Rising (Anderson Special Ops Book 2)

by Melody Anne

  It took them about an hour to load their gear, bringing boots, helmets, goggles, night vision gear in case the game went into the night, and a few more things they’d only bring out if Chad was planning some sort of sneak attack. They were prepared for anything.

  They went to the store, where the owner came out to personally greet them, thanking them for their business and laughing at how much stuff they’d bought. “This seems to be one fun game,” he said. “I think you just might be crowned the winners.”

  “We’ll see. We’re going up against good opponents,” Eyes said to the owner with a wink before they loaded up all of their stuff. Then they drove to a huge ranch and saw Chad, who waved them over to park near him.

  “Good afternoon men, I hope you’re ready for a truly rare experience,” Chad said. There was a glint in his eyes that none of the men trusted. They moved to the back of their two SUVs and began unloading their bags.

  “What do you think he’s up to?” Smoke whispered.

  “I don’t know, but be prepared for anything,” Green said.

  “This isn’t a test, is it?” Sleep asked.

  “Everything we do is a test,” Eyes said.

  It was a beautiful day, not too hot or too cold, a perfect day for a paintball fight.

  “Follow me,” Chad told them. Then he led them around a curve, and the men were stunned by the sheer volume of people standing around in different stages of dress, from full on gear like the special ops team had on, to padded suits the kids were wearing. Some adults and children wore face paint, and others wore masks. There had to be over a hundred people there.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please join me at the front of the paintball course. We must go over the code of conduct and all of the rules. All children over the age of ten are welcome to join in on the fun. For those of you under the age of ten, you’ll get your chance later,” Chad said in a loud voice as he caught all of their attention, the crowd going quiet. “For all of you participating, come a little closer so you don’t miss out on anything.” A few dozen people moved in closer.

  “The paintball course we have set up is the largest course this company has ever created, and we’re going to have a blast seeing who the best individual players are, as well as the best teams. Before we start clamoring for who will be on which team let’s take a moment to give a huge round of applause to Katherine. It’s wonderful to see her out today, and if there are any tiebreakers needed, she’ll be the final say,” Chad said with a smile and a wink to his second mom.

  Katherine blew him a kiss and her lips read out, “Thank you.”

  “Now, who’s ready to play?” Chad yelled, making the crowd cheer.

  Off to the side Joseph appeared, walking up next to Chad, already geared up with a mask, upper body armor, and a paintball gun in hand. There were more cheers and claps from the crowd, seeing their patriarch participating in the games.

  There were almost twenty-five people ready to play — others standing by to see how hardcore this was going to be before they joined in. They knew the Andersons were competitive; and this could easily turn into World War Z before too long. They’d wait and see if they wanted to join after three rounds of chaos.

  Katherine, of course, stayed out of the games, but had an amazing covered area with lounge chairs, food, and tea. Monitors of the course were set up so she could watch all of the action. Normally, Amy would be by Katherine’s side, but Lucas and Amy’s oldest daughter, Jasmine, had talked her mom into playing.

  As boys do, especially those under the age of sixteen, requests and pleas for the teams to be boys versus girls were made. Jasmine’s little brother, Isaiah, had recruited his cousins Jacob and Trevor to go along with the idea. Their eyes widened and a sliver of a smile could be seen behind their masks at the thought of being able to pelt their sisters with paintballs and not get into trouble for it.

  The sisters were on board, and it was all going well until their fathers heard their ideas. The dads knew this would do nothing but bring them headaches for days or weeks afterward. There was no way they were doing men against women. They didn’t like sleeping on couches.

  Lucas looked at his son and nephews with his dad mask on. “Boys, today is about being here together as a family and not trying to attack any specific person or group of people. This is family fun time. Don’t go after your sisters so hard they aren’t having a good time.”

  Mark Anderson, the youngest, and definitely the most rebellious of Joseph and Katherine’s kids, walked up next to his older brother and nodded, letting Lucas know he agreed with him.

  The kids all nodded their agreement, but looked disappointed.

  Lucas stood and patted his son’s head, then walked away, leaving Mark with the boys so he could help his wife get set up. He wanted her to have a blast and shoot his brothers over and over again. He wouldn’t admit that to his son though. But Lucas was definitely going after Mark and Alex.

  Mark waited until his stick-in-the-mud brother was out of ear shot, and then told the boys to come in closer. They did as asked, and he said, “Lucas is correct, today’s the day to bond, and the best way to do that is to take down every sister in there,” he said in a hushed whisper. “When we line up for teams, make sure you guys aren’t standing next to each other, hide behind someone, stay out of sight until it’s my turn to pick you, and then we’ll get them.”

  If it was possible to jump out of your skin from excitement those three boys would’ve done it. Isaiah and Jacob knew their uncle and Trevor’s dad was the coolest! The three kids and Mark all gave high fives and fist bumps in their expected triumph of the day. Mark walked away, smiling when he heard one of the boys say: “this is going to be so awesome.”

