searching the wooded area just past the clearing for sticks that would do well for fire, I paid attention to the vegetation in the area. I had only found a few good pieces, when I happened upon some honeysuckles and black berries. I hadn’t brought my pack with me, which was bad planning on my part, I briefly wondered if we were being watched and graded. I did have pockets in my pants and shirt, so I began to fill all the pockets to the brim before continuing to collect dry wood. There was a buzzing noise directly to my left that made me jump. I turned and noticed a flicker and realized that I must have gotten close to the fence. Sighing, I shook my head and decided that it was time to head back towards the boys. I heard a shout up ahead and quickened my pace. When I got to the camp, I saw Ever and the girls running towards us. Goodness they were either really close to our exit or they had ran to make good time. I got to the camp at the same time they had.

  “Hey guys, you found us quick!” I gave each of the girls a hug once I had put down the logs.

  “We weren’t very far at all. We probably would have been here even sooner, if I had had more cooperation.” Ever rolled her eyes and Denver crossed her arms all huffy.

  “How was I supposed to know that the two of you had made plans before this trip?”

  “Because she had told you.” Darcy spoke up this time. “I’ve told you multiple times since we left out the door that we have been planning for this longer than you have known us, we’re going to have some pre-set plans.”

  I gave Darcy a proud smile and bumped shoulders with Ever who whispered that Darcy and Denver had been bickering since the opening of the second door. We caught each other up on what we each had seen and I let her know what Milo had told me and Baxlie about the new property. While Ever and I had been discussing the new information, Milo and Baxlie had come up with a way to place the logs that Milo had collected into a shape that would allow the six of us to sleep tonight and so that we could use the blanket as cover and not as shelter. The girls must have went fishing with something they had packed. I looked up and there was Darcy carrying eight or so fish and Denver looking disgusted. From the stress and nervous excitement I had been holding in, the look on her face flipped something and I fell out in a fit of laughter. The sounds just burst out of me causing everyone to startle around me.

  “She’s seriously gone mad. I been thinking that since the first room.” Milo looked like I had two heads. I wasn’t about to explain why I was laughing, so with some struggle I gained control of myself.

  Wiping tears from my eyes, I apologized a made up some lie that I was just relieving stress, which really was only partly a lie. I stood up and took the fish from Darcy who too was looking at me like maybe I had lost a marble or two, but didn’t say anything. “You both did a good job, this will make for an excellent meal for us along with the berries and honeysuckle I collected. I’ll get these cleaned on the rocks, did anyone happen to bring a bowl or baggies?”

  “I brought baggies and paper plates in my duffle.” Milo walked across and handed me the baggies and the plates.

  “Good thinking. This will help a lot. Ever can you put the berries in the baggy and smash them with the honeysuckle please.”

  “I can do that” Baxlie grabbed the baggies, berries and honeysuckle from me. “I also found mint leaves while I was clearing the spot for the shelter earlier, so I can make a decent sauce with these ingredients.”

  “That sounds wonderful, thank you Baxlie” Denver spoke for the first time since Darcy had chided her earlier.

  My early theory was no longer really a theory in my mind anymore so much as a fact now. I was positive that she liked him a lot, just as I was sure he did not like her. This fact made me smile a little, and then frown. Why would I care if Baxlie liked her or not. I liked Henry. The thought of Henry brought the smile back to my face again, which made cleaning the fish a little quicker and easier. I decided I was just happy at Denver’s lack of upcoming happiness more than I was at Baxlie’s dislike of her.

  “Need help? I finished.”

  I had to squint to see Baxlie because the sun was now directly behind him. “No, I’m almost done now, but thank you.”

  “I have a question then.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  “We have these glasses on for a reason. They are for virtual reality training, and yet we haven’t really had anything virtual happen to our reality yet. Do you have an idea as to why not?”

