Please, Help Us!

“Okay, so. I’ll say this one time. We scale these fish—”

“Can we even call them fish?”

“We season them—”

“To hide how burnt they are?”

“We roast them up—”

“They need to be cooked more?”

“And we give them away. No eating them!”

“Who would?!”

“Could you guys please!” Eligh wailed. The group hissed, “Shhh!” at him and Eligh wanted to fight everyone.

In response to their mission notice, the team had just zapped a nearby stream with a blast of electricity because no one knew how to properly catch a fish. At least fourteen little fish floated up to the top of the water, steaming from the inside out. Some appeared charred straight through, blacker than what seemed necessary.

Oliver had said, “Oof… Hope no one fell in upstream and got baked,” and Tessa’s soft voice objected, “No! Don’t say that!”

It was a strange scene to behold. Meanwhile, the group of six watched their backs constantly as if they’d stolen something, keeping their eyes on the skies and their ears open for the footfalls of giant, beastly “Care Bears.”

“Anyway,” Eligh said, as he handed a fish to each member of his team for scaling and cleaning, “who knows how to start a campfire?”

Like a repeat of the fishing question, no one put their hands up. Eligh shook his head and set to scaling his fish silently in the stream.

Meanwhile, Jordan squatted down next to him and said with confidence, “That’s it. We’re all going to die out here.”

An hour later, the fourteen fish were cleaned, “seasoned” by the spring water and fresh air, and roasted beyond recognition. Perhaps two of them were passable but none in the bunch were tempting.

Anton took up the rear of the group as they walked deftly through the jungle terrain. He asked aloud, “Is it weird that I’m less hungry now than I was before?” He was the one holding the questionable fish in a little net from the toolkit in their gear.

Eligh grumbled, “No.” And wondered where and when they would find a party of people who were hungry enough to eat fish that looked to have died in the Middle Ages. He hoped this wasn’t a hopeless mission. After all, they had six more to go and less than two days to do it.

Just getting started on this one had taken longer than he had expected it to. The midday sun would soon be growing orange, and they wouldn’t be able to set up camp until this mission was finished.

The realization of their limited abilities was a bit startling.

Just then, Mara grabbed hard onto Eligh’s shoulder, pulling him from his doubts, and thrust a finger ahead. “Look.” She whispered.

Before them was a party of four ladies, all appearing between the ages of twenty to thirty-five. They seemed to be setting up camp for the day as two large sheets of metal arched around them into something like an incomplete dome. Like a slice out of a pie, an opening was left in the dome as an entrance and exit, and Eligh and his group could see right inside it.

Two of the ladies had their backs to them while the other two noticed Eligh’s group coming. Quietly, they raised the alarm, and all four women scrambled into a defensive position.

“Who are you? Get away from here!” One of them hissed, trying to keep her raised voice quiet.

“We come in peace!” Jordan called out, spreading his fingers out in pairs like an alien from the old movies.

Eligh rolled his eyes at Jordan and addressed the women ahead. “It’s true. We just came to offer you some food.”

The word earned them the women’s attention and Eligh gestured for Anton to bring the net of fish forward. Anton held the fish out, an embarrassed blush on his face. They waited as the women squinted their eyes and craned their necks to peer closer.

Eventually, one of them said, “What the flying flapjack is that? Burnt fish? You young’uns messin’ with us?”

Young’uns? Eligh wondered briefly before being forced to dodge a blast of air shot through the pie-like slice in the metal dome. “Whoa!” He cried and then hurriedly corrected himself. He thought he heard the startled flutter of wings from nearby.

“Please! It’s our mission!” He whispered-yelled, hoping the admission would earn them some empathy.

“And why should we help you complete your mission when it’d help lead you closer to winning the Games? What’s in it for us?!”

“Did everyone forget these Games are about building and maintaining peace between persons and countries? Are we on two different planets?” Eligh asked, incredulously.

The woman whom Eligh now presumed was much older than she appeared shrugged her shoulders and said, “Hey, kid. Can’t do anything about human nature.” And then one of her partners shot another blast at them.

