Rain began to gently fall again as Jim and Sam made their way back to the fortress.  They had returned to Sam’s cabin and gathered a few supplies that would work in accordance with Jim’s plan.  This time, Jim was smart enough to request some type of protective material from the rain.  It rained frequently and Jim knew he could use this to his advantage.  The wind began to pick up, although not as intensely as previous bouts.

Jim and Sam moved quickly through the forest and towards the fortress as the sun was beginning to set.  Jim was more familiar with this path now, and didn’t need to follow Sam, he could hustle by his side.  They came to a halt about thirty yards from the clearing on the ridge where they first were.  

“Do you remember your part of the first plan?” Jim asked, eyeing Sam beneath his camouflage rain guard.

“I don’t know how successful I'll be with this storm moving in, but I suppose it's worth a try.” Sam replied, skeptical.

“The rain will help sell the plan better.  Besides, the rain is exactly what I’ll need on my end.  Just be sure not to stick around too long.  The plan requires you to not get caught.  I need you out here.” Jim spoke, confidently. 

With that, Sam nodded and disappeared into the darkness.  

Jim took a deep breath and slowly approached their first spot by the fallen tree.  Jim peered up over the tree and the remainder of the sun disappeared behind the far wall of the fortress, casting a deep red glow on the horizon.  The rain was intensifying a little.  Jim pulled out his scope and surveyed the scene before him.  Just as expected, all four towers had guards.  They all had jackets on to shield themselves from the coming chill that the storms brought.  Jim panned his cope to his left to the tree line.  Jim was waiting for a signal.  His vision shifted back to the fortress.  Jim took note of two different guards circling the upper walkway on opposite ends of the fortress. Jim lowered his scope to rest his eyes for a moment.  Jim closed his eyes, and rubbed them briefly.

Thunder rolled overhead, the storm was finally beginning to clear its throat.  Lightning flashed in the distance behind the fortress. Jim opened his eyes.

“Just a little closer.” Jim whispered to himself and the storm that was to be.

Lightning again flashed behind the fortress, but now a bolt streak could be seen behind the fortress.  The resulting thunder rumbled louder.  The storm was only about a mile off now.  The rain picked up considerably, the wind, in turn, followed.  More lightning, closer.  More thunder, louder. 

The rain suddenly lightened up, the wind dropped out.  This is not what Jim had been hoping for at all.  A small sense of panic took over.  Was his plan really not going to work?  The storms out here got so intense, and were so frequent that Jim figured the plan to be fool proof.

A very bright flash happened, and thunder rolled right over head with a deafening crack.  The rain picked up ten fold, and the wind followed suit.  Finally, Jim saw what he was waiting for out of the corner of his eye.  A fire had been lit in the distance. He hoped beyond hope that the guards would see this fire and assume it to be caused by the storm.

Jim’s gaze shifted immediately back to the fortress.  He lifted his scope to witness the guards reaction, however, none of them seemed to have noticed, at least not yet.  The rain was coming down in buckets now. Jim sat there watching, waiting.  Jim looked back over to the fire and it was still lit.  It was a little smaller than he’d hoped for.  He wanted Sam to light a noticeable, but believable fire.  Jim heard the tiny murmur of voices.  Jim swung his scope back to the fortress.  The tower closest to the blaze had two guards in it now, but they didn’t seem to notice anything.  They were holding some kind of conversation, holding their hands out to feel the rain coming down.  Had his plan already failed? Was the fire simply too far away, too small? Jim sat studying the guards in the tower.  One of them finally had their attention diverted to the fire.  The guard didn’t really react though, he seemed almost unsure of what he was seeing.  The other guard finally turned to see whatever it was his fellow guard was seeing.  The realization had finally hit them.

Both guards ran half the length of the fortress and signaled another tower.  The other tower guards noticed their comrades approaching with haste, hands pointed in the direction of the fire.  These tower guards ran to the building occupied by Machete Max.

The guards re-emerged from the building with purpose.

“Fire!” shouted the guard running back to his tower and ringing a bell very loudly.  One by one, the other towers quickly joined in.  The whole fortress came alive in the dead of night, rain pouring down, thunder and lightning continuing.  

Machete Max emerged from his quarters and commanded half of his guards to put out the fire.  Jim’s plan of a diversion was beginning to take effect.  He only needed to wait until the guards left before he could initiate his own part of the plan.  Jim got into position and waited.  Sam finally reappeared from the treeline and met with Jim.

“Did you make it look convincing enough?” Jim asked.

“I only did this because the rain will put it out on its own. I’m not generally one for destroying nature.” Sam said. “It’s your turn.”

It didn’t take another thirty seconds before the main entrance to the fortress opened and ten guards ran toward the blaze that Sam had lit.

“Remember to signal if you need to, I'll be back as quickly as I can.” Jim said, before taking off.