  “I think whoever is controlling this situations, and I assume it is probably Master Sergeant Long, Micah, and Henry, are waiting for us to get comfortable. Accidents and errors in judgment are more likely to occur when people are comfortable.” Baxlie’s entire posture seemed to relax. “We have had basic level emergency management training as well. Ever is a lot better at it than I am, but I understand it enough to have an idea of what they’re going to do before they put us in scenarios.”

  “This is honestly really amazing McCaid. I understand why you didn’t advertise it to everyone at school, but seriously why wouldn’t you have told me? We used to be close, you could have told me.”

  I shrugged and grinned. “I’ve always had Ever who lived with the craziness so I never felt like I needed to share with anyone else. I handle it better than Darcy. Denver knows more now than she has, but Darcy still doesn’t have anyone like I do.” I glanced sideways at Baxlie and he seemed to be frowning.

  “Wow, that’s harsh.” He looked crestfallen.

  “Baxlie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. It would be, well it is, nice talking to you about all of this. I just didn’t want you think I was alone or lonely growing up like this. I just never dwelled on the fact that my upbringing was really different like Darcy had, so it didn’t even cross my mind. Please don’t be upset. I honestly am good, and better now that you’re here. You’ll get to learn a lot of stuff and you can bring a lot of information to us as well.” He seemed to perk up a little. I had finished cleaning the fish and he helped me gather them.

  When we were younger and Mom was still alive, Baxlie and his family were over almost every weekend. All of the parents had met during their college years and remained good friends as they got jobs and started families. Baxlie’s mom had been an exchange student from Korea when she met his Dad. They got married quickly, and were already married when they had met my parents. Both of them were in the education field. My mom never went to college. She was a homemaker and wife, but she encouraged Dad to continue his schooling and to even go to graduate school. I remember being at home with her when Darcy was a baby. It was her element. On really bad days I catch myself daydreaming what it would have been like if she hadn’t gotten sick, or had been able to get the cure. I would have maybe been a cheerleader too, or would have made plans to go away for college. I don’t dwell too much on it though, because as much as I love my mom and miss her, I love my life as it is now too.

  “We should head back so we can cook for the rest of this useless lot.” Baxlie grinned at me, but it wasn’t as deep as it had been when he first came over. I didn’t like knowing I had hurt his feelings. I might not like Baxlie like that, but he was good and kind. I liked Henry and wasn’t going to be one of those finicky girls that jumped from guy to guy when the mood fits. Maybe if Ever would have never told me what she had I’d never had even considered that what I said would have hurt him. I nodded, grabbed the cleaned fish and headed to the camp.

  “I whittled down some twigs so that you use them to cook the fish.” Milo jumped up and showed them to me as we made our way back to the camp. I suspect he was being helpful for two reasons, one because it was something he could do with his limited training and the other in order to impress Darcy. I hoped that if we were being monitored that it was only visually and not with sound too. Being that this was only the beginning of day one, and Milo had only been around Darcy for less than an hours’ time he already starry eyes, which means it’ll probably only get worse. Darcy was innocent but she was beautiful and sweet a
nd funny. If we were being monitored with sound with the visual there may be problems when we returned.

  “Thank you Milo.” I placed the fish on the twigs over the fire that someone had started. Baxlie was putting the sauce he’d made onto the plates, and Ever was pouring water that she’d purified into everyone’s canteens. For as far as first days go, we were working fairly well as a team. I was pleased. I was not confident that it would be like this once the scenarios were presented to us. Thinking about the scenarios and the virtual reality reminded about what Baxlie had asked, so I brought it up to the whole group so we could through around our opinions.

  “Baxlie brought up the fact that we have not had to use our VR glasses yet. I made the suggestion that depending upon on who was running it, they may be letting us get comfortable to see how we’ll react when we’re not as on edge and prepared. However, I bringing this to you all as an open discussion so we can come up with a game plan and possible reasons why we haven’t been tested yet.”

