Amnesia - The Matlock Pack: Book One

Monday 28 December

~*Nat’s POV*~

“Right, everyone. This is your last Capture the Flag before we make the final selections for the Warrior Training course. Make it count.”

I watched Kennedy make the announcement in front of the camp with Casey and Emery on either side of him. For the first time I could remember, Casey looked completely energised this morning, his eyes glinting in excitement at what was to come. Emery looked slightly bored, yet attentive.

Spence, Takeshi, and Auden were standing over near the offices, watching from a distance. As always, Spence had his arms crossed and looked annoyed at being there. Takeshi and Auden were a few feet away from Spence and were quietly talking to each other. Takeshi still had his cane, but he wasn’t leaning on it nearly as much as he had on Saturday when he dropped by to see Cody. He looked much healthier as he talked to Auden, who was stealthily keeping an eye on Bells and Cody.

Bells had his arms wrapped around my waist and his chin on my shoulder as we were standing in the back corner with Cody. He said he felt safer being able to see the entire room we were in with no-one behind us. I remembered feeling that way on my first day in Matlock, so I tried to do everything in my power to make him feel at ease. Cody hadn’t said anything to us this morning, pointing to her throat and shrugging. It seemed like her throat was still giving her trouble. She had spent her breakfast downloading an app to her phone similar to the one she had on her laptop, so I assumed that was how she was planning on communicating if she needed to.

“… You have half an hour to plan your game, then two hours for the session to happen…”

I felt Bells’ arms tense to the point of nearly causing me pain. I tapped on his hands to let him know he needed to loosen his grip slightly before looking around the room. Tatum and Zelda had just walked in, having missed Kennedy’s announcement, and obviously Bells had caught sight of them. I looked over at Cody to see if she had noticed them, and judging by the scowl on her face, I’d say that was a hard yes. Cody shuffled closer to Bells and me, clearly letting everyone know where her allegiances lay.

Murph and Owen were in the other back corner, chatting quietly, although it was clear that Owen was the one doing all the talking. Once again, Owen had hold of one of the female campers that I didn’t know, and Murph was nodding away in his usual manner.

Giggling drew my attention from Murph and Owen to a trio of girls I hadn’t thought about at all over the weekend. Kadin, Briar, and Rowan were standing together closer to the middle of the room, and Briar and Rowan were laughing at something that Kadin had said. Kadin was staring daggers at me like normal, with her arms folded in front of her and her eyes narrowed. I rolled my eyes at her, wondering what I’d done this time.

Whatever.

I had other things I needed to be concerned about. Like making sure Bells and Cody were okay.

“… Split yourselves into two different teams. The game will start when the buzzer goes off. Begin.”

With Bells still holding on to me, I turned to Cody. “Same team?”

She nodded, then looked at Bells with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m in,” he said. “As long as I’m away from them.” He nodded his head toward Tatum and Zelda, who had approached several campers, including Kadin, Briar, and Rowan.

Murph, Owen, and Owen’s current squeeze headed over to us, along with several other campers we had played well in the past with.

I felt Bells’ arms squeeze me again, and I turned around in his arms to face him. “Are you okay?”

“Nervous,” he muttered, his hands anxiously kneading my hips. “So many people…” His eyes flicked past me at the nine other people in our corner.

“You got this, Bells.” I brought my hands to his cheeks, kissed him, then looked deeply into his eyes to make sure I got my message across. “You have control.”

He still looked a little uncertain, but took a deep breath and nodded once. “Okay.”

“Okay.” I smiled at him in encouragement, then kissed him briefly again.

Turning back around, I saw everyone looking at me expectantly, including Casey, who was hovering at the back of our group. I tilted my head in question before Cody handed me a copy of the area map and some markers. I nodded slowly, understanding dawning on me. We had all played well together the last few games, and it looked like they wanted me to guide them to another victory.

