Project Trouble X Three

Recap

“Who are you? The man asked in a shaky voice.

I saw a flash of movement behind the man. “Your worse nightmare,” Flame answered as she stabbed him in the head, killing him instantly. She pulled her blade out and wiped it on the man’s shirt. Flirt and Trigger hid the man in a hole and sprayed Sophia’s scent masking spray. They hurried back into the trees within ten minutes.

I widely smiled and threw them a bottle of water. I made sure they had beef jerky, bars with a lot of protein, and MRE’s. I know they hated them, but it was better than nothing, plus I gave them the good ones and kept the bad ones for myself.

“We’ve got company, everyone. Time to bug out and come at them from the South,” Martim explained as we all got our rucksacks and bugged out, Sophia leaving her map on the table.

Sophia’s POV

I wasn’t sure what the plan was next. I only knew we needed to bug out as fast as possible - which meant the twins were almost to our hiding spot. How did they know where to find us? Were the twins checking all over their property? Or did they get lucky and stumble on us. I didn’t think they would accidentally stumble upon us, no, it was planned. These twins were smart. We had to be smarter.

Fuck!

"What’s wrong, Sophia, I can smell your angry at someone?” Cat asked me a question I didn’t want to answer but knew I needed to.

"I left the map back at our campsite and now the twins know our plans,” I answered, shame in my tone of voice. I couldn’t believe I had been so stupid as to give away our plans.

I looked over to Cat and saw a huge smile on her face. ”What are you smiling about, Cat. It’s not funny, not one bit."

Cat snickered quietly. ”It is when I switched your map with another map with the wrong markings on it."

Brillant!

Beautiful mind

"Thank you, Cat. I was beating myself up about leaving my map there, but you are too clever for your own good.” I quietly laughed.

Cat was forever watching out for us. She had our back every time. I knew she would take a bullet for any of us. She was one special lady. I could tell she was special when she didn’t put up with my stupid fits. When she decided to train me to my very best. She didn’t have to do anything for me, but she did it all. I was a princess without a castle and I didn’t know it - not until Cat knocked my crown off my head. I was forever thankful.

"We need to head a little west, Madrid. I left the twins a map of our ‘fake’ plans,” Cat told Madrid through the built-in mics.

"Got it,” was all he said. I knew he was trying to save his energy to run. Madrid wasn’t getting any younger, but his lion was still as aggressive as ever when Madrid shifted. The men in basic training would piss themselves at the size of Madrid. Cat would come home telling my dad all about the men and Madrid scaring them. I listened all the time.

Everyone stopped and slowly crept up into the trees, sliding out of view of some of the cartel men. We didn’t move one inch. We didn’t keep our eyes open because Cat said she would keep a watch on everyone. It was crazy how we all followed her commands. No one thought to question her. I knew she was trusted by all the men here, including my dad.

After a couple of minutes, I heard at least five different people trudging through the forest. I could hear their joking manner. They were all joking about Cat and me, except it wasn’t a joke at all. They were talking about what they would do when the twins threw us away or sold us to the highest bidder.

Seriously

A cat auction?

I knew not to get angry about their words. They were only trying to get a reaction to their words and I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. My dad on the other hand was about to give us away. I saw my mom throw her hand up to his mouth as quickly and as quietly as she could.

“Shut up!” She whispered.

I noticed every one of us had our eyes open. I squinted my eyes and slowly turned my head towards Cat, but she wasn’t where she was and neither was Martim. I noticed Digger and Flirt were gone, too.

I moved slowly and grabbed my bow and arrows, throwing them on my shoulder and moving slowly to the edge of the tree. I looked around, making sure my movements were quiet and as slow as I could make it. I saw three of the men down and one was holding on to Cat, keeping her arms up and bent back at an angle. He had to be someone higher up in the cartel. I saw him reach for his radio. I had an arrow notched quickly and just as quickly a bolt was in his hand. Cat quickly killed him and nodded thanks to me.

I threw the men and Cat a bottle of my masking spray. I had everyone cover their scent with the spray. It was better than having no scent. I knew it would give us away faster than having a forest smell.

I folded my bow and looped it over my rucksack. I followed Cat and Martim through the trees. I could tell we were going towards a big mountain. I knew it was either a mountain or a volcano. I vaguely remember something about the Amazon highlands.

