by Caleb Karger
The first obstacle was a pool of water. A handful of floating rubber pads formed an unstable path across it. I tried to step onto the first one and my foot sunk into the water. I dashed to the next, hopping my way across to the second platform. By the time I reached it, my feet were soaked.
“Woo! You made it!” someone cheered.
Now in front of me was a long stretch of cement. A perfect replica of a skyscraper’s exterior stood at the end. I estimated that it was at least four stories high. Since it was all smooth glass and steel, there were no places to grab it and climb. Was I supposed to jump?
I stepped back and then ran towards the wall. I fought to gain as much speed as I could. I must’ve hit fifty or sixty miles per hour. The wind roared at me. I jumped, soaring up and up. As the top of the wall approached, I grabbed it and swung my body over.
Suddenly, I shouted as I saw there was no platform to land on. Instead, there was a giant fire pit below. The heat baked my skin as I fell towards the flames. I panicked and reached for the fake skyscraper. My hands just slid over the glass. I tried to break a window to grab onto a steel beam, but I was falling too quickly to be able to grab anything.
“No! No! No!” I cried.
I squeezed my eyes shut and yelled in terror as I fell into the fire. I rolled around in a panic. I waited for the pain to strike, it would hit me any second now. I waited and waited. Shouldn’t it have started to hurt by now? How long did it take to burn?
I put my hand in front of my face and dared to crack open an eye. I thought my fingers were going to look like burnt hot dogs, but they were completely fine. My face contorted with confusion. I sat up and looked around. The flames were rolling over my clothes, but they weren’t burning, and neither was my skin. I pulled off a glove. I ran my hand back and forth through a flame. It felt like a warm silk scarf.
Katherine’s words rang through my mind. Tell me, have you ever been burned a day in your life? She was right! This whole time she was right! I was fireproof. Thankfully, so were my clothes.
“Have you lost your mind?! Why aren’t you trying to get him out?!” Lily yelled. I peered through the flames to see Katherine holding her back as she tried to get to me.
“I’m okay!” I said and got to my feet. I waved and laughed with relief. “I’m alright!” Lily stopped struggling and stared in awe.
I couldn’t resist strutting through the flames to the next platform. The third obstacle looked relatively easy; it was just a crazy set of monkey bars. The gap between each bar was about thirty feet. I had to jump to grab the first bar. I swung back and forth to build momentum, then threw myself towards the next one. As I caught it, I heard some kind of mechanism and the sound of something metal flying through the air.
“ACK!” I felt my arm flare with pain. I looked up to see a throwing star wedged into my forearm. I heard the mechanism again. I didn’t know from which direction I was being shot at. I started to swing to the next bar as another star ripped through part of my shoulder. I tried to grab the third bar, but slipped and fell into the pool of water below.
I climbed out of the cold water, gritting my teeth at the shuriken stuck in my forearm. It was in deep. Blood trickled down my sleeve. I grabbed the star and yelled as I pulled it out. A plume of red escaped. I unraveled the white cloth on my shin and wrapped the wound.
“Aw, tough luck,” Katherine said. “Who wants to go next?”
I wasn’t upset that I didn’t make it far. I was too excited about the fact that I could walk through fire unharmed. Lily came over to me.
“I can’t believe it!”
“I know, pretty cool, huh?” I said.
“See, I told you that you’d figure your powers out.”
Our eyes were drawn back to the course as Wolf started his run. He got past more obstacles than I did, but he was taken out by an unexpected blast of sleeping gas. Hot Stuff had to drag him off of the course. Castile couldn’t get his timing right to go through the swinging car pendulums. One threw him off of the course. There was a creaky floor Kavi wasn’t silent enough to cross. Spaz failed to get up a slide as a jet of water pounded against him. Lily had gotten the farthest. But when she faced the maze of netting and rope, she got tangled in a trap and had to be cut out.
Everyone was bumped and bruised. I’m sure we’d all been embarrassed when we failed. Despite our humiliation, everyone was in a good mood.
