by Maya William
“Yes, she will! Only a couple of us would make it down the zip line, and I don’t plan on losing half of the team pursuing this craziness.” Color rises in Abigail’s face along with her temper and voice.
“But if we go with my plan, it’ll allow us to know their exact location. If we split up, one part of the team can track and shoot them while the other part goes to take their flag.”
Technically, his plan might work. Then again, I didn’t plan to learn how to zip-line this beautiful, Saturday morning.
“Archibald, drop it. We’re not using that plan.” My sister’s eyes widen, and she swipes her hand through the air to cut him off.
“Fine!” He pouts, crossing his arms and joining Joy and me at the back of the room. “Let’s do what Miss Abigail wants and walk across the darn field, taking all morning and part of our afternoon.”
“It’s not like we need to be somewhere today,” Samuel points out without looking at him. “Knowing Zach, he’ll take the higher ground and use Lyra as a sniper.” He points to a part of the map that shows one of several small towers throughout the area.
“If it were me, I’d put Barb there.” Abigail points to one of the most strategic towers. “She’s a terrible runner and hiker. But when she’s standing still, her aim is almost as good as Lyra’s.”
“Would she split from lover boy?” Archie asks.
Abigail hesitates for a moment, but then nods.
“Zach will ask her to. He needs to use Kellan’s speed and ability to climb to reach our flag. They’ll probably use this route, and he’ll put Barb here and Lyra over here,” she guesses, pointing at two different spots on the map.
“So, what’s our strategy, oh fearless leader?” Archie asks in a sarcastic tone.
Her eyes land on me.
My back straightens on instinct, and I avert my eyes from her gaze.
“The five of us are good climbers. Samuel, how’s your aim?” she asks.
“Not as good as Lyra’s, but not bad.”
“What about yours, Archie?”
My head snaps forward as I remember Zach’s comment about making him practice working on his aim. However, Archie never joined me for Lyra’s class.
Archie mumbles something, and Samuel shakes his head slightly.
My sister returns her gaze to the map and brings her thumb to her mouth, biting her nail and reminding me of my terrible habit. She studies her options, eyes moving from one side of the map to the other.
“Archie, what’s our best route?” She points a warning finger at him. “And don’t say the zip line.”
Archie rolls his eyes. “If you want to avoid Barb, we need to move out of her firing range. We should be safe running through the edge of the field, using the trees as a shield. However, that route’s longer, and the ground’s uneven. We’ll be too slow, and by the time we need to climb, we’ll be too exhausted.” He sighs. “Our best bet will be to take Barb down.”
Abigail turns to look at Joy. “Do you see any trees, rocks, or something you can climb or hide yourself to make the shot?”
Joy stands and walks closer to the map. “It’ll depend on if she positions herself on this side or the other.” She points at two probable locations. “I can cover this part, and Samuel the other one.”
“Okay, then Archie, you’ll play bait,” Abigail says. “Let’s lure Barb out of her hiding place.”
“And what will happen if she’s not there?” I ask.
Every head turns toward me.
“She’ll be there, I know Zach.” My sister smirks.
“And he knows you,” I retort. “Are you changing your usual strategy?” I remember Archie’s previous words about her playing cat and mouse with Zach. “Are you deciding we should go for his flag? Or, should we go get our flag first and then his?”
She turns and looks at me, her face unreadable, before her eyes snap shut, and she pinches the bridge of her nose. “We don’t need both flags to win. Only theirs.” She opens her eyes and turns to Samuel and Joy. “We take Barb down. We’ll then split up. One team goes after Lyra, while the other runs for his flag.”
An idea forms in my mind, and I chuckle. “We could play with his head!”
“The plan’s set. We don’t have any more time to come up with something different.” Abigail grabs her equipment. “Everybody, make sure your earbuds and microphone work properly.”
Samuel’s eyes travel from her to me. “We should listen to Samantha’s idea.”
