Apocalypse Wow, Pt. 17

After he left, as their training entered its final stages, Penny had to admit that she started to feel different or at least, started to be able to acknowledge things that had maybe always been there; the feeling of protectiveness towards her teammates, her instinct to help them, to encourage them, to push them forward, to make sure they all passed every test.

A couple of weeks later, when it came time for one of their major final practical exams, the Middle of Nowhere test, it wasn't a surprise when she was again chosen by the Team to lead them.

They'd had lots of practical experience in the field throughout their training, including some without being accompanied by an instructor, but the MoN test was different. The five of them were loaded onto a blacked out cart, unable to see where they were going, and driven away from Haven for more than two full days. When they were released, they were in a place they had never been before, had no landmarks to rely on.

They each had food for six days, with water easily enough found along any route, a compass, and the usual camping equipment for a Scouting Team. There was a long range radio too, but that was only for use in an emergency if something went wrong or someone was badly injured and they had to stop the test, although no Team undertaking the test had ever had cause to use it. Their objective was to make their way to a specified spot in Durden, the closest pre-First Day town to Haven, where they'd have to solve a set of clues to eventually find and collect a cache of supplies placed there for them to find and return to Haven with the supplies. The test was pass or fail based on a set time limit, the duration of which they were not informed. What they did know was that the historical pass rate was less than 50%.

Although they did plenty to try to keep themselves occupied in the more or less totally dark cart for two and a half days, there were long periods of silence too, so all five were just about as glad to finally be released to start the test as they'd ever been about anything. It was around noon of the third day since they'd left Haven and the rules of the test required them to wait in the immediate environs of the drop location until the following morning to allow the two Scouts and the cart who'd brought them there to be well on their way home.

They set up camp and split into two teams to reconnoiter the surrounding area but there wasn't much to see, Rosa and Danny heading in one direction while Penny took Sam and Anh in another. A forest of tall trees surrounded them on all sides so that any view of the mountains they knew would be their best chance of a landmark was obscured.

"OK, so what we got?" Penny asked when they'd come back together and finished setting up their camp, just two small tents.

She and Sam and Anh hadn't had any luck locating a landmark or really anything that would help identify their location so they could start to plot a route towards Durden. Danny had though, he and Rosa had come across a narrow pre-First Day road, completely overgrown and reclaimed by nature, but still just noticeable. Danny was confident, despite it being impossible to identify which particular road it was, that if they followed it, it would ultimately lead them to a more major artery.

It made sense to Penny but she was still wary; follow it for too long in the wrong direction and they wouldn't have a hope of making it back to Haven before the deadline. Still, her trust in Danny's instincts and his competence won out over her wariness. Other than maybe herself, he was the best navigator on the team and they quickly settled on his plan for the morning.

It was Sam who first noticed their rations were spoiled. After the debriefing, they'd settled down and started to prepare for an evening meal before bed. At first they thought it was just Sam who'd been given bad rations but it quickly became apparent that none of the food they'd been provided with was edible. They'd known in advance that the MoN test was notorious for throwing up unexpected challenges but this, even to Penny, seemed to be taking it a bit far. Even if they'd known where they were it would be at least several day's journey back to Haven and now they'd have to add scavenging food to their itinerary.

The thought of using the radio though, of calling for help and essentially quitting the test, never even occurred to her. As she looked around at the Team while the realization that they had no food dawned on them all, she could see fear and doubt in their eyes and she felt a strange resolve, a strength somewhere inside her.

"It'll be OK guys," she said, surprised that her grin was not forced or pretended. "We knew they'd throw up some roadblocks, we're trained for this. We're the fucking best."

Slowly, she felt she could see them coming around, Rosa fastest of all. Throughout their training, she'd always been a master scavenger, and her culinary skills were unmatched. As she looked around reassuringly at the Team, Penny could see Rosa's mind working.

"We'll be fine boss," she said at last, a smile forming on her lips, "when we were scouting I'm sure I saw a lots of stuff we can scavenge. I don't know, I think maybe that's one of the reasons they picked this spot to drop us, because its got such a good supply of scavengable food. If we give it a few hours work... I think we can gather enough that we should be fine all the way home. What do you think?"

