Catherine wasn't surprised when it began to rain. Really, what else could go wrong? She pushed the thought away, suddenly worried that she'd jinx herself, Greg and Sara into walking straight through the middle of an ambush set up by a rival team. She looked around nervously – with all this paranoia she was experiencing she suddenly realised how some people in wars became so nuts.
"That's it," she heard Greg say ahead of her, "I'm stopping."
"Oh thank God," Catherine mumbled, thankful for the excuse to rest. Her feet had been killing her for the past 3 hours but there was no way she was going to be the one to ask for a break.
After they'd separated from Grissom and Nick they'd gone for a run. Then they'd rested for another hour, hiding in some shrub. They hadn't seen anyone following them but that didn't make them any more relaxed. If anything it made them more nervous. What if they were closer than they thought? Worse; what if they'd followed Grissom and Nick, and caught them?
Catherine wondered what would happen if any of their group were captured, what would become of them. She figured that they'd probably be kept as prisoners to limit the rest of the group's chance of success in the game. The competition officials had basically told them that 'anything goes' so she wouldn't be surprised if one of them ended up being tied up in the middle of some enemy camp for the rest of the week. She didn't think she'd be able to stomach that. She vowed to herself that if any of them became captured, she'd sport a rescue mission to break them out.
"Are you going to try and contact Gris?" she asked Sara as the two women collapsed against a big tree and cracked their backs in unison.
"I don't know if we'll be too far away now, but I'll give it a shot," Sara replied and reached to her pack for the walkie-talkie.
She clicked it onto channel two and raised it to her mouth, taking a moment to think of what to say. She remembered Greg's warning about speaking in code and decided that that was the way to go.
"Hey bug-boy how's the weather down there over?"
Catherine smiled and glanced at Greg who gave her a tired grin in return.
The radio crackled a moment and they held their breath, anxiously awaiting the response.
Suddenly, and loudly, Grissom's voice came through clearly, "I've seen better, fly-girl, but Lenny here seems to like it... Over."
They looked at each other. "Lenny?" Greg asked.
Catherine grinned, "Lenny Kravitz, they've got Warrick!"
Sara grinned, "That's good news, we're not feeling much heat down this way – has the cool change reached you? Over." Sara prayed that he would understand she was asking about their status regarding their unwanted friends.
"Oh yeah, that blew in a while back. Are you and the family likely to come and visit soon? Over."
"It's a long journey, but we might be able to make by the sixteenth of this month, over."
Greg looked at Catherine, confusion evident on his face.
"The sixteenth – sixteen hundred hours, four this afternoon," she informed him. He nodded and looked at the walkie-talkie again.
"Sounds good, I look forward to it. Over and out."
Sara clicked the radio off and stashed it in her pack.
"Bug-boy?" Catherine asked with a smirk.
"Fly-girl?" Greg said, joining in.
Sara turned visibly red and glared at them, "What?" she asked innocently before getting up and hoisting her pack back onto her shoulders. "Come on," she said, "We'll have to get moving if we're getting back by four."
Greg moaned but stood up slowly, throwing his own pack on his back.
Sara offered Catherine her hand and helped her stand up. Before Catherine had the chance to turn around, Sara bent down and picked up her pack.
"Turn around," Sara ordered kindly and Catherine complied, too tired to be annoyed that Sara was telling her what to do. She helped Catherine struggle into the straps before putting her arm around the shorter woman's shoulders. "Now you can help carry me," Sara deadpanned.
Tuesday – Day 3, 15.48
Grissom breathed a sigh of relief when Nick came to tell him Warrick had spotted the rest of the team coming over the hill towards the river.
They'd found a place where the ground dropped suddenly next to the river, creating a kind of cave effect and decided that they could safely spend the night there. It was a nice spot, and completely invisible to anyone on that side of the river. They'd collected some trees and foliage to hide the opening from the other side of the river. Grissom was quite confident that they wouldn't be found, unless of course they were followed or heard. In fact, the only reason that they had found the cave was because Nick had almost broken his leg by falling down the side of the bank. He was unhurt, however, and had gone on to tell them how it was fate that he fell down in exactly the right place.
"It's like the hand of God pushed me down and made me fall," he said enthusiastically.
Warrick had puffed out a laugh, "Yeah, it has nothing to do with you being a lucky klutz at all," he said sarcastically.
