You roll your eyes for Dena's benefit, and she laughs behind her hand. Lapu's obviously nervous about the expedition, covering for his insecurities by mocking you after your fall. You won't let it get to you. The group needs to be kept on track if you hope to reach the other side of the bridge and return before nightfall.
You get to your feet and stretch your injured back and leg, groaning as muscles pop and finish knitting together.
"Come on, Lapu," you say soothingly. "We're all nervous about this." The young wolf winces. You were right of course, his nerves are getting to him. "We need to get moving if we're going to get there and back on time. I won't lag behind."
Lapu grumbles and kicks a paw through the dirt. "Well, I guess…."
"Good," you reply, clapping him on the shoulder. "Let's go then."
Approach the Bridge
The Q Bridge is difficult to approach from concealment; the ruined buildings of the former city stop a good half mile before the pavement even begins to rise.
Having considered this, Tiva came up with a plan to access the bridge from the south side, hiding among the charred scrap metal husks of the old oil containers that litter the coastline near the base of the bridge.
When you reach the underside of the span, you take ropes from Tiva's backpack, each fastened to a grappling hook. Tiva worked in secret on the hooks for the past few weeks, smuggling them out of the machine shop where she works after closing hours. The ropes will allow you to bypass the checkpoint on this end of the bridge, although you'll still have to be lucky to avoid any patrolling guards.
"Here goes nothing," Tiva says with a grin as she tosses her hook upward. It latches against the underside of the bridge.
"Lucky toss," Lapu says as he attempts to replicate Tiva's throw, failing miserably time and again as the hook falls back to the ground with a dull thud. The boy looks over at you and Dena, but neither of you are doing much better. "Can't we all just take the same rope up?" he mutters despondently.
"I swear," Tiva says, "you guys couldn't do anything without my help!" One by one she tosses the hooks up into the tangle of steel beams underneath the bridge, cords of muscle straining on her arms.
Unlike many other wolves your age, she bulked up during her long teenage years spent working the forge. "We need to stay together," she says. "We can't have half of us sitting around for ten minutes at the top of the bridge waiting to get caught while the rest of you take your time climbing!"
"Hey, Edward diaz," Tiva calls over to you. "Let's make this fun—I'm in the mood for a game! If I can get to the top of the rope first, you'll cover my shift at the machine shop tomorrow."
You raise an eyebrow. "And if I win?"
"Hmm," she mutters. "How about I owe you a favor? You can cash it in any time. Nothing huge, mind you, but I'll owe you one."
You shrug your shoulders. It sounds fair enough to you. You're no fan of the machine shop, having devoted more of your time to academic pursuits, but a contest might be just the thing to psych yourself up for the trip into human territory. You look upward at the ropes as they gently swing in the breeze. It's a long climb, and it's been a while since you've practiced. Still though, you shouldn't have a problem getting to the top. The question is, can you beat Tiva?
Climb the rope. Any challenge can be likened to a battle; I just need to be faster than my opponent and never stop moving.
Climb the rope. Slow and steady wins the race. My strength will hold out as long as I don't burn myself out at the beginning.
Climb the rope. I remember a technique that Huntmaster Jolon taught me for rope climbing, using the muscles in my legs as much as those in my arms to slither up as fast as possible.
I try to convince Lapu to be my proxy. He's an excellent climber, and he loves to show off to Tiva at every available opportunity.
Next
You start off strong, grunting as you haul yourself hand over hand up the swaying rope, but it isn't long before Tiva pulls ahead of you and stays ahead.
You pull yourself up over the lip of the overpass mere seconds after her, but the winner is clear. Tiva grins at you, a playful sense of self-satisfaction radiating off her in waves. She nudges you as you both crane your necks over to mark the progress of the others.
"So. Tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. sharp! Hope you get some good sleep tonight, cause you're gonna need it. Razor's been falling behind on the military's orders lately, and she's not kidding around. She's been pushing us hard. It's about time I finally got a break!"
Next
Tiva paces nervously, muttering to herself until the tip of Dena's brown snout crests the lip of the bridge and finally all four of you have reached the top.
"No time to rest," she says, her eyes shifting back and forth, looking for patrols. "We should get across as soon as possible."
When the humans set up Haven as a refuge for your pack, they cleared a path on the bridge just wide enough for a truck to drive comfortably across. But the bridge was originally constructed to accommodate up to ten vehicles side by side, leaving you and your companions plenty of room to scurry among the debris as you make your way to the other end.
You reach the opposite landing half an hour later, miraculously without meeting any human patrols and narrowly avoiding contact with an unexpected minefield hidden on the northern edge of the bridge.
Tiva eyes the checkpoint leading off the span and into the human compound warily, sniffing at the air.
"Nobody's here, and I don't think their surveillance system is activated," she says, placing a paw against one of two tall, dark monoliths at either side of the landing. "No humming, no crackle of electricity. Let's go for it."
Enter the Human Compound