Night Maneuver
alright, my next story is ready to be shared.
this will be one of my longer stories.
part 1: the plan.
for those who read my last story a challenge, you might remember that i mentioned how we prepared an obstacle run for a scout camp that would happen a few weeks later. well, that would be where this story takes place.
it was late May of 2014 and the fields around the farm had several tents placed around.
on the top of a tiny hill were my patrols lavvo. the best about this spot was having the best view, the worst part about this spot was that we were closest to the roosters.
F***… i really hated those roosters…
we had already spent the first night at the camp, and i’ll admit those feather covered kingsized beaks worked really well for an alarm in the morning, no need for wasting the battery on your phone here.
but i really wish it was possible to teach them not to start as early as 3:30 in the bloody morning!!!
“GUCK-UKU UUUUHHH!!!” we could hear one of the rooster shout from the hen house.
“SHUT UP! OR I’LL CHOP YOUR F***ING HEAD OFF” i shouted while holding my arm on my knife, prepared to pull it out of the scabbard.
“that rooster is driving me F***ing insane” Rodney said while rubbing his arms against his face.
“i agree” Michael said “just go ahead and get it over with Viking, then you can cook it for dinner afterwards”.
“oh trust me, i am really tempted” i said.
it was not early in the morning at the moment, it was probably around 11:00 AM by now.
still we found the Roosters to be some of the most annoying creatures around the whole campsite.
well, everyone of us except Eire.
“i seriously don’t see the problem” Eire said while pulling off her jacket and tying it around her stomach “i wasn’t bothered with the roosters tonight. i had more trouble with everyone else snoring and farting in their sleep”.
Tanja looked pissed at Eire and said “that’s because you are used to it from your own farm”.
“and?”
“is everyone here now?” i asked.
i looked around. Rodney, Eire, Tanja, Shaun, Michael and Riley was all the rovers in my group who participated this weekend. OB was also around, but he was not with the rovers this time. instead he was helping out with some handicapped scout members as an extra assistant.
including our rover team there was also the younger scouts from our own town. Ellie and Ashley from some of my previous stories were among them, being among the oldest on their group (Ellie had turned 15 earlier this year and Ashley was 13 at the moment, would be 14 later this year). the rest of their group was a bunch of girls around 12-13 years old and one boy about the same age.
one boy together with all the girls… most dudes would say a dream come true, but i got a feeling he wasn’t ready for that sort of things yet.
the next group was a good mix of boys and girls, age about 7-9. they came from a town not too far away from us. about 30 minutes with car during good weather conditions.
then there was Caitlin B’s new group after she moved out of our town. coming from a much bigger town than ours, you would think she came with a bigger group of scouts.
nope… together with Caitlin was 3 boys, not sure about their exact birthdays i can say they all would have turned 16 already or would turn 16 later this year. Caitlin being the youngest in their group turning 15 in a few weeks and also being the only girl in the group.
oh, and her age also meant she would be the only one in her group who would not become a rover during the summer.
first thing she did when they arrived the day before was to run up to us and give all of her old scout friends a big hug.
“alright, all the rovers are gathered” i said. i looked at Ellie and Caitlin who had decided to pay us a little visit and said “unfortunately we have some things to talk about between us rovers”.
Eire looked at me, then at the visitors and said “we’ll see ya later”.
“buh, why cant we stay” Caitlin said.
“that’s a secret, but you will learn about it later, i’ll promise” Eire said.
as they walked away i looked down at the other side of the hill. right below was a lot of meadowsweets growing and we would get a shadow from a big tree to sit underneath as well as nobody would be able to spot us from the campsite.
“let’s just sit down there, if nobody sees us, i doubt they will disturb us” i said and walked down the 2 meters below the hill.
all the rovers followed me and sat down around me so we gathered a circle.
“alright, we all know what this is about right?” i said.
“the night maneuver?” Riley responded
“bingo, 1 point for Riley” i said while giving her a thumb up.
“YES, i got a point! i’m in the lead” she said and smiled at Shaun while laying back into his lap.
“alright, so we haven’t exactly decided yet what they should do” i said “after all, we can’t just wake them up and pull em out of their tents without any activities”.
“question” Rodney said while raising his hand “how many of the groups will we be pulling out tonight?”
“good question, and i just i so happen to have an answer for you” i responded “i talked to Pete, the leader from our beloved neighbor town. the oldest of his scouts are 9 years old and the youngest would be about 7”.
“ah, they might be a little too young for a night maneuver then”.
“yes indeed” i said “so we don’t care about waking them up tonight. however, we still have the younger group from our town and Caitlin B with her guys”.
“how many are they on Ellie and Ashley’s group?” Riley asked.
“i don’t know, to be honest i don’t have any exact numbers” i answered “now does anyone have any ideas for what they can do tonight?”
it was silent… maybe it was the lack of sleep that made us unable to think clearly.
“don’t you have any ideas?” Shaun asked.
“yeah, you are usually full of them” Rodney followed up with.
