Patting him on the shoulder as he passed, Daryl said, “I’m going to have a word with Rachel about that.” At Nathan’s raised eyebrow, he added, “Not to get him in trouble. He should’ve had your back, but trust between you two won’t happen overnight. When things like that happen though”—he indicated to the water—“they need to be addressed.”
“Yeah, okay.”
They set off at a jog towards the clearing, Jason alongside Daryl. Voice low, he explained about their plan as he went. “We had four over by the forest side—me included—and just Rob waiting over here. Then we caught Kara and Simon coming through the trees. Thought it was all of you at first, they made that much racket.” Daryl laughed. “As soon as they were neutralised, me, Luke, and Neal ran over here, and Tasha went back to join Jenn and the others at our base.”
Daryl tried to work it out in his head. “That’d make four of ours against two of yours.” He grinned. “Looks like you’ll be wearing that blindfold tonight.”
Jason poked him in the arm with his finger. “Yeah, don’t be too sure about that. You’ve still got to get up to our base and get that flag.”
By the time they reached the clearing, the sounds of fighting had stopped, and the area was empty. The forest seemed far quieter than it should be with all the shifters running around in it.
Daryl stopped and strained to listen. “Back at base?” he whispered, hearing muffled voices, too low to make out.
“Yeah.” Jason snagged Daryl’s T-shirt when he went to walk forward. “This way’s quicker.”
He let Jason lead him through the forest, conscious of every sound they made. Daryl noted how silent Jason was, his steps careful, measured, making stealth look effortless. The path brought them out behind Jenn’s base, near the out-of-bounds fence, but gave them a great view of the scene playing out before them.
Kara and Simon sat propped up against one of the trees, vests lit up red, watching like Daryl and Jason. Tom was trudging towards them, face like thunder, also lit up red. Daryl probably shouldn’t find it as amusing as he did, considering they were on the same team.
That left Rachel, Will, and Rob on Daryl’s team. He glanced around trying to spot any of Jenn’s team who were out.
Jason nudged him and pointed to the left of Kara. Craning his neck for a better look, Daryl smirked when he spotted three of Jenn’s team also sat on the ground. That left four against three, Jenn having the advantage. Daryl tried not to squirm at the thought they might actually lose. Wearing that blindfold tonight was not an option. He wanted to see Jason do it first, get a look at what exactly he’d be in for. The idea alone made him antsy; giving up control like that wasn’t something he was looking forward to.
As if sensing his thoughts, Jason leant in close to whisper. “I promise not to feed you anything awful later.” He chuckled at Daryl’s answering grunt. Warm breath tickled Daryl’s ear and he shivered.
Come on Rach, where are you?
The tree house base had no obvious entry points from the ground. The tree trunks supporting it had all been stripped of their lower branches, making it virtually impossible to climb up that way.
Squinting upward, he caught sight of what looked to be the edge of a couple of rope ladders, hauled up and out of the way. So if they couldn’t get up that way . . .
Some of the trees adjacent to the base had been cleared away, tree stumps all that remained, leaving it like an island. The jump from the nearest branches looked to be about twelve feet. Not an impossible distance, but the higher branches didn’t appear all that sturdy from where Daryl was standing. “How many up there?” he murmured, nodding up at the base.
Jason held up two fingers. “Jenn and Clive. Unless anyone else has joined them since.”
Movement up above and to the right caught Daryl’s eye at the same time as Nathan nudged him.
“Look.”
Daryl looked up to see three figures slinking through the treetops, moving from branch to branch as confident as monkeys. Alpha Cornell’s note hadn’t said anything about using the trees without the walkways in them. Rachel’s red hair stood out against the dark wood, and Daryl grinned when he didn’t spot anyone behind them. Was Jenn looking in the wrong direction? Their movements through the trees were impressively quiet, and Daryl’s gaze flicked from the base to Rachel and back again, expecting Jenn to appear at any second.
But none of the other team were anywhere in sight, and Rachel made it to the closest branches unhindered. The other two caught up to her, and they stopped, waiting. Daryl’s nerves lit up with anticipation.
Then Rachel leapt, at the same time Jenn and Clive appeared on the walkway surrounding the
base. Daryl’s heart leapt to his throat as Rob jumped over to help Rachel—an improvement on his earlier actions—and landed on Clive, taking him out in one smooth move.
“Yes!” Daryl hissed, fists clenched.
But no sooner had Clive gone down, Rufus appeared, tackling Rob to the floor.
Jenn bowled into Rachel, the two of them dodging each other’s hands as they each tried to get to the vest buttons.
“Come on, come on,” Daryl muttered, ignoring Jason’s snort of laughter beside him.
With the four of them occupied, that left the way clear for Will, and Daryl bit his lip, not daring to breathe as Will leapt over to the platform, narrowly avoiding crashing into Rach and Jenn.
Vests lit up red, but Daryl was too focused on Will to see who’d been knocked out of the game.
