The Survivors

Chapter 14

With a sigh of relief, I crawled into my bed. Even though I had won the fight against Vida, I had some bruises and my headache felt so bad as if I had been celebrating yesterday and woke up with a hangover. 

But as soon as I let myself sink into the pillow, an alarm sounded from the loudspeakers. I sat up, almost banging my head against the wall. I took a flashlight from one of the tables and left the room to find out what was going on. 

"You have exactly five minutes to get out to the practice site" Someone yelled. It was Rob. He had a flock of agents with him, but I only recognized a few of them at first glance. Cole was there, too. His gaze looked for something and stayed on me. I resisted him, but was suddenly grabbed by the arm by Vida and pulled on. 

The practice site used to be an old amusement park, but had to be closed due to the few children who still came. Many of the attractions looked very old and not stable at all. There's a dark pile at the entrance. If you look closer, you can tell that they were guns. 

"Do we have to shoot in the middle of the night?" I whispered into Vi's ear. 

"Trust me, Boo" She gave back with a big smile. "It's going to be fun"

"Everyone grab a gun and a pack of ammunition" Rob shouted. Everyone rushed towards the pile. As I was close, I grabbed the first rifle I could get hold of, and there was only one word on the box with the ammunition. PAINTBALLS.

When everyone had armed themselves with weapons, Cole's voice rang. "We split into two teams to play Capture the Flag. In each team there will be both adults and kids. The first team will run and look for a place to hide its flag, and shortly after, the second team will do the same. This is an important exercise to demonstrate a real OP, so I recommend you to take it seriously"

"Cole and I are team leaders" Rob continues. "And one more thing. Your special abilities are not allowed" His cold look fell right at me. Then he turned to Cole. "Let's sort out the kids first, okay?"

"You can start!" That was the only thing Cole said. 

Rob just shrugged his shoulders. "Martin"

Cole folded his arms and nodded. His blue eyes sparkled in the moonlight. He let his gaze wander over us for a moment. "Lilli"

My cheeks began to glow. I felt all eyes on me right away, and if those could kill, I would drop dead right away. The jealous looks of the girls were clearly visible and I noticed only now that they all have a crush on him.

I stood next to Cole, who winked at me, which was supposed to cheer me up. And it worked. I couldn't hold back a smile or keep my cheeks from taking on an even stronger red tone.

I no longer listened to what names were being called. The only thing I noticed was that Vida was on my team. Instead, I was busy trying to figure out what strategy Cole was pursuing. I looked at everyone he had chosen. What do we have in common?

It wasn't until almost everyone was distributed that I had an idea. Except for Cole and a few others, we were all narrow-shouldered and slim. Eyeryone in Rob's team was broad and strong. In one of our first practice sessions, Cole told me to use my speed to fight. We're gonna be faster than Rob's team, which was probably a big advantage. The thought made me smile. Rob was ruthless, but Cole was smarter than him.