ONE HUNDRED NINETY-FOUR: Flashes VI

194

******

 

“Stop,” said Alden, ignoring the jostling as the others halted right behind him.

No more careful walks or extended conversations—they had fifteen minutes left of class, and they had to make this run count. He was trying to focus on all the necessary details, and in this particular second, the priority was Instructor Klein. The Agility Brute was across the gym, finishing off a whirlwind of an attack on Vandy. Febri shouted something that was probably a curse, grabbed Vandy to carry her onward, and Klein’s head turned for the briefest of moments toward Alden’s increasingly frustrated team.

Haoyu was permanently flushed now. Even though he was deliberately stepping up to be his parents’ primary target on their team, he was probably hitting his limit. The spell impression that helped him stay on his feet wasn’t nearly as good as the skills that helped his parents keep their own footing, and it showed when they were repeatedly prying him off the floor.

He wanted to be able to stand with them in dangerous places so much that he’d asked Esh-erdi for advice. And despite his even keel and general optimism, he had expected—and been expected by most people who grew up with him—to be an S. It had to feel like crap at a time like this to be getting such frequent reminders that he was miles away from being able to look after his own family.

Klein was moving again, toward Reinhard’s team.

“Go! Move! Go!” Alden yelled, already running.

“Snake!” screamed Everly. Watching Instructor Waker was her current assignment. Carrying Konstantin, who had one broken leg again, was Haoyu’s. Whenever Everly called out a warning, they all tried to act with coordination based on whatever the wind situation was.

No wind now. Alden moved the shield aside for Lexi to intercept the flying blur with Writher and re-angled it to cover himself and the other three from any debris that might get tossed toward them.

Don’t hit my shield with Writher. Don’t—

Lexi didn’t. A piece of painted board—slowed and sliced by the whip but not entirely diverted—smashed into it instead.

No problem. The board bounced off, and a moment later, Alden leaped over it easily, grateful for the self-mastery wordchain.

They were all still running, and his head was moving as he took in the situation behind them. Now Klein was—

“Stop!” Alden shouted.

A flick of Klein’s eyes toward them as the man sprang away from his last victim, a smile so slight that Alden probably shouldn’t be thinking of it as threatening, and then Klein was going for Winston.

Winston’s legs and his mouth were both getting enough exercise this class. Every time Alden heard him, he was complaining about his team being treated unfairly, and every time he saw him out on the floor, Winston was running circles around his own teammates like a protective sheepdog.

“Go! Go!”

His tension was up because it was their team’s turn for a visit from Klein. It had been their team’s turn for a while. They were trying to avoid him by stopping every time he finished an attack on another group. As long as they weren’t moving forward when he glanced their way…

“STOP!” Alden’s shoes squeaked against the floor.

And now Mr. Zhang-Demir should be looking at them, too. Did he have to run through the rotation so fast?

Alden watched Haoyu’s father glance at them and then at Max’s team, his eyes skimming over both, his smile wide. Max was excellent at monitoring the rotation and ordering stops of his own, so Mr. Zhang-Demir wouldn’t be running in his direction.

And we’re only two stolen classmates away from being back on Mrs. Zhang-Demir’s to-do list, Alden thought. That meant he had to start watching her a little harder now, too. If the two groups that were next on her lineup were keeping track of the rotation, they might stop and get passed over. Alden still wasn’t sure if people other than him and Max were bothering to remember it all or not. Most of them seemed to have an idea of which team got picked off immediately before their own, but everyone was making a lot of mistakes, so it was hard to tell who was ignorant of the attack rotations from the adults and who just sucked at monitoring them.

Alden’s team didn’t want to sacrifice anyone else, so that meant monitoring absolutely everything from this point on.

“Go!”

The wind was back. Alden barely noticed himself blocking it anymore. Watching Galecourse reposition had been his main job all class period, and it had finally gotten habitual.

He even appreciated it when the wind started up now. His shield was amazing for it, and other teams were worse at coping with it. The difficult environment increased the likelihood that they’d screw up, which meant the rotation was less likely to have skips in it that he didn’t anticipate.

“Stop!”

“GO!”

“Stop!”

“Right! Right! Right!”

According to his map, there was a trio of electric traps in their current section of the gym that had to be dodged. The good thing about the rightward run was that it didn’t count as forward progress for attack purposes. The bad thing was that it put them almost side-by-side with Max’s team, and while Alden liked all the members of that team, he also worried about accidentally running into one of Max’s zones. Or having one dropped in front of them on purpose.

Student-on-student attacks had largely been accidental damage so far. Who had time to worry about everyone else when they were all struggling against bigger fish? Alden hadn’t even seen some teams make it to the midway point yet, at least not all together.

Drama was mostly back at the starting line when people were resetting for another go at it, and it was mostly intrateam instead of interteam squabbles going on. But the possibility of direct attacks out here definitely existed.

And now wouldn’t be a terrible time for one, if Max’s team wanted to try it. Teams at the three-quarter mark, which they were both at now, were always the front of the pack. With time getting tight, pushing this far felt more like a last chance. And if a person did think there would be some additional benefit for their team arriving first, then trimming your nearest competition out of the equation before a final blast for the finish wasn’t unreasonable.

Alden wasn’t sure how Max’s team felt about that kind of thing. He and his own companions were taking the stance that it was hard enough to deal with the real enemies, and if there was some kind of first prize, it wouldn’t be worth attacking another team for it. They were drawing the line at not worrying about their own collateral damage…it was just too much and nobody else was stressing over it. So if an electric kettle bounced off of Haoyu’s fist and knocked someone on another team out, fine. But no aiming for them with it.

