I suggest if you don't know what one is, you google highland cattle bull and see what they look like (this story includes the brown shaggy haired ones with horns.)
9:50am
"How's everyone holding up?" Michael asked. They were almost at checkpoint two and they had already picked up the item from check point one: a rubbed duck, which was tucked into the top pocket of Jonny's bag with the head sticking out.
They had no idea where the other group were, though they assumed with Mary Claire's navigational skills, they were probably heading back towards Holby.
"Fantastic." Jac replied sarcastically as she tried to hide that she was out of breath. Despite her heart going rather fast, she couldn't believe how cold and numb she was.
"You wanna slow down Naylor?" Michael asked as he turned around and then walked next to Jac, Jonny was in the other side of her.
"No, I'm fine." Jac replied.
"You sure?" Jonny chipped in.
"Yes." Jac snapped harshly.
"Alright well, just for the record, we're taking a break at checkpoint two and it's not for you, I was going to stop there anyway." Michael explained, he then caught up quickly to the front of the group despite having a heavy hiking bag on his back, so that he could give them the final direction to the second checkpoint. Zorsia was staying at the back, much to Jac's annoyance, behind her and Jonny. Sacha was walking at the front with Michael and Mo and Elliot were walking just behind them.
"I can see Sam and Tom." Mo stated, they were on the other side of the field that they had just entered. And due to the previous weeks of rain, it was extremely muddy. The entire group stopped as they opened the gate to a massive patch of mud where animals had previously come in. They looked across the field to see Sam and Tom next to the coach in a lay by, at the edge of the field. Dixie and a Fletch were still in the coach.
Dotted around the field were large highland cattle. But there was one large group spread out in there middle of it.
"Right come on, we're bound to get a bit muddy." Michael said as he plunged straight into it. He hiking boot squelched into the mud and it sunk down a good inch or two. Sacha plodded on after Michael, as did Mo and Elliot but Jonny stood, waiting for Jac who was frozen on the spot.
"Come here you soppy mare." Jonny put his arm under Jac's bum, lifted her up and balanced her on his hip.
"Jonny put me down." Jac demanded. But he had already begun to walk through the mud.
"Okay, I'll just put you down here." Jonny lowered her down so she nearly touched the floor, right above a massive puddle. She squealed so Jonny balanced her on his hip again and continued walking through the mud.
"Aw isn't that so cute." Michael said sarcastically.
"Yep, that's going on Facebook." Mo stated as she took a picture with her iPhone.
"Mo if that reaches the internet you won't have a job to return to." Jac threatened, though it wasn't really effective because who could take her seriously when Jonny was carrying her and she had her arms wrapped around his shoulders.
Suddenly, Michael stopped and Sacha bumped into him.
"What's wr-"
"Ssshh." Michael whispered as he pointed over to a large brown bull. It was standing in front of a group of similar brown bulls though they were definitely smaller than the confrontational one. Michael could see several younger calves which was obviously why they were becoming protective. But the group of twenty or thirty odd cows were spread out across the field, being a large obstacle in between them, and the second checkpoint.
By now, the entire group had stopped after the muddy patch and they were now on slightly firmer ground. Jonny turned so that Jac was on his left hip, and the cows were on his right side so that if they were to come near them, he would be hit first.
Everyone was staying silent, apprehending what the bull was going to do. It was then joined by two other bull of a similar size. Jonny could feel Jac squeeze her thighs together on his torso but he said nothing of it because he didn't want to make her feel even more scared or embarrassed. He still had his arm under her bum, supporting her weight despite the fact that they were no longer on the muddy patch. Neither of them wanted to let go of each other.
"Move! Go on, shift!" Zorsia shouted as she took several steps forward and put her arms out, she was now less that ten metres away from the three bulls. Sacha slowly crept forward, grabbed Zorsia's arm and tried to drag her back.
"Get off of me." Zorsia ordered loudly as she tried to shake his hand off of her arm but Sacha didn't let go, he dragged her back to where Michael, and Mo were standing. Jac and Jonny were a few metres behind them.
"Stay quiet, I had a friend put in hospital because of these in Scotland." Jonny whispered to Jac. She nodded and turned her attention back to the three bulls. One of which began to breathe heavily and stomped it's hoof on the floor. All three of them were whipping their tails around.
Now, Sam and Tom had seen the group of six. They were only about 50m away from them. Tom dragged Sam into the coach with him, shut the door and beeped the horn very loudly. This made two of the three cows turn their heads to look for the source of noise, but the biggest of the three remained staring at the group. The other two soon did the same; they were in a field next to the main road they obviously knew a car horn when they heard it.
Tom beeped the horn again but it made no difference.
"Tom stop it, you're only making them angrier." Dixie ordered. She knew the cows couldn't hear her but she was still speaking quietly because she was scared for the people in danger.
Jonny's attention turned to jac when she started fidgeting.
"Jonny put me down." Jac whispered. So slowly, Jonny lowered Jac onto her own feet. He watched her, hoping she wasn't going to do something stupid, but she just wanted to get down because she was uncomfortable. She stayed, standing close to Jonny.
10am Meanwhile...
"Mary Claire, we're supposed to be at checkpoint two by now." Harry moaned. They hadn't even reached their first check point yet.
"We're nearly there I'm sure we are." She lied as she began twisting the map around again.
"Yeah right." Gemma snorted.
"Shut up will ya I'm tryin' to think." Mary Claire stated.
"Here we go again, look just let us look at the map."
"No wait, I know where I'm going now. Follow me." Mary Claire said confidently.
"Um, Mary Claire, we just came from that way." Elliot stated, he tried to be polite.
"I know I was just testing you lot. Jeez, come on." Mary Claire lied as she turned around and headed in the other direction.
