8 Operation Red Herring

Thomas and McSnickers were waiting behind a couple of somewhat large poles that were nearby each other. McSnickers thought this plan was insane, Thomas thought it might just work, and also would be a huge morale boost for the squad if it did. McLaney didn't have an opinion, and Smith just wanted to do things his own way.

Thinking back on it, his squad is a little bit eccentric, bits of personalities that don't really mesh well. A few minutes ago head explained the plan while the staff member outline the objectives and rules. Everyone was given a red flag, it wasn't really a flag so to speak but a large ribbon to be ties to your arm. Staff had yellow, Daniels' squad had blue, and Thomas's squad had the overwhelmingly stand out color of red.

The way it works is you have to survive and evade all the staff and other squad members for ten minutes, how you do so is up to you, but you're not allowed to climb the poles or slip outside the boundaries of the forest. Following this ruling, Thomas came up with Operation Red Herring, that is, to target Daniels' squad members and lead them straight towards the staff before disappearing off into the so called forest.

The only problem with this plan, is the staff members might not necessarily chase after Daniels' squad, after all the staff were free to choose their targets. Should they choose to chase after his squad members, they would ultimately lose. For a small squad like his, they couldn't afford to lose any people, while Daniels could afford to lose one or two. Surely the staff were aware of this. Hence the risk in his plan.

"Conlin this is insane, we should be trying to hide and not play sides!" McSnickers was fiercely whispering to Thomas. "What if the guards go for us? Did you ever think of that!?"

"Don't worry Joshua, I've got this covered, and besides that's a risk we have to take," Thomas pointed out reasonably. "We're never going to get anywhere unless we take some risks, we don't want to be the lowest performing squad, and the other team isn't that bright anyways."

"I just have some serious reservations about your plan man, I don't wanna get screwed and have to repeat this course," McSnickers was complaining while keeping a look out for the staff who were technically guards. "There, I see one! Three o'clock!" He pointed out one of Daniels' squad members off to their technical "right", hard to tell the direction in this forest of wooden poles.

"Alright, I'm going to run out and draw his attention, will use our strategy to keep splitting between the trees until we run into one of the guards patrolling." Thomas got ready to sprint out from his cover, the squad member was about twenty yards away and aimlessly wandering.

"Wait, something doesn't seem right!" McSnickers blurted out. Indeed no sooner had he said that than two more squad members popped out from some other trees behind the squad member. So they were traveling in two three man squads. Thomas was sure that it was planned to counter his two man teams. He needed to think of a new strategy altogether now.

"Joshua, we'll run together. We can weave through the trees faster than they can and they're more visible to the guards than us."

"What if the guards come after us?"

"They won't, bragging rights are still something everyone wants, would you rather catch two or catch three?"

"Good point Thomas!"

"Get ready to run....now!" They bolted out from the "trees" together and the other squad caught sight of them.

"Look! Over there! After them guys!" A great chase began, following which Thomas's squad ran in the eleven o'clock direction, hoping to run into some guards. Meanwhile on the other side of the forest.

"Man this plan is all kinds of fucked up," Smith was complaining to McLaney, "we should have just gone with my plan, at least we'd have a better chance! How come we've been sitting here for like five minutes and no one shows up huh?" McLaney had enough of Smith's crap, they were both lying next to each other covered in sand so they'd blend together in the ground.

"Shut up Smith! You're gonna give us away, I don't like this plan either, but you heard Drill Instructor Asshole, Conlin is the squad leader!" McLaney reprimanded Smith who then shut his mouth and stared at McLaney like he was hearing things. "Look there's a guard over there!" He pointed out a guard not even thirty yards away who walked out behind some trees. He already had two blue flags on his belt, in addition to the yellow one on his arm.

"Shit, he caught two of Daniels' men, wait, hopefully he caught Daniels, that would be hilarious!" Smith whispered while trying not to laugh. He lost his laughter after that because soon after two more guards appeared, they had one red flag each. He looked at McLaney and then whispered, "Shit, they got Conlin and McSnickers?"

"Obviously not you dumb ass," McLaney retorted, "the guards are obviously cheating, think about it! Conlin had their whole route memorized, but I don't know how he knew all that. It doesn't matter, what matters is that they appeared on time, who cares if they have fake or real flags, we just need to survive for about five more minutes and we win!"

"Shit, you're right, how could I be so stupid, let's try to sneak past them, there is obviously no one coming this way," Smith suggested. McLaney agreed and so they slowly backed away through the dirt and sand, crawling the whole time.

Meanwhile two hundred yards to the east, Thomas and Joshua caught sight of Daniels alone, earlier they had run into a group of four guards who then gave chase to not only them but the three stooges behind them. After a few crafty tricks and some false leads, they managed to shake them.

"Look! Daniels is alone, we can take him!" Joshua pointed towards Daniels, "if we can take his flag that would piss him the hell off!"

"You're right Josh, but we've got to approach this carefully, we don't know if he's alone." Thomas was trying to figure out a plan of action, but then Daniels turned towards their position. Almost as if he had known they would be there he yelled out, "Come out Conlin, I know you're there, I can sense it and my gut never lies!"

Shit! Thomas didn't think that he had instincts that sharp, no wonder he was such a bully previously. Well there was only one way to establish superiority in this situation, he's got to outmaneuver Daniels. Hopefully the other two had filled their end of the plan. Otherwise this was going to be the longest five minutes he'd ever had.