Carnelian (21 page)

“You two are to guard this flag while we go
on the offensive,” I told the guys my lie again. “We will put
captured people back out where we first met. Tell everyone you hit
to go back out to the benches,” I explained for a second time.

“Good luck,” one of the guys called to us as
we hurried away.

“I’ll need it,” I added. I saw the flag
sticking out of my bandana each time I saw my arm, but kept my eyes
elsewhere. Sim giggled at the guy as we walked.

“Next group, Sam and Jen,” Chris called, and
they ran over to meet us.

We hurried back into the wooded area for a
third time. We were going to run out of time this way. We found
another tree and Sim didn’t even have to climb since Sam was tall
enough to reach up and pull a branch down. Sim tied the bandana on
the tree perfectly, keeping the pattern hidden before Sam let the
branch go.

“Stay here, guard it, and send people out to
the benches if you hit them while we are hunting,” Sim said before
grabbing my arm.

Chris and Will were walking toward us.

“This way,” Chris led the way back further
into the woods. After getting not too far, He stopped in front of a
tree. “This is the perfect tree. I’ll give Sim a boost,” Chris told
us. He helped get her to the first branch, and she began to climb.
Sim was just like a monkey as she got further into the branches.
Finding the perfect limb, Sim tied the bandana on.

“Can you still see it?” Sim asked.

“Yes,” the guys called, and Sim hurried back
down.

“Now I’ll stay here alone,” Chris said to
us, as planned.

“Shouldn’t we keep more people on the real
flag?” Will asked.

I looked to Chris and he
mouthed
‘not me.’

“Actually, it would work best to have no one
here,” I answered. “If no one is here, they why would they stop to
look at this exact spot?” I asked. Will nodded, liking my
reasoning. It was nice to be on the studious team. Reasoning was
actually more effective than power in their arguments.

“But I refuse to leave,” Chris added,
playing along.

“It’s up to us three to not tell where this
spot is. No matter what they try to bribe you with,” I added. Will
looked like the type that would immediately cave to the pretty
girls.

Several booms sounded around campus.

“And with that, good luck and see if you can
get any flags,” Chris said, dismissing us with a wave of his gun.
Sim and Will ran back toward main campus as I waited behind.

“Something tells me you’ll probably see Will
again,” I said to Chris.

“I got that feeling, too,” Chris replied,
nodding.

“Don’t hesitate to maybe borrow a gun from
the other team if they pass by,” I suggested.

Chris grinned. “Man, you’re brutal. Glad to
have someone finally competitive on the team. Is your plan still in
place?” Chris replied. Chris was actually a junior who had been on
two previous losing CRUSH teams.

I smiled and nodded. I was a little
competitive. “Working perfectly. I trust Sim to not let anyone know
about it. She’s not about to fall for a pretty face, or big boobs,
as is Will’s case.”

“Then I’ll wait to see you at the end and
find how many flags you have by then,” Chris replied as a blow horn
squealed once to indicate a flag was taken. “Well, with that we
aren’t in last place.”

I wandered back through the woods, making a
large loop to keep me from the fake flags. As I got near the last
part of the woods, I paused at voices. I looked outside the woods
from my hiding spot and counted at least three teams heading into
the woods, none of them were shooting at each other. As I expected,
the other teams had made alliances, and that was the main reason
why Murdley never won. They were the first target everyone ganged
up on. I stayed in my spot and let them pass. From the woods tree
line, I ran to the nearest building, keeping to the shadows.

I waited to see them leave. I would have to
follow them back to the spots as I didn’t really know where anyone
was. How I was going to even get one flag was beyond me. I wasn’t
the best at fighter games; I was more into quest games and simple
logic. This was actually just a simple logic game the more I
thought about it. I could go run around and try to get flags. The
more people saw me, the more likely they would find out our secret.
If no one could find our flag, all I really had to do was to wait
for the last group and take all the flags they found. I sat down
inside the doorway alcove and waited. It made more sense to just
wait.

I watched as all three groups left the
woods. Two groups were spattered in yellow dye and marching behind
the girls leading the way. One was talking loudly.

“Now what do we do with them?” the girl
asked.

