1 001

The steady drum of rain pounded the ground so relentlessly it was nearly impossible to make out the hand sign Jester flashed my way. Squinting, I leaned forward to try and decipher his gloved fingers against the scrub oak he was buried in.

Move.

With my hand held back, I copied the signal twice to Bones to make sure he got it. Pushing myself up out of the mud and onto my elbows, I propelled as fast as I could across the open ground and came to a smooth halt beneath the bush that Jester had been under just moments ago.

Glancing back, I nodded to Bones - now in my old spot. Straining my eyes, I could just make out Jesters huddled form; he was no more than a shadow beneath a low growing tree.

Now that we were all in place, the wait began again. Settling onto my stomach, I pulled my gun – a trusty sawed-off shotgun that I'd had as long as I could remember – off its holster against my lower back and readied my finger on the trigger, just in case.

Minutes seemed like hours. Time stretched on as endlessly as the incessant rain, making tireless loops around my impatient mind. The normally-solid earth beneath the scrub oak forest had melted the earth had melted into a giant mud puddle that was slowly eating up everything lingering on its unsteady surface – myself included. I'd already sunk a few inches, and my legs and back were nearly submerged in the sticky soup. I tried to push the uncomfortable feeling out of my mind. I seriously hated the feeling of mud soaking into my clothes, but I wouldn't give Jester the satisfaction of knowing that.

Just because I was a girl didn't mean I had to act like one.

As the wind blew a torrent of rain right into my face the bandana over myself practically adhered to my skin. I spluttered and struggled to pull my bandana away from my mouth, which just smeared mud across the fabric and made it even harder to breathe. Instinctively I sucked in a breath and instead got speckles of mud.

God, I *really* hated mud.

I was so busy trying not to suffocate that I nearly missed the flash of Jester's hand. The word caught me off guard – I hadn't been expecting to spot our target so soon. When he saw I hadn't moved, Jester signed the word again. He was the only person I knew that could convey that much snark through his fingers. My hand, stiff from being poised at the trigger so long, copied the same word to Bones:

*Tango*

A few seconds later, Jester threw one more order:

*Fall in on my position*

I motioned for Bones to join me beneath the tree and instantly he pitched himself fully into the mud and slithered eerily snake-like through the melted ground. Once the quivering mud stilled beside me, his head poked up at my shoulder and muddy brows wiggled at me. It wasn't the protocol prone-crawl, but things were almost never as they should be when it came to Bones.

"That's pretty creepy," I breathed to him, giving my best friend a grin I knew he could interpret through my bandana as he reached up and wiped the mud off his own; on it was a skeletal grin that matched his callsign perfectly.

"I'm not sure it was worth the mud down my pants though," he huffed, wriggling around as his brows drew together in irritation. I stifled a snort, watching his awkward escapade.

"Jes wants us. Ready?"

Bones gave a single nod, turning his attention to our next mark. Snapping my shotgun into its holster, I dropped into the mud beside Bones, propping myself up on my elbows as best I could. I was *not* trying his slither.

"Go," I breathed, launching myself out from under the bush. Bones wriggled and I crawled as quickly as possible. Admittedly, I probably wasn't any more out of the mud than he was, but it was the thought that counted. He reached Jester before I did and this time came to a sloppy halt, spraying Jester with mud. As I came to a stop beneath the tree beside the boys I caught the tail end of Jester's angry hiss.

" – the *hell* are you doing?! That's *not* a prone-crawl –"

"Exactly!" Bones agreed excitedly. "It's the improved prone-*swim*! It's faster, I'm lower to the ground, and –"

"And you're covered in mud and look like an idiot," Jester growled, making his bandana fluttered a bit. True to his own callsign Jester's bandana had a wide, comical smile printed over it.

*Really should've opted for tragedy over comedy with as grumpy as he is*, I sighed to myself, rolling my eyes as they both started to get into it.

"*Ay*. We have a mission to focus on, guys," I interjected, giving Bones an elbow to the ribs and Jester a stern glare. Sometimes I was glad my brother wasn't on the team.

"Yeah, yeah," Jester huffed, shaking his thick brown hair from side to side, splattering Bones and I with raindrops. Jerk. "We've got a tango at eleven o'clock. Seems to be alone and lightly armed."

I peered through the curtain of rain towards where Jester had said; sure enough, huddled behind the thick trunk of an oak tree was a small, armed form.

"Cadaver," Jester whispered, hazel eyes flicking to me. "You flank left, and Bones, you flank right. Drive him down the middle. I'll be waiting."

"Ready?" Bones asked me, cocking his MP5. With a nod, I pulled out my shotgun and got into my stealth crouch. As slowly and quietly as I could, I sloshed my way around the left of the tree, keeping one eye on the target and one eye on Bones so I could match his pace. Once we were parallel to the tree, I gave a quick nod to Bones, and we surged forward.

The enemy let out a terrified squeal as Bones and I burst through the bushes and leveled our guns at him. Just as planned he shot forward from behind the tree, headed straight for Jester. The two of us raced after him, our guns trained on his back, just in case Jester missed. Not that he'd ever admit to it, but close-range he did that a lot.

The enemy was making a beeline for the bushes on the other side of the clearing; the second he reached the line of underbrush, Jester sprang up and swung his P90 around to point it square at the enemy's chest.

"I surrender! I surrender!" he cried, dropping his M4 and collapsing into the mud, covering his head with his arms.

"Damnit, Hazzard!" Jester snarled, lowering his gun in frustration. "You can't just surrender!"