By now, Eligh was positive he heard the rapid flutter of the black birds’ wings. They were making too much noise.

“Okay, okay!” He hissed, waving his hands. “Let’s make a deal.”

Again, the women were all ears. Only partly relieved, Eligh sighed, I’m just talking out of my ass. I have nothing to offer these distrustful banshees!

Oliver spoke next. Stepping forward a couple steps, he tapped his palm against his chest and said, “I promise to give you a foot massage, ma’am, if it’ll help give you some relief in these Games.”

“You will?!” Eligh cried, and got his arm slapped by Mara for being too loud. Eligh could only imagine feet with bunions, scabs, and hair whenever he thought about foot massages. He couldn’t even touch his mom’s feet!

Olly, little brother… I’ve changed my opinion about you. You’re a hero. He thought.

Meanwhile, “And, I’d be happy to help with any chores you have,” Mara offered.

“Same here!” Tessa said.

“I can also knit, do hair, and care for your nails, if you’d like!” Mara continued, “Just please, won’t you take some fish?” She smiled her perfect-girl smile and fluttered her lashes a little bit. Eligh wasn’t sure if it was working on the older ladies, but he sure felt attacked.

“How can someone be so perfect?” He muttered, mesmerized, and bit his tongue when Mara turned her eyes to him. “Agh!” He cried and writhed against the ground for several moments as he battled the pain.

They gave Eligh a couple of seconds and then the rest of the two groups moved in coordination. They settled the deal and the party of four invited Eligh’s group inside.

“You out there, hurry up!” The chubbiest of the older women called to him, and when Eligh joined the rest inside the makeshift dome, she pressed a hand against the metal and the remaining slice closed right up.

Magic! A mostly recovered Eligh thought for a second before she flashed the tiny black cube from the gift orbs at him. “Nice.” He told her and felt a little heart-warmed by the crooked grin she gave him in return before ambling away.

“Is this thing going to turn invisible?” He asked the group, and when the women shook their heads, he took out his own black cube, pressed it against the dome, and focused his mind on turning the whole area invisible.

Like a spider, Eligh’s cube sprouted four silver ‘legs’ and attached itself to the metal dome. He let go to watch it work. Visible electric currents spread out from Eligh’s cube and sped through the curved walls. Then, within seconds, the entire dome grew clear and the two teams, now one big group beneath the same roof, could see straight through the dome to the outside.

“Wooow.” The women breathed, and one hurriedly reopened the slice to confirm that they were invisible from the outside when she closed it again.

“I can’t see any of you in there.” She called out.

“Hmph. So, the dopey-looking one can do something, after all.” The one who’d called them ‘young’uns’ said. Eligh made a face, and the lady laughed. “Call me Patrice.”

“Eligh.” He said. He noticed the silver of her fingers and took a moment to observe how the shiny metal gleamed like diamonds against the dark skin of her forearm.

She smiled and flexed her hand. “We played with prototype water blasters when I was fourteen. Those things were not ready for consumer use!” She laughed aloud and beckoned for the fish Anton was still carrying. “Now, let’s see how deadly these things are. We’re starving, we might be able to stomach it. And anyway, you’re helping with our mission right now just by staying here. Wouldn’t hurt to return the favor.” She winked at Eligh as his mouth dropped open.

“All that resistance for nothing? You needed us here!”

“Need is a strong word.”

Mara laughed and a sharp pang of affection shot through Eligh’s chest, like Cupid himself was around. He shook his head, smiling. That girl is always laughing at something, he thought.

And then Eligh had another thought. Alarmed, he looked around the small room and counted heads.

“What… No way.” He mumbled and counted again. His eyes searched through the invisible dome walls.

“What is it, Eligh?” The others asked.

Finally, he lay his eyes on Patrice and her friends. Eligh was sure that the slice to the dome had never reopened after the final close. He asked the group, “Where did she go? The fourth member of your party.”

Oliver jumped to his feet, screaming, “See? This is what I was talking about! It’s what I saw last year, and it’s happened again. She got dragged off! I tried to tell you.

“At the Games, people go missing!”