Penny felt her own mouth widen into a smile as Rosa looked at her hopefully.

"I think I fucking love you Rosa Gonzalez!"

There was a general relieved chuckle but they set about their work pretty diligently and, as Rosa had predicted and with her pointing the way, within a few hours they had gathered a significant pile of wild fruits, berries and nuts, more than enough Penny thought to see them through the whole test.

6am the following morning was the time they were permitted to start moving so, after a healthy and fulfilling foraged meal, they went over Danny's ideas for what route they should take before retiring to their tents, Penny sharing with Sam and Danny in with Rosa and Anh.

Dawn had scarcely broken when they set out the next morning. Danny led them back to the pre-First Day road he and Rosa had found the previous day.

Essentially, Danny's plan boiled down to instinct. As part of the test, they hadn't been permitted to bring any of the maps of the region that would usually be available to Scouts, the idea being that they had to use their knowledge of the Oval to find their way. The only thing they knew for sure about their drop point was that it was somewhere within the Oval.

The communities of the Network, geographically, formed a roughly oval shape, hence the name for the area that was contained within that space. From Harbourtown in the east, on what was once the rugged coast of Maine, to The Lake in the west on the shores of what had been called Lake Ontario, with La Plage, Simonia and Haven traversing the northern edge of the Oval in that order from east to west, and The Glen, also known as Peacetown, marking the southern most point, roughly equidistant from Harbourtown and The Lake. Durden, their first required port of call on their way back to Haven, was located between Simonia and Haven, roughly fifty or sixty miles from the latter depending on the route taken. Still, they could be reasonably sure, given the locations of Durden and Haven at the northern edge of the Oval, that they could rule out any course that took them south, other than for relatively short distances to link up with north, east or westerly routes.

In general, the most direct routes between communities, both along the Oval's edge and through its interior, followed pre-First Day roads and paths, mostly what had been secondary or minor roads, although some of the Network's main routes had once been Freeways. Over the years, through use by Scouts and trade teams, these routes had been mostly cleared of pre-First Day vehicles and other debris and various half-way houses, rest stations and supply depots established. They had been told in advance of the test that their drop point would be at least several miles from any established route however and the road Danny had found was not one usually used for Network business.

Still, they were all confident in Danny's call. He had a kind of eidetic ability to recall the exact details of maps and he was confident of having at least a rough picture of where they were.

Based on the road he'd found and some features of the landscape, he had them roughly twenty miles north-west of a fairly major pre-First Day road that, he was sure, would take them in more or less a due north direction straight to Durden. It would be hilly, even mountainous country, but if they were lucky and the pre-First Day road, one that was not part of the Network's usual routes, remained passable, they could reach Durden in two days.

Although, as part of the rules of the test, they had no idea how long their time limit was, based on the two odd days they'd travelled in the blacked out cart to reach their location, they had agreed that four days to return on foot was a reasonable target. If they reached Durden in two, they would have plenty of time to make it back to Haven by day four.

So, as they set out that morning, heading roughly south-east towards the road they believed would take them straight to Durden, the mood in the group was confident and, in just the way Penny liked it, there was plenty of chatter as they walked, although the route, having clearly not been used since the First Day, was a challenging one, with vehicles, fallen trees and other obstacles to navigate around.

Still, when they took a short break around midday for food and water, Penny thought she saw a flicker of doubt on Danny's face when she asked him if he was still happy with their route, but he waved her off when she mentioned it, nodding confidently.

As the day wore on, and on, Penny started to worry. Danny's estimate had them twenty to thirty miles from the northern route they were looking for and after mile twenty, the chatter faded until they walked mostly in silence. By mile twenty-five, Danny had separated from them, walking out ahead of the group and Penny could sense the tension in her team mates.

"Don't worry guys," she said, smiling reassuringly, "Danny's got this."

By mile thirty though, her own confidence started to wane. As they closed in on mile thirty-five and evening closed in, the whole team now clearly starting to show the effects of fatigue, Danny was nearly out of sight ahead of them and Penny increased her pace to catch up with him.

