Variant

When the shooting stopped, a whistle blew, and a ref jogged over to me and asked me to stand. He inspected my clothes, had me turn around, and then declared, “You’re not hit.” The balls had exploded on the other side of the bush, and apparently not enough paint got me to count.

I dropped back down and looked forward to Lily. She was on the move again, heading to the right, but motioned for me to stay where I was.

Had I not known her before, I’d have never guessed the professional, commando-like player ahead of me was a short seventeen-year-old girl. Everything about her was different now: the way she moved, the constant level of alertness. Through the smudged paint on her legs I could see well-defined lines of muscle tone. I was glad she was on our team. Hopefully we wouldn’t be the ones without food for two days.

I kept low and lost sight of her as she moved over a rise and into a thicket of juniper. Shots suddenly hissed out, and I heard a male voice swear and shout for a medic.

Grinning, I looked at Mason, and he gave me a thumbs-up.

Lily came charging back over the rise and urgently gestured for Mason and me to follow her. I jumped from the bush and ran. My bruise was throbbing, reminding me of the last time I’d been in the forest, but I ignored it.

I almost ran past Lily before I saw her at the last minute, hiding behind a log. I dropped down beside her. Thirty feet ahead was the boy she’d shot-probably the same one who’d shot at me.

“We’ll ambush the medic,” she said, out of breath. She kept her eyes forward but pointed at a boulder several yards to our left. “You get behind that. When they get here, wait till they get close, and start shooting. Then get down. Mason, get over in that thicket. We want them to think that Benson’s alone and doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“That won’t be hard,” I joked, but Lily ignored it.

“Go,” she whispered.

The injured kid shouted again for a medic. Lily had told me earlier that injured players aren’t allowed to say anything else-he wouldn’t be able to warn them.

I waited, leaning on the rock high enough that someone would be able to see me. I watched the forest ahead-there was plenty of cover. A tiny stream dribbled down on the far side of the thicket, and tall brush-five feet tall in some places-grew at its bank.

The injured guy rolled and pulled a pinecone out from under his back. I wondered which of the Havoc kids he was. He looked too short to be Oakland.

I heard the shot-the sharp hiss of compressed air-but I didn’t see the shooter before a paintball smacked into my shoulder. A second hit me in the ribs, just above my bruise. I gasped in pain at the sting and then raised my arms in defeat. I was dead.

“Medic!” I shouted, holding my side with my hand. Those paintballs hurt.

I could hear muffled laughter behind the grass, and then two masks pushed through it, identifying their downed player. One of them gestured. Another, crouched low, jogged across the clearing toward me, apparently unaware of Lily and Mason. He cautiously moved around, checking the area, and then gave a signal to the other.

Someone ran straight for the injured guy-the boy with the medic badge. He had just healed the first guy when Lily and Mason opened fire, splattering the guard, the medic, and the newly revived kid. The dead guard swore, and the medic shouted something, yanking off his badge and throwing it to the ground. I noticed now that the last guy-the mask peeking through the grass-stood up, one ball of paint smashed into his goggles. Four kills.

I gave a thumbs-up to Lily and she returned it.

A few moments later, Isaiah’s voice echoed over the bullhorn. “The defending team’s medic has been killed. No more Havoc team members can be healed. If you are shot, please leave the field of play.”

Lily and Mason formed another ambush around me, taking up new positions to guard against someone doing the same thing we’d done, and we waited for our medic.

Jane appeared a few minutes later, running alone, not moving with a squad as the Havoc team had done. I shouted “medic” as soon as I saw her to help her find me, and she sprinted, moving fast and light. She didn’t slow, just lowered her arm enough for her fingertips to drag across my shoulder and then continued into the forest. I stood back up and brushed at the wet paint spots with the back of my hand.

Even though I couldn’t see her mouth behind the mask, I could tell from Lily’s eyes that she was smiling. “When I told you to act like you didn’t know what you were doing, I didn’t think you’d take it so literally.”

“I’m an overachiever.”

“Nice,” Lily whispered. “Okay. Same as before. We’ll move up and along the ribbon.”

Mason and I nodded, and she began running. I gave her fifty feet and then followed, keeping my stance even lower than before.