The Wannabe Warrior
Chapter 27

Madison POV

We sprayed each other with the scent-neutral spray, until I said I could no longer smell their natural scent, and after some help setting up the bags, and placing them on the warriors, who would help carry all the cameras and other bits and pieces I wanted to take with us, we set off in the dark..

With our wolf’s sight, and previous training to fight in the dark, we took off with confidence, running in the dark towards the first cave. The terrain was hard to cover at any great speed, pot holes everywhere .

Not long after we reached better ground, the sun rose in the sky, which made the terrain easier to see. The mountain that housed the caving system was in sight, and I estimated another hour and we would be there.

I let my brother take the lead for a little while, knowing as we got closer to the caves, rogues were likely to be seen. So far, I had been fortunate none seemed to be about.

The first cave entrance was close by. Graham hand-signalled for us all to stop and he called me forward to check the entrance.

While we stood in the trees, we watched half a dozen rogues come out of the cave entrance and head to the right. They did not seem to be worried that they were being watched.

I called the warrior that was carrying our clothing and the warriors all turned their backs as I put on some trackpants and a warm jumper.

Having looked around and found a suitable tree, I signalled Graham to which tree I was going to climb, and he called forward the warrior that held some cameras. He pulled the bag off the warrior’s back and opened it up.

I took four cameras, one extra just in case one failed to work, also the mini tool kit and some wire to hold the camera’s in place on the tree limb, an ear piece, sort of walkie talkie, and lastly my trusted tablet, used for assigning the cameras to each monitors back at base, until linked, Gerome would not know which monitor was linked to which camera, though his magic fingers over the keyboard, he can move the link to a monitor and bring them side by side, he just needed to know which ones and mark them accordingly.

With practised ease, I climbed the tree, till a suitable branch was found. The spot needed to be high enough not to be spotted easily and close enough to the entrance that we could see the comings and goings and. Then, if lucky, a part of the inside the cave, I crawled slowly towards the end of the chosen branch, until it started to bow low under my weight and picked a suitable spot to place the first camera and turned it on, satisfied with the placement, I lowered it down till it pointed towards the entrance, then, did the same with the other two cameras, one up the left path away from the entrance and one to the right side away from the entrance, happy again with the placement, I placed the ear piece in my right ear and pushed the button and spoke to Gerome.

‘Gerome’. I called softly; worried sounds would travel in this still cold air.

While I waited for Gerome to answer, I opened my tablet and then opened the special app I had made for this operation to activate the cameras and assign which camera would go to a monitor. Gerome had numbered all the cameras, and I was to place them in order of the number sequence, and if one is faulty and cannot be used, I would have to inform Gerome so he could skip that number when doing what he does on the other end.

‘Tell me.’ He replied. I could hear the sound of his fingers running over the keyboards.

‘Cameras in area one, monitor one, angled down the path left and away from the entrance, is now live,’ and waited for the link, the little arrow turning in a circle, telling me the tablet was linking ‘Monitor two, the Entrance, now live,’ I sighed as I waited for the camera to link with the last monitor. ‘Monitor three down the right path away from the entrance. Tell me, the angles are good.’ And I waited for his response.

As each monitor lit up, Gerome would assign that camera number to it and a description of what the camera was viewing,

‘Angles are good. Catch you soon at the next cave entrance.’ He replied happily.

‘We have seen rogues come out of the cave. Graham asked if you could keep an eye out for them and if they have a pattern, or just a one off, just in case we need to get closer to the entrances.’ I asked, knowing he would watch the monitors until we got to the next entrance.

‘Will do, stay safe.’ Gerome responds, sounding distracted.

I shimmied down the tree and handed my stuff back to the warrior who was carrying it. They turned their backs while I stripped and shifted back into my wolf form. Graham grabs the items and puts them back in the bag and then my clothes in the other warrior’s bag, trying to keep everything as dry as possible.

We headed to the next one. During the slow trot. We came across a rabbit warren, and we stopped and dug out the warren, working as a team. We laughed softly and enjoyed the break from the stress of the job, and started catching any that ran out of the mound covered in snow. The rabbits were put in a pile until we had enough for one each. We laid down and ate rabbits for lunch and then continued to head to the next cave entrance. The wolves were content that they had a nice snack and some play time catching the rabbits.

This entrance had trees almost growing above the entrance.

I chose a tree, got dressed and grabbed the cameras, earpiece, my tool kit and tablet, scaled the tree and crawled slowly to the end of the branch. The branch was almost touching the entrance and I thought I could get a really good shot inside the cave.

Placing the cameras in place was easy, the trick was staying still and hoping the rogues would not look into the trees when they came out, as like the other cave, six rogues exited the entrance and then turned left. I waited till they were out of sight before I sat up and put the earpieces on.

My tablet was quicker this time to link the cameras to the monitors, and I called Gerome.

This time, however, I had to crawl to the right camera and slowly move the lens down, till Gerome said stop, and was relieved all was going well. I climbed down the tree.

My brother approaches me, his face with the obvious question.

‘Every ten minutes, they come out of the caves.’ I say as he nods and has his thinking look on his face.

‘We saw that they went left and then to the right, so maybe they have a perimeter to cover, possibly one of the other cave entrances is linked to all of these, and they go around to the entrance and walk through. It will be interesting to see. Also, you were lucky there, that was a close call, the rogue coming out right in front of you, stay aware sis, when up in the trees.’ Nodding, we headed to the next entrance, this one was further away and we had a small frozen stream to cross.