“There’s no time.” Not bothering to look at us, Abigail picks up her gun and takes the safety off.
“She does have a point. Maybe it’s not as crazy as my idea.” Archie stops setting up his equipment and glances at me. “Zach knows how you operate, but not how Samantha does.”
“Testing, testing,” Abigail says into her microphone, ignoring us.
“Abigail.” Warning fills Joy tone.
“Samantha, put on your protective gear and test your equipment,” Abigail orders while aiming her gun at the wall and making a shot. Red paint splatters against the spot she aimed at.
“But we need to work as a team,” I insist. “Just hear me out. You can dismiss the idea if it’s too crazy.”
“I said no! This is your first time, and you don’t know how things work. Follow us, and you’ll be safe,” Abigail says. “Once you understand the game, you can make suggestions.”
“But, if we go after his f—”
“Samantha, as your leader, I already decided how to proceed. Now put on your equipment and follow us, or stay behind,” she warns me.
During our argument, Samuel, Archie, and Joy shuffle their feet. The tension building inside our cabin is palpable.
“You’re losing the element of surprise. The moment you shoot Barb, Lyra will know exactly where we are,” I tell her while gearing up, but she continues getting ready, acting like she doesn’t hear me. “But, yeah, I am new here. I don’t know anything about the game.”
After putting in the earbuds and pulling on my protective mask and goggles, I bring the gun up and remove the safety lock, then aim at where Abigail’s shot landed and fire a quick test shot, nailing it.
“Nice shot, Samantha.” Samuel’s voice comes through the earbuds.
Abigail snaps her head in his direction. “Don’t pamper her.”
Archie steps between my sister and me. “Don’t be like that, Abigail. New ideas never hurt anybody.”
A brave man. He not only faces the dangers of teaching me how to drive but puts himself between my sister and me—both of us with a paintball gun in our hands.
“Joy, Archie, Samuel, you each know your assignments.” Abigail steps out of the cabin and points at the different paths. “Go ahead.”
The three nod, step out of the cabin, and disappear into the wooded area. I follow them out and prepare to follow my sister.
Abigail turns toward me. She presses a button in her microphone, then lifts her gun, pointing it at me. “Sorry, Samantha, but I also have my set of orders to follow.”
Her words don’t come out through the earbud, and without warning, she fires at me. The sting of where the paint pellet hit the protective vest runs through my body. I touch the spot where pain radiates from. When I look at my hand, the red paint permeates my glove.
Ouch, physically and mentally.
When I search for my sister, she’s already disappeared, leaving me behind.
“Samantha got shot.” Her voice comes through the earbuds once again. “She’s out.”
You shot me!
“What?” a chorus of voices follows, before the voices of the team cut out, as if my microphone and earbud were switched off, not allowing me to explain to the team what happened.
Instead, Oliver’s voice comes through. “Samantha, return to the main base.”
Oh, nuts! I didn’t even get a chance to play a little bit.
It takes me less than two minutes to return to the main cabin where Oliver waits for me, a set of earbuds hanging from
his neck. He sits on a chair next to a table filled with controls and with a microphone.
His eyes focus on the red splotch in the middle of my chest, and he tsks several times, then shakes his head. “They got you bad. Take the vest off. Let’s wait for the next ones to get here.”
They got me bad? Abigail is a freaking backstabber.
“Abigail did this,” I tattle on her. “She shot me after the team spread out.”
“I know.” He quickly raises and drops his brows while settling his earbuds back in place.
Well? Are you going to do something about it?
My mouth opens and closes several times. For a moment, I wonder if I understood the rules correctly. “Isn’t she supposed to protect her team? Not shoot them?”
He doesn’t comment. Instead, he listens to what I assume is the action on the field.
After ten minutes, he laughs.
He pushes one button on the console, then another while he speaks into a microphone. “Nope, Barb, sorry. You know the rules. Come and join us at the main cabin.” He releases the microphone button and presses another. “Sorry, Archie, they got you, too. There’s no need for swearing.”