When she found him, she felt her heart sink. He was standing in front of a pre-First Day roadsign she couldn't make out and as she got nearer, he sank heavily to his knees. Penny threw off her pack and ran to him, calling out to him.

"Fuuuck!!!" His scream caused dozens of birds to flee from their perches in the trees all around them and as Penny approached, the cause of his distress became clear to her.

The sign showed they were less than ten miles from a pre-First Day tourist resort on Sebago Lake. The lake itself was a major landmark within the Oval and its location was burned into Penny's mind.

Her eyes turned slowly to Danny, who had bent his upper body forward, his head pressed into his hands against the road's surface, as the gravity of their situation gathered slowly in her mind. They'd spent the entire day walking in precisely the wrong direction. Their initial estimate of their position had been off by fifty or sixty miles and they'd moved east when they should have moved west. If they had, Penny knew, they would have found the northerly route Danny predicted, would have found it hours ago. She closed her eyes and took a tentative step in Danny's direction as she heard the others jogging up.

"What is it?" Anh said, the urgency in her voice obvious, having clearly heard Danny's cry.

"Fuck..." Sam said softly and Penny knew she didn't have to answer Anh's question, the sign would tell the tale to the rest of them just as it had to her.

"Danny..." Penny said softly, easing down to her knees next to her stricken team mate, moving her arms around him and pulling at him. He resisted for a moment before his upper body rose slowly and she could see the tears in his eyes and it shocked her. She'd seen him angry, frustrated, but never like this and there was something awful about seeing his huge, powerful frame reduced to this.

"I'm so... I'm so fucking sorry boss... fuck... I... we're completely fucked and it's all my fault," he managed, his head lowered, unable to meet Penny's eyes.

"Listen to me," she said firmly, gripping his head tightly in her hands and turning it to face her, her eyes burning into his, "this is not your fault. Do you hear me? Look at me," she demanded, his eyes still unable to meet hers. "We talked about it Danny, we all agreed, this was a Team decision..."

"It's my fault..." he said weakly, shaking his head softly. Penny was about to look to the others for support when she felt Anh's tiny form kneel down next to them. She wrapped her slender arms around Danny's giant torso, though they weren't long enough to be able to join together on the other side of him, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's not on you Danny," she said softly, "it's just not. We're a Team, if we fucked up, we all fucked up."

Penny saw Danny's eyes close tightly, tears spilling onto his face and she lessened her grip, his head falling weakly to rest on her chest as she held him gently.

"Come on big man," Sam said, moving up behind them, Rosa moving to the other side, until Danny was completely surrounded, "you're still the best navigator we got," he said, a strong hand on his friend's back, "we need you brother."

"We can fix this Danny," Rosa said, her arms joining Anh's around Danny's body, her head resting on his other shoulder, "but we can't do it without you."

"You hear that," Penny said, lifting Danny's head from her chest, his eyes finally opening to face hers. "This isn't over Danny, we can do it, but we can't do it without you."

"I'm so sorry guys..." Danny said weakly.

"It's OK brother," Sam said, speaking for them.

"Yeah," Rosa offered, "one for all..."

Penny smiled and leaned forward to kiss Danny's forehead gently as the phrase that had become their unofficial motto as a team filled her mind.

"And all for one," Anh finished, her arms tightening around Danny, as did Rosa's and Sam's and Penny's until Danny was totally enveloped by his team mates.

"Alright, alright," he said eventually, a weak smile breaking out, "need to breath..."

They chuckled lightly as they helped each other rise from the ground.

"Seriously guys..." Danny started, wiping the tears from his face.

"It's OK Danny," Penny said firmly, pressing her hand into Danny's chest, "no more apologies, OK? We're gonna fix this and we're gonna start right now."

"Yes ma'am," he said, nodding slowly.

