Chapter 7: The Boiling Point
At the moment when Mr. Parker's voice came over the loudspeaker announcing that half of the game time had passed, the atmosphere inside the Lynx cabin was reaching a boiling point. Seven boys from the Hawks team were tied to wooden beams, while their leader, Ethan, was lying on his stomach, his hands bound behind his back, legs tied together, and gagged with Noah’s socks. His face was already smeared with sweat, matted with the dust from the cabin floor, and his eyes followed Noah’s every move with a hint of anxiety. The Hawks' sneakers had already been removed on Noah’s command and tossed into the corner, while the cabin was filled with the awful stench of sweat and grime.
“You want us all to suffocate, you jerk? What’s this all about anyway?” asked Liam angrily.
"Stop whining like a little girl. If you can't stand it, go outside! It won't last much longer anyway—victory is near," Noah replied. "Alright, guys. Take their socks off now," he added. The Lynx boys went around to each of the captured Hawks and began removing their socks. For some, they couldn’t pull them off because of the ropes. "If you can’t get them off, loosen their legs a bit, then tighten them again afterward. We don’t want our stinky buddies running off anywhere," Noah said with a laugh.
Once all the socks had been removed, Noah stepped in and began collecting them with a grimace on his face. There were fourteen sweaty, dirty socks—white, black, and gray. Clutching the bundle in his hands, Noah walked over to Ethan and crouched beside him.
"Time to smell your boys," he said. He sat down on Ethan’s shoulders and instructed two of the bigger Lynx boys to sit on his legs to keep him from kicking, since Ethan was no longer hogtied. Noah grabbed Ethan’s hair, pulling his head up, and with his other hand shoved the pile of socks under his nose. Ethan desperately tried to resist, holding his breath, but it was no use. He couldn’t turn his head left or right—Noah had locked it in place with his knees, pressing his hands down to force Ethan’s face into the heap of socks.
"Hey, you're still resisting! You just need to relax and breathe, that's all. Your fellow Hawks will do the rest—if they really love you as much as they say," Noah said in a calm tone. Ethan finally gave in and inhaled the awful stench through his nose, after which he began making noises like he was about to throw up at any moment. His eyes were bloodshot, while the rage and humiliation inside him had reached a boiling point. "Can I possibly fall any lower than this?" he wondered to himself, while Noah and the Lynx boys laughed around him.
"Disgusting! I’ve been wearing mine for three days. Poor Ethan—I can’t even imagine what he’s going through," said one of the Hawks.
"And I've been wearing mine since the beginning of the week. We have to tell them, we lost anyway. He’ll get intoxicated, I mean it smells worse than any poison," added another boy.
"Come on, just tell them already! I don’t know where they took him," sobbed little Cody, who couldn’t take Ethan’s torment any longer.
"STOP!" shouted Mark, one of the older Hawks. "I know where Tyler is—I’ll show you, just leave Ethan alone!"
Noah lifted Ethan’s head out of the socks and said, "Talk! Where did you take him?" Through his gag, Ethan tried to mumble something like, "No, don’t tell them…" even though he himself wanted the nightmare to end. Mark described where the Hawks' base was, after which Noah gave the order to get him ready to leave and to put socks and shoes back on the remaining Hawks. He stood up from Ethan and said, "I know you're enjoying this—I’d gladly leave you to stew a bit longer in the socks, but we’re all starting to suffocate around you, so they’ll take them away now."
The Lynx boys collected the socks and shoes and began hurriedly putting them back on the Hawks, without any order or care. Some of the boys protested that they were being given the wrong socks, but the Lynx didn’t really care. Red-faced from humiliation, Ethan at least finally felt a sense of relief that he could breathe fresh air again.
Ben calculated that only four Hawks were still free, after which Noah gave the order to take Mark and have all the Lynx go to free Tyler and to capture the rest of the Hawks, sealing their fate. He decided to stay behind with the prisoners—he didn’t like wearing shoes without socks, and he didn’t feel like walking barefoot through the forest.