Wow, that was fast.
Oliver turns to me and points at my gun. “Don’t forget to put the safety lock on when you’re not on the field.”
I was so angry with my sister I forgot to do that.
Shoot! Oh, sorry, not the best choice of words, Big Guy.
I quickly do as Oliver instructed.
Archie arrives ten minutes later, twisting his head to check out his back, where a big blue splotch marks his downfall. “I’m not happy with you, Barbara.”
“What? And let you run free as a deer?” She giggles as she follows him in. Her protective helmet shows a big red stain on it.
Archie points at it, chuckling. “Joy got you good.”
“Shut up, Archibald. She got me in the nick of time before I took Samuel down.” Barb lifts her hand and extends her fingers, studying them. “Darn it! I broke a nail climbing down the tower. At least the game ended for us.”
Abigail was right about Zach putting Barb there.
Darn it! I hate it when she’s right.
“Okay, now the teams are even.” Oliver claps his hands together and turns around in his chair. He has a glint in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. “The three of you change into a clean set of protective gear, switch the ammo in your guns with the yellow pellets, and go back on the field.” He points to one corner of the cabin where several boxes marked as ammo rest on top of a shelf.
What?
“But we’ve been shot.” Archie points at Barb’s helmet. “According to your rules, we’re out.”
“No, you three now form a new team,” he informs us. “Choose a leader and make a plan. I recommend you do it fast. The others have at least a fifteen-minute head start. A map showing the location of your flag is on the wall in the kitchen.”
I glance at Barb and Archie. Their mouths hang open like mine.
“Now!” Oliver claps his hand at us, then turns and puts his earbuds back in to listen to the action.
“I can be the leader.” Archie raises his arm when we arrive in the kitchen. “I already have the greatest plan.”
“No!” Barb shakes her head. “You’ll want to do something crazy. I would make a better leader.”
Archie narrows his eyes. “Your plan probably includes calling a taxi to drive us to the other side of the field, so we don’t get dirty.”
“Of course not.” She crosses her arms and juts out her chin. “But we could take the flatter trail.”
“This one?” He points to the path marked on the map which crosses the entire field. “The slowest one and without any trees to hide behind?” He taps his finger on our current location, then moves it through the zip line, tracing its path with his finger. “The straight line is always the fastest.”
Her hand flies to her chest. “I suck at climbing.”
My head moves from one of them to the other as I try to keep up with their discussion.
Oh, Big Guy, at this pace, we’re never leaving the cabin.
I raise my voice and place myself between them. “Hey! We need to focus. This discussion will get us nowhere. I bet between the three of us, we can come up with an excellent plan.”
Barb glances at me, raising an eyebrow. She then looks at Archie. They share a small smile.
“No!” I shake my head as I eye them, guessing the thought crossing their mind. “I never intended to—”
“The Melbourne in you wants to come out,” Archie singsongs with a wicked smile. “Let’s take a vote. I say Samantha leads the team.”
Barb immediately raises her hand. “I second the vote.”
Ugh! Why, Big Guy?
My hand flies to my forehead. “No! We could all co-lead—”
“Nope, too many cooks spoil the broth. The team has spoken, and you’ve been assigned to be our leader.” He straightens his back and crosses his arms. “Now, tell us the crazy idea you tried to pitch to Abigail.”
Barb turns to me and raises an eyebrow.
If I try to dissuade them, we’ll lose more time.
Okay, fine, I’ll play along, BG.
“My original plan was to go after our flag. Zach put his best shooting elements to hunt us down and took his strongest and fastest ones to capture our flag. But if he can’t find it, he can’t win!” I bite my lip and eye both of them. “I wanted to suggest to Abigail that you and Joy should take the zip line and recover our flag while Samuel, Abigail, and I distracted Lyra and Barb.”