“Keep them for the ten minutes and send out
everyone to get their flags while these guys are away,” Melissa
said as she led in the front.

I pressed back into the shadows of the
building and let them pass. No one noticed me as I scanned over the
two groups following her.

“What about Murdley?” the first girl asked.
It was the girl that was always at Mellissa’s side.

“We will have to come back,” Melissa sounded
like she had a sour taste in her mouth.

“I can’t believe we did all this to just get
a bandana. The real flag must still be hidden in there,” the girl
replied. They had been to a fake tree, but I didn’t know which one.
I don’t think anyone expected us to actually play the game.

I felt the buzz that Seth was around, but I
didn’t see him. He had to be hiding just like me. The buzzing of
his arrival was quickly gone with the large group that passed by.
He had to know I was there, but didn’t stop to look. I waited in my
spot for another twenty minutes and heard two more horns. Three
teams were already out. A few people came and went in pairs, but no
one came back with a fake flag. Soon I felt Seth return.

“Still here?” he asked, walking up to me in
my spot without his gun drawn. I kept mine pointed on him. I wasn’t
going to lose for my team just for a guy, no matter how well he
kissed. Yes—I was a little competitive.

“Truce?” he asked, holding out his hands. I
wasn’t completely sure I wanted to shake it. His dorm was known to
always win with all their jocks. “At least until all the other
teams’ flags are gone? I could help you get a flag or two… or are
you on guard duty?”

“Nope, not guarding. Supposed to be finding
flags,” I admitted. It sounded worse out loud than in my head.

“And not moving somehow will find you
flags?” Seth asked, moving closer to me to hide in the shadows as
we talked.

“Well, eventually,” I replied. “Everyone
will get all the flags and have to come here to get ours.” We were
now standing shoulder to shoulder.

“Very confident,” Seth said. “You must have
done a good job hiding it.” I shrugged.

“I didn’t technically hide it; that was Sim,
but yes, I think we will be the last one everyone has to go after,”
I answered.

Seth looped his arm around my waist and
cornered me into the doorway. “Come on, I know you want to be with
me. We’d make a good team.” Seth kissed my neck, and I giggled.

“Fine. Truce until we’re the last two
teams,” I replied. I really had no reason to refuse him. Either he
wasn’t going to attack for my flag, or he didn’t know I had it. As
I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my face to his chest, I
noticed a piece of blue fabric out of his pant pocket. Seemed like
maybe Seth had the same idea as me.

“Are you sure? I still have a few more
convincing techniques to try.” Seth nibbled on my ear. I giggled at
what I found and the nibble on my ear.

I reached forward and pulled Seth close as
more people approach. The team Melissa was leading was heading into
the woods. Seth watched along with me and smiled.

“I’d say this is a good time to go hit the
sorority team. Melissa took more than half her team with her. She
must really be determined to get you out. Let’s go, partner,” Seth
said, taking my hand and leading me back into the game.

It was great to be Seth’s partner. He was
the best at the game. In twenty minutes, Seth had managed to get us
four flags. Somehow he was really good at the game even though he
was not from my time, not that I expected him to be otherwise.
After another twenty minutes the blow horn indicated that there
were only three teams left. Seth and I were hidden near the frat
house team. We saw the flag, but we couldn’t get near it. With only
three teams, they seemed to be taking the approach of waiting for
us to come to them. Sim sat in their team jail along with several
of both mine and Seth’s team. Dee was marched over to the group and
sat down sullenly from just being caught.

“And what is the great plan now?” I
asked.

“We need a distraction,” Seth replied. “And
I know the two to do it.” Seth looked at his watch and waited. Dee
would be free in ten minutes and he would have to return to his
base to go back out. At the end of his ten minutes, Seth whistled.
It sounded closely to the birds in the area, none of the frat team
even looked up.

“Free to go,” one of the guys said, pointing
to Dee. Sim was already back after being caught a second time. Dee
leaned down and patted her head.

