Chapter 77

77 Chapter Seventy Seven

Sandra had gotten herself into quite the team, she looked from one to the other while they huddled up in their base. Jason, on her right, was a werewolf alpha that she had dragged into a game he’d never played and one that she was starting to grow fond of. Shaemus was a junior hunter that was viewed as a traitor in the eyes of many. And finally, to her left was Lawson, the mysterious handsome masked man who’d showed up out of nowhere claiming to know her and taking their third spot.

The four of them were people who all had a history with each other. ‘How did I get myself into such a situation?’ she couldn’t help but think as they began their discussion.

“We need to pick a leader. This should be someone who is good at evasion and should stay behind while two of us go-ahead to claim the victory,” Lawson began.

“What happens when they decide to choose one of their junior hunters as a leader and send out Samantha for the win?” Shaemus asked.

“What Prometheus gift does Samantha have?” Jason asked.

“Agility,” the three of them answered all at once. It wasn’t new to them in the slightest.

“How are we supposed to compete with that when we don’t have a hunter amongst us?” Sandra asked without thinking too much about it.

“Ouch, that hurts. I’m a hunter, you know,” Lawson defended himself.

“Oh, I didn’t know. You looked more of a VIP than a hunter dressed the way you are,” she said. Jason covered his mouth tight with his palm, looking away from the two to try and hide the laughter that wanted to escape him.

.....

“I’ll have you know that I was made a hunter at such a young age of twenty-one. I am more than capable of holding my own against a fellow hunter,” he said.

“That’s some big talk considering you’re still young. Samantha is older than you by a lot and has far more experience than you,” Shaemus returned, jokingly.

“You might be right there, but that would have been a problem if we had the same gifts. She had experience in the agility gift while I have the strength gift, and she doesn’t know that so we have the element of surprise,” he said to them.

“Yes, that is important, but then, how are we going to use the strength gift to our advantage?” Shaemus asked, deep in thought. Sandra couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t acting as silly as he did back when he threatened to dethrone Katie. Something was different about him. He’d lost his dramatic flair and his smile never reached his eyes even though it was warm all the same. He bore a constant feeling of sadness about him.

“I’m not sure about that. Perhaps we should figure out our strategy first and figure out how it will help us in that way,” Lawson said.

“Well, we don’t have all the time in the world. The agility gift will allow Samantha to be on top of us and whoever is our leader in no time. So we cannot leave the leader unprotected,” Jason said, rushing them.

“You are right about that. None of us possesses the ability to evade an attack from her if she chooses that approach. Is she still as competitive as...”

“Yes, very much so. She’s as competitive as ever. There is nothing that can stop her when she gets that fire of competition running...” a beeping sound caught their attention forcing them to look at the tablet that was placed on the desk at the back of the room. The leader of the team was one of the junior hunters.

“She’s still as impulsive as ever though,” Lawson said, “I think I have an idea about how we might approach this situation.”

“We are all ears,” Jason said.

“We shall go out surrounding our leader and giving them cover from three directions to protect them from the bullets coming from Samantha. Our mission shall be to advance to the enemy base, where they will no doubt hide their leader as they come out to fight. All we need to do is land five hits on the leader and the game ends in our victory. As long as our defence is airtight, the leader of our team won’t have to get hit,” he said.

“That sounds like a sound plan indeed, but let me get this straight. Are we acting as human shields for the leader?” Jason asked.

“Yes, that is true...”

“Damn, you must not like that suit,” was his reply to his statement. They all chuckled before Shaemus asked the question they’d all needed to answer.

“Who’s our leader, then?”

“I vote Sandra,” Jason said almost immediately. The other two guys looked at him, shocked at how fast he had started the election.

“I was going to vote the same. What about you, Lawson?” Shaemus asked still giving the werewolf a weird look.

“Aren’t you afraid of alphas?” Jason asked, surprised at how long the boy could stare into his red eyes.

“Well, not as much as I’m afraid of my father and Katie,” he said, sincerely. Lawson walked to the tablet and set up Sandra as the leader.

“Who’s your father?”

“Director Anthony,” Sandra finished.

“Is that why he’s already out of detention?”

“No, the Director has a reason for doing this. We’ll just have to wait until we get the answer for him,” Sandra confirmed.

“Am I missing something?” Lawson asked, Jason, feeling good about himself for not being the odd man out this time. He’d not even noticed how alienated he’d been amongst these three old friends. It was clear that the rest did not remember Lawson, but he wasn’t bothered by it... that is if he wasn’t a professional at hiding it.

“Not much really... just that this boy here was supposed to...” the bell signalling the start of the match stopped their conversation in half. All of them except for Lawson put on their protective helmets and as Lawson demolished the back wall of the wooden makeshift cabin. Picking up the entire wall as though it was made of paper. He looked back to the others as they stared at him through their masks.

“What...”

They all shook their heads mumbling, “Nothing, nothing...” as they fastened the rest of their gear. They were ready to move out. Shaemus was the first to take a lookout, peeping through the window that they had for observation. A whizzing sound followed reached the werewolf ears first and he was forced to pull the human back down. Dozens of paintballs rushed in hitting the back wall that Lawson had decided to carry and colouring it all the same.

“What in the world,” Sandra exclaimed.

“Samantha brought her A-game for this one. We proceed as planned,” Lawson said. The team huddled up against the wall, protecting Sandra as best they could. Before they could move, Lawson punched large holes into both sides of his giant shield. “Use these to try and spot their leader. My best guess is that the leader is somewhere in their shade.

“If I’m getting this right, the opponents are not allowed to touch each other?” Jason asked.

“Yes, that is the essence of this plan. Otherwise, Samantha would be able to push one of us away from Sandra and score her five shots,” he said.

“Why five shots? It’s not that hard to score five shots on someone...”

“We don’t have time to figure out all those little details, just protect Sandra,” Lawson repeated the order.

“You make it sound like I’ll be doing nothing in this entire battle,” Sandra mumbled under her breath. Lawson pretended he had not heard her and lifted his shield, leading the team to the other side of the base for their march that was no doubt, going to be the hardest to pull considering, the other teams were at liberty to shoot Jason and Shaemus.

“I just realized you will be hidden behind the safety of that shield that you’ve made for yourself,” Jason noted.

That way we can reduce their range of fire. You three will be shooting whoever crosses over to the other side of the shield and increasing our points in the process while protecting Sandra, the one person that Samantha doesn’t have to get her eyes on.

...............

Their plan commenced smoothly and they were soon in the middle of the battlefield, Jason and Shaemus experiencing the full force of the assault from both sides of the protective shield. “We didn’t account for the fact that the enemy could blind us, now did we?” Jason yelled at the top of his voice. His mask was a mixture of colours and more paintballs continued to riddle his body randomly. They tried shooting back but seemed cornered at the moment.

Through all the paint, Jason got the distinct scent of the woman’s perfume. Samantha was in motion, the question of where was soon answered as he breathed in deeper. They weren’t allowed to be touched and yet, she was headed straight for them at a blinding speed. Thanking the goddess for reading the message as fast as he did.

“Sandra, get down,” he turned to her, covering her small frame as the hunter that was headed for them leapt in an attempt to shoot Sandra from the air where she was unprotected. Lawson used the opening to swing the shield into Samantha’s position, blocking the shooters from that side. The shots that were fired by the airborne hunter all hit Jason in the back thankfully, leaving Sandra untouched.