* * * * * * * * *
Meanwhile, another boy was bravely resisting interrogation. It was Nate, who was tied to a table by the Falcons and had been getting tickled for half an hour. His stomach glistened in the sun from sweat, and his cheeks were soaked with tears as he laughed uncontrollably. At one point, they brought out feathers, took off his socks, and started tickling his feet, underarms, and nose. Though he held out for a long time, Nate eventually broke and began shouting through his gag something that sounded like, "Stop! I’ll tell you!"
Sam gave the Falcons a signal to stop and pulled the bandana from Nate’s mouth. "Got something to say? Come on—where’s our leader?" he asked, leaning in close to the exhausted Nate. Nate slowly lifted his head from the table, as if to whisper something to him—but instead of an answer, Sam got a mouthful of Nate’s spit right in the face. His expression twisted with rage in an instant. The previously calm Sam snapped, gritting his teeth as he muttered, "You’re gonna regret that… but you brought it on yourself." He draped an old dirty rag over Nate’s face. Nate didn’t have much strength left to fight back—and he knew it would be pointless anyway. And just as Nate was wondering what was going on, he felt water being poured over his head. Sam stood over him, pouring water onto his face from his bottle.
"You wanted to act like a big man, Nate? Then you’ll get an interrogation fit for a big man!" Sam said angrily. As soon as Sam paused after a few seconds, Nate gasped for air and cried out, "Stop! I’m begging you, stop! I can’t take this!" Sam started chuckling. "I know you can’t—people much older and tougher than you can’t either." He pulled the rag off Nate’s face, whose eyes were full of tears. "See how quickly you learned to be a polite little boy? You even begged me. Now, once again—where’s Dylan?" Worn out and broken, Nate began to speak, while his captured teammates looked on with sorrow, realizing they were on the brink of defeat—but also with admiration for Nate and everything he had endured.
* * * * * * * * *
On the other side of the camp, a worried Luis had decided to ignore Dylan’s warnings, gagging him again with a bandana and nervously waiting, hoping his teammates would return any moment. Dylan laid on the ground beside him, with his arms and legs stretched. He felt proud of himself, knowing that the Wolves had walked right into his trap—but also nervous, since his fate now depended on others, and he had to lie there tied up on that dirty ground.
* * * * * * * * *
While his fellow Wolves were going through a tough time, Jason was still having friendly conversations with the Otters, who were holding him captive. He had been lying tied in a hogtie for three hours, and he was starting to feel the numbness creeping into his arms and legs, but he didn’t want to complain in front of the boys, so he just tried to ignore it.
At one point, Toby asked him, "Hey, Jason! When was the first time you were tied up—and who did it to you?" Jason looked at him confused, thought for a moment, and finally said, "Well… I don’t really remember anyone tying me up before. At least not so I couldn’t get out of it myself." -"Woooow! So we’re the first ones to actually take you down!" Eli said proudly.
The Otter boys kept laughing and chatting, not paying much attention to Jason, who had sunk deep into thoughts. Images from past camps swirled through his mind—from before he had become a leader. He had never let anyone tie him up. Even when his friends politely asked to practice knots on him, he would rudely refuse. Because he was strong and proud—and guys like that weren’t supposed to be the ones tied up, right? He asked himself,
"Why did I let them tie me up now? I could’ve taken down all four of them and tied them up. But I let them put me in this position. Why do I feel… excited? Or maybe even more than that? Why do I… like this? What’s wrong with me?" The questions kept spinning in his head.
At one point, he noticed the ropes around his wrists had loosened—probably from the sweat, since he had been lying in that uncomfortable position for so long. He tried to free himself again, and finally managed to slip his hands out of the rope. Quietly, he lowered his legs to the ground and began untying them, while the Otter boys still hadn’t noticed anything.
