Sara shivered as a cold breeze ripped through the trees and made her skin pimple and the hairs on her arms stand at attention.
"Cold?" she felt Grissom's warm breath just below her ear.
She nodded and shifted on her stomach. They were both lying on the forest floor, next to a tall and sturdy tree just at the edge of the clearing. Somehow, they'd been nominated as the two people who would take the biggest risk; sneak into the enemy camp and find as many treasures as they could without waking the now sleeping rival team.
Somewhere on the other side of the clearing, Nick and Warrick were lying in the dirt as well – keeping watch. Catherine was currently helping Greg haul all their packs to their rendezvous point.
Thanks to the time spent watching their unexpected visitors, they'd learned that they didn't post a guard to watch over the camp at night. Instead, every now and then one of the team members got up and walked around the camp. The patrols had been more frequent earlier in the night, but as time went by they realised that there wasn't really a system they were following. It appeared as if one of the people would simply wake up and decide they should do a bit of a walk around. Sara was quite pleased that her team had been so security conscious after witnessing this mess.
"Studies show that people are at their weakest between three and four in the morning," Sara whispered to Grissom, "Something tells me these guys work the day shift. They won't be interested in doing a walk-around when it hits three."
Grissom nodded, "Doesn't that mean we're at our weakest too though?"
Sara shrugged, "Probably."
After a while Sara began to cramp up and wriggle around, frustrated at her legs for falling asleep.
She felt Grissom rest a firm hand on the back of her thigh, "Would you quit it?" he whispered to her.
"Sorry," she whispered back and almost yelped out loud when Catherine came to jump down beside her. She clutched her chest and glared at her, "God Catherine – want to give me a heart attack next time?"
Catherine smirked, "Gee Sara you should really work on your radar there," she teased and looked pointedly at Grissom's hand which still lay resting on Sara's thigh. "Although maybe you were a little distracted." Her smirk turned into a full-fledged grin when Grissom snatched his hand away and glared at her.
"What are you doing here?" he whispered.
She raised an eyebrow at him, "We've finished moving the packs – Greg's back at the rendezvous point, I thought you could use an extra pair of eyes."
"Thanks Cath," Sara said and glanced at the camp.
"Two Forty-Five," Grissom breathed, "What do you think?"
Sara thought for a moment and studied the clearing again. Finally, she nodded, "Let's go, let's do it."
Grissom followed Sara like a shadow. They moved slowly, yet nimbly, out of the tree line and into the clearing. Their hot breath mingled with the cold night air as they nervously creeped closer towards the campfire. Sara grinned; as per Greg's mockery the new owners had indeed used the same place to put their campfire as she and Warrick had done the night before.
Suddenly they heard a cough from one of the tents and froze instinctively. Grissom grabbed her arm as the sound of a zipper could be heard and pulled her down to the ground behind one of the logs that had been used as a seat next to the fire. The log didn't provide them with much cover and they squeezed together as close as possible to try and become smaller.
They watched anxiously as a male came lumbering out of the tent and stumbled towards them sleepily. To their surprise, he walked straight past them and towards the tree line.
Sara sent Grissom a confused stare. For a fleeting moment she wondered whether it was plausible that this guy was the world's best sleepwalker, then the unmistakable sound of someone urinating reached her ears. She felt like groaning but kept it in by burying her face into Grissom's shoulder. This was terrible; they were completely stuck. Once the guy turned around he would surely see them. She risked a glance in his direction and held her breath as he turned around and began walking back towards his tent. Again, he walked straight past them without even glancing, and stumbled into his tent. They heard him sigh heavily, mumble something, and then they were once again plunged into the silence of the night.
They lay there, afraid that if they moved too soon urine-boy would hear them. They wanted him sound asleep when they were raiding his camp thank you very much.
It felt like hours to Sara, but after twenty minutes they risked moving. She crawled forward and eventually found her feet, taking a moment to stand there and listen intently. Hearing nothing but Grissom's breathing, she inched forward – unsure as to where she should start looking. A couple of packs still lay around on the ground and she shook her head at the groups' laziness. How did they expect to win this thing with the way they were going? She moved towards the first pack and bent over it. Behind her, Grissom was examining the objects that surrounded the campfire.
She opened the pack, thankful for the lack of sound she seemed to be making. The light thrown by the smouldering fire would have to be enough to let her see what each object inside actually was. She began to sift through the contents.
**
"That was close," Nick whispered to the night after the man re-entered his tent. He watched as Grissom and Sara stayed pinned against the ground and glanced nervously around. Warrick was somewhere off to his left but it was too dark to know if he was close.
His heart began to beat faster as he watched Sara rise cautiously to her feet and begin to creep gracefully towards a pack that lay on the ground. He wondered how she seemed so calm, just walking firmly towards her target without so much of a shake in her legs. Grissom appeared to be just as calm, methodically searching through the pots and pans that littered the area around the campsite. Nick was nervous just watching.
He realised to his horror that he was too intent on watching Grissom and Sara's raid and wasn't doing his job properly. Mentally kicking himself, he began to scan the campsite and the surrounding area for any unwelcome movement. There was nothing, and he breathed a short-lived sigh of relief.
It was short-lived because suddenly a voice called through the silence of the night.
"Is that you Jen?"
He saw Grissom and Sara freeze what they were doing and turn sharply towards one of the tents. Grissom started motioning towards Sara, who started motioning back. He was saying 'yes' and she was adamantly saying 'no'. Grissom waved his arms in the air one final time, and Nick saw Sara hesitate.
