Split Up

“Does anybody see them?” Jacob said as he peeked over the log.

“Nothing,” Cody said as he looked around the rock.

“Can’t see anything,” Samuel said from his tree.

“... Hey, I think I see them!” Peter said as he pointed into the trees on the right.

“What?! Where?!” Jacob said as he and the rest swiveled their guns to the direction Peter was pointing.

“... Oh, never mind, it was a sparrow. My bad, guys,” Peter said as he shrugged, realizing his mistake. The rest of the team groaned and lowered their weapons.

“You freaking idiot!” Cody said as he punched his partner in the shoulder. “Don’t overreact to everything that moves.”

“Okay, firstly, ow. Secondly, anyone could have made that mistake,” Peter said as he rubbed his shoulder.

“Cody, lay off of him. This is his first time out here after all,” Samuel said, trying to calm his teammates.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I just don’t understand why we trusted the noob with a gun,” Cody said, clearly not hiding his distaste of Peter’s company.

“Nice to have you around too, big guy,” Peter said, sticking his tongue out.

“Knock it off, both of you. Sam’s right, Cody, Peter is just the new guy, so don’t be so rough with him,” Jacob said, not wanting to deal with another argument.

“I’m only rough with him because I want to win,” Cody said as he looked at his boots.

“We all do, trust me,” Jacob said, “Now focus on locating the other team… ”

Jacob, Cody, Peter, and Samuel were a group of friends that came from the same high school.

Jacob was the focused leader that always tried his best but was easily flustered.

Cody was the most athletic, but also the most headstrong, relying on his strength rather than his head.

Peter was the jokester, the guy always trying to have fun and crack jokes, but his personality constantly clashes with Cody’s which results in the two arguing. A lot.

Samuel was the silent type and rarely spoke, but was the most reliable and tried to be the voice of reason between Cody and Peter.

Despite the strong differences between them, the boys always found ways to hang out together as they were right now…

Currently, the four boys were hiding behind cover in the middle of a forest reserved for paintball matches. As such, they were wearing army green gear, complete with vests, boots, and helmets.

As the four boys resumed their watch, they remained huddled together, squatting behind cover. They shifted their legs to keep them from cramping as the dead leaves on the ground rustled as a fall breeze blew by. They scanned the thick ranks of dead trees, occasionally hearing the warble of a bird in the distance.

“I don’t like this,” Jacob said as he turned to Samuel, “Sam, how many minutes has it been?”

Samuel brought up his left wrist and moved the sleeve back slightly to get a look at the time. “It looks like it’s been… ten minutes.”

“It’s been too long,” Jacob said, “Where are they?”

“Maybe they’re playing the waiting game like us?” Peter said.

“Well, I’m tired of waiting around,” Cody said as he checked his ammo for the fiftieth time, “Let’s just go and look for them.”

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Samuel said as he put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“Why not?”

“Well, one, we have the high ground advantage. Two, we got decent cover if they attack. And three, if you run out to look for them, you’ll most likely run into an ambush.”

“Yeah, well I think the only good defense is a good offense,” Cody said.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes,” Peter said, then to himself quietly, “Moron.”

“I heard that, Pete,” Cody said as he switched his attention from Samuel to his other teammate.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t think you were listening. I thought you were always too busy listening to your muscles to know what’s going on around you.”

“Oh crap, not again,” Jacob said as he moved away from his post and between his friends, “Would you two stop being a bunch of kids for two minutes?”

“Technically, we’re teenagers, Jacob, there’s a big difference there,” Peter said.

“Peter, Cody, do Jacob a favor and just apologize already,” Samuel said, ignoring the bad joke.

Cody and Peter looked at each other and heaved a loud sigh.

“Alright, I’m sorry, Pete,” Cody said, conceding first.

“Yeah, me too, big gu-”

Something small whizzed in between Peter and Cody, splatting against the tree next to them. Instinctively, everyone dove for the ground or for cover.

“What was that?!” Peter said. Jacob looked back to the tree, careful not to expose himself. On the side of the bark, he saw a large blue splot that could only have been a paintball.

“Oh crap, it’s the other team!”

“How did they get so close without us seeing them?” Samuel said.

“Who cares, just shoot at them!” Cody said and began to fire red rounds into the range in front of him. The rest of the team soon followed suit, strafing the area in their respective lines of sight.