“i wanted to see if anyone had something better first, but my idea is kinda inspired from Riley after a previous cabin trip”.
“hehehe, i know where this is going” Riley said.
“yes… we all do” Shaun said while pretending to strangle Riley.
“huh? what?” Tanja said.
Riley started talking again as Shaun released his grip “Viking and Eire tied me to a tree and then they woke up the boys and told them i was missing”.
Michael took a sip from his can of Redbull and followed by saying “it was not funny”.
“it was for me” Riley said smiling.
“and this time you will be on the side that are having fun” i pointed out.
“true…” Michael said and placed the can between the meadowsweets.
“so basically we are going to tie somebody up and have the others look for them, is that it?” Rodney said.
“seems a little cheap i think” i said “that is the basic, but i wanna do something more out of it, so i was thinking that instead of telling them that a person is missing and tricking them we rather just tell them that it is a night maneuver straight ahead and that the mission is to rescue one of their friends. if we tie them up somewhere on that hill over there” i said and pointed toward another hill covered with trees in further away “then some of us could be guarding the hill and stopping them from reaching up there, makes it more challenging”.
“i like where this is going” Rodney said and lighted a cigarette.
“but still, i feel like we should do something more out of this” i said.
“hey, i got an idea” Riley said “how about if we add some first aid? the victims can pretend that their arm has been broken when they got kidnapped and then they have to fix it”.
“i like it” i said “alright, so now we have to decide who we are kidnapping”.
“should it be one of us?” Eire asked.
“it could be, or we could do like in Harry Potter and pull out a victim for each contestant to save a moment before we start” i said.
“i think it would be better if it was one of them” Riley said “i mean, it would be easier for them to know who to save if they have to save somebody from their own patrol”.
“she’s got a point there” Michael said.
“yeah, if it’s one of us then they might find it confusing who to rescue”.
“i agree” i said. i knew that all 6 of the rovers were able to handle being tied up. after all they had been tied up a few times already. but it seemed more logic to make one of the victims be one from each patrol.
“so who do we pick? i feel like we should have one boy and one girl” i said.
“that is a very good question” Riley said.
this was the part we had to think most through. we had to make sure we picked a person who we knew for sure would agree to be tied up, and somebody we knew would be able to handle it as well. we could not just pick a random person and tell them that we are going to tie you up and you will have to wait for the others to rescue you.
“i know that Caitlin can handle being tied up, and i think she will agree to it as well” i said, remembering the jamboree last year when i had taped her up in my car with Eire and drove them back to camp and taped them up against the flagpoles… how could i forget, every person on the whole campsite seemed to be asking me if could do the same thing toward them.
“yeah, she probably will agree” Eire said.
“then we have to find one more from the other patrol” i said “once again, i know Ashley could handle it, but then we got 2 girls”.
“aren’t there any boys on that group?” Rodney asked.
“just one”
“then how about him?”
“i don’t know him, i have never seen him before… so i honestly don’t know how he will react to such a request” i said.
“damn” Rodney said and stomped his cigarette.
“i think Ellie would agree” Eire said.
“think or know?” i asked.
“think”
“we have to know for sure” i continued “have you ever tied her up before or seen her tied up?”
“no…”
“did she ever mention it for you? have you ever talked about it?”
“not that i can think about…”
“in that case it would be a risk…” i said “maybe if we take Ashley and then use one of the boys on Caitlin’s group instead?”
“i think we could go for John, he will agree” Riley said “the only problem is the entire patrol is pretty much F***ed without him to take responsibility”.
we all laughed a little, it was meant for a joke, but what she said was true.
“Caitlin is pretty organized though, she might be able to take command” Tanja said.
“you really think any of the boys will listen to her?” Riley said.
“good point…”
“how about Shaun?” Rodney suggested.
“huh?” i said confused.
“Shaun…”
“oh, that’s right…” i said “they also have a Shaun on their patrol, we got 2 Shaun’s here at the camp”.
“they won’t notice if he’s gone” Riley said “if we choose him then the rest of the group will be like `huh? Shaun who?´ when we wake them up”.
“then that only leaves Lance?” i said “once again my question is, how will he react? i don’t know him well enough myself”.
“he probably wouldn’t care” Riley said “if we tie him up he probably will fall asleep or something in the middle of everything”.
“but do we know for sure that he can handle being tied up?” i said once more.
“not sure” Riley responded.
“so the only person on each group we know for sure will agree to this is Caitlin and Ashley” i said.
“can’t we just go for them then?” Rodney said.
“i agree” Tanja spoke “does is have to be one boy and one girl?”
“nah, it’s not really that important” i said “so it’s settled. when everyone is going to sleep tonight we get Ashley and Caitlin, tell them about the night maneuver, we take them up on that hill over there, tie them up, wake up the rest of their patrols, inform them, i suggest Rodney and the boys will be guards while the girls will pay attention to the first aid”.
then it was all set. everyone agreed to stay quiet about the night maneuvers and we went back to the camp to join the others for their activities. including the obstacle run where Eire, Tanja and i would be the judges.
to be continued…