Infinite

We Are the Champions: Part 2

Beaumont, Texas at XTREME SPORTING CENTER, on Saturday, September 14th, 2030 at 12:00 pm

Lucas

A few of the employees help us get into our protective gear and show us how to use the paintball guns. The man who is running the event is very short and quite angry sounding. He's bald, with very large eyebrows and flushed cheeks. When he finishes giving us all the instructions for the competition his chest is rising and falling quickly like he's out of breath from yelling at us. I didn't realize how intense this thing was going to be.

I look around me in the arena. There's ten teams here and they all appear to be men. I look to my right and see Rachel standing next to me. She looks so cute in her vest and goggles. She has her face shield resting around her neck. It's quite warm out today, so having a piece of fabric over our mouths is going to be uncomfortable while we run around this place.

Whenever I look at her, my heart feels a mixture of adoration, love, sadness, and pain. Dr. Wilson entered us into this competition so that we could prove that we can communicate with each other. Our conversation in the car is not done yet, and I know that I made the tension between us worse by bringing it up. I can tell that she's mad at me for baiting her into answering my questions about it, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore. There's a part of me that wants to know every detail of what she did while I was away, but another part of me doesn't want to know anything out of fear for how much it's going to hurt.

"Alright, folks! Head to your base position with your teammate and wait for the signal!" the bald man yells from the front of the group. I wasn't paying attention to any of the rules or instructions because I'm so distracted by Rachel.

I see other teams looking at the card we were given when we checked in. I look at the number on our card and then around the arena. I see a large number seven written in red towards the left side. It looks like a small bunker hidden in some trees. I reach out and put my hand on Rachel's back to guide her out of habit but she pulls away from me. I can feel my heart sink into my stomach. I didn't do this right.

We walk quietly over to our assigned position. I try to take note of where the other teams are headed on our way; one is behind a mound of sand bags next to another group of trees. I see a team head towards a tunnel of some sort, while another is near a deep looking pit with some rock cover. I'm not sure where everyone else went, but the highest number I can see is twenty-five, so there are plenty of covered areas to move to if necessary.

Rachel probably isn't thinking of this as tactically as I am, but she does play video games online with her friends. I always smile when I listen to her yelling into the headset while they play. I can hear her from my office because it's on the ground floor. They're a great stress reliever and a fun way to catch up.

We get inside our bunker and peer out the small, square windows. There's a doorway on each side and it's made of very old, rusted metal. It looks like it used to be a shipping container, but it's hard to tell with how much paint is splattered on it. Rachel leans out the opposite doorway to look around before the match starts. She has always been thin, but her figure is very defined in her tight athletic ensemble. Her curves are silhouetted by the sunlight coming in through the opening. She zips up her jacket and turns around. She catches me looking at her and quickly avoids my gaze.

"I figured it would hurt pretty bad if I got hit on my bare stomach with a paintball or two," she says awkwardly as she heads back to look out the window. I move to stand next to her.

"Rachel, I know you're mad at me," I say to her softly. She doesn't say anything back. "For a lot of things. But you need to understand that I'm mad at you, too," my voice cracks a little as I finish my sentence. She peers at me without turning her head before glancing back out the window.