The Watch – Part 124:

We ran through the trees, hoping not to be spotted.

The hut in which the sniper was residing in eventually came into view. There was someone from the enemy team standing just in front of the entrance, waiting for anyone who dared to try and get passed.

Where was Amy and Alex? Tom and I were standing behind our own trees, looking around the place, wondering what to do.

Then there was a loud bang. The sniper had seen someone. There was no indication that he fired in our general direction; this could mean that somewhere in this vicinity, Amy or Alex is hiding.

At this point, I didn’t know whether they needed saving, or they were trying to get closer to the hut and take out the enemy’s defences. Tom took the opportunity to hurry from his tree to mine, making sure he was well hidden from view.

‘I took out one enemy earlier. Where is the other one?’ he asked.

‘I took one out earlier, so that leaves only those two by the hut,’ I explained.

‘That makes it marginally better for us,’ Tom said as optimistic as he could be given the situation in front of him.

‘Don’t give up hope yet,’ I said. ‘We can still do this.’

‘I’d like to see that,’ he said.

‘Well stop worrying about not doing it and get on and do it, then,’ I said. I didn’t mean it to sound as blunt as it did.

‘Alright,’ Tom said a little taken aback.

‘Sorry,’ I said immediately. ‘I didn’t mean it to sound like that.’

‘It’s alright,’ he said, ‘this is a rather tense battle, isn’t it?’ He looked around one more time to see if he could spot anything of use. He sighed with disappointment.

‘What we need to do,’ I began, ‘is somehow distract him. If one of us can do that, I or you can then go into the hut and take out the sniper.’

‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Tom said. I could sense a ‘but’ coming. ‘But, if we venture too far away whilst distracting him, we might become sniper bait.’

‘I know,’ I acknowledged, ‘but it’s a risk we have to take. Once we’ve taken out the sniper, we can then go and find Amy and Alex.’

‘Plus, if that person is good, he might just take us out before we’ve even begun to distract him, rendering the entire plan useless.’

‘Do you have any better ideas?’ I asked.

‘I do not,’ Tom said, ‘but, I would like it if you came up with a better one.’

‘Well, I’m sorry, but this plan is all we’ve got.’

‘Right, well, since it was your idea, you can be the distractor,’ Tom said. ‘I wouldn’t mind giving that sniper a piece of my mind, nearly taking me out like that.’

‘On three,’ I said.

Tom readied himself. ‘Th-’

‘I FOUND THE OTHER TWO.’ We both stared at each other, dumbfounded for a second, before turning around to see one of the enemies running out of the clearing.

‘I thought you said you got him,’ I said to Tom.

‘I could have sworn I did,’ he looked genuinely confused.

There was nothing we could do except…

‘RUN,’ I yelled. It didn’t matter whether I yelled or not. We were found and now we have to run away. Tom sprinted away, not really knowing where he was going as long as it was nowhere near here. I made the split decision of going in the opposite direction. The third enemy decided to run after me for some reason. I didn’t stop running until I came to the edge of the map. I have to make another decision of turning left or right. To be honest, I didn’t care which way I went, all I wanted to do was get away from my pursuer as quickly as possible; in the end I went left.

As I ran, I wondered if it was foolish for us to split because it may be difficult to regroup later. If we had stuck together, we would have each other’s back, as little help that may be from the looks of things.

It was only when I was running as fast as I could that I noticed just how big this map was, and carrying this gun in my arms not only pushed the muscles in my arms to their limits, but made me run out of breath in a short period of time as well. It didn’t help that I was running over uneven ground, but that didn’t seem to stop the enemy.

He must have taken a shortcut because he appeared in front of me. I slammed on my breaks. Recovering quickly, I turned left once more and headed back into the centre of the map, where the hut sat. It must be our quick movements that the sniper hasn’t tried taking us out yet, however, I knew that it was only a matter of time before we heard the all too familiar bang, sending an array of paintballs our way, aiming to strike us on the mask or in the chest, or maybe even in the back.

I came to a clearing. This must be the very centre of the map.

Tom came running out of the other side. His foot got caught up in a stray root and he went head over heels, landing face first in the dirt. The enemy that was chasing me ran into the clearing as well. He saw Tom first. I wasn’t quick enough. He raised his gun, I raised mine, but he pulled the trigger first.

‘NOOOOOOO.’

Bang.

Who? What? When? Where? How?

