Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint

giving me a thumbs-up.
    We didn’t have to wait long. A few seconds later, I heard Buster barking. It was faint but unmistakable, coming from the east side of the house, near the front corner of the yard by the ocean. Several barks responded from the backyard, and we could hear them disappearing in the distance as they ran towards Buster.
    “Now!” I said, pushing on her back, getting her to bend over. I jumped up on it, getting on my knees, intending to stand up and use it as a step; but Winky had other ideas.
    “Stand on my shoulders,” she grunted out, waving her hands so I’d sit on her shoulders first and then stand on them, instead of kneeling and standing on her bent over back.
    “Step closer to the wall a little,” I said in a panic. I hadn’t planned on doing it this way, so I was unprepared for what I had to do for a couple precious seconds. I used my hands on the stucco surface for leverage and lifted one foot up to put it near her shoulder, skipping the whole sitting down thing to save time. She offered her hand to help me and I grabbed on, praying she could handle the force of me pushing into her like this with my feet. She staggered a little as she went from a bent-over position to a standing one, but didn’t go down.
    The muscles in my thigh burned as I used my left leg alone to push myself up a little, until I could get my other foot under me and onto her other shoulder. Once my second foot was secured, I let go of her hand and stood, putting both hands on the wall again. I was standing fully erect on her shoulders now, but was still about eight inches too short. Even if I jumped, I was afraid I wouldn’t make it.
    “Here,” said a voice from below. “Let me help.” It was the guy who was supposed to be acting as our lookout at the corner; and he was a good six inches taller than Winky.
    “Thanks, Jason,” Winky said.
    He put his hand under my right heel and said, “Push on my hand. I’m going to press you up.” I looked down to see him gritting his teeth, straining as he did a slow bench-type press of my foot, his second hand joining the first to give me all the power he had. I felt myself being elevated, inch by inch. I walked my hands up the wall until they reached the top, while still balanced on one foot. His hands were shaking like crazy.
    “Can you throw me up just two inches?” I whispered desperately, looking down again at his beet-red face.
    He nodded, unable to speak.
    “I’ll count it out,” said Winky, nervously watching Jason’s face. “Ready? One, two, push!”
    Jason crouched down a few inches and then surged suddenly upward, throwing me towards the top of the wall and giving me just the distance I needed to hook one arm over the top of it. I pulled my head up and then the rest of my upper body, getting my second arm over in a single jerking motion. I hung there in place for a few seconds, panting, getting a quick look at the back yard.
    I was high up near the leafy part of the tree, hopefully invisible from inside the house because of it. There were no dogs below me, but I could hear a big ruckus off in another corner of the yard that I thought was probably caused by Buster.
    I pulled myself the rest of the way up, grunting with the effort of trying to do it quietly. Once I was lying across the top horizontally, I spun myself around so I could flip my legs over to the other side and my torso down towards Winky.
    Jason already had her sitting on his shoulders and she was getting up on her feet. I grabbed her outstretched hand and pulled on it so she could get up faster. Jason put his hands under the soles of her moccasins and said, “Get out of the way, Bryn. I’m throwing her up!”
    I let her go and scootched over to the side, ignoring the abrasive and pointed stucco bits digging into the flesh of my stomach. I’d just cleared the spot above Winky’s head when she came flying up to the top of the wall. They looked almost like a circus act they way they executed it so well. She must be lighter than me. She got a lot more air than I did.
    She hit the wall and grabbed the edge with both arms, her elbows and forearms digging into the top of it. I knew it had to be painful. I reached over and put my hand around the back of her head, encouraging her to lean back into it and use it as leverage to get the rest of her body up.
    Jason kept pushing her feet from underneath, and with the two of us helping, Winky eventually got on by throwing her leg over the wall