“How did you know I was fireproof?” I asked Katherine as we walked back to the training field.
“The ninja have an extensive list on bloodlines that carry the super genes. It’s how I found all of you,” she said. “The list tells us what abilities run in each bloodline so that when commanders assemble their teams, we have an idea of what kind of abilities we’re working with.”
“So you picked me because I’m fire proof?”
“It’s why I picked you off of the list,” she said. “But I chose to train you because you have a good heart.”
I pointed at Wolf. “What about that rotten egg? Why’d you pick him?”
She slapped my arm. “Be nice.”
“So my powers have been passed down to me, right?” I asked, and she nodded. “Is there something about my mom you’re not telling me? Has she been a ninja this whole time?”
She laughed. “I doubt that.”
“Well, then where did I get my powers? My grandma hates anything that’s hot and burns herself cooking all the time. Grandpa was a mattress salesman and complained when he had to walk more than two feet,” I said.
“Must’ve been from your father’s side,” she said and raised her hand. The practice sword Spaz was about to hit Castile with hovered just out of his reach. “How many times do I have to tell you? It’s not a toy!”
I grunted and squeezed my hand into a tight fist. I marveled at the mounds of muscle in my arm. I flexed my abs and smiled as I could see every tiny cut. I wasn’t as bulky as Castile, but I was definitely more shredded. Someone banged on the bathroom door.
“You’re making me nervous about having to go in there after you, mate!” Hot Stuff said.
“Uh, just a second!” I grabbed my mask from the counter top. My uniform covered me again. When I opened the door, Hot Stuff stood there with her hands on her hips. “Sorry.”
“Just tell me I’m not going to die if I walk in there?”
“You’ll be fine.”
I walked down the hall, passed through two sliding glass doors, and came into the house’s mini movie theater. Three rows of reclining chairs faced the large screen framed in red curtains. Stone slabs covered the other walls. The ceiling mimicked the night sky. Small lights twinkled like stars, and every so often a comet streaked across it.
Spaz played with his chair’s controls. He kept reclining and sitting up. “Can we watch Thor?” he asked.
“No,” Katherine said. She was busy trying to get a remote to work.
“What about after we do whatever you’re gonna do?”
“Then it will be time for bed,” she said.
He threw his head back against his seat. “Ugh, you’re just like my mom!”
“And now I understand why she was so eager to ship you off without asking any questions,” Katherine whispered.
“What are we doing down here anyway?” Wolf asked.
“If I could just—” Katherine hit the remote against her hand. The projector came to life, and an image filled the screen. “Ha! Okay, sit down. We’re going to start going over strategy and survival skills.”
Spaz groaned. Lily jabbed his ribs. “Shut up already.”
“So you’re in the wilderness, all alone, with no way to call for help. What should you do next?” Katherine asked.
“You run to the nearest city,” Castile said.
“Oh! My father told me grandmother survived three years in the jungle eating termites and drinking her urine. She had to fight off a Bengal tiger with her bare hands!” Kavi said.
“That’s as ridiculous as your great grandfather de
signing and building both the Great Wall and the Great Pyramid,” Wolf said.
Kavi jumped to his feet so he could see Wolf over the seats. “Are you calling my father a liar?!”
“I’d be happy to believe what your dear old man said if you could provide even a shred of proof—”
“I told you the evidence was destroyed in a fire! There are no records anymore!”
“That seems convenient.”
Before Kavi could strangle Wolf, Katherine pushed him back into his seat. “You may be able to move faster than someone can blink, but you can only move so fast for a certain distance because you burn a huge number of calories. Plus, don’t forget the danger of dehydration. If you tried running from here to Canada in one go, you’re going to run out of fuel. You might even run yourself to death,” Katherine said. “Just like marathon runners, if you want to go further, you need to take in fuel and water.
