Chapter 202 - 202. The Backwards Walk
"I bet they lost control of their super power and then they made this area too dangerous... I doubt it is easy to get someone to dig all of this out." Jane was thinning that this had been abandoned due to the fact that the campers\' super power had gone too deep in the ground to easily clean up. Instead of risking danger to campers and just deal with the top half the camp just moved to another sparring field.
"I had my alarms go off and I find you all in one of the most dangerous places in camp. Did you not pay attention to the signs around the perimeter?" Garnet was standing near the trees a few feet away. She was pointing at a yellow and orange sign that said danger stay away.
"Well, we were walking to the dining cabin and got lost. We also didn\'t find the egg either." Asher was a little afraid to move since he didn\'t want to risk stepping on the bone spikes hidden beneath the leaves and dirt.
"Just walk backward over the steps you took to get where you are. Those bone spikes are from a camper that had the ability to use stored nutrients in their body to make poisoned bone spears. If you get cut by one you are knocked out for a full week." Garnet was shaking her head while warning them. She swore that these three were going to be the death of her.
"Wait! They can knock people out too? Isn\'t that the skeleton general superhero\'s power? I thought he just had that bone spear for a weapon. Who would have known he made it with his super power." Art remembered the hero soon after Garnet had added the fact that it knocked people out.
"Art, I am impressed with your fanboy knowledge of heroes but I don\'t think that will help usw now." Asher wanted to join him and look this hero up but he was currently worried that if he stepped in the wrong place he would wake up to found that he was a week behind the world.
"I think I walked here, here, and here." Jane was having an easy time talking herself through the steps she had taken to get to where she was currently. The fact that no one had walked through the area in so long let her see her foot prints clearly.
"You know, this might be a good way to help you all learn to track someone." Garnet mused to herself as she watched them, "You all got yourselves in to this mess and need to get out. Follow your own steps out and use any tracking skills you have or you will miss the rest of camp." Garnet was proud to found the lesson in all of this.
"Sounds super easy. Let me just do that then." Asher tried to be nice in his reply but it still ended up being a wise remark. He was too frustrated that they had somehow missed multiple warning signs and ended up in a tough place.
The three were slowly putting their feet in to their previous foot prints like children who walked through fresh snow and were told to come back. It looked funny from a distance but was surprisingly good for training. The three were learning to balance themselves in different positions from what they were used to. None of them ever went backwards in their daily routine.
Garnet was tapping away on her phone making training notes for the future. This made them all feel like they had become some strange guinea pigs. "Hey, so what do I do if I realized there is a bone spike right under the old foot print I took and I have already been lucky enough not to have it pierce my foot?"
Everyone looked at Art and realized that a spot he had previously stepped on had a tiny piece of bone spikes on the ground. His shoes had been cushioned by the leaves but were now forced down. If he stepped there again he would end up with the bone spike piercing the rubber soles of his shoe.
"Are you sure you aren\'t the one with the lucky super power?" Asher could tell that Art had actually cut up his shoes a decent amount walking through the area. He may be the closest to Garnet but he was still not in the safer area.
"Asher, it looks like we are carrying Art back again." Jane was already signing off on Art\'s week long slumber. This naturally made Art slightly agitated.
"Hey Garnet, If I ruin one of the weights that we used to get out of here will I be fined?" Asher had an idea. He was still wearing wrist and ankle weights with the metal beads in them.
"If you tear them then yes. But if you just lose the metal beads it is fine since we have tons of those in camp." Garnet was already guessing what Asher wanted to do.
"Art, I am tossing you my ankle and wrist weights. It\'s up to you to shape the metal and make yourself some tougher shoes." Asher had already thrown the first two weights and followed up with the last two.
Art just stared at the weights that were already unzippered and spilling the metal beads out. He wasn\'t sure how well this would work but looked around first. "Here goes nothing!" He made sure no one but the four of them were there so he could keep this a secret, he didn\'t think he could lie about his power if someone else saw.
His hands made a few pulling motions and four of the metal beads came towards him. He was easily able to grasp them in his hands and tried to bend them to his will. They slowly flattened and twisted but did not fuse together right away. He was still struggling with combining and separating intentionally, however, he had a feeling that this time he would be able to do it with a little more energy.