“Nice to see you again, Shorty,” he said in
a friendly manner, and even Sim looked at him strangely. We both
knew Dee, but he wasn’t one to talk to us. I actually got the
feeling he didn’t like either of us. As he ran off, I finally
noticed why he talked to Sim. He had a different gun in his hand,
and no one noticed. Dee stopped by us first and tagged us both. It
only counts as being shot if the person’s armband and the dye
matched. We weren’t officially caught, but with blue on each of our
shirts, we could sneak into the holding area and closer to the
flag. Seth led the way, and we snuck in the back of the holding
area.

Chris was next to me and his eyes widened in
shock.

“They caught you?” Chris asked. “There goes
our big plan. Without me there, I’m sure Will will lead someone
back to the tree. I didn’t get the chance to get him.”

“The game’s not over yet,” I replied and
Seth moved. I followed him to the edge of the group. With the dye
on our shirts, no one noticed us or even paid attention to us.

With a war cry, Ty ran into the group
shooting with two guns. As guys got hit, they dropped their guns,
but soon they were all confused. They were hit with a mix of blue
and green dye, blue being their own.

“Wait a second,” one guy called as they all
were shooting around. “I just hit him, and he isn’t stopping.” Ty
continued to shoot more people as they stopped, confused. Soon Ty
had shot all the people there.

“This isn’t fair,” the frat guy complained.
“I know I shot him.” He didn’t even look at his gun, which had
sprayed green water and not blue. Everyone stopped to listen. They
had all been hit, and Ty only had his own color on his shirt.

Ty played confused as they all stopped
shooting. “I know I shot you before you shot me. Besides, you
missed,” Ty accused the guy talking and pointed to his shirt. “You
can’t just play it off as your color.” Seth led me closer to the
flag, and we slipped into the slowing commotion.

“No, I hit you,” frat guy replied, still
confused by the lack of blue on Ty.

“No, I shot you. You are our team prisoner,”
Ty replied back getting into the argument.

Sim saw me in the crowd and spoke up. “I saw
Ty shoot you. You had to miss. Ty is only green.”

An argument broke out with all the guys
yelling at once. The frat guy was not going to back down, and Ty
was only green. Frat guy lacked the proof to get Ty out. Everyone
on Seth’s team were goading the fight on in support of Ty, while
the frat boys yelled otherwise. Seth led the way through the
arguing crowd and took a few steps to the flag. Even the flag
protectors were in on the group argument and with blue dye on our
shirts, they didn’t think twice about us being there.

Seth reached into the spot and took the
flag. He grinned at me, and I smiled back before shooting him with
red dye. He laughed at me shooting him.

“Only until we were the last two teams
right?” I asked. “Guess you’re my prisoner.”

The frat boys looked at us finally and
realized we had their flag.

“What?” the first frat boy asked. “You’re
our prisoners.”

“Not really,” Seth replied. “Can any guy
here admit to catching us?” Not a single guy could place us.

“I can,” Dee replied from the shadows,
holding onto a gun. “Man, you have my gun.” Seth pointed to the guy
complaining about shooting Ty. “Guess it’s just our two teams
left.” Dee grinned at me.

“Actually,” I said as I pointed out to Dee.
“I just took out Seth. The game is done.”

Everyone looked at me confusedly, including
Seth. With all the eyes on me, I reached over and pulled the flags
he collected out of his pocket. I laid each flag on the ground to
show each color. There were still two flags missing, and I smiled
as I reached in Seth’s other pocket. He wiggled his eyebrows at me
suggestively. The guys all around were too captivated by the flags
to notice. I pulled out Seth’s team flag to add to the pile.

“Aw, you saw that?” Seth asked. He didn’t
actually sound disappointed.

“Yep,” I replied. “When you first found
me.”

“But the game isn’t done until your flag is
with the rest,” Dee added hopefully. “That means we still have a
chance. You have to make it back to your flag to collect it before
we do.”

“Not really,” I added, untying my armband
and pulling the flag free from the roll. I dropped my flag on the
pile and smiled at the guys. “Game’s done. Murdley wins.” All the
Murdley prisoners erupted into cheers and even the frat guys were
impressed that I had beat Seth. Seth pulled me into his arms and
kissed me. He wasn’t mad in the least about my sudden turn on him.
He was grinning more than anyone on my own team.