 The next thing I realised was Alex standing in front of Tom, protecting him from being shot. Does that mean what I think it means? I really hope not? I wasn’t the only ones who were a little shocked about what just happened, but from the looks of things, I was the first to recover some bearings. I raised my gun and fired a single paintball at the enemy, hitting him square in the centre of his back.

Tom scrambled to his feet just as Alex was turning around. Red paint was splattered all over her chest.

‘You took a paintball for me,’ Tom said to Alex, surprised and confused.

‘You’re welcome,’ she said.

‘But why?’ he asked. ‘You should have let me take the hit.’ The enemy that I had shot had turned around and started to head back.

‘Maybe, but that was no way to go. Defenceless as you were. You should go out with a bang instead, as I just did by saving you. Or maybe you don’t have to go out at all and just win,’ she shrugged.

‘Well, thanks, I guess,’ Tom said not knowing what else to say.

‘No need to thank me,’ she said, ‘but if you really want to, you can do so by winning this game for us.’

‘What did I miss?’ Amy said beside me, making me jump.

‘Alex just dived in front of Tom just before he was shot, saving him,’ I explained.

‘Oh,’ Amy said, smiling happily.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing.’ She quickly changed the topic ‘We saw you running and Tom falling down. We were getting ready to fight back, but I guess Alex thought we wouldn’t be quick enough, or accurate enough.

Alex flicked the safety on her gun. ‘Stay safe,’ she ordered Tom.

‘I’ll make sure we win,’ Tom nodded.

‘You’d better,’ she said, before turning on the spot and started to head back to the main building. As soon as Alex had disappeared into the trees, he spun around and went straight into action. He was smiling broadly throughout his explaining of the plans.

‘Is everyone clear on what to do?’ he asked Amy and me. We both nodded.

‘Great, then let’s roll out,’ and he led the way back towards the hut. I don’t think the guard left his duty.

‘There’s the hut,’ Amy said. We were behind an overturned car. In front of us were the trees Tom and I hid behind earlier and the hut itself. As expected, he was guarding the entrance.

‘If we want to get to the sniper, we have to go through him first,’ Tom said.

‘That shouldn’t be too difficult,’ Amy said, ‘three against one’s good for us.’

‘Alright,’ Tom said after surveying the area. ‘Is everyone clear on what they are supposed to be doing?’

We nodded.

‘Good,’ he continued. ‘Now, instead of causing a distraction to lure him away, I thought we should just charge forwards and overpower him. He won’t stand a chance against the three of us.’

‘You sure about that?’ Amy asked.

‘Nope, but that’s the best plan I’ve got.’

‘Fair enough,’ Amy shrugged.

‘And remember,’ Tom said sternly, ‘we don’t stop for anything. If we do, we might not make it out alive.’ He wasn’t going to let Alex’s sacrifice be for nothing.

‘Are we ready?’ we both nodded.

‘Then let’s do this. When I say go, we run for it.’ Tom looked at the surrounding area, waiting for the right opportunity. From my perspective, there wasn’t a right moment to go. We just have to go for it and hope for the best.

‘Go,’ Tom said suddenly. We broke free from our cover and sprinted as fast as we could without tripping over towards the hut. The enemy standing by the entrance heard our loud footsteps and prepared to fire, but we were first, and soon the air was filled with paintballs firing in all directions.

We continued forward, trying to keep our guns as steady as possible so that we could get a decent hit or two. The enemy had a steady hand, but we were too quick for him and so couldn’t get a good angle. The closer we ran, the better we were to shoot him, but that goes for him as well.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a drop of green paint fly towards me. I turned around and saw that Amy was hit in the arm. He had taken out Amy. He was going to pay for that. I raised my gun, fired and it hit him square in the chest. The entrance was free. I wanted to know where the sniper was and why he wasn’t firing. Maybe we were too close? Maybe he ran out of ammo? Maybe he wasn’t even in there anymore?

Tom and I entered the hut, ran up the stairs and onto the top floor where we saw the sniper sitting, facing us, his sniper laid down to one side.

‘Hello,’ he said. He raised what looked like a pistol up and readied to fire. Tom and I knew exactly what was happening. He knew we would get passed the person at the door and so waited for us to arrive only to have the last laugh.

Bang

Splat

Blue paint all over my mask. I was out. I couldn’t do anything. But whilst he was focusing on me, Tom took the final bow. He shot and a paintball hit him in the chest, breaking and leaving a nice red splash behind. That was it. That was all it took to win. It was finally over. The second and, unfortunately, the final battle of the day. Overall, it was a draw, but that didn’t matter to me. It was all over.

We had won.

TO BE CONTINUED...