  All of the plans and teams being formed were dashed as Chad stepped forward and called them all to attention. This time he was in full on military gear, looking much different than the rest of the family. He looked like a soldier, and the effect was instantly felt as the chatter stopped.

  “That’s why I was waiting,” Emily said with a laugh as she sat next to Katherine. “I know exactly how serious these boys can get with their games.”

  “This is going to be a lot of fun to watch,” Katherine said with her own chuckle. “They’re all going to be afraid to hit Joseph, George, and Richard, and those old men are going to take great delight in pelting the heck out of each one of them.”

  The women laughed hard at that. “Please tell me this is being recorded,” Emily said.

  “Oh, of course it is. I’ll play this day over and over again,” Katherine said.

  Chad was still speaking so they listened in.

  “The first match isn’t going to go as any of you expected. All of you will be going against me and five of my friends,” Chad explained. As he said that five men who looked more like characters from a superhero comic book walked up next to him.

  There were audible gasps and a few comments asking who in the heck these men were. Only by body type could they be identified, because nothing else gave them away. It was fair to say the six men dressed like military gods were more than a little impressive.

  “We’re going to the far side of the field. An air horn will sound, then the game will be on. It’s a simple capture the flag game. You can go anywhere you want as long as you stay within the roped off area. Climb under tires, go up in the stands, hide behind trees, crawl through bushes, whatever you want to get your flag back to your camp. The first game will be us six versus you. After that we’ll change it up,” Chad said. He then turned toward the entrance of the gaming area, the five soldiers turning in perfect unison behind him. They made an intimidating sight and Chad laughed beneath his breath. They were gone in a few seconds, but they heard the Andersons talking as they planned.

  “Six? Six men? That’s all they have. They must not know who they’re dealing with. We’re the Andersons, and we won’t be taken down by six men. Look at us, over twenty-five strong. Let’s show these fools who we are!” Heads tu
rned to see who’d spoken out like a warrior. It was Jasmine, her paintball gun in hand, pointed in the air as if she was a warrior princess.

  Joseph wasn’t at all surprised by his granddaughter’s speech. She’d always been feisty and strong, and one who’d take on any challenge. He looked over at Lucas who appeared to be one proud papa.

  “Jasmine’s right,” Joseph said loud enough for the entire group to hear. “Mark, please come over here and tell us what strategy you think we should take.”

  “Actually Dad, I think Jasmine should take the lead. She’s ready to take the reins and we’re ready to follow,” Mark said.

  The next few minutes were a whirlwind of conversations on how to attack the course, and the men they were up against. Jasmine decided to make three separate teams and to go at the other team from the left, center, and right. It was a plan that everyone was on board with — even the little brothers who’d asked to at least be on the same team. The request was granted, and Jasmine made sure none of their sisters were on that team. There was a small hope the boys would get knocked out of the game first.

  The undeniable sound of an air horn sliced through the air, causing a few to jump and a few to yell out in excitement. The game was officially under way.

  Jasmine’s team was made up of Joseph; Lucas; Amy; Chad’s wife, Brianne; their son, Matthew; Damien Whitfield’s daughter, Samantha; as well as Alex and Jessica’s daughter, Katie. Jasmine said her team would go directly up the middle and be the battering ram, and the most likely to come under direct fire.

  Within minutes the five-acre mock battlefield came to life with the pop, pop, pop of paintballs being sent through the air. There were screeches of surprise and groans of disappointment as individuals took hits. There were scorekeepers throughout the field confirming hits and misses, and adding points.

  “Grandpa,” Jasmine called from her spot behind a blow-up wall.

  “Yeah, kiddo, I see him,” Joseph replied. “How do you want to get to him?”

  “Get Mom and Dad to rush the left side, we’ll cover them. Once they’re there have Bree, Matty, Sam, and Katie go to the pallets,” Jasmine said, using hand motions.

  Doing exactly as Jasmine asked, her team went into motion, and it went perfectly until the group with Bree got to the pallets. No one could’ve imagined what came next. A trip wire was set off, and a mist of paint completely engulfed the four individuals standing there in shock.

  “Is that legal?” Bree asked as she tried to clear her goggles.

  “What in the heck was that?” Sam asked.

  A slew of laughter came from all directions, and the center Anderson group knew those laughs weren’t all from the enemy. Revenge would come, they decided.

  Jasmine smiled. So this was how they were going to play. She liked it. She calculated what to do next with the resources she had, and instantly created a new plan.

  “Mom!” Jasmine yelled as a constant explosion of paintballs hit the surface she was barricaded behind. Her mom looked over. “Can you see the person shooting at me? I need you guys to get his attention off of me.”

