I ducked back behind the shelter as another glob of paint whistled past my head, grinning to myself. I had missed, but I’d alsobeenmissed, so I was still in the game.
It was kind of thrilling, after all.
I looked up in time to see Ace dart out from a shelter right at the back of the arena and fly up a small wooden ramp onto one of the platforms, ducking behind a stack of tires as paint splattered the space behind him. I heard him cackle victoriously and then saw his face pop up in a small viewing spot between the fake ivy tendrils, and grinned at him. He grinned back and ducked again.
Yeah; maybe this wasn’t such a bad game. And if Ace was watching me, maybe I could do something a little heroic and show him I wasn’t just an asshole who had matured.
I bit my lip for a second, biding my time until I heard a volley of paintball shots to my left – then I spun around and aimed in the direction of the sound without letting myself think too much. I fired –
And one of Olly’s friends groaned in disgust, seeing my yellow paint splattered liberally across his chest.
I hid again, wanting to cheer but also not wanting to give my position away. I looked up and met Ace’s eyes through the gap again. He’d seen. He was grinning at me even wider.
That only made me want to take on the whole of Olly’s team single-handedly if he’d carry on smiling at me the same way.
I ducked my head around the corner again and had to pull back immediately as a barrage of fire came my way. I almost jumped in surprise when Keaton appeared at my right, rushing forward and leaning against my barricade, taking advantage of the fact they were all looking at me. He grinned and panted for breath. “We’ll get the rest of them yet,” he promised.
“We need to move forward,” I said. It was kind of obvious, but I was thinking out loud. “Get them on the back foot.”
Keaton nodded. “Olly’s up in that big sheltered platform at the back,” he said. “I saw him go in. If we can sneak up on him, I can get up the ramp and shoot him before he knows it.”
“Very romantic,” I chuckled. “Alright. Consider me your lieutenant. I can lay down some covering fire.”
“Excellent,” Keaton nodded. “I’m going for that pile of logs with the tin leaning against it. Can you cover me to get there? If you do, you need to then try and get to the stack of tires next to it so we can push forward.”
I nodded. This was exhilarating – I had to wipe my palm on the vest to make sure I had a good grip on the gun. “Let’s go.”
“On the count of three,” Keaton told me. I shuffled over to the other side of the shelter, ready. “One, two… three!”
I turned and fired haphazardly across the other side of the arena, not actually caring if I hit anything, as Keaton ran forward. I waited until he was safely behind his barricade and then ran forward myself, making it to the tires as a blob of paint splattered down right next to my foot.
I panted for breath and grinned at Keaton, then glanced back to see if Ace had witnessed it. I thought I could see a little movement within his shelter. He must have seen, though it was impossible to make out his face from here.
“Next target,” Keaton said. He nodded towards a tall but thin structure made of logs bound together just ahead. “Cover me to there. Once I’m up there, I need you to cover me to the ramp – and then I’ll be in.”
I flexed my gun-wielding arm. “We should do hand signals. If you shout from there, he’ll hear you.”
There was rapid firing off to one side of us, and I heard Xavi cry out in disappointment. One of our team was down.
“I’ll hold up my fingers,” Keaton said, doing a rapid-fire demonstration: three fingers, two fingers, one finger, then go.
I nodded. “Ready when you are.”
He held up his hand, paused to take a breath, then started the countdown.
Three.
Two.
One.
I turned and fired at the nearest shelters, just missing one of Olly’s team who ducked behind his barricade as he saw me. Keaton rushed forward and made it easily to his next spot, turning and firing sideways as he ran. I heard an exclamation of surprise from one of Olly’s team and knew Keaton had taken one of them out.
This was going a lot better than I’d thought it would, going up against a team of jocks.
Keaton was seriously badass when he wanted to be – to the point that I was now seriously thinking that maybe he was scarier than big, wide, silent Olly.
I heard movement behind me and turned to see Ace scurrying forward, keeping low to the ground. He had his sights set on something to my left. I couldn’t see what he was looking at – didn’t dare leave my cover to check – but I could guess pretty easily.