“But in this scenario, you have none of those things. So, Kavi’s story may be a bit stretched, but it shows great survival skills. Eating bugs and drinking urine could buy you another day to live. However…”
Katherine must’ve gone over a thousand deadly plants and insects. When she finished with that, she moved on to building shelters and treating injuries. I tried to remember it all, but it was like trying to gather a bunch of sticks. I could only hold so much before I dropped something.
Lily offered me some paper and a pen. I was able to jot down a couple of points, but I couldn’t write fast enough before Katherine said something else I thought would be useful to add. The pages were filled with one extremely long, scribbled paragraph.
When bedtime rolled around, my brain was worn out. I fought to hang on to the information Katherine had given to us. Daphne berries are fatal. After having a tourniquet on for more than an hour, the blood can become toxic. I worried that by morning it would all be wiped from my memory.
“Kaine, can I borrow you for a sec?” Katherine asked. I watched the others disappear upstairs, up to their soft beds.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, masking my exhaustion.
Katherine led me down the hallway. We passed by a long wall of glass panes. On the other side was a game room with air hockey and arcade games. She must’ve had the door locked because without a doubt those were Spaz’s fingerprints and forehead marks all over the glass. She unlocked the door at the end of the hall, and we came into an underground garage.
The garage housed her car, a new Jeep, and an assortment of All Terrain Vehicles. It was the truck in the center of the garage that caught my attention, though. It had six monster truck tires, and black armor plated the exterior. It could’ve easily taken on a tank. All along the garage’s walls were safes. The flags of different countries were the only thing that marked them.
“What’s in the safes?”
She approached one marked by an American flag. She put her hand on the door, and it lit up as it identified her fingerprints. Then with a hard tug, she opened the door. Inside were piles and piles of money and solid gold bricks.
“Whoa!”
She laughed. “You gonna be okay?”
“Where’d you get all of that?”
She shut the door with a grunt. “You get paid for every mission you accomplish. The higher the danger, the more money you receive.”
I looked around the room. “You must’ve done a lot.”
“After two or three big missions, I had enough to last a lifetime. The rest is just excess. I don’t need it. Anything I get now I give away to someone who could actually use it,” she said like having so much money was a burden. She took my hand and pulled me towards the Jeep. She grabbed a large cardboard box that was covered by yellow tape from the backseat and dropped it at my feet. “Your sister tried to mail this to the camp address.”
Even with all of my strength, it was tricky getting past all of the tape Hannah put on the box. A black bag lay inside. I smiled.
“All of that for a backpack?” Katherine said.
“It’s my survival bag. You’re supposed to have it on you at all times, in case you can’t get to your hidden stash of supplies during an emergency,” I said and unzipped it. The first thing that fell out was a map. Hannah had used a pink marker to mark it so I could find her once she and mom went to their hiding place. I flipped it over and saw she’d written something on the back.
Hope you’re having fun at camp. Stay alert for danger. Miss you.
“Aw, that’s kind of sweet,” Katherine said. “What else is in there?”
“Oh, water purifying tablets, food, flashlight, First Aid kit, knife, compass…” I said as I shifted through the bag.
“Wow, she’s pretty thorough,” she said. “Maybe I picked the wrong sibling.” She punched my shoulder lightly.
“Hey!” I tried to hit her with the bag. She ducked and started running away. “Where do you think you’re going?!” She ran backward, stuck her tongue out at me, and disappeared into the hallway.
“You’ll never catch me! I’m the gingerbread man!” she teased.
I bolted down the hallway. I came into the basement’s living room and looked around. I didn’t hear her go upstairs so she must’ve been hiding. I was about to check behind the couch when I got attacked from above. All of the air was pushed out of my lungs as her body crushed me against the floor.
“Got you!”
“Ow, yes, you did.” I moaned. I had to pull my mask off to get a decent breath of air. I tried to sit up, but she pinned me back down. She seemed pretty happy by how easy it was.
She glanced down. “Well, you remembered your shoes and pants, but where’s your shirt?”
“I…forgot,” I said. She gave me a suspicious look. “It’s been hot! You don’t know what it’s like to be out on the practice field in three layers of clothes.”
