They got to hunt people in the forest, then try and take their flag off them. With possible fighting involved. He shrugged. “What’s not to like?”
The way her lips twitched told Daryl she knew exactly what he meant. “Right,” she said, turning to address her team, who were standing loosely together behind them. “Remember. We can use a certain level of force to reach our end goal, but use your common sense. It’s supposed to befun. I’d rather not see any broken bones.”
Jenn gave a similar speech to her team and, at the end, turned to Rachel to include everyone.
“Neither Rachel nor I are expecting everyone to get along straightaway. But remember, no matter how much you deem to have been provoked—” She paused for emphasis. “—absolutely no shifting or half shifting, no matter what. Is that understood?” A mixture of nods and yesses answered her question.
“Good.” She turned to grin at Rachel. “I believe this is where I say good luck and leave you to it.”
Rachel laughed, eyes alight with excitement. “Good luck.”
Daryl relaxed a little. Maybe this wouldn’t be that bad after all.
As soon as he’d thought the words, he wanted to kick himself.I’m as bad as bloody Jason.
OF COURSE THOSE words came back to bite him, and they weren’t even five minutes into the forest.
Rachel stopped them as soon as they hit the trees. “I have a rough map of their location.” She passed around a crude map. Daryl snorted when it got to him.
Rough was right. On it was a square that saidTeam B,presumably their objective. Directly behind that was labelled out of bounds. On the right looked to be water, to the left were trees, and in front, an open space. There was no indication of either scale or direction.
Jenn’s unit had been given a head start and, Daryl presumed, a much more detailed map to go with their half an hour lead time.
Rachel held it up when it made its way back to her. “I think it’s safe to assume Jenn’s team will have split up and taken several routes to their base. I doubt she’d make it that easy for us to track her.”
“She’s not that clever,” Rob muttered, loud enough so he knew everyone would hear.
Silence.
Daryl clenched his fists but held his tongue. This wasn’t for him to deal with.
To her credit, Rachel didn’t react at all. She merely looked in Rob’s direction. “I know yours is a relatively new unit, and you’re all still finding your feet. And I realise it’ll take time to build the trust and respect on both sides, but Jenn is your beta. Her leadership qualities aren’t up for discussion here.”
Rob muttered something else, too low for Daryl to catch, but Rachel was in his face in a flash, teeth bared, but thank fuck, still human.
Her whole demeanour had changed, no longer attempting to reason with him. Rachel’s voice came out low, menacing, the hint of a growl in her words. “You’re here because Cam believes in second chances. If you’re not interested in being part of this pack, then say so now and save the rest of us a lot of hassle. Otherwise, shut up, listen to what I’m telling you, and have some fucking respect for those trying to help you.”
Rob had the good sense to nod and keep quiet, but Daryl wondered if he’d actually taken any of
what she’d said to heart. Because at the end of the day, if he didn’t want to be here, why fucking stay?
Newell and Wes could only be blamed for so much. If Rob wanted to be part of this pack, he had to at least meet them halfway.
Daryl glanced around at the others, attempting to gauge the mood. The three members of Rachel’s unit were watching with interest; in Nathan’s case, he caught a smirk, not that Daryl blamed him.
Simon was looking down at the floor, toeing the ground with his boot, and looking like he’d rather be anywhere else. And Tom . . . Tom was looking between Rachel and Rob with a neutral expression.
“As I was saying,” Rachel began, resuming her spot at the front of her team. She tapped the map again. “We could follow their scent trails, but if I was Jenn, I’d have a couple of my team run in the wrong direction first, then double back, or take routes that bring us to where they want us to end up.
Which is probably here and here.” She pointed to the water and then the open space.
“But she also probably knows that you’ll expect her to do that, right?” Nathan offered, and Daryl agreed with him.
“Right. But she’s still going to have to place people there, just in case I call her bluff.”
“They’re only allowed to keep four people guarding the base—herself included—so that leaves at least four to place around the perimeter,” Kara said, studying the map in Rachel’s hand. “Where do you think she’ll put them?”
Rachel grinned, her earlier excitement returning. “I think she’ll put two, maybe three of her people on the forest side. She’s got to believe we’ll try to come through there if we can. Even knowing she’ll be expecting us, it offers the best cover and the best chance of getting some of us through undetected.”