"OK," she said, standing back, her hands resting on her hips, "listen up. It's been a long day, we're tired, we need food and rest. We're a day behind schedule but we can still do this. At least we know now exactly where the fuck we are. We know where we're going. It'll be hard, we'll have to move faster and harder to make up the time, but I know we can do this, I know we can." She moved her eyes from one person to the next as she spoke, keeping her tone firm and level, trying to present a mood of confidence she really wasn't sure that she felt. But, she knew, whatever chance they had left, they had to continue to believe.

"Damn straight," Sam said confidently, moving forward to stand next to Danny and placing a strong hand on his shoulder.

"We can do it, we're gonna do it," Rosa said with a characteristic smirk.

"I'll get started on the tents," Anh said, always focused on practicalities, "Sam, you wanna get a fire going, it's gonna be chilly tonight."

They were quiet, too quiet Penny felt as they set up camp for the night but she tried not to worry about it. They needed a new plan.

"OK, so what do we think?" she said as sat around the fire having a foraged meal. "We retrace our steps, we know the route at least so we should be able to move faster. The northern road we were looking for should be, what do you think Danny, fifteen or twenty miles?"

"Yeah," Danny replied weakly, not lifting his head.

"Right, fifteen or twenty miles west of where we started this morning. If we really push it, really push it, I think we should be able to make it there by tomorrow night, then it's straight through to Durden, just like we planned."

"Sounds good boss," Sam said, nodding eagerly.

"Right," Rosa agreed firmly.

Looking around, Penny could see Anh gazing into the fire.

"Anh, you on board?" she asked.

"Got it boss," she said, after a moment's hesitation, affecting a weak smile, "we can do it."

"Right," Penny said, "that's it then. Let's get some sleep, we'll try to get moving before first light."

Sam was snoring lightly within minutes of laying down but Penny lay awake, as she knew she would. She could hear low voices from the other tent and knew Rosa and Anh would be trying to rebuild Danny's confidence. Anh's hesitation around the fire worried her though and she knew where it came from. Physical endurance was just not her strong suit. That day's hike had been hard going and now there were going to repeat it and add fifteen or twenty miles. With at least several more days walking after that. She tried to put it out of her mind but she kept going back to that conversation she'd had with Pierre after he'd fucked the shit out of her in the free house, the one about leadership, about how the Team looked to her and, for the first time, she really could feel the weight of that responsibility.

As planned, they were moving before the sun was fully up. Danny set the pace, which was more than a brisk walk and by midday when they stopped for a short break, it was already clear that Anh was struggling with it.

"Good to go boss," was all she said though, when Penny asked her how she was doing.

"Hey Pen," Danny said, approaching her sheepishly as they sat and ate, "can I... can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure thing Dan, what's up," she replied, noticing the clear eagerness on his face. He beckoned her away from the group a little, towards another road that turned north just next to the spot they'd chosen for their break. There were three northerly routes, two others and this one, between where they were and the northerly route they were looking for but all, they knew, were marked on Network maps as impassable, hence they'd been discounted from their planning.

"I think..." he said, clearly hesitant, "well... I mean..." He took a deep breath, his eyes shifting quickly in the direction of the northerly road and back to Penny. She placed a gentle hand in the center of his huge chest, a movement she had found consistently over their time training together that almost never failed to calm him.

"What is it Danny?" she said softly and saw him close his eyes and take a deep breath.

"I think we should take this turn north," he said finally, his eyes focused on hers.

"But..." Penny started to object.

"I know... I know, this road north is definitely marked on the maps as being impassable, but I'm totally certain... here, look," he said, kneeling down and pulling a hand drawn map he'd made to show her. She could see clearly their current position, Durden well to the north, the road north they were looking for still thirty odd miles to the west, the road Danny was pointing to as well as the two other northerly routes east of the one they were looking for.

"So, I'm certain the blockage on this road is north of this point," he said, clear excitement in his voice as he pointed to an odd oblong shape on his map that Penny recognised as a lake, "but the blockages on these two," he said, indicating the other two blocked northerly routes, "are south of the lake. Now, the lake itself is long and narrow, at one point, it's only like thirty or forty feet. I'm certain we can make it across, then we've bypassed all three blockages, and we can keep moving north, all the way to Durden."