Page 5 of Hold Me Down

There was a second of silence before a round ofoohswent around the room, even as everyone followed Jeremy out.

Dave fell into step next to Travis.

"Ready to kick their asses?"

Travis grinned at him. "Born ready, baby."

And that was that.

As they walked up to the green door, Kalei was there waiting for them with Stuart, the guy who usually oversaw all their training at this facility. After a round of greetings, Stuart led them to a briefing room, where he invited them to take seats as he stood next to the big screen.

"Since this is a new obstacle course, I'll walk you through what you may expect, but be aware that we're keeping some of it a secret, so you'd have to think fast on your feet."

When a floor plan appeared on the screen, Dave leaned forward in his seat. He could see others doing the same in the corners of his eyes, but he focused on the intel at hand.

There were three separate areas on the plan, with two where the setup was mostly visible—although some of the details weren't clear—and one where all they could see was the first few feet of the space, with an unspecified object blocking sight of the rest.

"We'll be timing you, of course, but we'll also count the obstacles you complete and the ones you don't. Sometimes you may want to give up on something for the overall speed, and sometimes you should not, but you may not be able to tell, especially on your first go-round. I suspect you'll be revisiting this course in the future, since even knowing the whole setup, there's still a lot to work through."

Stuart quickly ran them through things they could see—adding some info about the dimensions Dave stored in his head, the cogs in his brain already turning to figure out the best and quickest way to tackle them.

And then, it was time to start. Each pair would have ten minutes to make their way through, and the bonus points for the obstacles they completed.

Unfortunately, Dave and Travis were slotted to go last, which meant they wouldn't be able to see much of the proceedings until later. There was an electronic scoreboard next to the screen that would be updated on the go and show how many obstacles each pair completed, but other than that, they would only see dots moving on the floor plan.

Then again, as things started, the two of them had ample time to assess the difficulty of each stage by how quickly and efficiently their colleagues made their way through the course. All the waiting pairs were whispering to each other now, eyes fixed on the screen and the scoreboard, and Dave could feel the growing tension in his stomach.

He couldn't wait for it to be their turn.

Ian and Clay were the last ones before them, and Dave and Travis got up to watch them on the screen. As they moved quickly through the space, it was clear that they were serious contenders for the first place currently held by Jeremy and Martinez. Ian and Clay clocked one more obstacle in the second area but spent a bit more time there, and then they failed to earn points for the last obstacle, just like Jeremy and Martinez, even though they lingered there longer.

Ultimately, they fell behind by a point.

"Damn." Travis shook his head. "That was close."

"I wonder what that last thing is." Dave waved at the scoreboard. "Only Melissa and Keri have a point for that one, so I'm thinking less brute force and more flexibility—or height."

"I'm leaning towards height, but I guess we'll see soon enough." Travis bumped their shoulders together. "Whatever it is, if we make good time, I say we go for it with all that we have."

Dave nodded. He had no doubts Travis would want to fight until the very end and he had no problems with it—hell, he enjoyed it. Even if Travis had been pushing harder lately than ever before, Dave didn't mind trying to keep pace with him. After all, that was what they'd always done—they moved through life together, one way or another.

Finally, it was their time to shine, and Dave could feel his blood pumping as the adrenaline rushed through him right before the door opened.

And then there was barely any thinking, only moving, covering the space with his partner by his side. The first room was all about beams and ropes—challenging but not too hard—and yet Dave's heartbeat quickened, keeping him alert and on task.

Easy could lead to distractions and they couldn't have that.

They had a challenge to win.

In the second room, they got through the vertical ladders and the stepping stones quickly, but Travis almost slipped on his way down from the bouldering wall.

"You good?" Dave shouted as they ran to the door.

"Never better, come on, come on."

The moment they entered the last space, they realized they were out in the open—there was a tunnel to crawl through, and then they were on the sand, with several still rings ahead of them and the wall at the end, looming large over the rest.

There was no time to stop and think, though. Dave could tell their time was good, and they clocked in every obstacle so far.

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