I grabbed the page and equipment and set them down on the closest table that was against the wall. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do…”

~~~

I was one of five who were sprinting through the trees, jumping over the fallen logs, and trying to avoid getting skewered by any stray low-hanging branches. Our team had triangulated that the other team’s flag should be about five hundred metres further up the hill. With a little over half an hour left, we were on our last offensive assault to get what we needed to win the game.

I was on my own, having sent Cody off in the opposite direction, and left Bells with our own flag. We all knew that the other team would expect that I would be with one of them, as that’s how we had played previously. It was a very risky gamble, especially with how Tatum and Zelda were being, but I felt it could pay off if we convinced enough of the other team to fall for the mis-direct.

“Off to your right.”

I lurched to a stop next to a healthy eucalypt, holding myself tight against the trunk, facing out. I listened to where Alex was directing me, and sure enough, I could hear faint movement off in the distance.

Someone was tracking me.

“What do you suggest, Alex?”

“You’re close to the destination. You could sprint for it, but the noise will attract them. I suggest quick stealth.”

“Fair enough.” I bent down to see what type of ground coverage I had to work with. I picked up a couple of leaves and scrunched them in my hand to see how they broke apart. Being at the start of summer, there were a lot of fallen leaves everywhere, but they hadn’t become super crunchy yet. If I could avoid the more obvious leaf mounds, theoretically, I might still make it to the flag without getting caught by whoever was trailing me.

Hopping from tree to tree, I made my way forward, keeping an ear out for my pursuer. They had realised I was onto them and had matched my stealth. This had turned into a game of cat and mouse, and I was undoubtedly the mouse.

A slight rustle came from behind one of the trees up ahead.

“You know we can smell him on you, don’t you?”

I tried to stifle my sigh. Of all days, Kadin had picked today to come after me. Well, at least it wasn’t Tatum or Zelda. I didn’t change my approach. I still had a flag to capture, and I knew Kadin was skilled in her gameplay. She annoyed me to no end, but I had to give her credit for where it was due — she was excellent at Capture the Flag.

Creeping to the right to try to go around her, Kadin called out again. “How did you make him fuck you?” A flash of movement to my left, then a noise sounded further to my right, like someone jumping over a log. I kept creeping forward, my head swivelling to track all the sounds, wondering which way she would try to come from.

“There’s no way he’d ever have sex with you by choice.” Kadin now sounded like she was behind me. I tilted my head, still tracking her movements, as I moved slowly forward and, hopefully, away from her.

“Or was it a pity fuck?”

I froze as Kadin stepped out from the tree on my left, glaring at me, her hand trailing across the bark as she moved. “That’s it, wasn’t it? He felt sorry for you.”

“It’s more than he ever gave you, Kadin.” I narrowed my eyes at her but kept my voice even. I just needed to get past her to the flag. Ignore what the idiot in front of me was saying. Just get the flag.

“You fucking whore,” she snarled, matching my movements. “What makes you think you deserve him? You’re nothing. Less than nothing.”

“That may be,” I said, stepping to the other side, watching her carefully. “But he still chose me over you. That makes me more than you.”

At the same time Alex said, “behind you,” a tiny crunching caught my attention. Kadin was in front of me, but now there was someone else behind me. I let my attention slip from Kadin for a fraction of a second, but that was all she needed.

My focus was already coming back to Kadin when she crashed into me, her shoulder in my chest, forcing me to land flat on my back with her on top of me, the air rushing from my lungs.

She recovered quicker than I could and scrambled over me, her fists flying.

“Alright, Kadin.” I grabbed at her hands to stop her. “You got me. I’m out of the game.”

Kadin roared, her face beetroot red with fury. “He’s supposed to be mine, you absolute cow!” She tried desperately to free her hands from mine so she could keep attacking me.

Oh, come on. Seriously? “You dumped him, Kadin! Get over yourself, for fuck’s sake!” I bucked my hips to get her off me and tugged her arms to one side to get her to move. Once I was clear, I stood back, my arms out at her, palms up to placate her. It didn’t help.

She ran at me again, attacking wherever she could. I slipped instantly into defence mode, parrying all her punches away.

“Damn it, Kadin!” I fought off more of her punches. “Will you quit it?” Slapped away two more. “I don’t want to fight you!” Taking two steps to the side, I swivelled our fight. I needed to know who was behind me.

“Why not?!” There were tears streaming down her face now. “I’ve given you every reason to!” She started sounding desperate, her punches getting sloppier. “Fight me! You’re the only one who can!”

“No!” I yelled at her, still parrying her strikes, still rotating our battle. What the hell was going on? “Enough, Kadin! Stop it!”

She screamed at me; a wordless release of torment let go all at once, her fists at her side. A shimmering effect started swirling around her, with snapping and grinding sounds quickly following suit. With a sharp flare of light, Kadin’s clothes exploded outwards and within half a second, where Kadin once stood, her wolf Shae now growled.

I scrambled backwards. We were always in our human form when we played Capture the Flag, never our wolf form. The instructors were quite clear that our wolves had too much advantage in the game, so although we could get help from them, we had to stay human. Kadin shifting to Shae massively violated the rules.

“Alex, what do I do?”

“Look for the spectators.”

“What?! How is that going to help matters?”

“Take in your surroundings, Nat. Look for what you cannot see.”

Letting out a deep breath, I tried to widen my gaze to include Shae as well as whatever was behind her. I slowly circled her, forcing her to rotate with me so I could continue looking around us. I had my hands up again, palm up to placate her, but she continued snarling, spittle dripping from her exposed canines.

Eventually, a figure came into view, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed.

Spence.

Fucking wonderful. He had the same look of boredom as he always did, but now there was a hint of a sadistic intrigue in his eyes.

“You want to call off your niece, Spence?” I called out to him, my eyes still on Shae.

“Not particularly, no,” he said in response, still sounding entirely bored.

“You know it’s against the rules of the game.”

He shrugged. “Does it look like I care about the outcome of a stupid game?”

“You’re the acting Alpha. You could call her off.” I tilted my head to the side and let my focus drift more to him than Shae, waiting to see what she would do. Just as I expected, she lunged at me with her jaw open and her fangs bared, heading straight for my throat.

I punched her in the snout, sending her flying off to the side and into a tree.

Whimpering, Shae got up and shook herself. I crouched down in a defensive stance again, letting her decide how she wanted to play this.

I glanced at Spence again to see a grin forming on his face. “Now, why would I want to do that, Nat?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” I frowned as I watched Shae start snarling again, ready for another attempt. “Seeing how it could end up with someone dead might be a pretty good reason.” I knew I couldn’t keep hitting Shae to knock her off balance. Eventually, she was going to get through my defences, and I was going to get mauled, likely killed.

And it infuriated me that the person who could stop it all was standing there watching it unfold like it was his own personal movie.

“Oh, Nat. Don’t you know that’s the plan?”