We ran until we got to a little higher. We stopped when Cat raised her hand, a silent command to stop. ”Let’s take a water break."

I sat down on the big limb I was on and pulled out my canteen, making sure Trigger had some also. I knew I needed to eat something, but all I had left was an MRE and I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat it. I guess I didn’t have a choice.

I pulled out my MRE, but Cat saved me by throwing me some beef jerky. I signed a thank you to her and quickly at my beef jerky. I needed to pee but I didn’t want to say anything. I wondered if our suits had something in case we needed to go or not.

"How many ladies need to pee?” Cat asked. I raised my hand along with Flame and my mom. ”Follow me, but stay quiet." We nodded and followed Cat to a big hole in the ground. All of us were peering into the hole and occasionally looking at Cat. We all had to pee in a hole in the ground? Seriously?

"Does anyone have a small container we can pee in and then bury in the ground later? One where we can pour into some of our empty water bottles?” I nodded my head and quietly climbed back up into the tree. I grabbed two sandwich containers and jumped out of the tree without making a sound. I handed them to Cat and turned my back on whoever was going to go first.

It didn’t take long before it was my turn to pee. I was afraid I would flood the container before I was finished, but luckily Cat gave me the bigger of the two containers. I poured the pee into a bottle carefully and waited for the last person to go, Cat.

We laid our bottle in the hole and I saw Martim and Trigger coming down the tree with bottles in their hands as we wereheaded up the tree. I was worried any drop of pee would give us away, so I grabbed my spray and jumped back out of the tree.

"Spray around the hole and anywhere else you think you might need to and then us ladies can use some, okay?" I quietly asked through our built-in mics. Martim and Trigger smiled and sprayed in the hole and around it. They resprayed themselves and then sprayed my hands and body. I saw Martim headed up the tree with my spray. Digger and Dragon came down in another area with miniature shovels to fill in the hole. I helped grab some of the dead vegetation to cover the dirt. When we were done we climbed back into the trees and waited to see what we were going to do next.

My cat was going a little crazy and I couldn’t figure out why. I almost screamed when an electric-like feeling went through my body. The pain was blinding and made my whole body hurt like a mother. I tried to hold in my gasp and to hide my tears. Whatever was wrong was bad. Really bad.

"What’s wrong, Sophia?” Trigger asked me as he pulled me into his arms. It didn’t lessen the pain but it helped my mind.

"Pull up her sleeves and look for some kind of bite," I heard Martim say. Trigger pulled my sleeves up and turned my hand over, showing something to Martim as I continued to hold in my scream and tears.

One out two

Pretty good

I heard Martim sigh out in relief. "She will hurt for a couple of minutes. She was bitten by a tarantula hawk wasp. It will make you feel like death for about five minutes."

I nodded my head and continued with my deep breathing. I was hoping if I concentrate on my breathing I would get over the pain faster. My whole body was shaking from the pain. Three minutes later and I was fine as if nothing happened to me.

"I'm good now," I let them all know as I wiped the tears off my face. I was embarrassed and didn't want to look at anyone in the eyes, but Cat had other plans.

"I don't know if I could have stayed as quiet as you did. Martim was telling how grown men would cry out and scream. From what I understand, you did a great job," Cat murmured. I looked up at her and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. I slowly got up and hugged her.

"I'm okay now. Thank you," I whispered.

"Let's go, people," was all Cat said. We all grabbed our rucksacks and humped out of the area. I couldn't understand how I picked up the Shadow Cat's language so fast. I never listened to their talk before. I thought they sounded stupid, but I was the stupid one. I could have trained every day with Cat. I watch her a lot now. I like to watch her train and then try to copy her moves later.

Cat held up her hand. We all stepped back into the trees and squinted our eyes. I didn't hear anything at first, but then I heard the howler monkeys going nuts. I knew It wasn't the twins because they knew how to make a chuffing sound.

We waited for thirty minutes until three patrolmen came around the corner. None of us moved from our spot. We would have to let them go for now or we would risk the twins knowing our whereabouts. It was too early to meet up with them, but it would be really soon. I knew everyone could feel the tension in the air. I could taste it and I was sure Cat could too.

Of course, when the men got to us they went to a tree across from us to eat. They weren't under us this time. I didn't know if it was a good thing or not.

'Holy shit, guys!" One of the men exclaimed.