Life and Times of a Keyboard Warrior

Record

28
1st of March
Markus

The bullet whistles past my ear.

"Get out of there, Kennedy, and I might just spare you." Heath calls over at me. I grip my Desert Eagle tightly, relieved to feel it's full loaded weight. I reposition myself behind the tree.

"Come on sweetie, there's nothing to be afraid of." I hear Elizabeth saying.

"Sure thing!" I leap up, squeezing off three fast shots. The Eagle's booming report echoes throughout the trees, and as I twist back to crouching, I hear a loud thud as someone hits the ground.

"Eli! No... FUCK YOU KENNEDY!" I hear Heath scream, opening fire on me. His dual auto extended mag CZ75's rips chunks out of the tree bark, but lack the stopping power to cut through to me. I reload my Eagle.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Heath..." I shout at him while he's reloading the guns.

"Get the hell up and fight me like a man!" He retorts, and I feel a twinge of guilt for killing his girlfriend. It's quickly evaporates when he begins tearing the tree apart with his pistols.

I poke around, and place a shot into his leg. He goes down screaming, dropping the 75 in his left hand. I jump out, blasting him in the right arm, making him drop the other gun. He's helpless now...

"I told you I was sorry..." I calmly tell him. He glares up at me like a demon, spitting at me with all his might.

"Go to hell!" He snarls.

"I'll see you there, then." I state, pulling out Daria's Derringer. His very first trophy kill, and now it's come back to haunt him. As I level the four barrels at his head, the recognition in his eyes is unmistakable, and the fear in them is even more recognizable.

"Say hello to Eli for me." I smirk at him, squeezing the trigger. The soil behind him is splattered with the most satisfying red and pink as the tyrant Heath's life is blown through the back of his head. My arms drop, the Eagle in one hand and the Derringer in the other.

"Well Daria, it's finally over. We did it..." I say, facing the small patch of sky visible through the trees.

"AND CUT!" I hear Pippi yell, and I look around. Heath gets up from the ground, rubbing his face.

"Dude, next time, don't be so close when you shoot me." He whines.

"Mate, it's meant to be an execution shot, it's supposed to be from that range." I explain to him like he's stupid.

"Also, that was perfect, so there's no need for another run. Well done guys!" Pippi tells me. She's running through the footage we got, nodding a lot. and smiling. I never knew I was that good at acting.

"You're a really good actor, Mark. Are you sure this is your first time?" Mia says to me, almost like she's reading my mind.

"Oh, yeah, it really is my first time, and I'm really not that good." I reply, embarrassed with all the praise. "If anything, you shoulda had the lead role Mia, your acting was way better than mine." Mia blushes hard and looks away.

"This'll make a perfect submission for the short film contest at the culture festival this year." Elizabeth tells everyone, waving two thumbs-up in the air.

"What should we call this piece?" Heath asks, dowsing himself down with a water bottle to get the blood dye off.

"How about... The intrepid adventures of the Hammer and Sickle Brigade?" I blurt, not thinking it through.

"That would work, if it weren't one main guy, if we were Russian, and if it was some kind of comedy. Also, I'm pretty sure that's racist." Daria says, walking into the conversation holding a big bag of snacks.

"Don't worry Mark, I reckon that name is brilliant." Heath grins madly at me, and we share a laugh. Daria hands me a bag of chips and a bottle of water, and I sit down against a tree. Daria curls up next to me, and then Mia comes and does the same on my other side.

There's a moment of tense silence, and I manage to meet Daria's eye. She looks at me like, "why is she so close to you, you cheater?!" I grin back uneasily, unsure of how to defuse the situation I've somehow gotten into.

"Mark, what's the matter?" Mia asks me, concerned. There's little I can say that'll make this any better for me, I can already feel Daria's handhold on my arm tightening. Crap...

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just kinda hungry after all that hard work, you know?" I explain, and I instantly feel blood return to my arm.

"Oh, I'll go get something for you then." She beams at me, jumping up and hurrying off to the others, where the food is.

"That was an awkward situation..." I sigh, rubbing my head in confusion.

"You're a smart guy, Mark, but sometimes you can be so freaking dense." Daria groans at me, looking away. I'm about to ask what that's supposed to mean, when Mia comes back, head dropped.

"Mia, what's wrong?" I ask her. She looks at me with sad eyes.

"Heath ate all the food, I couldn't get anything for you. Sorry Mark..." She explains to me. Is that it?

"Don't worry about it mate, Heath's a dirty pig when it comes to food. I'm a super fast eater, faster than him, but he makes a godawful mess when he chows down." I ramble, catching myself at the last second. Why am I telling her this?

"I see... Eli doesn't seem to mind it though, I wonder why..." She says, and I groan audibly. She doesn't mind it cause she's just as bad...

I suddenly remember something.
"Mia, when you, uhh, dragged me out of bed to come here, you said this was meant to be club activities, right?"

"Right." She replies.

"So our club is called the Insurgency Club or something, I get that. What I don't get is what kind of club are we?" I conclude.

Mia looks confused for a second. Suddenly, Heath jumps onto her back, nearly knocking her down.
"Markus my friend, the Insurgency Is all about omnidirection." He explains.

"Nice big word, mate..." I groan, but he only beams at me in reply.

"What I'm saying is, the Insurgency Club does everything. We do sports, we do food, we do multimedia, we do politics, we do counseling, we do everything!" He shouts, throwing his hands into the air. Mia's knees start giving out beneath them.

"You sound like a telemarketer on an infomercial..." I comment. Mia crashes to the ground with Heath on top of her.

"Hey, why didn't you help me, you piece of crap!" She rails at me, but I shrug.

"Now you know how I felt when you jumped on me."

"I weigh basically nothing you know, but Heath's a fatass!"

"Oi, I resent that. I'm not that heavy, geeze..."

"Heath, come on, get up off her. Go play with Eli or something." I tell him sternly. Sometimes you need a little carrot, sometime you need a little stick.

"Oh, ok then." Heath says, scrambling off to go jump on Eli instead. I get up and help Mia to her feet. She thanks me and we go back to sit down against the tree.

"So, how much longer do we have here before we have to go back to school properly?" I ask Mia.

"I think we have a few days left." She wonders aloud. I nod in reply.

"I'm kinda looking forward to school again. Gives a bit of routine and monotony to our lives." I say, leaning back completely with my hands behind my head. Daria lays against me, shifting to get comfortable.
Mia just kinda clams up and looks away.

"I, I guess that's true..." Mia stutters at me before she suddenly leaps up and dashes away. I lean out to try and grab her, but I can't seem to get up, it feels like Daria is pinning me down.

"That was odd..." I blink. Daria mumbles something about me being ignorant.