  Amy peeked around a corner and took a paintball directly at her facemask. She instantly raised her hand, indicating she’d been headshot. A judge came over and walked her on a safe path until she could make her way back to the area they’d started from. Now Jasmine’s blood started to boil. Her team was almost gone, and the thought of being knocked out of the game irritated her to the core.

  Then the first of three smoke grenades popped off around her, engulfing her in a cloud, as an absolute barrage of pops hit all around her. It was almost deafening. She made the decision to get out of there fast, so she kept her head down, and sprinted away from her spot. Instead of continuing forward, though, she made a hard right and dove into some ferns that fully concealed her. After a second she looked up, surprised that from this spot she could see most of the field. She also saw that both her dad, as well as her grandpa, had been taken out.

  Over a megaphone one of the judges told the field that there was only one red team member remaining. The Andersons were the red team, and that meant Jasmine was the only one left. She knew that getting the flag and getting back to her base was all but impossible. That didn’t mean she was going to give up.

  Slowly Jasmine pulled the ferns from the ground, and stuck them in different parts of her clothing. She made an on-the-fly ghillie suit and started making her way to the blue flag. She crawled, shuffled, and slowly made her way down the side of the course. She froze for a moment when movement caught her eye. It was one of the other team members on one knee pointing his paintball gun downrange, looking for her.

  Jasmine slid into position, looked around to see she wasn’t being set up, that this player wasn’t a prop and she’d be fired on instantly. He seemed to be working alone so she aimed at the man, shot three paintballs, and then crawled from that spot as fast as she could. When she stopped, she looked back to see the man with his hand raised and walking down the center of the course. She’d gotten one!

  A few minutes went by before she started moving again. No one came after her. Jasmine was about to the flag when she saw the next man. He had a huge rifle, but was looking through binoculars, and had no clue she was only fifteen to twenty yards away. She mimicked the last encounter with one of the blue team members, took a moment to look around, and then took her three shots. All three hit the man in the middle of his body. He raised his hand, looking around, and shaking his head in disbelief that he was hit.

  Just as that man walked away, another who’d been lying on the ground much better disguised than Jasmine, lifted his head to see what had happened. Jasmine didn’t take time to think about it, she immediately sent paintballs at him as fast as she could — and she connected. Three down.

  Almost frantic at this point as she was now exposed to anyone else in the area, she ran the remaining ten yards to the flag and grabbed it, then stuffed it between her chest armor and body, and ran back the way she’d come. Her heart just about exploded from her chest when, after turning a corner, a deep voice halted her forward movement.

  “Well, hello there. Where are you going with that?” Sleep asked, leaning on a tree, his arms crossed, looking perfectly relaxed.

  Jasmine pointed her paintball gun at him.

  He smiled, while putting his hands up before saying, “You have me. I surrender. Before you shoot, though, know that I’d never show myself without others ready to fire. If you look to the left you’ll see one person pointing at you, if you feel like looking behind you, you’ll see the same thing. This is a no win situation for you.”

  Her eyes did dart to the left and she did see the end of a barrel pointing at her approximately twenty yards away. She didn’t bother turning. Dejected, but knowing the situation was what it was, she lowered her own weapon, then used her left hand to reach beneath her armor, and pulled out the blue flag. Then she paused and looked at the smug man before her.

  “You know, there’s always a choice in any battle,” she told him. “And I choose to go down swinging.”

  Sleep’s eyes went wide when in slow motion Jasmine’s right hand, holding her gun, flashed upward and she sent a paintball straight into his chest while at the same time sprinting right for him. The lull of her giving the visual of surrendering had the same effect on the two men who’d surrounded her. By the time they reacted she’d gotten past Smoke, and out of their line of sight.

  They were still standing there with their mouths open in shock at being outwitted by a teenage girl, and Jasmine took full advantage, sprinting at top speed while throwing down her gun and ripping off her armor and mask. She knew those men would be way faster than she was, even with a head start, and she wanted as little extra weight as possible holding her back.

  Five acres was a long ways, and she’d made it about four when the encouraging yells from the family hit her. They were all jumping up and down, swinging their arms to keep running toward them. She could feel their energy, and it gave her
a little more push. She could see the red flag still in its place. Her track coach’s words flashed through her mind — stay relaxed, breathe, push. Another breath in, another out, her full focus on that red flag straight ahead.

  A man went blazing past her as if she was a snail. It was the massive black man she’d only caught a glimpse of at the very beginning before the six men went into the course. Her eyes couldn’t register what she was seeing. She’d seen a lot of boys that were fast during her track meets, a couple who were very impressive, but none of them moved like this man.

  “Jazzy!” the familiar nickname was called from behind her.

  It was Chad. If he was the other man who’d had her penned in near their flag how had he caught up so quick? He was super old — at least to her.

  “I’m not stopping, Chad!” she yelled as she pushed even harder.

  “Please don’t make us shoot you without any armor on,” Chad called out.