Soon, almost every rock, tree, and bush was covered in red paint. Occasionally, blue rounds would hit dangerously close to them, causing them to hide for a few seconds before resuming their barrage.

After a few tense minutes of wildly firing, the boys eased off the triggers and surveyed the area.

“... Did we get them?” Peter said as he squinted, trying to look as hard as possible.

“I don’t know. We should probably assume we didn’t,” Jacob said.

Cody was about to speak his thoughts when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something move behind a tree. Narrowing his eyes, he saw a shadowy figure run to another tree.

“Over there!” Cody said as he unloaded his ammo at the tree. Samuel and Peter, realizing that Cody had spotted an enemy, followed suit and lay suppressing fire at the tree. Jacob was about to join in when a thought occurred to him.

“Hold on, have we been shooting at just one guy? Wait a second, if that’s the case, where’s the rest of the team?”

His answer came when it something small and round flew through the air and landed in the middle of the group. The boys stopped firing when they heard the object land and turned to see what it was. Their eyes widened when they realized what it was.

“Paint grenade!” Jacob, Cody, and Samuel ran out of cover to get some distance. The only one who didn’t move was Peter.

“Dude, just shorten it and call it a gren-”

“Move, you idiot!” Cody said as he grabbed Peter by the shoulder and pulled him away from the grenade.

Just in the nick of time too. The grenade exploded into a spray of blue paint, covering almost everything around it. Luckily, the group had gotten to a safe distance and each member was safe. For the moment.

“Okay, where did THAT come from?!” Peter said, picking himself up after the rough pull from Cody.

“Up there, on the hill!” Cody said as he pointed with his right. Sure enough, there was the figure of someone standing on the top of the hill. Before any of the guys could do anything, the figure ran off out of their sight.

“This one’s mine! CHARGE!” Cody said as he sprinted up the hill, fully intending on acquiring a kill.

“Cody, wait, come back!” Jacob said, trying to stop his reckless friend. Unfortunately, Cody either didn’t hear him or didn’t care to listen. Soon, Cody was out of the sight of the three remaining members.

“Heads up!” Peter said. Turning to Peter, Jacob and Samuel quickly saw the reason for Peter’s warning. Two more grenades were flying in the air… right towards them!

“SCATTER!”

Immediately, the three boys booked it, trying to gain as much distance as possible, not having time to worry they might be running into enemy fire.

After a few minutes of dodging trees and sliding down dirt mounds, Jacob took a moment to rest. Panting, he supported himself against a tree as he tried to catch his breath.

“That was close. Hey guys, how are you doing?” Jacob said as he turned to talk to his teammates… only to find that they weren’t there!

“Guys? Guys?!” Jacob was at first bewildered. How on earth did they all get separated? It then occurred to him that he hadn’t told the others which direction to run to and where to meet up should they get split up.

“Well… shit.”

Peter slid down into a ditch and looked up, trying to make sure that no one was following him. When he was sure that he was safe, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh man, that was nuts,” Peter said before picking himself up, “Now, how am I gonna get back to the others?”

Peter looked around to try and get his bearings, but nothing looked familiar. After a few moments of spinning around trying to determine which direction was the best, he decided to just head to his left.

After nearly fifteen minutes of wandering around lost, Peter finally broke the silence.

“Seriously, how big is this freaking place?” Peter said, “At this rate, I’m never going to find anybody.”

As soon as he finished this statement, he came around a collection of rocks and saw a figure around the corner.

Immediately, Peter stepped back and took cover. Praying that the figure hadn’t seen him, he readied his gun and stepped out with his gun raised.

“Cody?!”

Slumped against a log, Cody lay there, his vest and helmet covered in blue splotches. Clearly, his quarry had gotten him instead of the other way around. Peter ran over to his teammate and kneeled down next to him.

“Cody, dude, what happened to you?!”

Cody coughed and looked up to see who was speaking. “Pete… is that you?”

“Yeah, man. Listen you’re gonna be okay.”

“No, Pete… I… I can’t go on… listen… I just want to let you know… ”

“No, stay with me, Cody! You’re gonna pull through this, man!”

“I’m not dying, you moron!” Cody said, his hoarse voice raising.

“... Oh, right, sorry. I was being… overdramatic,” Peter said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly,

“But seriously, what happened to you?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t even see who did it. One second I was chasing after that guy, then suddenly I got sprayed by paint when I jumped over the log. I got the wind knocked out of me.”

“Do you know where they went?”