The strategy to split the team resembles Zach’s; the difference is that my plan relies on using Archie’s proposal and also going after our flag before hunting down the other one.
Archie seems surprised by my suggestion, as if the idea never occurred to him.
“Not a bad plan if you ask me.” Barb laughs. “Zach never even thought about it.”
“Abigail should have listened to you.” Archie rubs his hands together. “Her loss is our gain. How can we use your strategy now?”
We could get all the flags and win this.
Don’t get greedy, Samantha, you don’t need the flags for both teams, only one of the others and ours.
I study the map, noticing how the zip line ends close to our flag and halfway from the other two.
Time is precious.
“Archie, do you think the three of us can make it safely down the zip line?” I ask, assuming logistics is his specialty.
His face falls. “No, Abigail was right. Two would be safe to cross and maybe…” His face breaks into a smile. He turns to Barb and points at me, “Lyra wouldn’t shoot Abigail!”
So, it’s a no?
“Then we can discard the plan.” My shoulders slump, and I turn to the map to find an alternative.
“Not exactly, darling.” Barb walks around me. “I could give you my gear. It’s the same as Abigail’s, and by changing your shirt and hiding the ponytail…” Her eyes travel up and down my body, her smile growing.
“I’m not Abigail!” I remind them, shaking my head.
“We know that. But I can make you look like her.” She chuckles.
Arghhh! Okay, fine, for the sake of the freaking flag.
I turn to Archie. “Then the three of us can zip-line?”
“I think we so. Abigail took this path”—he points at the map—“and unless she deviates from it, it puts us out of her team’s shooting range.”
“Zach and Kellan plan to move through here.” Barb points to another place on the map. “By this time, they’ll be too busy climbing to pull their guns out.”
Our current concern is Lyra.
“Can we shoot Lyra from the zip line?” I ask Barb.
She moves her head from side to side, then shakes it. “It’s a really hard shot.”
“Then let’s not worry about it. We can figure out the next step once we get past the zip line and know how many of us made it. But keep
in mind our priority is capturing our flag, which is the closest to the zip line.”
“Sounds good. May I suggest I stay and be a sniper here?” She taps the map near where the zip line ends. “I can keep you updated and maybe even take out one or two of the other teams if they’re within shooting range,” Barb proposes. “Plus, if I come along, I’ll slow you two down.”
“No, better we stick together. Now, we just have one small issue,” I say, getting their attention. “I don’t know how to zip-line.”
Archie throws his head back and laughs. “Yeah! Time to teach our little dove how to fly!” He throws his hands up in the air. “Barb, let’s Abigail her for her first flying lesson.”
Barb chuckles. “Follow me. Let’s get you ready.”
What have I gotten myself into?
Up in the Air and Down in the Field
My legs feel like noodles, but I manage to move back until my body hits the wall of the small launch area, located at the top of the tower where the zip line begins.
“We look like members of a SWAT team,” Archie jokes while making the safety checks on Barb. “All geared up, guns strapped to our bodies. Next time, I propose we rappel off a mountain or building.”
Barb gives him a chop to the head, which doesn’t do him any harm thanks to his helmet.
I’m not able to focus on his words with all of my attention fixed on the ground, which is very, very, very far away.
I know, because my stomach just hit it.
“You know, Abigail was right, this is a crazy plan.”
“Samantha, stop shaking.” Archie steps closer to me to secure my harness. “There’s nothing to it really. You’re just going to slide down.”
Clearly, we don’t share the same definition of the word nothing.
“I already walked you through the zip-lining process while hiking all those flights of stairs, remember?” Archie pulls one of the security straps, jerking me forward with the movement.
Nope!
“Yes, it will move fast, but it’ll slow down the closer you get to the end, where Barb and I will be there to catch you.” He gives one last pull to the safety belt before he grabs my hand, guiding me forward to the zip line and locks my harness to it.
