Chapter 164

Judy’s POV

I hate sitting here like a waiting duck; it was only Tabby and me while everyone else went to search for more flags. Tabby was staring out at the ocean, watching the waves jolting the canoes we needed to take to get off this island. There were three in total for our team, just enough to get back to base.

We’ve been sitting here for a few hours; the sun beaming down on us, making our jobs incredibly hot and difficult. I felt the sun burning into my flesh and I knew I’d have sunburn by the time I left this place. I hated having such fair skin.

Sighing, I lay back on the sand, staring up at the blue skies; there were some clouds in the sky, but not enough to provide us with some shade.

“When do you think we’ll get to go back?” Tabby asks, pulling her attention from the ocean to look at me.

I opened my mouth to answer, but the ruffling on a bush turned my attention to the wooded area. I quickly sat up; my eyes narrowed as I stared off into the forest. Tabby was also standing at attention, her eyes narrowed, and her breathing halted to almost nothing.

There was somebody here and they didn’t smell like a teammate.

Neither of us spoke, we stared and listened for any signs of movement. And then it happened again; this time, I was on my feet. My heartbeat was rapid with both worry and excitement. Perhaps this wasn’t a boring job after all; maybe Sherry was right, and the other teams would try to get our flags.

Soon, multiple different competitors were emerging from the forest, their eyes narrowed and determination crossing their faces as they stared at us. One of them, the largest one, looked around for a moment, and then a smirk spread across his lips when he spotted us.

“They left two of the smallest girls on their team to watch over their flags?” He laughed, making the other’s chuckle as well. One of the guys who I had fought with before had gone completely pale at the sight of me and I provided him with a “not so innocent” smirk.

He opened his mouth to say something to the others, but then he clamped his lips shut. He ended up disappearing without any of his teammates noticing. He was smart to leave because he knew exactly what I was capable of.

The others though, not so much.

They had only seen me passing; too consumed with their own fights to notice me. I never got the chance to combat with them. Which was fine because they were about to learn today.

“It’ll be easy to get their flags, just like it was easy to get the other team’s flags,” he laughed, making the others chuckle darkly as they started to close in around us.

“What were they thinking? At least the other team had a fair chance. They had a couple of really strong waters and some more keeping a further watch. I don’t see anyone else from their team for miles,” another said, shaking his head with a laugh.

“Surrender now, give us your flags. Neither of you have to get hurt,” A woman said, folding her arms across her chest. She was tall and slender, but she had muscles. Her hair was styled short, and she had warrior markings on her face, making her look almost exotic. I hadn’t encountered her yet, but I could tell she was probably a capable fighter.

I only stared at her, silently daring her to come at me. I folded my arms across my chest, raising my brows. I looked at Tabby who was equally amused, but trying hard to show it on her face.

“Or we’ll be forced to take it by force,” she added calmly, glancing between the two of us, noticing that neither of us was moving.

“If they want a fight, we can give them a fight,” the first guy said with a smirk, preparing his stance. “It won’t take long to take them down and then we get their flags and get off this island.”

“As soon as the rest of our team returns with our flags we can leave,” the girl said, rolling her eyes. “Which they should, soon enough.”

The rest nodded in agreement.

“Hey, where’d Marco go?” One of the guys asked with a frown, noticing the guy who recognized me had left.

They looked around, equally perplexed, but not enough to go look for him. He left his teammates to suffer; though we worked in teams, we were also covering our own asses, so I really couldn’t blame him.

“Maybe he went to search the perimeter,” the girl said, shrugging. “We don’t need him for this anyways, so it’s fine.”

They all chuckled.

“Yeah, this will be quick,” the first guy said, stepping towards me, his eyes flashing dangerously as he glared at me. “Should have surrendered when you had the chance.”

The others only watched as he lunged at me, attempting to grab me, but I was way faster and before he could reach me, I was already behind him. He frowned, not even seeing me move. When he whipped around to look at me, it was too late, I had him on the ground in only a second. It was easier because he wasn’t expecting it, so it wasn’t much of a fight. But once he got his head out of his ass and realized that I was actually fighting him and had the upper hand, his mind went into survival mode, and he immediately started to fight back.

But his attempts were futile; I still had the upper hand.

After their initial shock wore off, the others lunged at me as well, trying to get me off their supposed leader. With the help of Tabby, we were able to get them all on the ground, gasping for breath and begging for us to stop.

“Surrender,” Tabby said, her eyes dark with fury. “And maybe we’ll let you live,” she added with a smirk.

“We…we surrender,” the girl said, her body quivering. Tabby managed to break her arm, so she wasn’t going to be much of a fight if she did choose to continue fighting.

We collected their white flags, as a show of surrender and we let them wander off to wait for the chopper to collect them.

Not before long, the rest of our teammates were returning, they were chanting and cheering because they got the rest of the flags, but when they saw the scene in front of them, their excitement was palpable.

“They surrendered,” Tabby announced, holding up the white flags.

“Way to go!” Chuck cheered. “I knew you were the right ones for this job. Did they seriously try and fight you? What idiots.”

This made the rest of the team laugh. My team at least knew what I was capable of and knew not to mess with me.

“Let’s get the hell off this island. I need a hot bath,” Sherry complained as she gathered the rest of the flags and headed towards a canoe.

The rest of us nodded in agreement. We cleaned up the campsite and then started toward the canoes.

I had never been in a canoe before, and I was a bit nervous. But it couldn’t be much worse than jumping out of a plane blindfolded.

The waves were fierce, so we had to crash through them, water filling the bottom of the boat with each splash. There were only a couple of paddles in each boat so the strongest and more experienced were the ones who rowed, while the rest of us tried to navigate using the sky.

A couple of drones also followed us on our path while the other stayed with the other competitors on the island.

It took us several hours and a few times we got a bit turned around, but eventually, we found our way and the resort dock came into view.

Relief flooded me.

As we brought our canoes to the dock and were helped by those who worked at the resort, I noticed we were the only team who was back already.

Did that mean we had won?

There were cheers as we ran through the crowds of people and rushed to the arena. The second our feet landed on the base, I fell to the ground, exhaustion taking over my every bone. Chuck was the one who presented all 5 flags, while Tabby presented the white flags of those we were forced to surrender.

Everybody in the arena cheered; I had never seen such chaos before, but it was pretty much mayhem. My eyes scanned the arena; it was completely full, and I was surprised to see the giant monitors set up where they were all watching us.

My cheeks were on fire as I stared at the screen; highlights of our time on the island this last day and a half were being played, and my face was front and center for most of it. They didn’t miss much of anything except when Tabby and I fought the bear in the cave; the drone didn’t follow us there, but it captured us leaving the cave drenched in blood.

A lot of people cringed, but Chuck thought it was awesome and gave us a high-five after the highlight was finished; I blushed at the attention.

“Tabby laughed when her face came into view, not as embarrassed, just finding it funny. Chuck puffed out his chest when his scenes were played.

“You did great,” Sherry said, stepping beside me, and putting a hand on my shoulder. “Great job. You’ll be a great warrior one day, Judy.”

I smiled at her, grateful for her words.

“Thanks,” I replied.

“If it comes down to it, I will still kick your ass in the finals next week,” she teased. “Make no mistake.”

“Count on it,” I replied with a smirk.

We were soon announced as the winners of this week’s Group B competition and the stadium went absolutely nuts. But my eyes wandered around to the one person I was hoping to see and when my eyes finally landed on him, my breath hitched.

Who was that woman he was talking to?