Kim rose to help Bonnie with her bags in a daze. Looking to Mr. Bundy for direction he pointed to a few discreet storage locations and lugged one of the cases over to it. She stowed it and helped Bonnie lever the other bag into the cabinet before carefully latching the cabinet shut. She sat down in one of the bench seats across from Bonne. Her lips pursed together tightly. "So when I told you I was leaving for a private school, you already knew?"

Bonnie sneered. "No." She seemed to consider for a moment. "Well if I had wanted to I suppose I could have put two and two together and guess, but I didn't."

"And that explains why you didn't freak out about a random giant coming up behind me for your practice. You already met him."

Bonnie nodded as the jet began moving. She looked around the cabin, "Christ it looks like the opening to a bad porn. Two teenage girls, big black man, and small room."

Despite herself Kim snorted in amusement. Mr. Bundy simply shook his head.

Several hours later Kim settled back from the delicious meal. The flight attendant appeared out of almost nowhere to retrieve her tray. "Thank you." Kim smiled up. The flight attendant nodded with a smile that seemed strained.

Mr. Bundy clapped his hands over his empty tray. "Very true." He sighed deeply. "We should be arriving soon."

Kim settled back. "Where do we start?"

Mr. Bundy smiled. "First we are starting with outdoors events. It may be spring but the campus is still inundated with snow. Perfect for navigation, survival, and attention to detail."

Bonny squinted. "Attention to detail?"

Mr. Bundy cocked his head from one side to the other then nodded to himself. "Sure we can start now." He stood and crossed to the area adjacent to the hatch. Parachutes were lined up neatly on racks. "Kim, what would happen should I pop this hatch right now?" He asked as he lifted a parachute free from its mounting.

Kim shrugged. "Considering we are at cruising altitude, 30,000 feetish, rapid depressurization. So severe disorientation, damaged hearing from the almost bursting eardrums, lack of oxygen, and extreme cold."

Bonnie's eyes widened. "Yeah so lets not do that."

Mr. Bundy smiled. "Attention to detail is critical in that the devil is in the details. The more you pay attention to details and are concerned with them the more subconscious your analysis is. For example, have you ever had that moment that you glance at a room and feel that something is wrong? That is your subconscious telling you that there is something distinctly wrong with something." He swung the parachute over his shoulders. "Like donning a parachute there are a lot of small details that when taken as a whole if any of them are not done correctly the chute will kill you before it saves you."

He brought the chest strap around after his arms were through the correct holes. "The chest strap must mate securely." He reached down to take one of the leg straps and mate it with its partner over his hip then moved to the other leg strap. "Same with the leg straps." He gripped the shoulder strap tails and tugged sharply snugging it up. He proceeded down the rest of the straps. "All straps must be snug or you risk the chute not working at all or more horrifically, amputation from the jerk as the parachute is deployed."

Kim was getting worried. She took a deep breath. "Our training has already started, hasn't it?" Mr. Bundy nodded. "This is the risky stuff that could kill us isn't it?" With a pleading smile he nodded. Kim felt her mouth turn down in a frown as she felt tears well in her eyes. She nodded as she looked over at the worried Bonnie. She took a deep breath. "We can do this B. We have to." Bonnie's eyes widened before returning to Mr. Bundy.

He casually stripped the three remaining parachutes from the rack before bracing his foot beside the hatch and jerking on the release. The cabin exploded as all the atmosphere rushed out of the cabin. Kim felt the hammer blow and the air in her lungs was ripped out of her and she heard Bonnie scream through the cotton of her damaged ears, but she watched Bundy. He turned to face the pair stepping away from the hatch. He chucked the three chutes out the door. With an almost apologetic hand he indicated the door.

Kim was frozen. Mr. Bundy indicated the door again this time he looked up between Kim and Bonnie. Kim turned to see the flight attendant with a pistol in each hand aimed at her and Bonnie. Kim saw shame in her eyes as she nodded to the door. Jump and possibly die or certainly die. Kim ground her teeth together fighting off the disorientation as she stood. She grabbed Bonnie's arm who was staring at the gun in shock, and jerked her to her feet. Kim hauled her to the hatch and shoved her out. She turned to see the same shame on Mr. Bundy's face as he looked away. Kim hauled back and slammed her foot into his knee, hyper extending and hurting it bad. He went to the ground. The uncustomary rage burned as she shouted in his face. "Fuck you." She turned to the shocked flight attendant and raised her middle finger defiantly as she hopped out the hatch.

