The Race Against Time

Chapter 17

Brooklyn

I was quite surprised that I was chosen to be the leader. Why couldn't they have chosen Xander or Tyler or even Lucas? Why choose a girl like me. I felt like if I have no skills in these games because I have never played capture the flag before. I could easily mess this up for the entire team. Although all these negative thoughts flooded my head, I was still the leader, and I couldn't change anything about it. Furthermore, that's why I have to step up and try. I can't let these negative thoughts get to my head and prevent me from winning this competition.

"By now I am sure that you have found the weapons, these weapons were not made to kill your opponent but to paralyze them. If you are shot in your arm, you will not be able to move it. However, once you are shot, you will be out of the game. The games will begin NOW!"

"Try not to be seen. If a member of the other team sees you, they will most likely try to shoot you. When you spot the flag, signal me with a whistle." I ordered them motioning for us to leave now.

We departed so that we could cover more extensive ground, but we were still able to see each other. The white line was closer now, and when we crossed it, we were even more cautious.

I detected a girl and a boy coming our way. They hadn't noticed us, so we stopped in our tracks and hid behind a tree. I made myself as small as I possibly could so that I couldn't be seen from behind the tree, I moved my leg, attempting to hide it since a piece of it could still be seen. While trying to relocate it, my leg lost balance for a second, and I decided to steady myself, but it made a noise on the snow. As they trotted away, the girl that was behind the boy looked back.

She was a little behind the boy because he did not realize that she had stopped. I looked at Xander and Yori, and they both nodded, already knowing what I was about to do. I took my gun a raised it towards her from behind the trees. I tried to aim it on her leg so she would fall.

It flies out of the chamber and into the air, the bullet aims right for my target beyond me. As it pushes through the air at high speed, it gains less distance than it was before until that moment when it hits my target's foot. She fell over moaning in pain. It didn't pierce her skin, but it sure did hurt. We quickly ran, swerving in between trees. I couldn't help but feel happy about my accomplishment. When we knew for sure that they couldn't catch us, we slowed down.

"That was epic!" Yori yelled.

"That was so risky, I didn't even know for sure I would hit her, I've never shot anything before."

"It's presumably the thing they gave us, it working," Xander answered.

After catching our breaths, we kept on going looking out for a red flag. We decided to split up once again, but this time we weren't close, we were so far that we couldn't even see each other.

I grasped the gun close to me just in case I had to use it again. I moved stealthily through the forest, looking out for any of the red's team members. I sensed the adrenaline pumping in my bones. I never felt like this before. It was like a surge of energy. I was no longer tired; I was energized and ready for anything that came my way.

I heard a crush of snow to the right of me. My head snapped to the right, noticing a girl a few feet away whose name tag wrote Anika.

If I take her down, there would be fewer people trying to get to our flag. I waited for her to come nearer to me before I attacked her. When she walked by, I quickly jumped out from behind a tree. Tackling her to the ground, I knocked the gun out of her hand.

I wrapped my hands tightly around her throat, trying to make her unconscious. She kicked my foot, causing me to fall on the snow hitting my back, however, I refused to remove my hand from her throat. She tried loosening my grip from her throat. Her nails dug into my arms, piercing my skin. I swiftly removed my hand, hissing in pain. Anika quickly got up and ran for her gun. I couldn't let her get a hold of it, so I grabbed her legs, pulling her down on the ground and away from it.

Her foot connected with my face in one swift motion. A pain ignited in my cheek, making me want to cradle it, but I couldn't waste any time. I grabbed a stick that was next to me and swung it at her. She quickly dodged it, stepping to the side.

"Your team will never win this, you know, I'm getting that money whether you like it or not."

I don't know what happened to me after that, but I just felt the need to punch that little face of hers—I launched myself at her knocking her to the ground.

I balled my fist and began hitting her in her face, not stopping, I don't know what was going on with me, but I felt like I couldn't stop myself. Even after she had fallen unconscious, I was still hitting blows.

I was suddenly pulled away by rough hands.

"Let go of me!" I shouted

"It's just me, Brooklyn calms down. You could've killed her, what's got into you." Lucas said.

"What," I whispered

I looked at the girl seeing blood all over her face. I covered my face in terror. What have I done?

"I couldn't help myself, I- I- I-. I wasn't thinking straight."

"Do you think it was because of the thing they gave us," Yori replied.

"I don't know, but we should lay low for a while, we don't want anything like this happening again, and we need to make a good plan, we don't know what we're up against."

I was still in shock at what I had done, I have never been a violent person, but something just lit up in me and I couldn't control myself.