Life and Times of a Keyboard Warrior

Double trouble in paradise

22
26th of February
Markus

I line up the shot, certain that I will strike my target perfectly. I exhale, settling my nerves for the upcoming, very important shot. I tense myself, wind back, and let the shot off.

"MIA, THINK FAST!" I cup my hands around my mouth and scream down the beach. Mia turns back to look at me a millisecond before my ball of sand connects with her face. She goes down on her butt, sand cascading off of her. I howl with laughter, dropping to the sand in an attempt to catch my breath.

"That's not funny Kennedy, now I got sand in my wetsuit." Mia yells at me. I gotta admit, she looks kinda sexy with sand in her hair and a scowl on her face, wearing a dark blue one piece swimsuit, lit up by the sunset. She musta noticed me staring, because she rolls her eyes, reaches down and make a sand ball, then lobs it at me. It smacks into the sand 20 metres away. Weak...

"You're wrong, that was funny as hell!" I retort, chucking another sand ball at her. She squeals and runs for cover, arms raised protectively above her head. I point and laugh.
Suddenly, something wet hits me with a dull thud. I fall to my knees, winded.

"I got you, mr Pwesident." Yuki giggles at me, holding a bright red bucket with dregs of sandy water in the bottom. I touch my back, and I pull my hand off and it's all sandy and wet. She's just emptied a bucket of wet sand at me, what a cheeky little rat-bag.
I barely have time to counter the attack before Mia slaps me with a handful of sand.

"Why you ganging up with her, Yuki? I thought you were on my side." I demand incredulously, loudly spitting out sand. Mia sticks her tongue out at me.

"You a poo, mr Pwesident!" Yuki squeals, laughing as she chucks the empty red bucket at my head. It bounces off anticlimactically. She takes off down the beach as fast as she can, her grey hair glowing in the light of the sunset.

"Oh you're gonna pay for that, little one." I bellow, dramatically stalking after the girl. I speedwalk behind her, lengthening the game for fun. I'm about to catch Yuki and tickle her when suddenly, a streak of light shoots past my face and explodes, blowing a ten meter wide crater in the sand fifty meters away.

"Sorry mates, musta aimed a bit low!" I hear Heath shouting, and I turn around to give him a piece of my mind. I stop when I see him. He's strolling up to us, grinning madly. Yuki's red bucket sits on his head, obscuring his eyes. He's carrying what appears to be a panzershreck, a tube with a shield meant to launch rockets. A bandolier covered with fireworks sits on his shoulder.

"What the hell is that, Heath?" I demand, pointing towards the rocket launcher.

"You like it? It was my dad's when he was in the army, and they let him keep it. It's a German rocket launcher, the spoils of war." Heath beams, pronouncing launcher, 'lawnchair'.

"You nearly atomized me with that thing!" I growl, but he only begins loading another rocket into the tube.

"Watch this, it's awesome, I promise." He smirks, aiming the tube high into the sky. He squeezes the trigger, and a tongue of flame leaps from the rear of the tube, scorching the sand beneath it. A rocket hurtles from the tube up into the night sky, growing ever smaller until, finally, it disintegrates in an impressive show of light.

"Wow Heath, that was amazing! I wanna go now." Mia demands, giddy with excitement and already grabbing at the launcher. Heath barely has time to load the next rocket and explain the tubes functions before she's aiming the barrel skywards.

"Quit worrying, how hard can it be." She winks at us, then turns back to the aiming sights. She squeezes the trigger, but nothing happens. A few seconds later, the rocket drops from the end of the tube into the sand.

"Mia, get out of there, that firecracker might go off!" Heath yells at her, who's only just noticing the quiet fizzing sound from behind her. We quickly try to get closer, trying to judge if the rocket is a dud or not. Suddenly, she takes off, flinging the launcher away in a bid for more speed. Heath dives and catches the tube before it hits the ground. There's a loud bang as the firework goes off, sending Mia flying.

I dash over, diving to the sand. The wound doesn't look too bad, an area of singed skin all along her back and the back of her arms and legs. It looks like she made it out of the dangerous part, but still got hurt by the hot air. Her face is screwed up in pain, tears running down her face. Heath wanders over, cradling his precious 'lawnchair' like a child.

"She got singed, all along her back." I declare, and Heath breaths a sigh of relief. His launcher isn't gonna be taken away as evidence of manslaughter just yet. I hear voices in the distance, and I see torches beams swinging in the semi-darkness. The sun is gone now, the last of it's setting light leaking off the horizon. I yell to attract everyone to our position.

The Professor is the first to reach us. I bend down, scooping Mia up deftly, being careful not to touch her wounds. She curls up around me, squeezing my shoulders. "We'll take her back to the house, I bought a first aid kit and there's some burn ointment in there I think." The Professor assures her, turning tail and sprinting back to the house. I follow suit, when suddenly I remember something. Yuki...

"Heath, where's Yuki?" I yell at Heath. His look is all i need to know that things are about to get bad, seriously bad. I'm torn, wanting to turn around and find Yuki and bring her home safely, but I'm carrying Mia, who's burnt and struggling to not pass out because of the pain. In the end I shake my head, trade Mia for Heath's bandolier and launcher, and sprint off into the night in search of Yuki.