She arched an eyebrow at me. “Is that why you were taking so long in the bathroom? You were checking yourself out?” she whispered.
“I…” I swallowed. She was a few inches away from my face. My mind blanked. “…what…?” I felt a tingling sensation gather in my nose. Oh, no! I sneezed, and my forehead struck hers. She slid off of me and clutched her forehead. “I’m sorry, I’ll get you some ice!”
I ran to the basement’s mini fridge and tore it open, the door almost flew off of its hinges. I grabbed a couple of ice cubes and returned to Katherine’s side. I gently pressed one to the growing red spot on her forehead. As the cube melted, water trickled down the side of her face. I brushed it off with my thumb. Once the ice was all gone, I checked her forehead again, and it was much better.
“Thank goodness for fast healing, right?” I said. She didn’t say anything. I noticed she was staring at me. “Katherine?”
She jerked to life. “Oh, yeah, totally.” She jumped to her feet and walked backward towards the stairs. “I’m gonna go to sleep now.” She turned around and ran into the fish tank. “Or the tank is good, too.” She pointed to her head. “You got me pretty good there.” She tried to jog up the stairs, fumbled halfway up, and scurried to get back onto her feet.
“You sure you’re alright?”
“I’m great!” she hollered as she reached the top.
Chapter 13
Fuel
Meanwhile somewhere in Utah…
C amp Fit for Life looked nothing like the pictures on the camp brochures. There was no budget to maintain the once pristine grounds. The cabins’ roofs were worn and wilted. The walking trails were overgrown. Signs were crooked and faded. The gym was an old indoor basketball court with fitness machines from the 1980s. Even the lake had dried up.
Not that it mattered now. The camp was quiet. The last light in the cabins had just turned off. The campers were probably deep into dreaming about sitting on the couch with their computer. The floodlights that kept the darkness from the paths between the cabins seemed to be the only sign that the camp was in use.
Inside the administration building, Bill sat on his squeaky throne, sipping a fresh brew of cof
fee, and watched the screens in front of him. The three monitors displayed various areas around the camp. He rubbed his burning eyes. He’d gotten stuck with night duty for four days in a row. It was his job to make sure campers were sleeping soundly and that no animals wandered onto the property. Most nights there was nothing to see other than a lone raccoon trying to find a snack.
Bill struggled to stay focused. This wasn’t a job for the ordinary camp counselor. He wasn’t like that other guy, Lawrence, who used this time to catch up on sleep. No, he was like a majestic owl, a night hunter, waiting for his prey to make a stupid move.
He stared hard at the screens and finally, he saw something. It looked like a dark blur sweeping around the corner of a cabin. He switched to camera nine’s view. Sure enough, he spotted a kid, dressed in all black with a creepy Halloween mask. He didn’t recognize the mask. It was probably from some new scary movie he hadn’t seen yet.
“Hah, we got a live one folks,” Bill said and jumped out of his seat. He straightened his baseball cap and hiked up his shorts. Oh, man, did Bill live for nights like these when he could bust the troublemakers. It made him feel real powerful and in control.
He jogged out towards cabin three. He circled the building and saw no sign of the perpetrator. He heard shuffling from inside. Trying to sneak back into bed already I bet. The cabin door was cracked open. He shoved it aside and flicked on the light.
“What’s going on in here?!” he said in his most intimidating tone.
The teenager he’d seen on camera froze. Now that they were all in the light, he got a better look at the mischief-maker. The hood on their sweater had fallen back and revealed long blonde hair. He was surprised to see that it was a girl. She huddled over one of the sleeping boys. Bill figured she was trying to scare him.
“You know the rules young lady!” he said, making sure to point his finger at her.
“What the heck?” the sleeping boy said. He rolled over, and his blanket fell from his head. He shook when he saw the girl beside him. The other boys in the cabin woke up and looked around in confusion. Some of them wanted to laugh that a girl had snuck into their cabin, but they were petrified by the mask on her face.