Spy School Project X: A fan teaser

Chapter 2 - RUDE AWAKENING

June 20

My tent

Happy Trails Wilderness Camp

0330 hours

I snapped awake to the sound of a twig breaking. My eyes caught sight of a silhouette outside of my tent, the shadowy figure holding something long and narrow.

"Give me a break Erica," I said peevishly. "I'll do all the training you want in the morning, just let me sleep right now." There was no response from the shadow. Instead, it raised the object above its head, ready to bring it down on where I was laying. I reflexively rolled to the side, just as a sword sliced through my tent and cleaved my pillow in half, sending up a shower of feathers. Adrenaline surged through my veins as I fumbled around in the dark, desperately trying to find something to defend myself. The sword gleamed in the moonlight as the assailant prepared for another downward chop. At the same time, I felt my hand close around something dense: a 12,000-lumen flashlight that I'd bought out of impulse a few days before. As the sword came down for my head a second time, I swung the light around and powered it on.

"Aaaaaagggghhh!" the shadow cried out. The assassin dropped the sword, blinded by the light. I was a bit blinded myself, the light turning a part of the campgrounds into daytime. While the assassin was disoriented, I snatched the sword off the ground and ran as fast as I could towards Erica's tent, on the outskirts of all the others. People were waking up in tents all around, and none of them were happy to be disturbed so early in the morning.

"What the heck is going on?" someone said groggily as I flew past their tent.

I ignored the question and kept going.

"Erica!" I shouted as I neared her tent. "Erica wake up! It's an emergency!" She unzipped the entrance and was climbing out before I even got there. It wasn't until I reached her tent that I realized I was only wearing underwear.

"What?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Some dude just tried to kill me!" I exclaimed, my face reddening from embarrassment.

"I'm sure it was just a nightmare..."

she trailed off, noticing the sword in my hand. "You took his sword? Why didn't you just kill him instead of running around in your underwear like a madman at three in the morning?"

"You know I don't like killing people," I said frantically. "And I'm sure that he has more weapons." Rather than argue anymore, she started running towards my tent. I tried my best to keep up, already out of breath from my dash across the campground. It wasn't difficult to spot my tent among the others, because I had dropped my flashlight and it was lighting up the area like a baseball stadium. When we arrived, there was no sign of the assassin. Just my mangled tent and a mess of feathers from what used to be my pillow.

Erica picked up the flashlight and swept it around the campground. This evoked another series of angry remarks from our fellow spies in training. Despite the flashlight's incredible brightness, we couldn't see anything except the sea of tents. 

Erica sighed. "Next time you get the upper hand on an assassin, please knock them out and tie them up before you run for help."

"Er, if I knocked them out and tied them up, there wouldn't really be a reason to run for help," I replied. Erica rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long day.