His blood turned icy cold when he heard Sara call back, "Yeah, sorry – can't I take a pee without letting you know?"
He watched in amazement as Sara turned anxiously back towards Grissom and glared at him. They were both poised to drop everything and run.
The reply from the man inside the tent was an incomprehensible grunt and a sleepy "just check the camp while you're up".
Sara and Grissom hesitated – Nick's brain was screaming at him, 'Run! Run!' but slowly Grissom turned away and went back to sorting through a pack he was currently bent over. Sara glanced nervously towards the tent again before following Grissom's lead and continuing to search a pack.
It wasn't long before Nick saw Grissom and Sara quietly slipping back towards the tree line and, taking his cue, quickly got to his feet and began to make his way to their rendezvous point.
Tuesday – Day 3, 4.02Once they reached the hidey-hole and met up with Catherine, the three CSI's quickly exchanged charged and nervous glances before throwing the possessions Grissom and Sara had collected from the camp into a pack and sprinting away from the clearing as fast as they could.
Catherine led the way, followed closely behind by Grissom carrying the pack. Sara was right at his heels, so literally in fact that occasionally she would crash into him when he slowed down to look where he was going. They were so pumped on adrenalin they wouldn't have realised if they were going in the completely wrong direction, but luckily Catherine had memorised the way on her trips back and forth with Greg.
They almost gave Greg a heart attack when they finally arrived at the makeshift camp he'd managed to create as they came crashing clumsily through undergrowth.
He stared at them with wide eyes for a moment and then visibly relaxed when he realised the danger had ceased, "How did you go?"
"Great!" Sara exclaimed enthusiastically and grinned at him, "Fantastic," she said again and shoved Grissom's arm, "How good was that!?"
Grissom, exhausted from the marathon they'd just run almost fell over with the force of her blow but smiled back at her – the adrenalin was still pumping through him as well.
Catherine quietly laughed out her nervous energy, "I thought you were toast for a minute there!"
"Oh yeah! When the guy came out and went to the toilet?" Sara said, unable to calm down from her high.
"Yeah and when you spoke to one of them – what was that!?"
Sara's eyes widened, "Oh ask him!" She shoved Grissom again, "That was totally his idea – I didn't like it, it was a catch 22! He could have recognised that I wasn't who he thought I was if I answered or he could have got suspicious if I didn't do anything!"
"Hey it worked!" Grissom defended himself, taking an unconscious step away from the suddenly physical Sara.
"I didn't know what you were doing!" Catherine exclaimed, "I honestly thought you'd lost it."
"Uh guys? I know you're excited but can we keep it down? You know how we just raided one camp without them knowing? Yeah, well, personally it's gotten me a little paranoid about the same thing happening to us," Greg tried to calm his friends down.
They looked at him guiltily and Sara wondered how jumpy he must have felt sitting out here all by himself just waiting for them.
"Sorry Greg," she said and gave him a guilty smile.
"It's okay – I just think we have to be careful now. Where's Warrick and Nick?"
"They should be here soon," Grissom said as he sat down on a fallen log. He pulled the pack with their stolen possessions towards him and struggled with his shaking hands to open it.
"What did you get in the end?" Catherine asked and sat down on the ground in front of him.
Noticing the trouble Grissom was having with the pack, Sara leant over from behind and helped him open it.
"Thanks," Grissom mumbled and looked up to see her grinning at him.
She ruffled his hair and sat down next to him on the log, ignoring his bemused expression. She was so wired.
He pulled out the first object; a spatula.
After a moment of silence, Catherine spoke up. "Wow," she said sarcastically, "That's some treasure."
Grissom smiled wryly at her, "It's got a sticker – it's a treasure," he said matter-of-factly.
"Hey show them the best one – I can't believe they were given these and weren't even using them," Sara said shaking her head.
Greg let out a low whistle as Grissom produced two walkie-talkies.
"Wow – now that is a treasure," Catherine said, visibly impressed.
"These will definitely help us," Greg said, "I mean, all the groups were given a radio for emergency contact to the competition officials and you could probably pick up the signal from these babies pretty easily on it, but if we worked out a code I'm sure we could use them safely."
Grissom nodded, but froze before he could take out the next object. A distinctly human sound could be heard making it's way towards them through the trees. Greg stood up and looked anxiously in the direction it was coming from and once again breathed a deep sigh of relief as Nick came bursting through the trees.
The look on Nick's face, however, didn't fill any of them with confidence and they immediately knew why when he blurted out, "They're right behind me!"
"Oh God," Greg managed to blurt out before stepping quickly into action. He grabbed one of the packs off the ground and threw it at Nick who caught it and thrust it on his back.
Grissom threw the objects back into the pack after handing Sara one of the walkie-talkies. "We'll have to separate – I'll stay on channel 2. You, Catherine and Greg move to the east and work your way back to the river that way. Nick and I will have to leave and come back for Warrick later, quickly," he told her firmly before turning around to Nick, "Come on – we're going this way."
Sara didn't have time to think before she saw Grissom and Nick disappearing through the trees, carrying an extra pack between them. She picked up a pack and slung it on her back, "Greg lead the way," she said and took the rear, glancing anxiously behind her every now and then.
They set off, every step further away from the other half of the group becoming more and more difficult. They all hated to be separated but it needed to happen. They had to confuse the group that was chasing them – they couldn't risk all of their treasures being found in the one spot. And so, with every creek they jumped and every tree they passed, the Vegas team grew further apart – their only form of contact the two walkie-talkies they'd stolen only hours earlier and hadn't even checked to see if they worked. And no one even knew where Warrick was.
TBC