Jim made his way down the hill quickly and quietly.  As he got closer, the fortress suddenly became more real.  The walls of the fortress were taller than he expected.  The edifice before him was even more foreboding with brief flashes of lightning giving attention to the dark stone walls.  Some real masonry effort went into the design.  Jim had to focus.

Jim planted himself against the wall and followed the perimeter.  He knew this would be the only way to avoid being seen.  Jim followed the perimeter and finally reached the fence of the sobbing woman. 

Jim peered through the fence and couldn’t really see much without the flash of lightning.  Jim could very much hear voices.  The fearful voices of prisoners were very muffled with the sound of rain surrounding him.  Jim wasted no more time.

Jim knelt on the ground and began to draw a symbol in the mud.  Jim drew a circle with a cross inside it, similar to that of the one from the ornate door back at the shelter.  Under the symbol, Jim wrote three letters, all in caps ‘RGX’.  Jim stood back up and waited for the flash of lightning to see his work.  It looked as good as it would get.  He would simply have to hope and pray that the storm would end shortly, not wash away his symbol or it would all be for nothing.

Satisfied, Jim carefully retraced his steps carefully.  This was the tricky part.  He knew leaving tracks was unavoidable, but if he could manage to walk backwards and trace his feet well enough, the only thing anyone would see would be tracks heading toward the symbol, nothing walking away from.   That ought to be enough to keep ‘em guessing, he thought to himself.  

Jim made his way back to the corner of the castle.  With a patch of grass and gravel leading back up the hill from his position, he no longer needed to walk backwards.  He turned to look at the ridge where Sam lay waiting.  Jim took a step, and Jim saw what he’d been hoping he wouldn’t.  Sam was using the scope to signal Jim that the coast wasn’t clear.  Jim froze in his steps.  They’re already back! Jim thought to himself.

Jim carefully, barely peeked around the corner to catch any glimpse of where they were.  As soon as he peeked around the corner, he saw Machete Max standing there, his back to Jim.  Instantly, Jim pulled his head back behind the corner.  Jim’s heart was now beating out of his chest.  Jim just stood there waiting, listening.  Jim could only hope that Machete Max hadn’t also seen Sam’s signal.  If he had, Jim figured, then he would have for sure already reacted to it.

Jim could hear the pitter patter of feet running across wet turf and mud.  The guards were returning from their adventure.  Jim just had to wait until the gate was closed and then take off like a jack-rabbit back to the fallen tree.

Slowly, one by one, the guards all made their way back into the fortress.  Jim kept his attention to the ridge.   Sam used his scope again to give the all clear signal.  Jim wasted no time.  He began running, knowing that the guards would take a couple of minutes to return to their post.

Jim moved as quickly as he could.  He wasn’t too concerned about sound considering the rain provided an exceptional masking. Jim could see his destination not twenty feet away.  Jim began hustling up the hill and slipped.  

Jim fell face first into the mud under him.  Instinctually, he turned over.  One of the guards had already made their way back to the upper walkway with a lit lantern.  The guard hadn’t seemed to notice that Jim slipped, but the glow of the lantern waved around and illuminated Jim for a brief moment.  Jim froze again.  He didn’t dare to move a muscle.  How does he not see me? Jim asked himself, in shock and disbelief.  Then it occurred to him.  The mud must be complimenting the camouflage.  Jim continued to hold his breath until the glow of the lantern passed by him.  Once the guard was facing away from him, Jim slowly got back to his feet and very carefully found each slipper step back to where Sam was waiting behind the fallen tree.

“That was too close!” Jim whispered to Sam as he rounded the edge of the fallen tree.

Sam took one look at Jim, completely covered in mud.

“I thought you said, you were gonna use your finger, not your whole body.” Sam said, very sarcastically.

“Ha, Ha.” Jim responded, sarcastically.  “Now we need to get back into position in the trench.”

Sam nodded his head in agreement and the two men began the quick journey to the trench off to the side of the fortress.

“You don’t think the rain will wash it away?” Sam asked, legitimately concerned.

“I traced the symbol deep enough.  Now we pray, and wait to see what it looks like after the storm in the morning.” Jim responded, only partially confident.

Both men managed to find some decent sized leaves in the semi-rain drenched forest.  They lined the trench with the leaves and got as comfortable as they could, considering.

At some unknown point, both men drifted off to sleep as the rain, in turn, began to die down. Jim could only hope that one of his crew would see the symbol and know he was out here somewhere.  Jim knew the symbol was enough to arouse suspicion amongst the guards, but no one could possibly know what it meant.  The added touch of the single line, and ending tracks would also have them guessing.  This method would prevent them from believing the perpetrator to be in the woods where they were.

Suddenly Jim had a concerning thought.  Would they see this and believe it to be a prisoner who escaped?  The symbol alone should make them not think as such, but who knows how these people think.  Jim then fell asleep, His mind focusing only on the hope that his symbol would be worth it, and work.