8 Operation Red Herring (1/2)
Thomas and McSnickers were waiting behind a couple of somewhat large poles that were nearby each other. McSnickers thought this plan was insane, Thomas thought it might just work, and also would be a huge morale boost for the squad if it did. McLaney didn't have an opinion, and Smith just wanted to do things his own way.
Thinking back on it, his squad is a little bit eccentric, bits of personalities that don't really mesh well. A few minutes ago head explained the plan while the staff member outline the objectives and rules. Everyone was given a red flag, it wasn't really a flag so to speak but a large ribbon to be ties to your arm. Staff had yellow, Daniels' squad had blue, and Thomas's squad had the overwhelmingly stand out color of red.
The way it works is you have to survive and evade all the staff and other squad members for ten minutes, how you do so is up to you, but you're not allowed to climb the poles or slip outside the boundaries of the forest. Following this ruling, Thomas came up with Operation Red Herring, that is, to target Daniels' squad members and lead them straight towards the staff before disappearing off into the so called forest.
The only problem with this plan, is the staff members might not necessarily chase after Daniels' squad, after all the staff were free to choose their targets. Should they choose to chase after his squad members, they would ultimately lose. For a small squad like his, they couldn't afford to lose any people, while Daniels could afford to lose one or two. Surely the staff were aware of this. Hence the risk in his plan.
”Conlin this is insane, we should be trying to hide and not play sides!” McSnickers was fiercely whispering to Thomas. ”What if the guards go for us? Did you ever think of that!?”
”Don't worry Joshua, I've got this covered, and besides that's a risk we have to take,” Thomas pointed out reasonably. ”We're never going to get anywhere unless we take some risks, we don't want to be the lowest performing squad, and the other team isn't that bright anyways.”
”I just have some serious reservations about your plan man, I don't wanna get screwed and have to repeat this course,” McSnickers was complaining while keeping a look out for the staff who were technically guards. ”There, I see one! Three o'clock!” He pointed out one of Daniels' squad members off to their technical ”right”, hard to tell the direction in this forest of wooden poles.
”Alright, I'm going to run out and draw his attention, will use our strategy to keep splitting between the trees until we run into one of the guards patrolling.” Thomas got ready to sprint out from his cover, the squad member was about twenty yards away and aimlessly wandering.
”Wait, something doesn't seem right!” McSnickers blurted out. Indeed no sooner had he said that than two more squad members popped out from some other trees behind the squad member. So they were traveling in two three man squads. Thomas was sure that it was planned to counter his two man teams. He needed to think of a new strategy altogether now.
”Joshua, we'll run together. We can weave through the trees faster than they can and they're more visible to the guards than us.”
”What if the guards come after us?”
”They won't, bragging rights are still something everyone wants, would you rather catch two or catch three?”