They ended up freezing again right beside Max’s group. Alden was too busy monitoring all the others, two Zhang-Demirs, and one Klein to appreciate the fact that Jeffy was balancing on a single foot and Max was calmly looking around from his perch on top of Lucille’s back while the wind blew so hard his cheeks were getting flattened by it.

“Hey, Finlay!” Kon called. “You should definitely go run at Omega Scorpii. Both of them. Think of how cool it will look on the class footage!”

“Not again, thanks,” said Finlay, while Astrid made faces at them all from her own piggyback position.

“It would really help us out. Be a hero.”

“I’ve been electrocuted three times, and punchin’ Haoyu’s mum is like introducin’ my hand to an iron bar.”

“You punched my mom?”

“You bit your da!”

“I thought it would surprise him into dropping me!”

“Go!” shouted Alden.

At the same time, Max was yelling, “Run!”

When both teams stopped a beat later, Max’s was out in front. Max being carried by Lucille and Astrid on Finlay’s back meant their slowest member was Jeffy on one foot with a sandbag. And Jeffy was unexpectedly good on one foot.

“He is driven by pure enthusiasm, isn’t he?” Lexi muttered.

“Am I being too slow?” Everly asked. “I’m tired, but—“

“No, you’re fine,” said Alden. “I’m the one setting the pace and I wasn’t holding back because of you. I just can’t see what’s going on everywhere and run my fastest now that I’m trying to keep track of all three of them. Should I be less cautious? If we really pushed on the next run—”

“We’re fine,” said Kon. “Look at that beautiful broken bicycle Instructor Waker’s going to throw at us next! That’s all we need to claim our first place. Lexi will stop it. You’ll all hold onto it, and I’ll save—”

“No,” Lexi, Everly, and Haoyu said at the same time.

“Go!” Alden called.

[Alden: Did I miss hearing about a bicycle plan?]

“Yes!” said Kon

“No,” said Lexi. “Just keep running.”

Alden almost didn’t see Mr. Zhang-Demir’s turning face in time. “Stop! Stop!”

Everly smacked into his back. Mr. Zhang-Demir scooped up a flailing Mehdi instead. Alden was about to call for another mini sprint, but too many teams were stopped. And now Klein was glancing their way unexpectedly.

Kon was still talking. “All I need is something Big Snake threw in the last five minutes that’s big enough for the rest of you to hold on—”

“Go! No! Stop. Sorry.”

Everly bumped into him again.

“I can help call out for one of the Zhang-Demirs if you want,” said Lexi.

“You’re on shrapnel duty,” Alden replied.

“I can do it,” said Haoyu. “Since I’m actually with you all for a change instead of running back from the start.”

Kon was supposed to be helping watch for the flashes of light that indicated another shock trap going down from Mrs. Sethi, since Alden couldn’t catch all of them. He looked ahead to where Max’s group had managed a run forward that was only about three steps long before freezing. At least it’s not just me who’s having trouble finding an opening.

It was getting overwhelming now that they were in this position.

[Alden: We don’t want to sacrifice Haoyu again do we?]

“What if we can’t get him back fast enough this time?” Everly asked. “It’s a long run…”

“Sacrifice me,” Kon said. “Just give me rope or our biggest sandbag first. I’ll have it drag me back, and then nobody will say I’m the most useless S.”

“What are you talking ab—”

Alden’s heart rate spiked even before he fully understood the problem that might be about to land on them. It was a visual wrongness that tipped him off. There were eight teams. Sometimes a couple of whole teams would be out of play back at the starting line, but there were always multiple people moving forward.

Suddenly, the situation on the expansive white floor looked different than it had for nearly two hours. Only two teams taking steps toward the finish…

Marsha and Jupiter were attacking Instructor Klein together now. Despite Marsha occasionally shouting something like, “This one’s mine!,” or “Don’t help this time!” Jupiter seemed immune to requests of that nature. She’d gotten her magical mitts on a huge tree stump, and it was careening around her team, on a path to intercept the instructor.

Mrs. Zhang-Demir was running back to the start with a ferocious Heloísa in her grip. And Mr. Zhang-Demir was pouncing on Rebecca, who’d managed to get three whole boingy jumps in before he caught her this time.

When that’s over, it should be…but nobody else is moving forward.

People were regrouping at the starting line. They were standing still with teammates.

Max was ahead, not moving.

Alden saw it all in a blink. He realized what it might mean just a little slower.

What happens to the rules if everyone stops going forward? Do the attacks just stop coming? Or do the adults go for the group that’s overdue?

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

We’re the group that’s overdue for all three of them.

This was the price for being observant and winning at the stop-and-go strategy game…increasing difficulty.

He didn’t know whether to shout, “Go!” or “Don’t move a muscle!”

The whole class freezing doesn’t work. If everyone is stopped, nobody will ever make the first move. The attackers must have anticipated the possibility, so that means—

“Go! Go! Go for the finish line!” he said. “Don’t stop. They’re coming.”

If his team was confused, they didn’t ask questions.

“Snake!” shouted Everly. The wind was blowing. Alden just plowed ahead and hoped Lexi figured out how to deal with a bicycle missile on his own.

Max, Finlay, Astrid, Lucille, and Jeffy were running flat out, too, now.

Dammit, thought Alden. Did he arrange this on purpose?

Max’s team was owed a series of brutal attacks, too. Both Zhang-Demirs and a Klein. But they weren’t next on the list. Alden’s team was next. Which means as long as we’re running forward, they can safely run forward.