"You were gonna *shoot* me!" Hazzard cried, awkwardly wriggling away from Jester with his arms still over his head, just in case Jester pulled the trigger for the hell of it. He'd done it before, so I didn't blame the kid. Hazzard's soaked and slightly-too-big bandana –with nothing but the biohazard symbol imprinted on it- was slipping off his face and he smeared mud across his cheeks as he hastily pulled it up.

"That's the whole *point* of the simulation!" Jester exclaimed, smacking his hand to his forehead. "You just blew the *entire* mission!"

"Jes, jeeze, calm down," I sighed, swinging my gun onto my back as I sloshed through the mud. "We gave him a pretty bad scare."

"That doesn't matter, Davs! We spent an hour crawling through the mud, and all Haz does is surrender?!"

"Jesus, would you lighten up?" I snapped. "It's just practice. We can switch spots and do it again."

"If *you* want to waste another hour in the mud, then go right ahead, *Cadaver*!"

"Jester, I swear-"

"Enough!"

Bones and I spun around to face the newest voice. With a slosh, Captain jumped down from one of the oak trees, rising slowly as he surveyed us. The image on his own bandana – a twisted, skeletal fanged smile – glistened from the rain as he approached us. He paused a few feet from Bones and I, right next to Hazzard. His chest fell as he let out a heavy sigh, giving the kid a gentle nudge with his boot. Haz scrambled up instantly, slipping unsteadily on the murky ground.

"Besides the unexpected ending," Captain began, glancing sideways at Hazzard, "the simulation went very well. I'm curious though, Bones."

Bones' eyebrows rose a bit as he waited for Captain to continue.

"What the hell was wrong with your prone crawl?"

"It's the new and improved prone-*swim*!" Bones started again, his excitement glistening in his aqua eyes. "You're lower to the ground, you're quieter, a lot faster –"

"It *was* interesting, but I want you to stick with the basic crawl. Kapeish?"

"Kapeish, Captain," Bones agreed, obedient as always though I heard the disappointment in the sigh he stifled. I nudged his arm in comfort.

"What's a prone-*swim*?" Haz asked, frowning up at us.

For his reply Bones instantly dropped down onto his stomach, sending up a shockwave of mud to splatter the rest of us. Squirming down as far as he could, Bones wriggled towards Haz.

"That's so cool!" he exclaimed; without warning Hazzard pitched himself forward to join Bones in the mud. Captain's hand shot out and grabbed the belt of Haz's pants, heaving him back up onto his feet. Sometimes I swear he could read his little brother's mind.

"Don't even *think* about it."

"If Bones wants to swim then let him swim, but I say we pack it in. I'm hungry," Jester griped, holstering his gun and crossing his arms.

"Shocker," I muttered. Jester narrowed his eyes at me.

"What was that?"

"Nothin'," I huffed, meeting his scowl with one of my own.

"It wasn't *nothing*. As your second-in-command, I'm ordering you to tell me –"

"You've just got that title because you wouldn't stop bitching to Cap," I scoffed; seriously, this guy let *the* littlest bit of power corrupt him. It was more annoying than laying in freezing mud for an hour.

"Okay, we're calling it a day before the team collapses like a dying star," Captain sighed, running a hand through his dark hair to sweep it out of his face. His equally-dark eyes caught mine briefly and I caught the hint of an exasperated smile behind them before he turned back to lead us out of the forest. Sticking out my hand, I heaved Bones to his mud-soaked feet as I swung my gun back into its holster.

Jester jogged ahead to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with Captain while the rest of us trudged behind. The exhaustion of the days training and the chill of the rain was cutting down to the bone. Not that I'd admit it, but Jes was right. It was definitely time to pack it in.

"Sorry," Hazzard mumbled, struggling to keep pace with me. I slowed a hint t walk with him – Bones doing the same – as I gave a dismissive shrug.

"Don't worry about it kiddo. You did really good today, all things aside. Jes is just grumpy, you know how he gets. We'll give it another shot next weekend, no harm done."

Hazzard nodded, but I could tell he was still disappointed with himself for letting Jester down. A pang of irritation prickled through me as I stared at the back of Jester's head. Hazzard looked up to him, for whatever reason. The least Jes could do was act like someone worth idolizing.

Our half-frozen group solemnly trudged through the underbrush, our feet easily following the familiar path. As the trees began to thin out the rain grew steadily heavier until it was falling in sheets so thick we could hardly see the terrain around of us.

"Okay, new plan," Captain called over the deafening roar of rain. "No more training in the rain."

"It's a deal," I called back. I mean, we all knew that we'd be back in the same place during the next storm but it was a nice thought to cling to as we sloshed ahead, desperate to get home.

Once we'd cleared the scrub oak, Captain reached up and tugged his bandana down from his face. It was the official sign that training was over, which meant we could drop the callsigns and our own bandanas. Which, in turn, meant I could actually breath without suffocating.

Tyler (Captain), Benny (Jester), Nicolai (Bones), Logan (Hazzard), and myself pressed on through the rain, heading out into the last stretch of field we had to cross before we were home-free. The ground was an ocean of brown now, the scarce sprigs of grass no longer trying to pretend this was anything but a dirt lot.

Thankfully, though, we reached the top of the concrete ditch in less than five minutes, which was a personal best if you factored in the mud. Logan made to rush down it, ready to cross over to the park, but Benny snagged his arm and yanked him to a stop. As Bones and I paused between them and Tyler I discovered the newest obstacle in our way.

The ditch was flooded.

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