The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 39: Florence

Dedication is to my new fan :) 

-Florence’s P.O.V-

It felt like I was playing the heroine in an action movie, and I sprinted along beside Joullian as shots rang out in the field. They weren’t real gun shots, but they sure sounded like it, and as we both ducked behind the large trunk of a tree, a splatter of blue paint exploded onto the wall in front of us. We both had our backs pressed against the rough bark, paint guns held at the ready and excited grins plastered onto our faces. This was a surreal experience.

The ground beneath us was a sandy colour, but hard underfoot and it looked painful to fall down on. In the middle of our vision stretched the wooden wall of tall, sharpened pines rising into the pale blue sky. They looked at least two stories tall, and already dots of different colours were decorating their faces.

Joullian tugged at my arm. “I’m going to run across to the empty bus” he jerked a hand to an upturned yellow school bus that was at least ten metres away. It looked rusty, dirty and most of all, colourful. It was hard to spot that its original colour had been yellow; it was mashed with paint that made it stand out like a colour happy hippy in the midst of a bare desert. The beige leather seats inside had been ripped, torn, and some were even stuffed in the glassless windows for a barrier against attackers.

“Alright, I’ll cover you” I voiced the cheesy line that I had heard in all the major action movies and grinned as he took off in a cloud of dust. He was easy to spot in his green suit, a tall man ducking in between obstacles as he lunged for the open door of the bus. He made it inside easily and waved to me before wriggling along the floor with his head down.

I noticed a blur of movement to my left and turned to see another player sneaking up to the bus. Joullian hadn’t spotted him yet, but the player hadn’t spotted me either. Tied around his forearm was a strip of dark blue cloth and I identified him as an enemy. I lifted my gun and trained it on his moving form, which was easier said than done. It was hard to keep a heavy gun aimed at a moving target, but I eventually gathered up the courage to shoot. A bright red capsule of paint shot out from the end of my paint gun and sailed into his chest, spreading out into a nice looking splash of colour.

The boy looked up to where it had come from and narrowed his eyes at me, but I shot him twice again in quick succession. Three shots and he had to go back to his original starting point. He hung his head and jogged away, and I grinned like a mad woman. This wasn’t so bad; I was getting into the swing of things. Just as I thought those words though, it was as if a higher force disagreed with me. Something large and painful hit me square in the back, and I turned around with a squeal.

A different player this time – a woman with a pink band around her arm – was about thirty metres away, aiming a gun right at my helmet. She had shot me with a paint ball, but God did it hurt! I could already feel a bruise forming where it had touched, and the wet substance of paint was dripping down the back of my suit. She aimed again, but this time I had enough sense to move further around my tree trunk and out of sight. I couldn’t find Joullian at all, so I was on my own. I heard a paint ball whiz past me and slam into another tree and I shivered.

How on earth could I survive this? Paint balls hurt like hell and I was a rookie at this, I’d surely be dead meat in an open battle field. As thoughts of doubt wriggled into my head, a thought struck me. I was different than all of them out there; I had things that they didn’t...

I strained my ears to hear a sound of anything close by, and I recoiled almost instantly. It was as if there was a map inside my mind and I could see all the different obstacles around me. The bus was still ten metres away, but I couldn’t hear or smell anyone there so it must be empty. My sense of smell caught onto the gross scent of body odour wafting off of a player a few metres away and they were sneaking up fast. It was too bad that they weren’t aware of my supernatural senses. I jumped out from behind my tree and aimed in the direction of the smell, shooting three times and hitting the same target every shot. The smelly guy was dumfounded as to how I’d known he was there, and he grunted in annoyance before scurrying away.