TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
SEYOON
I waste no time climbing up the rope. Sure, I may have realized there are—contrary to popular belief—more important things than winning, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to give it my all. I’ve never been good at holding back.
Hand over hand, I pull myself up, not thinking about the pain or the growing distance between me and the ground. The adrenaline helps. The thunderous cheering from the crew drowns out everything else until I’m on the first platform. It’s more solid than I expected, thanks to the scaffold holding it up from below.
The next platform is about fifteen feet away, with two thick cables running between them. Carter’s two seconds ahead of me and gets down on his knees next to the ledge. He holds tight to one of the cables, then lets his body fall, dangling midair with only his grip and harness to keep him tethered. As if he’s on monkey bars, he swings and grabs a section farther away with one hand, then again with the other hand, then again. He’s gaining the lead fast.
I only have one option to catch up, especially now that Dean’s made it onto the platform.
“Garrett better not have been serious about those safety waivers,” I mutter before running and leaping off the edge.
Gasps and shouts sound from below as I fly through the air—and latch onto the middle segment of the second cable with my whole body. I instantly flip upside down, still holding tight like a koala. Ow,fuck,that burned. But it worked. I’ve soared way past Carter.
Upside down, I keep my legs wrapped around the cable and pull myself across the rest of the distance. I accidentally glance down and see how high up I am. My breath stutters in my throat, but I just have to keep going. Umma’s going tokill mewhen she watches this.
Garrett’s moderation echoes from the speakers all around the forest.
Bold and highly dangerous move from Seyoon! I like it, but our insurance won’t! She’s now in the lead and already up on the next platform!
I have a better view of the rest of the course from here. Across the maybe-two-hundred-meter distance are three smaller, standalone platforms, each about thirty feet up from the ground. Between them are different obstacles: The first is a suspended bridge of swinging logs, the second is a rope swing, and the third is a declining net wall.
Somebody whizzes past me and onto the first log in the split second I’ve taken to think.
“Get out of the way if you’re just gonna stand around!” Carter yells, leaping from log to log, holding on to the handle strung parallel across. His steps send each of the logs rolling in place, bumping against one another.
“Motherfucker,” I grunt, then jump onto the first log. It swings wildly, and I lose my balance, falling forward. Ow, my face. Ow, myego. I try to stand back up, but it’s impossible with how the bridge rolls under my feet. Every move I make sends the whole thing careening back and forth.
Dean catches up before I’ve found my footing. But instead of hurrying on, he stands back, analyzing with his hand on his chin. I’m still struggling to stand when he gets down onto the first log on his knees. Slowly, so he doesn’t lose his balance or rock the bridge anymore, Dean reaches for the makeshift rope handle and pulls himself across, using the rolling logs to his advantage rather than fighting to stand on them.
Fuck… that’s pretty smart.
I’m going to copy him.
By the time I make it to the rope swing, Carter’s nowhere in sight, and Dean is already soaring across the huge distance. They’re both so far ahead of me. What am I going to do?
Shit.What am I going todo?!
I’m going to stop thinking about it, that’s what.
Dean lands on the other side and sends the rope back. Shifting control to the fibers in my muscles rather than my brain, I jump off the ledge without waiting for the rope to swing across entirely and—ohfuck fuck fuck—catch it in between the two platforms, thank God. Holy shit, adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
Dean lets out a worried, garbled shout. “What thefuck?!”
A nervous laugh bubbles from me as I careen over the distance. “We have these harnesses on for a reason, don’t we?” I yell back.
I get to enjoy his panicked expression for another second before he snaps out of it and hurries to the third obstacle.
Not too long after, I land with an “Oomph!” on the platform. I scramble to peek over at the wide net wall. It slopes all the way down until it levels out onto a flat portion we have to crawl across to another platform. Dean hasn’t gotten very far, but to my surprise, neither has Carter. The netting is probably hard to climb down at this angle. If it were more vertical, it’d be easier, like a ladder. But it’s curved like a slide.
Wait…
Carter is struggling with his footing there on the net wall, slowing down his lead and giving Dean and Seyoon the opportunity to catch up. Seyoon’s getting ready to descend, but she’ll have to hustle if she wants to—
Oh?
“Watch out!” I yell as I toss my body sideways over the platform. I roll down the webbing as easily as I used to roll down grassy hills as a kid. Except, instead of getting grass stains and mud on my knees, I can already feel a pretty gnarly case of rope burn on my arms as I tumble down, down, down, until I roll to a stop on the flat part of the net.