  “I agree you.” Ever stated, she had more training in emergency management training that I did. Knowing she agreed with me made me feel a little comfortable. Baxlie nodded as well, which I took to mean he was thinking the same thing as us.

  “I’m not as trained as you, but I do have an opinion.” Denver spoke up. “I think they aren’t going to use the glasses at all. I think it was just a psyche out maneuver to see how we would act in a normal situation while being nervous about something happening at any time.”

  “Not that I’m saying you’re completely wrong,” Darcy was definitely getting braver around Denver, “but that would be pointless. The three of us have been trained to the utmost abilities and skills and if something is about to happen Dad would definitely want to challenge us. Not only to make sure we could keep ourselves alive, but the three of you all too, since you’re now living with us.” Milo nodded at her like a lost puppy. I looked over at Ever who was just now catching on to the fact that Milo had a crush on Darcy. Her eyebrow arched up and she had a slight grin.

  “Well then.” Denver huffed again. She was starting to show her true colors again. I had hoped she would start to rise to the occasion, but she continually proved to me that she wasn’t going to be of much help.

  “Fish is done.” I spoke up hoping to alleviate some of the tension. Plates were passed around, a fish was placed on each and passed back around until each of had a plate with the sauce Baxlie made and a fish. There was silence as we all stuffed our faces. The sauce ended up being delicious. The flavor went well with the fish too. We had just finished eating when a message flashed across our glasses. We all stopped and read as words scrolled from left to right in front of us.

  “WELCOME TO VIRTUAL SURVIVAL TRAINING. THERE WILL BE A SERIES OF TEST EACH DAY THAT YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE TO PASS. TEST ONE WILL START IN THE NEXT TWO HOURS. THE ONLY INSTRUCTIONS YOU WILL RECEIVE IS THAT YOU NEED TO BE PREPARED AND BE IN A CLEARING EAST OF HERE BEFORE THE TEST STARTS.”

  The flashing words disappeared and the muttering started immediately. I let them talk for a while before I told them that we needed to pack what we thought would be essential and then head to the east towards a clearing. They tried to argue with me that we had an hour, but after explaining my game plan, Ever jumped in and agreed with the plan. If we got there early we could scope out the layout of the clearing so that we were prepared to move around if necessary. Being the oldest, and most trained and with Ever’s very convincing authoritative voice no one could come up with a reason to wait. We dumped our plates in the fire, threw some water on it and packed up our gear.

  “So should I be scared?” Milo asked to no one in particular.

  “Nah, man it’s just a virtual reality. It can’t really hurt you.” Baxlie paused. “Can’t it?”

  “Actually the program couldn’t hurt you necessarily but the actions and reactions to the scenario could cause injury. If you are unsure about what to do just stay close to one of us, we’ll keep you safe.” Darcy stated. She was unwittingly causing immense happiness for him at the thought of getting to be next her. I couldn’t say anything to her, but I would have to have a talk with her soon. After we got through the test that is, she needed to know his feelings so she could make decisions accordingly. I’m not against her liking him back, if she does, but she needs to know that if Dad is strict with me, and I’m close to eighteen, he’ll be even stricter with her.

  The clearing was about seventy-five yards away from our camp. Surrounding all sides of the clearing were trees. There were no hills to hide in, no water, and the trees were all cedar so climbing would be of little use. I’m glad we decided to come early it did help to know that hiding behind the trees would be our only way of having sneak attacks if necessary. We were still unsure what the test would include, but I’m sure it would be one that required most of all our skills. Milo had skills with electronics and construction, even if he didn’t feel like they were traits that would be of use, they still could be challenged during the test. If Dad had helped create the program that would present the scenarios then I was sure he would have included a test for each of the six of us.