In the time they had waiting for the others to return, they'd built another look out tower in a tree, complete with a new alert-bell, which reached their cave.
Nick left the camp, directed by Warrick, to go and collect Sara, Catherine and Greg and came back soon with three tired and grumpy souls in tow.
"Hi," Sara said curtly as she entered the cave and collapsed on one of the logs that had been brought in to use as a seat.
Catherine grunted out an incoherent greeting and followed Sara to the log.
Greg, in a zombie-like state, stood around staring at the cave.
"This is nice," he said, a slight slur to his voice.
"Greg, man," Nick said and came up to take his pack, "Sit down buddy."
Greg plopped himself down on another log and leaned his arms on his knees.
Grissom and Nick busied themselves getting food and drink for their new arrivals, while Warrick kept watch from his position in the tree.
"Here," Grissom said and handed Catherine a cup of water and a packet of dry biscuits. He went away and returned almost immediately to give Sara the same. "Sorry, it's the best we can do without a fire right now."
Sara nodded, "It's fine, this is fine – thank you."
Catherine sighed as she bit into a biscuit, "Tell me we're resting here for the next three days at least," she said hopefully.
"And risk those other camps we spied moving around on us?" Grissom asked with a grin as he sat down on the other side of Sara.
"What other camps?" Sara asked, looking between Catherine and Grissom.
"Before our camp became so rudely taken over yesterday we were out hunting for the other groups remember?"
"Oh yeah," Sara nodded, "So you found the others? Already?"
"We found one," Catherine said, "And we found some tracks down by the river and some evidence of a campfire – but we only saw one group and they were a bit more organised than that other group we ran into."
"They were terrible," Sara agreed.
"Hey, they still chased us around though," Greg reminded them.
"Yeah – how did that happen Nick?" Sara asked.
Nick looked over and realised it was now the time to tell his story. He sat down next to Greg and took a deep breath.
"When I saw you and Grissom leaving, I got up to leave too. I thought I might be able to meet up with you guys at the hidey-hole but when I got there you were gone already. I waited for a minute because I thought that Warrick might have the same idea as me and come by but he didn't show up. Instead, one of the guys came out of their tent and shined a flash light right at me. It happened so fast I didn't even hear him open the zipper. I have no idea how he knew I was there, but he just turned it on and I became I deer in headlights," he looked at the ground sheepishly, "So I ran, but he shouted and woke his friends up and started chasing me. I didn't know where else to go so I just led them straight to you guys, I know it was stupid of me but I didn't think properly."
"It's okay Nicky," Catherine smiled warmly at him, "I would have done the same thing and we're all okay now… What happened to Warrick?"
Grissom puffed out a small laugh, "Warrick got lost and missed all the commotion. By the time he found his way again we'd already doubled back and were waiting at the rendezvous point again."
"Which was terrible because we didn't know whether he'd been there already and left or just hadn't shown up yet," Nick added, "We just had to take our chances and wait it out."
Greg filled Nick and Grissom in on the adventures that he, Catherine and Sara had had – which really just consisted of 'We walked a long long way' – while Sara and Catherine unravelled their sleeping bags next to a wall of the cave and laid down.
Sara lay on her back, her head in her hands, eyes closed, listening to Greg re-tell every detail of their journey to Nick and Grissom while they began to get everything ready for dinner.
Catherine sighed heavily and rolled onto her side, facing Sara. "At least you won't wake up with that rock in your side again," she mumbled as she closed her eyes.
Sara smiled, "Oh yeah, there's a reason for hiking 50 miles."
"Well if it saves me from turning into your mattress…"
Sara sighed happily. Despite the fact that she was immensely tired, she was still aware of how much everyone in their group had become so close already. She felt so happy to be back with the other half of the group and that odd urge of wanting to hug everyone was coming over her again, only this time it was even stronger. Maybe the idea of the competition being all about team building and working together wasn't as silly as it had first sounded? She was definitely having a lot more fun than she usually had with these people at work and she hoped that it would stay this way when the competition was over.
"Hey Cat?" she asked and opened her eyes to look at the roof of the cave.
"Hmm?"
"Thanks."
"What for?" Catherine asked, turning to look at the side of Sara's face.
Sara shrugged, "I dunno."
Catherine's brow crinkled in confusion before she puffed out a laugh and shrugged, "Okay, you're welcome." She smiled and closed her eyes, slowly drifting into a deep and restful sleep.
TBC