Day 2 Contd...(8)

Up till now, the four of them had managed to scare and snatch the tools of at least four contestants who had been with their partners. Not only did this little trickster come alone, she even managed to upset their plan. Before they could stop her, she vanished into thin air. What was she?

Actually, these participants had been bought by some 'mysterious benefactor' much before the contest started. All they had to do was create trouble for other participants and clear the rounds. The more levels they clear, the more handsomely would they be rewarded.

To begin with, one of them had worn spiked boots deliberately and had lain in the cramped tunnel sideways to make sure that she trampled on people's hands and faces. She had remained waiting for people at a particular curve in the tunnel affording a little space which gave her the leeway to manoeuvre in and out of that spot to hit someone and slither away quickly to avoid discovery. The other girl had been the one who was thrown into water by Abhirath. The remaining two were their partners who had managed to offload many contestants during climbing of the hill by 'accidentally' falling on them.

All in all, they had been tasting success all throughout till they faced this chit. People hadn't fought or screamed when ambushed here till now both because they were worried about their safety and also, they didn't want to give away their location to others.

But Mriga had sensed the lake to be a dead-end and wanted to inform Abhirath about it. This had given her the opportunity to do so without using their code. She was fairly confident that he would recognize her voice. Secondly, even though she was outnumbered by these people, she wasn't scared of being caught or hurt. The minute she had started screaming, she moved back swiftly, masking her steps with the loud noise and climbed up the tree from where she had gotten down few seconds ago.

In the darkness, the perpetrators hadn't been able to figure out what happened.

Since this direction didn't work out, Mriga was undecided about the next step. From the top of the tree, she could see faint lights in different corners of the forest. Paying attention to each of them, she tried to focus on the surroundings which the light was illuminating, to get an idea of where to go next. She moved back a few trees from the dead end.

Suddenly a loud gong sounded five times indicating that not only had someone new had managed to find a resource, there were now five contestants who had already qualified out of the thirty of them.

Mriga got down from the tree in a fluster, taking a step towards her right.

Whoosh!!

Her right ankle was shackled and pulled up with a jerk. In a fraction of a second, her body was hanging completely upside down. The tree's protruding root had a trap laid on it which Mriga had stepped into. Her scream remained trapped at the back of her throat as she fought with herself to normalise her breathing and figure a way out of this. Due to the suddenness of the attack, the khukri had fallen out of her hand and was too far on the ground for her to reach for it.

"Why the hell have they put up traps as part of testing a candidate? Doesn't the queen have her army to do this?" someone's grumbling mutter fell into Mriga's ears at that moment.

Few hundred metres away

Abhirath had been following a few voices up ahead of him. Despite the warning, people had started making groups to work more efficiently. There were at least three pairs ahead of them, if not more. And if he wasn't mistaken, Vindhya's partner who had a whining quality to her voice, could be heard amongst them. Their plan was to rescue each other out in case of the sudden challenges and grab the resources one after another. Apparently, one of them had managed to extract someone from a cage of arrows by finding a lever nearby and pressing it to release the person.

Suddenly, it became silent. A second ago, the murmurs were up ahead but now he couldn't hear them anymore. It was as if someone had placed a wall between them and him. As it is, he had been operating in near blindness but now the loss of voice added to the confusion. He closed his eyes and tried to focus but to no avail. Shrugging his shoulders, he stepped diagonally towards his left and slipped…

Thankfully, he straightened up real quick but it was too late!

"Whaa…" he was stuck.

Damn, he had fallen into a patch of quicksand. Willing himself to stay stable, he inhaled slowly and deeply to calm his chaotic mind. He didn't want to sink inside any further but his body was dense and heavy. From his ankles, the quicksand had risen upto his thighs now. He knew that his body won't completely submerge into it, nor will he die but he was STUCK!

He had no option but to call out to Mriga for help and that too when the gong had just sounded indicating that one more person had qualified. Nine spots left!!

Mriga was just wondering whether to speak with the person who seemed to be hanging on the other side of the tree when she heard the call for help from Abhirath.

She was stunned.

When they decided to use these codes, she had braced herself for using the one seeking aid before any other. In fact, in the past couple of minutes, she had wondered if it would be easier to call Abhirath to help her than struggle endlessly. She was fighting to get a hold of something so that she could reach her leg.