He hesitated again: "Should I run before they see I’ve escaped—or should I tie up all four of them and go help my Wolves?" Then, as he was untying the rope around his dark green socks, an image stuck in his mind: "What if I let them catch me again? They’d probably tie me up much tighter this time, and I wouldn’t be able to move at all. But why would I do that? Why does this excite me so much?" The thoughts continued racing through Jason’s head—until a loud sound broke his train of thought, caused by his own feet hitting the ground, whether intentionally or not.
"Hey! Grab him—he’s trying to escape!" the Otter boys shouted.
In disbelief at what he had done, Jason didn’t even try to resist. Soon he found himself sitting with his back against a medium-sized tree. Sean lifted his arms and tied them tightly behind his head and behind the tree as well, exposing his armpits, which were soaked with sweat. Eli wrapped a mess of ropes around Jason’s muscular stomach and chest, while Toby focused on his legs, tying them in four places: around the thighs, above the knees, below the knees, and around the ankles (over his socks). Toby also took another rope and stretched Jason’s legs out, tying them to an opposite tree, putting his body into an L-shaped position.
While Jason still stared in confusion, wondering how he had ended up in this situation again, his heart was pounding so fast from excitement that it gave him the answer he wasn’t willing to admit. Finally, the silence was broken by Mason, who approached him holding several bandanas and said:
"This time you're getting the full treatment, Jason! Don’t try to make excuses, and don’t pretend we’re all buddies. You got what you wanted—now open up!"
"Looks like you're right. I really did get what I wanted. Here..." Jason murmured, then gently opened his mouth.
"Wider… Come on, like at the dentist," Mason teased.
Jason gave a slight smile and opened his mouth as wide as he could. Mason stuffed two bandanas into it, then tied them in with rope and wrapped another bandana around, securing the gag in place. A blindfold followed, covering Jason’s eyes—and with that, they finally left him just to sit there. This time, he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and couldn’t see. The excitement wasn’t even starting to fade.
* * * * * * * * *
Although he had been tied up for the shortest time, Tyler was the most nervous of them all. He wasn’t the kind of a person that could be still for longer than 5 minutes. He kept grumbling through the bandana gagging his mouth and tried to lower his arms or at least lift his legs. But he couldn’t do either. He was forced to stand there, stretched out, while his Lynx teammates hurried to come to his aid.
* * * * * * * * *
In contrast, Cameron laid calmly at the bottom of a boat, without any attempt to move. He was tied down but relaxed. At one point he thought, "Why even try? I know it’s impossible," and then stopped thinking altogether. He completely cleared his mind, just breathing and gazing at the blue sky above him. Still, he was slightly annoyed that the boys from the Gray Falcons were using him as a human rug, resting their legs across his body. But even that didn’t bother him enough to protest.
Eventually, though, even that peace had to end, and Cameron began to groan loudly beneath his bandana.
"What now?" asked Ian, removing his gag.
"Guys, I’m really sorry, but I…"
"What is it?" Marcus asked.
"I… I have to pee," Cameron said sheepishly, his cheeks turning red.
"Damn it! He’s just making that up because he knows no one’s going to find him here," Ian began protesting.
"I don’t think that’s the case. He’s been quiet here for over two hours—it’s normal that he has to do it at some point," Josh defended him, as usual.
"I’m with Josh on this one. We just need to make sure he doesn’t run off while he does it," added Marcus.
"Okay, okay. You guys know I’ve never given you trouble about it. Tie me however you want—just please hurry. It’s really starting to be urgent," Cameron said, still embarrassed.
And as the Falcons hurried to untie the ropes from Cameron’s body, the sun slowly began to set…
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TO BE CONTINUED…
This chapter was really tricky for me because I need to start pulling all of the plot-threads together. I hope you can still enjoy it. Feel free to leave comments even if you don't like it. I’m always open to constructive criticism.
BONUS: AI image of Noah preparing socks for Ethan.
I'm sure as hell glad I wasn't the one being interrogated by this group!