“I think they went over-” Cody didn’t get to finish because several paint rounds hit him in the visor. Peter turned around with his gun ready… but froze when he realized there wasn’t just one like he thought, but two of them.

“Um, is it too late to ask you not to shoot me?”

A few seconds later, a loud, girlish scream could be heard echoing throughout the forest.

Samuel stopped walking when he heard the high-pitched scream.

“What was that?” Samuel said to himself as he looked around to see if he could locate the source of the scream.

“Maybe I was just hearing things,” Samuel said, though he doubted that was actually the case. As he continued to search for his teammates, he couldn’t help but feel that someone was watching him.

As he continued to walk down a relatively smooth dirt path, he heard a crunch behind him. Turning around swiftly, he leveled his gun and scanned the area. There was nothing there.

Samuel cautiously turned back to the front and continued to walk. He had only taken a few steps forward when he heard a scratch behind him. Only turning his head this time, he looked again for signs of a person, but still saw nothing.

Samuel slowed down and gradually came to a stop. Without warning, he sprinted to the right into the trees and began to move as fast as he could. Nimbly jumping over rocks and sidestepping branches, he occasionally looked behind to see if his ghost was still there. When he chanced another glance, he felt a snag and was sent sprawling to the ground.

Samuel groaned as he started to pick himself up and looked down at his feet to see what had tripped him.

He blinked in surprise when he realized that he had ran into a tripwire. He then made the terrible mistake of trying to move his still tied legs. The tripwire began to tighten and Samuel noticed that it lead up to the tree next to him.

As he followed the wire, he saw it climb up the body of the tree and along a branch… connected to a net with a bunch of grenades in it.

Samuel’s eyes widened when he saw the tripwire pull the pin on a grenade and begin to loosen the net.

“Oh cra-” Samuel managed to utter before the net released its content and all of it fell down towards him.

Jacob pushed aside some branches as he continued to navigate the forest. The wilderness didn’t leave many landmarks, but he was careful to tag a few trees with red paint to remember the way back should he need it.

“Okay, I know Cody went this way, so I should keep following this path. After I regroup with him, we’ll both go look for Peter and Samuel together,” Jacob said, laying out his plan.

He was so busy talking to himself that he didn’t notice a figure creeping up behind him. As the figure shadowed him, a second one followed closely behind.

When Jacob stopped to pick a direction to follow, the first figure nodded to the second. The second figure looked back where they came from and waved.

A third and a fourth figure popped out of the brush and stealthily grouped up with their comrades.

The first figure pointed out three different directions and each member dispersed until soon, they had Jacob surrounded.

“... then we should be able to follow my paint trail and get back to the hill. It’ll be more secure there. Yeah, this’ll work,” Jacob said, finally satisfied with his strategy.

He looked up… only to lock eyes with the first figure holding a paintball gun.

Jacob started to slowly back up when he heard a rustle behind him. He turned his head slightly… to see the second figure brandishing a paintball gun too.

“Don’t tell me…” Jacob said to himself in disappointment as he looked to his left and right. Sure enough, the remaining figures were there aiming right at him. He was completely surrounded.

“The guys didn’t get a single one of you?” Jacob said.

“Nope, they made it too easy for us,” the first figure said, “Except for Sam, he at least put in some effort.”

“You know, we’re really tired of constantly getting our asses handed to you, Katie.”

“Oh, stop complaining, little bro,” Katie said, “You guys agreed on paintball when we challenged you. You only have yourselves to blame.”

Jacob wanted to give a snarky retort, but unfortunately, his sister was right in that regard.

He and the guys had agreed to a bet with Katie and her friends from college and there were no take backs. Jacob and the guys had lost to them before, but they were confident that they could finally beat the girls at something.

Clearly though, their confidence was misplaced.

“Since you boys have clearly lost, time you own up to the bet.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll treat you to lunch for the rest of the month. When you want, wherever you want,” Jacob said, clearly sullen from another defeat, “You know we’re family right? How do you sleep at night knowing you torment your own brother?”

“By thinking about how fun it is to kick your asses all the time,” Katie said as she fingered the trigger. Her friends followed suit.

“H-hey, whoa, whoa. You already won; there’s no need to paint me,” Jacob said, nervously looking at down the barrels.

“It’s because we won we get to paint you,” Katie said with an evil smile, “Better brace yourself.”

“Oh cra-” Jacob managed to utter before he was completely splattered with blue paint.