Spy School Project X: A fan teaser

Chapter 9 - HUNTED

June 23
??????????????
0000 hours

I snapped awake to the sound of a loud creaking noise and saw the concrete wall swinging open. Shoot. I fell asleep. In the darkness, I could barely make out the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway. My heart started racing as I scrambled to my feet, trying to be as loud as possible, and began sprinting down the path I'd planned out. Behind me, I heard the bolt of a rifle closing followed by the sound of footsteps.

After a few seconds of running through the darkness, I knew I was nearing the trap. Suddenly, explosions rang out in the darkness and bullets raked the ground at my feet. I tripped out of surprise, which was a big mistake. 

I stumbled forward, trying to regain my balance, and my eyes widened in fear as I noticed the vine for the snare on the ground ahead. I frantically tried to go around it or jump over it, but there was nothing I could do; I stepped right on the loop.

The snare latched onto my ankles and yanked my legs out from under me. My momentum carried me forward and I slammed to the ground before being dragged backwards and up into the air. For the second time within 48 hours, I swung around like a human piñata. A familiar, high-pitched laugh rang out in the darkness.

"Hahaha! Looks like your plan backfired, you lidiot!" — Ashley Sparks.

Ashley was a former SPYDER agent and gymnast. She'd turned to crime after missing the cut for the US Olympic team by one point, and I had met her while I was undercover at SPYDER's evil version of spy school. She had liked me at first, believing I was her friend, but felt betrayed when she found out that I was still working for the CIA. The last time I'd seen her, she'd just been knocked unconscious by Erica in the Eiffel Tower. Ashley had this thing where she combined two words into one a lot. For example, "lidiot" was a combination of "looser" and "idiot". Which she was using to describe me right now.

"You really thought you could catch me with a snare trap?," she sneered.

I tried to locate her in the darkness and saw the moonlight glint off of her sequin-covered leotard (her usual outfit). "Uh, well I didn't know that it would be you," I said, bobbing up and down in the air. "Murray said that we'd get attacked by assassins of increasing deadlines, so I figured that the first one wouldn't be very intelligent." I paused. "You know, Murray's actually kind of insulting you by saying that."

Ashley snorted. "I was supposed to be number 18," she shot back. "I asked to go first and Murray granted my request."

"That's kind of lame. I don't even have anything to defend myself with yet."

"Which is why I'm only armed with a semi-automatic rifle. All the other contestants get full-auto," Ashley shot back.

"Uh, good for you, I guess. So...uh, are you gonna kill me now?" I asked nervously.

"Not until I capture that annoying girlfriend of yours. I'm gonna make both of you watch the other one die," she said maliciously.

"Which isn't going to happen," Erica suddenly said from behind her.

Ashley gasped and tried to whirl around, but it was too late. There was a CRACK! as Erica swung a tree limb like a baseball bat directly at Ashley's head. Ashley sailed through the air and smacked into a tree, then collapsed unconscious 

"And we're not dating... yet," Erica finished. She turned to me and sighed. "Ben, you sure know how to get yourself into trouble."

"And you sure know how to get me out of it," I responded with a smile.

"Lucky for you." She reached down and pulled a knife out of a sheath Ashley was wearing. My smile quickly faded.

"Uh, Erica? What are you doing?"

Instead of answering, she casually flung the knife over me, cutting the vine that held me by my feet. I don't know how she managed to do this in the dark, but she did.

"AHHHHH---OOF!" I fell to the ground with a thud. "Owwwwwww," I groaned. "Couldn't you have given me a warning before making me swan dive into the dirt?"

"Yes, I could've, but then it wouldn't have been as funny," Erica chuckled. She walked over to where I was still sprawled on the ground and picked up the vine. Then she used it to bind Ashley's arms and legs securely. After she'd done this, she peeled off one of Ashley's socks and shoved it into her mouth. "I don't want to hear her whining when she wakes up," Erica explained. 

 With that, she began frisking Ashley for weapons. "Oooh, these will come in handy," she said, holding up two grenades. In addition to these and Ashley's rifle, there were two handguns, several loaded magazines, a multitude of knives, a flashlight, a bottle of glittery eye shadow, and a body camera. "Hi Murray," she said, waving at the camera. 

Erica set all of the weapons aside, then walked to the edge of the woods and yeeted the eye shadow and body camera (which was still on) into the wall hard enough to shatter them.

"Alright," she said, dusting her hands off, "we'll take turns keeping watch in case Murray decides we don't deserve a break. You take the first shift, because you've been sleeping for the past two hours."

"What are you talking about?" I asked innocently.

She gave me a pointed look. "I could hear you snoring from 60 yards away."

"Oh that!" I said, trying to save face. "I was just fake snoring to trick Murray into thinking---"

"Stop trying to save face," Erica interrupted.

"Okay," I said sheepishly. She handed me the rifle, a knife, and the flashlight, then nestled against a nearby tree.  

I sighed and did the same, only I didn't make myself too comfortable, worried that I'd fall asleep again. My shift turned out to be uneventful, but at one point, I heard a twig snap. I became alert and flicked the flashlight on, but it was only a possum strolling through the woods. I was just starting to nod off when Erica stood up and relieved me. I smiled as I handed her the flashlight and rifle.

"Get some rest," she said. "We're busting out of here first thing in the morning."

What do y'all think? I'll try to update as often as I have been, but with the weekend ending it'll probably be a few days before Chapter 10 comes out. Thanks for a hundred reads by the way.