that as the night went on, ammo was going to become a valuable commodity.
James locked a full clip on to his rifle and stacked the remainder into his pack, even though each clip weighed more than a kilogram.
He walked cautiously back towards the window and listened. The battle had splintered into numerous smaller actions, characterised by short bursts of gunfire spread over a wider area. James realised that this greatly increased his chances of coming under fire on his return journey.
He kept low as he exited the building into a narrow alleyway, ducking below the roofline of the parked cars, with a paint-spattered breezeblock wall at his back. He ended up in a main road, keeping a finger on the trigger and breaking into a sprint as he cut across the road.
‘Meow.’
James stopped in his tracks and crouched down beside a car, unable to work out where the sound had come from.
‘Woof,’ he answered cautiously.
Two heads popped up inside a car parked on a driveway. Because of the orange sunlight reflecting on the visors, it took a second before James recognised Dana and Jake.
‘Get over here, dingus,’ Dana whispered. ‘There’s a bunch of Team A kids hiding out three doors up the road.’
James quietly opened the car door. He dragged himself across the multicoloured stains over the rear seat, being careful to keep his head below window height. He noticed Dana was covered in about twenty splats of different coloured paint.
‘You got nuked,’ James gasped. ‘Do any of them hurt?’
‘Not too bad, most of the hits were from long range,’ Dana said bitterly. ‘I’m gonna have so many bruises, I’ll look like a black man in the morning. All my eggs got smashed, too.’
‘Who got hold of you?’ James asked.
‘Nobody actually got me, they just got mashed up when I was rolling around on the floor being shot at.’
‘All but one of my eggs are cracked as well,’ James nodded. ‘So how come you ended up all the way out here?’
‘I tried to follow after you when you shat your pants and ran away,’ Dana explained. ‘Jumped down from a first-floor window and picked up Jake along the way.’
‘I didn’t shit my pants,’ James said indignantly. ‘I made a tactical decision to withdraw under heavy fire.’
Dana laughed, ‘That’s one way of putting it, I guess.’
James decided not to push the point; Dana’s description of events was uncomfortably close to the truth.
He looked at Jake and tried to sound encouraging. ‘So how are you holding up?’
‘OK,’ Jake said brightly. ‘I shot up some people in the battle.’
‘I think the little guy just found some balls,’ Dana said, breaking into a rare smile. ‘I watched him come out of that building you guys were hiding out in. First he kind of froze, but then he took cover and put in some good shots.’
James looked admiringly at his little team-mate. ‘Did you get hit?’
Jake rolled over on to his side and proudly showed off the giant splat of lilac paint on his thigh. ‘It hurts, but I don’t care. This must be fifty times more exciting than the best computer game ever.’
James was delighted by the way Jake had handled stress. Some people freak out in volatile situations, but it looked like CHERUB’s selection process had done its usual job of picking out a kid who could handle himself when it really counted.
‘Do you still want to quit?’ James asked.
‘No way,’ Jake said. ‘I want to get hold of someone and smash up their eggs.’
James laughed. ‘So, did either of you see the other girls?’
‘I think I saw Lauren and Bethany heading off together,’ Jake said.
‘Do you reckon we should go and look for them?’ James asked.
Dana pondered for a couple of seconds. ‘It’s too risky. There are fifteen other kids out there, and only two of them are our girls. Lauren and Bethany can look after themselves. If we bump into them that’s great, but if we go out searching, we’ll most likely get shot up.’
‘I think you’re right,’ James nodded.
‘So what do we do?’ Jake asked.
James thought for a few seconds. ‘I’ve got plenty of ammo in my pack and three sets of night-vision goggles. This car isn’t secure: we’re sitting ducks if anyone walks by and spots us. I say we hide out in one of the houses nearby until it gets completely dark. Then I’ll hand out the night-vision goggles and we can go out on a little egg hunt.’
Dana nodded grudgingly. ‘I can think of worse ideas.’