Far behind she caught sight of Bonne. Despite her lack of experience with jumping out of planes she had done the right thing and spread her arms and legs wide slowing her decent and controlling her direction scanning for the parachutes. Kim followed suit looking for the falling dots against the black speckled white of the rapidly approaching ground. Kim spotted them just after Bonnie did. Both arrowed their bodies in the direction of the parachutes.

Carefully they controlled their vectors so they didn't overshoot their target. Kim wanted desperately to dive fully to reach the chutes, but she knew if she did she sacrificed precious seconds of freefall to double back and match vectors. With agonizing slowness they approached the madly spinning parachutes. Kim sacrificed a little more altitude for speed and met them as Bonnie did. Bonnie grabbed two and shoved one to Kim who took it and angled away so they wouldn't collide while flailing into the packs. Kim just finished tightening hers as she heard Bonnies chute explode near her. Kim quickly scanned the area and spotted the third chute just below and a couple hundred feet away. Kim looked down and gulped before arrowing over to snag the chute. With the third in hand she pulled her rip cord. She watched the ground approach with heart stopping speed and all she could do was wait for the chute to slow her descent. What felt like an eternity later she felt her weight slam into the harness.

Kim adjusted herself in the harness and chose a relatively open piece of woodland as a landing zone. She hit the ground hard. Far less hard than without the chute she mused as she quickly got out of Bonnie's way if she was going to land in the same area. Thankfully she was Kim noted as she looked up. Bonnie hit harder than her. Kim shucked out of her chute harness and rushed over. "You okay?"

Bonnie got to her feet as Kim neared. "What?"

"ARE YOU OKAY?" Kim shouted.

Bonnie winced. "Fuck K. I didn't understand, I'm not deaf."

"Sorry."

"Yeah I'm fine." Bonnie pulled her self from the harness. "Where the fuck are we?"

Kim looked around. "On the ground?"

"Thanks Kim for that astounding revelation."

"Well what do you want?" Kim asked softly.

Bonnie scowled. "Sorry." She let out a deep breath. "I'm just pissy."

"Lets get these chutes packed back up." Kim sighed. "At least we can make a tent or something."

Bonnie began helping Kim with packing the chute up. "Wonder how long before they come find us?" She paused. "Or our bodies."

Kim shrugged. "Who says they will?"

"So we're just supposed to find out not only where we have to go but how to get there?" Kim nodded. "Well shit."

"If they do come Mr. Bundy, that asshole, won't be with them." Bonnie looked at Kim quizzically. "I thought we were on good terms and he shoves me out of a plane at gunpoint? I broke his knee."

Bonnie stopped and straightened blinking slowly. "You?" She pointed at kim. "I would say thats a little extreme, but given today as a whole I have to say well done."

They got Bonnies chute packed up poorly and started on Kim's. "I still can't believe you're my alternate." Kim shook her head trying not to let the shivering into her words too much.

Bonnie looked back at her. "Even after that?" Her blue lips pursed.

Kim smiled. "After that yeah I see it physically, but you're like one of the most self centered people I know."

Bonnie rushed rolling up the chute, roughly mashing the black fabric, and stood. "I'm going to try and find some not wet wood."

Kim wanted to apologize, but something in her head told her to just nod. Kim watched Bonnie walk away and she turned her attention to the pack in front of her. She saw it had more than a parachute in it. She walked over and retrieved Bonnie's pack and found matching items in hers. Kim pulled out a flint and steel with a box of tinder as well as a small compass and a map. There were some small ration packs as well as a canteen. She opened it and found it filled with clean water. Kim opened the map and pinned to the map was a small typed note. It said very little. What it did say made her even more angry. "The school is marked. Any person you contact between your LZ and the school will be eliminated."

Kim let the tears fall. Bonnie found Kim sobbing when she returned. Kim only showed her the note in answer to her questions. Bonnie sat down hard on the ground after reading it.

Kim shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes. She looked across and Bonnie met her eyes. She could see the same tears beginning to form in her once rival's eyes. "This is real." She stated shakily.