  “YOUR TRAINING WILL BEGIN IN 5…..4…..3….2…..1”

  We formed a circle in the middle of clearing with our backs to each other facing out in order to see all sides of the clearing. It was a decision made instantly without any commands or talking to each other. It seemed like ages before anything happened, but then the rain came. At first it was just with the glasses, but then we felt the rain hit us. I realized now why Dad enclosed this area. Sneaky Dad, he’d made it an open air arena. He couldn’t control night and day, but he could control climate and weather in an enclosed arena. I remember vaguely an idea between Dad and Ever a few months ago, and although he shot it down to her face, I now believed he continued it in secret. Possibly for this reason. Ever was to my left. I quickly filled her in to what I thought and she agreed, giving him the devil for being so tricky. Still rain wasn’t much of a challenge.

  “Did you hear that?” Milo whispered so quietly it was hard to hear him above the rain.

  “Hear what?” Baxlie sounded uneasy.

  “I don’t know, it sounded like twigs being crunched”

  We all squinted out into the wooded areas that were in front of us. We had all quieted down staring trying to see something, when Denver jumped and gave a quick yell.

  “What? What did you see Denver?” Darcy asked.

  “It was some kind of animal or something. It was bigger than a wolf, but not quite as big as a bear.”

  “Do you think they would have a wild animal or feral animal as part of the challenge?” Darcy sounded a little confused. “Why? Unless it’s a distractor.”

  “Good point. I think we should split up into three groups of two. Darcy and Milo,” the mischievous grin on Ever’s face lead to me think she was fully aware of the crush he had now, “Baxlie and McCaid” same grin, “Colorado you’re with me. Let’s do a quick perimeter check for the animal as well as look for something out of the ordinary or suspicious.”

  Just as we separated the rain came down harder causing our visual field to decrease. I had to grab Baxlie’s arm to be able to keep track of where he was beside me. Oh I was so going to get Ever at the end of this test. She knew he has a crush on me, and that I liked Henry. She was not playing fair with Baxlie. I tripped grabbing harder onto Baxlie’s arm. He grabbed me around my waist, lifting back up to my feet again. My, my, he was strong. I needed to focus and think about the situation and not about his rippling biceps right now.

  “Shh! Shh! Listen I hear something.” Baxlie was close and whispered in my ear, sending chills. My body physically reacted and shivered, and I could feel a smile on his lips that were still against my ear.

  “I hear it too, but it just sounds like rustling. Let’s head in that direction. Maybe we’ll come upon another group. With the rain being so disorienting who knows where we’ve ended up.” I was still whispering too. There was a scream co
ming from the right side of us.

  “We better head that way, sounds like someone needs help.” Baxlie was already pulling us towards the scream. I struggled for a little trying to keep up, but then after regaining balance was able to keep stride. We couldn’t go too fast because of the rain, but we were still going pretty fast.

  “Hello?” It sounded like Ever calling out.

  “Ever?”

  “McCaid? Keep coming to your right I’m right here, Denver fell; she hit her head.” She sounded a little panicked which wasn’t like Ever so I was worried that it must be bad.

  “Is she okay?” I tripped over a limb just as we got to her side. “Where is she?”

  “You just tripped over her Caid.” She was pointed to one of her feet that I thought had been a limb.

  “Oh my gosh! Denver I’m sorry.” There was a groan which caused relief to flood through me, if she was making noise she wasn’t dead. I bent down beside her, and took out the flashlight I had tucked into my boot right before leaving. Her eyes were closed, I didn’t find any signs of blood anywhere, she was breathing, but there was a nice goose egg on her forehead right above her right eye. “I think she’ll be okay soon, but we’ll have to monitor her here. I have a jacket in my bag, I’ll cover her with it to try to keep her as warm and dry as possible. We need to move her carefully to underneath that tall cedar over there to help with blocking some of the rain. I’ll go see if I can find Milo and Darcy. What happened?”

  “I don’t really know we were just walking and she was whining about the rain. I stopped and turned to say something to her and she screamed and went down.” I couldn’t find anything that she would have tripped on, and as you can tell there aren’t any limbs that she would’ve ran into, so we’ll have to wait until she wakes up to find out what happened I guess.”