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.
She reached the flagpole and stopped, then walked with confidence up to The Flash, and told him he’d have to shoot her point blank, because she wasn’t giving up her flag.
Smoke looked down and smiled, not even a little out of breath from his scary fast run. A bright smile took over his features and he said, “I’d never do that. You’ve earned this victory. A warrior knows another warrior, and I tip my hat to you.” Then Smoke took a step to the side, and bowed, letting Jasmine step up to the pole.
She grabbed the red flag, then raised both the red and blue into the air and screamed out to the group; “Who are we?” and the crowd in an ecstatic cheer responded:
“We’re the Andersons!”
The games continued for the rest of the day, everyone trying to get the special ops guys on their teams. They spread themselves around, having a blast shooting each other, and letting the kids take them down, making them feel like they were kings of the mountain. Even Brackish was able to get out of his own miserable head for pieces of the day and found himself smiling once in a while — that was until he thought about how much better this day would be if Erin was with him. Maybe she would be