Disclaimer: I promise to give them back, Janet.
Night Challenges
Tank and Bobby sat in Tank's office. They had just been appraised of the adventures of the Probies. Ram had reported the episode on the hill. Manny had observed the water crossing. Junior was now in position. He would contact them in the morning with his observations.
Junior was in one of the trees in the grove with night vision goggles. He was close enough that he could hear the heated exchange between Stephanie and Terry in the middle of the night. It sounded like Stephanie had held her own until the other members of the team came to her rescue. He figured that he would be escorting someone back to Rangeman and he would no longer be employed there. Nobody hurt the Bomber and lived to tell the tale. He made himself more comfortable in the crook of the tree and relaxed. It would be a long night.
Stephanie had gone to sleep after the long day. Her feet hurt, and her butt now hurt from the hard ground. Groaning softly, she turned over in her blanket to get more comfortable. All of a sudden she felt a presence just before someone slid in beside her. She tensed. A soft whisper came from the person. She had an idea who it was. Terry tried to wrap her in his arms. He tried to kiss her on her neck. Quick as a wink, she elbowed him in the ribs, and kicked backwards hitting Terry in his sore knee. He howled in pain. He hurled an expletive at her and tried to put his hand over her mouth. By now she had her knee heading for his privates and his eyes went back into his head. The others had jumped up and were now dragging Terry away from Stephanie. She was standing holding the blanket around herself.
Maurice and Eddie dragged Terry over to a tree. They used the rope from the duffle bags and tied him up and secured him to a tree. After checking that Stephanie was OK, Teddie joined the others. They silently rock, paper, scissored for first watch on Terry. Eddie won and sat down watching him. He would have first shift. The others went over to Stephanie. Unsure whether to give her a hug or just stand there, Stephanie smiled and came over to give each of them a hug. They congratulated her on her reflexes and told her they had heard rumors of her legendary knee. They all had a chuckle as she blushed.
Asking if she was OK to go back to sleep, Stephanie nodded. It had been a long day and after figuring out what to do with Terry, they had to make tracks to get to the objective in time. Not knowing that Junior was close, they headed back to bed. Stephanie didn't even hear as the others changed shifts through the night guarding their prisoner.
Waking up in the morning feeling refreshed but stiff, she rolled out of her blanket. Maurice was now watching Terry. They were glaring daggers at each other. Stephanie walked into the grove to take care of business. On her way out, she noticed Junior in the tree. He smiled and waved a finger at her. Climbing down, he hugged her and asked if she was OK. She smiled and asked if he had heard or seen anything. She figured by the quick tightening of his mouth that he was privy to the whole episode.
He walked with her to the encampment. The others jumped, startled by the appearance of a Rangeman. He phoned the control room and asked to speak to Bobby or Tank. Tank answered. Junior explained the situation and had each of the men tell their side of the story. He then turned to Stephanie. She did the same leaving out no details but also speaking of the conversation from the past afternoon. The three men's eyes hardened. They looked over at Terry. Junior stepped closer to him. "He will be taken care of at Rangeman, don't worry about that. Nobody hurts the Bomber. By the time you get back, he will be long gone and I suspect that he will never work in a security setting again." Stephanie sidled up to Junior. "Don't kill him." Terry heard her speak and his face became very pale.
With that, he untied Terry from the tree, handcuffed and shackled him and walked him away around the grove of trees. They heard an ATV start up. Hoping that Terry had a very bumpy ride on the hard metal at the back all the way to a road, they prepared for the day. Since they were down to four now, it meant more work for everyone. They quickly ate breakfast and divided up the extra backpack. Their packs were now getting a bit crowded with a blanket and shelter half each, cooking pot, one useable canned heat, two bottles of water each, plus what they had carried in. Added to it now was Terry's gear. Keeping to the Pack It In, Pack It Out Rule, they divided his gear amongst themselves. They cleaned up the campsite and returned the rocks to the pile they had taken them from.
Sitting down, they each took a token and put them in their baggies. They had been in such a hurry the night before they had not taken the time to divide them up. Looking at the new directions, they set off. Teddie was now in the lead. With Terry not holding them up they made fast time. Up and down hills, through tall grassy meadows they came to a wall of rock. There was a new duffle bag hanging on a peg. Eddie took down the bag and once again it was dumped on the ground. There was a new map, more compass co-ordinates, more food and water, four tokens, and caribiners, anchors and pitons. There were four sets of gloves and four climbing hammers. There was a long coil of rope and four bags of chalk. There were also four helmets.
Stephanie smiled. She loved to climb. Every available weekend in college she and her climbing club would take off for another mountain to climb. She knew how to lead, bring up the rear, free climb, and use ropes. This was going to be fun. She looked at the others. Maurice was looking at the wall. His brow was furrowed. Being a Seal he felt so out of sync right now. This was the absolute opposite what a Seal did. Eddie and Teddy were little better. They had done some climbing in Rangers but had been stationed where there were no mountains to scale. They had had the rudimentary training that Rangers learn but this would be quite a learning experience for them all.
Stephanie stepped up. In a voice full of confidence she explained what was going to happen. Since she had the most experience, she would lead. Taking the pitons, anchors, the caribiners and a hammer, she put them on her belt. She tied the chalk bag to a strap. Then taking the rope, she attached each of them to another. She gave a quick safety demonstration and an overview of her plan to scale the cliff. She reminded them that if someone lost their footing, the others would have to hold that person until they could regain their balance.
Asking if there were any questions and not hearing any, she turned around and looked at the cliff. Mentally she scaled the wall of rock. If she had been alone or with other expert climbers they probably would have free climbed, but with newbies, she would not take the chance and use gear. Quickly she free climbed about ten feet up. Taking her first anchor from her belt and her hammer, she nailed it into the rock. She attached her caribiner, threaded the rope through and slowly climbed higher. She alternated between anchors and pitons.
Spacing themselves as per her instructions, the others prepared to follow. Slowly they maneuvered their way up the wall. Finally, Stephanie reached the top and pulled herself up to stand on the top. Slowly everyone else joined her. They fist bumped each other. There were smiles all around. Everyone stopped to take a water break while taking a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.