Back with group 1...
One of the smaller bulls started moving forward towards Michael who was in front of Zorsia. Slowly Michael backed up, but he didn't give down completely. He tried staying still but the bull kept on moving.
That bull had distracted them because they then realised that the other smaller one was heading for Mo but Sacha quickly jumped in front of her.
The biggest of them all started heading slowly towards Jac and Jonny. Jonny stood firmly in front of Jac as the bull was merely a meter away from him. It went to move forward but Jonny stood his ground which confused the bull. He knew people had died from being attacked by this type of bull, but he had to protect his two girls.
Jonny put his arms out to his side and stepped forward. He wasn't sure if it was going to work or not but he was sure that making a loud noise wasn't going to help because the horn didn't. The bull remained in its place.
Suddenly, a rare white, fluffy bull calf, no bigger than a Labrador came bouncing out from behind the large bull and began sniffing Jac's legs. Jonny stayed watching the bigger bull because it was more of a threat, but he was still worried about the calf behind him and Jac. Surprisingly, the calf licked Jac's hand which made her smile. Jac slowly crouched down and stroked the calf.
The bigger bull grunted which made the little calf jump. It licked Jac's hand one last time before it ran back to a cow that they assumed was it's mother. The big bull turned around and followed it's offspring. Then the two other bulls followed and all three laid down on the grass next to the herd.
The group of six wanted to let out a sigh of relief but they weren't quite out of danger yet. They all slowly and quietly followed Michael round the edge of the field. Jonny made Jac go in front of him so that he could keep an eye on her and after ten minutes of slow quiet walking, they reached the coach and definitely closed the gate behind them.
"Don't you ever do something like that again. You wanna put your own life at risk then fine, but you do not, I repeat, do not, put other people's lives at risk." Jonny shouted at Zorsia. Everyone knew when he said 'other people's lives' he meant Jac and the baby which caused Jac to blush a little.
"Point taken can we keep going now." Zorsia replied bluntly. Not once did she blink when Jonny shouted that in her face. She appeared to be one of the fittest of them all, besides Jonny anyway, and she hadn't even broken a sweat.
"No, we're taking a five minute break." Michael stated angrily was he unscrewed his water bottle. Jonny took a deep breath before he turned to Jac. She was sitting on a tree stump near the coach.
"Are you okay?" Jonny asked caringly. Jac was using a lot of hand sanitizer after letting the cute calf lick her hand.
"I'm fine." Jac sighed. "Jonny... Thanks... For stepping in front of me. And for shouting at Zorsia." Jac said meaningfully, she truly appreciated his actions.
"No worries. Do you want to know how you can repay me?" Jonny asked smiling. Jac hoped this wasn't going to be something sexual, though she kind of expected it from him.
"How?" Jac finally queried.
"By giving me some of your chocolate buttons." Jonny said childishly. Jac smirked and put her bag on her lap. She got out the pack of chocolate buttons and handed it to him.
"Jesus, the wind is picking up isn't it." Jonny said as she strong gust of wind began to blow dust across the layby.
Tom and Sam were sitting on the front of the coach, as they rang Mary Claire to get an update on where they were.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Mary Claire, it's Tom. Where are you?" Tom asked, heard a reply but due to bad signal, her voice broke up in places.
"Sorry? I can't hear you can you say that again?" Tom asked as so he put it on speaker.
"I didn't hear that." Tom said quietly to Sam.
"I think, She said she's at checkpoint one." Fletch stated. "Mary Claire, do you know where you're going?" fletch asked clearly and slowly. Fletch squinted as he tried to make out her reply over the crackled signal and the wind blowing through the microphone of Mary Claire's phone when Mary Claire hung up.
"I think she said we'll be there soon bye." Fletch suggested. The four in the coach could see that rain was starting to drop onto the windscreen.
"Right come on, let's get going." Michael ordered as he pulled his hood up and tightened his hip strap a bit where it had been gradually falling down.
"You ready?" Jonny asked Jac.
"Not really... I need the toilet." Jac said quietly. Jonny nodded and ran over to Michael.
"Listen, just give it a few minutes Jac needs a pee." Jonny stated quietly to Michael.
"Alright. Lets see if this rain'll stop give it a few minutes." Michael announced. He knew it wasn't going to stop but it would save Jac from getting embarrassed. It was only spitting any way.
Jonny walked back over to Jac.
"And where exactly am I supposed to go?" Jac snapped.
"Erm..." Jonny looked around and across the main road which was surprisingly quiet, there was a row of bushes. "Behind them?" Jonny suggested.
"Use your brains Jonny." Jac huffed. Jonny was confused. But then he looked at the field that the bushes were in and saw another herd of cows.
"Okay, not behind there then. Umm..."
"Anytime today before I wet myself would be great Jonny." Jac snapped as she crossed her legs. How was it his fault that there wasn't any toilets nearby?
"Um, um. I dunno, behind the coach? The mirrors can't see you if you go behind the coach." Jonny finally suggested.
"Don't you dare look." Jac ordered as she put a packet of tissues in her coat pocket and walked towards the back of the coach.
"Is Jac alright?" Mo asked worriedly. She merely saw Jac walk away from Jonny and she could no longer be seen.
"She's got a bladder the size of a peanut." Jonny concluded. That was enough for. Mo so she nodded and walked back towards the group.
After Jac was done, she used more hand sanitiser and the group set off towards checkpoint three.
Thanks for reading, please review :) Most of the storm seems to have passed now but there's a tree knocked down my road and it was bloody windy at 2am! I also have a lot of pinecones in my garden from next door's tree.
Pretty please can you review :) I spend hours writing these and it only takes seconds to leave a review any let me know what you think x