Page 42 of Bonds of Hercules
Drex ran into me. “What is it—”
He gasped.
A cavernous concrete bunker bigger than multiple football fields spread out before us.
Flickering overhead lights covered everything in shades of green, as a chrome Spartan generator sputtered loudly in the corner.
Pockets of fake trees, mimicking a dense forest, were positioned around piles of junk cars, and a quarter of the room looked like an old movie set, crumbling brick buildings standing as tall as the trees.
It was a training course, designed to kill (literally).
Case in point, on closer inspection, the dotted pattern covering everything wasn’t a design choice—they were bullet holes.Oh nice.
Five masked figures stepped forward from the fake trees.
Each of them held a short dagger.
White tank tops, white exercise pants, and white ski masks completed their ridiculous ensembles. If they were trying to disguise themselves, it didn’t work.
Agatha crossed her arms, propping up her boobs, one of which was bigger than both of mine combined (a devastating observation).
Next to her, Poco sat on Augustus’s shoulder, eating his long two-toned hair.
Kharon’s skeleton tattoo stretched across his right arm, and gruesome chest scars peeked out from beneath the scoop of his tank.
At the other end of the line, Patro was wrapped possessively around Achilles.
He winked at me.
Does he have something in his eye?
Achilles only wore the top half of a mask; his lower face was covered by the muzzle.
They stared at us, creepily silent.
Drex shuffled closer to me as he cleared his throat. “So, what are we doing—”
“Pick up your weapons and strap on your holsters.” Augustus pointed at the Spartan guns lying at the bottom of the steps. “NOW!”
We both jumped and obeyed.
“Oh—this is going to besomuch fun,” Nyx hissed (our ideas of fun were not the same).
“Here are the rules.” Kharon stepped forward, a dagger swinging between his skeleton-tattooed fingers. “We hide … You shoot.” He lazily stretched his arm. “Simple. Any questions?”
My mind blanked.
“Why are you all in white?” Drex asked as he glanced down at the plain black exercise togas we’d both been given to wear. “Why the dagger?”
Kharon spun his knife. “Your goal is to hit us—white will show the blood.” He grinned evilly. “The knife is my Titan claws.Boo.”
“But … what if we hurt y-you?” Drex took a step back.
The Chthonics burst into laughter.
Augustus shook his head. “You won’t hit us. That’swhywe’re here … We have a lot to cover in only six days.”
He smiled.