Bonnie's voice came out small and weak. "Why?"

Kim stood. She put her hands on her hips as she looked left and right trying not to cry again but failing. She brought a hand up to her mouth as a fresh sob surprised her. She closed her eyes tight and shook her head. Opening them again she took a deep shuddering breath and released it. "A lesson." She paused again. "We are acolytes of the Mistress of Death Bonnie." She let out part of a laugh and raised her arms to either side and let them fall to slap her thighs as she shook her head. "Every life is precious to her, every death." She paused again. "At the same time what is one more death." She turned her back on Bonnie in frustration.

Bonnie rose to her feet. "So we have a couple of options." She waited for Kim to turn back around. "We can trek through the woods for god knows how far to make it to this school in who knows how many days of walking, or we can call their bluff and find a road."

"B. They threw us out of a plane without a chute." Bonnie shrugged. Tears started in Kim's eyes again. "I can't." Her voice was so quiet with pain. "I just can't risk it."

Bonnie took a deep breath and nodded. "Walk it is." She turned and picked up her pack and stuffed the map inside before closing it and throwing it over her shoulder. "We need to move then. Two parachutes in the middle of nowhere are going to draw some attention."

Kim wiped away her tears and nodded grimly. She retrieved her pack and picked up the extra. She looked up and spotted the contrail of the jet they had been pushed out of. Turning to Bonnie she saw the other girl had the same idea. "Which way?"

Bonnie huffed. "50/50 shot."

Kim blurted out. "Idiot." Bonnie turned to see Kim rooting around in the pack and pull out a compass. "Flight from the US to norway is west to east, duh." Kim held out the compass and after studying it for several seconds she pointed. "Thataway."

Bonnie fell into step beside Kim. "So not to good at the whole navigating thing."

Kim hiked up her pack. "We keep walking till we find a town. Find the towns name on the map and navigate from there. Barring that keep your eye out for Landmarks like peaks and mountains." Bonnie nodded.

After while the valley they were following made a pretty distinctive turn and Bonnie was the one to spot it on the map. After another hour of walking the entrance to valley opened up confirming the location with the positioning of the town at the mouth. Judging by the distance Kim decided that it would be best to stop here for the night rather than risk trying to navigate past the town in the daylight.

"We'll get a nap in and try and pass at night." Kim said.

"And cut up some of this chute for some coats or something." She said teeth chattering. Kim could only nod as she looked around for a decent looking dead tree.

A little while later they had a decent fire crackling away and they huddled close as three small cups of snow melted into water. Kim handed Bonnie one of the ration packs across the fire. Bonnie sneered at it. "What is this?"

Kim opened it up to reveal the unappetizing uniform tan colored ration pack. "Not tasty is what it is." Kim took a bite and scowled as the almost completely flavorless food hit her tongue. It was almost chewy but not quite. "All in all it approximates food pretty poorly, but each bar is like 2000 calories."

Bonnie opened it up and sniffed. Reluctantly she took a small bite. A look of almost horror showed as she chewed and swallowed. "I almost want to scrape my tongue off. It doesn't even feel like real food."

Kim took another bite and pulled a cup from the fire that was boiling. She chewed as the cup cooled. Carefully she sipped the water and it too had very little flavor which was good. She took their three canteens and emptied one into the other two. She tilted the cup of water into the now empty canteen before filling the cup with snow again and put it back into the fire. She capped the snow water canteen and bashed it against a rock scraping the surface. "What are you doing?" Bonnie asked.

"I can't be sure that the snow water is safe so we should ration the known good water and resort to the snow water closer to the school or unless we really need it. Just in case."

"Smart." Bonnie watched Kim fill the dented canteen with the other two boiling cups of water. "My mother." She stated simply. Kim looked up. "My mother has cancer. The Mistress said that she couldn't just cure it, but when it's caught the first round of Chemo will put it into remission for good."

"What kind?"

"Brain kind"

"I'm sorry."

"You?" Bonnie asked.

"Live to see all my family suffer through the end while I'm stuck as a cripple unable to help, or do this."

"Fuck." Kim could only nod.

Kim stared hard at Bonnie. "Its not as if the winner gets to save what they hold dear, B."

"What?"

