The Experiment

Chapter XII

Katrina moved a small acorn forwards two spaces. Her fingers lingered on the piece for a moment before releasing it with conviction. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she spotted her mistake a second too late.

Wyne grinned at her before moving a large black rock a couple of spaces back. "Checkmate."

Katrina groaned as she swept all of the pieces off the board scribbled into the dirt, admitting defeat. "How are you so good at chess?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, I used to play chess competitively." He helped her pick up all the pieces and store them in a small tree hollow nearby.

Katrina stood up without wobbling for the first time since the hurricane. Ted's healing had done wonders for her; there were barely any signs that she had nearly died of blood loss the week before.

She and her group had decided to stay in the forest in the meanwhile, as the rest of the arena, besides the farm where Dean and his group still were, were completely destroyed.

It turned out that Amari was a skilled huntress, even when thrown into the unfamiliar forest which was completely different from the yellow savanna where she grew up. Her archery skills were exemplary. Katrina found herself glad that Amari was in their group, as she was the one providing most of the food.

"Kat! Ready for your lesson?" Ted yelled at her, snapping her out of her thoughts. He held up two crude wooden swords in his hands, waiting for her to take one of them.

"Now?" Katrina asked, surprised. Back when she and Ted were still young children, they used to have daily lessons on fighting, plant identification, water filtration, and more, to prepare for when they run away from the Experiment.

"Yeah," Ted grinned. "Let's see how well you still remember your lessons."

Katrina scowled at him before snatching a sword from his hand. She slowly slashed it through the air a couple of times, getting a feel for its weight. After a few moments of thinking, she nodded.

"Come on." Ted gestured for her to follow him. He walked quickly away, forcing Katrina to jog to catch up. After pushing through dense foliage for what seemed like hours, they arrived at a small clearing.

As Katrina studied their new surroundings, she heard a crack behind her. Katrina ducked and swung her sword up to block's Ted. There was a bright glint in his eyes, and he was smiling mischievously.

"Hey! That's not fair," Katrina complained, skipping back a couple of steps. "You never said we started now."

Ted pounced at her, forcing her to jump sideways. "Opponents in the real world won't give you a heads-up."

The two separated again, circling each other, looking for weaknesses. Ted was obviously much better than when Katrina last fought him; his moves were initiated smoothly and quickly. He eyed her like a large cat stalking its prey.

Katrina, on the other hand, hadn't practiced at all. The sword felt foreign in her hand, whereas it used to feel like an extension of her arm.

Ted launched himself at her once again, gently touching her with his sword. "Your arm's gone."

Katrina cursed as she threw her sword to her left hand, holding her right arm behind her back. After a small moment of hesitation, she slammed the sword as hard as she could into a nearby tree trunk, making it shatter into a thousand pieces and leaving a small chunk of wood resembling a dagger in her hand.

A small flash of annoyance crossed Ted's face. "Do you know how long it took for me to carve that?"

Katrina smirked at him before throwing his own argument back at him. "Do you really think opponents in the real world would care about how long it took for you to carve it?"