"This is not a competition between me and you Bonnie. If we both survive we have a better shot at stopping the end than either of us does alone. Its us against this torture, Bonnie. You do see that right?"

Bonnie sneered. "Is that so Acolyte?" Bonnie saw the hurt in Kim's eyes and she lowered her own. "I know. I get it." She raised her eyes to see Kim's not so convinced look. "Don't expect me to like it Princess of the Dark."

Kim nodded. "We should get some sleep. Thank you."

Bonnie settled down in her parachute blanket. "Listen if we are going to say thank you back and forth this whole time we aren't going to get much saving the world done. Based on what's happened so far this is going to be closer to torture than anything else."

"I know." Kim let her eyes close.

They awoke to foreign language being spoken and a boot to her feet. Blearily she looked up and saw two young men around the dwindling embers of their fire and apparently asking questions. Kim looked over at Bonnie who stared back with the same horror. "RUN!" Kim shouted jumping to her feet. She shoved them away and they looked indignant. "GET AWAY!" She screamed at them.

They started laughing. Laughing that was cut short as one of them had their brain punched through the back of their head. A fraction of a second later the second young man dropped. Distantly Kim heard the two cracks of a rifle in quick succession. She screamed. Bonnie lept up and wrapped her arms around Kim letting her own tears fall on Kim's shoulder.

It took several minutes for the both of them to calm down. Bonnie shook Kim. "You okay?" She asked.

Kim stared at her in horror. "Okay? No, B. I will never be okay." Kim wrenched herself free breathing heavily.

"Kim, think of the end result."

"The ends justify the means?" She snorted in derision.

Bonnie roughly grabbed Kim's arm and spun her around. "What did you think? That we would just have to tickle the other acolytes, huh?" Bonnie had her attention. "Whether we like it or not we are going to have to kill them Kim. And I suspect these," She indicated the two bodies just out of reach of the coals meager light. "will not be the last people we see die. And we will be the ones to kill some of them."

Kim crossed her arms across her chest. "I know." Her mouth twisted with pain. "I know."

Bonnie nodded, her own pain etched onto her face. She forced a smile and she threw her arms up in mock joy. "Hooray college."

Kim looked at her horrified. Bonnie shrugged and wiped the tears from her face. She approached the two bodies and began removing one of the coats. "B." Kim paused. "What are you doing?"

"They don't need them." She rolled the body over to finish stripping the coat off.

"They've got blood on them."

Bonnie stood and tossed the coat close to the fire and started on the second one. "Does that make them less warm?" Bonnie waited for a response. "Its going to get colder, and I am already fucking freezing."

Kim took a deep breath. "Right." She took another steadying breath. "We should move quickly. From here on out we're running not walking. The less time we spend in one spot the better." She caught the second coat.

Using some sticks she fashioned a hanger and built up the fire to dry the blood on the coats. Bonnie spread the belongings from the bodies pockets out before the fire. Some strange money, two wallets, part of a chocolate bar, a knife, and two cell phones. Kim opened one of the wallets and fresh tears threatened as she saw a family photo. She pulled the small picture from the wallet and studied it. The dead man was a father with twin girls. She heard Bonnie take a shuddering breath as she opened the other wallet. They traded pictures. The other one was a son with a brother and a sister and an adoring set of parents.

Kim stared at the picture for several moments before her vision swam and a tear dropped onto it. She lifted her eyes to the stars and cleared her throat. The reverie was broken by the sound of one of the cell phones going off. Kim looked down and both Bonnie and her stared at the young woman trying to contact her husband. Neither one of them reached for it. It soon stopped. Wearily kim reached over and picked up both cell phones and threw them in the fire. Followed shortly by the wallets. Bonnie picked up the knife and handed the chocolate to Kim. Kim looked at her questioningly.

"You're carrying the extra pack. You need the calories."

Kim nodded and stood. She lifted the coat free and donned it. Pushing the disgust to the back of her mind she zipped it up. Bonnie followed suit as they roll up their chute and packed away their campsite. Kim handed the map to Bonnie. Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "Took the knife and gave me the extra pack. Looks like you're taking point." Bonnie nodded.

Turning to look at the two bodies once more Bonnie took a deep breath and adopted a mile eating lope trusting Kim to follow behind.