Aaron ducked behind a three-foot plywood barrier. He peered around the corner, but he couldn’t see anyone. That didn’t mean much, though; he couldn’t see anything out of the scratched up visor of the rental mask.

“Go!” he shouted back to the bunker. “I’ll cover you!” Keeping as much of his body as he could behind the barrier, he fired a dozen or so paintballs towards the opposite end of the field. Even if he could see someone at this distance, he wasn’t likely to hit anyone, but the firing would hopefully keep the other team crouched behind their own cover.

He heard Emily run up behind him, her heavy breathing sounding odd through her mask.

“Jim and Eric are going up the left,” she told him. She stood up slightly to fire a few rounds over the top of the wall. Aaron didn’t know whether she was actually aiming at somebody, or just keeping their opponents properly paranoid.

She ducked back down as a series of paintballs thudded against the plywood.

“Can you see who’s out there?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Not really. He’s behind the wagon over there, but I can’t tell who it is. Let’s keep moving.”

She fired another volley over the barrier, and Aaron ran, crouched as low as he could to the next bit of cover – an old mock-up of a western store front. A paintball whizzed past him, pulling at the sleeve of his t-shirt.

He settled down underneath a window, then rose to provide covering fire for Emily. Aaron wasn’t entirely sure she needed it. She was fast and small, almost impossible to hit at this range.

“Got an idea,” she said, shaking some extra paintballs into her gun. “I’m gonna cross to those barrels in the middle.”

“There’s not enough cover, there. We’ll be sitting ducks.”

“They haven’t managed to hit me yet all day. And I’ll be a sitting duck. While they’re trying to get me, you keep going around, try to come up behind them.”

“I don’t think splitting up is a-” Emily took off running before he could finish. He had to quickly bring his gun to bear out the window to try to keep her attackers from shooting at her.

She slid the last foot or so, kicking up a cloud of dust. Everyone would certainly know where she was now. Sure enough, a volley of paintballs began to pepper the barrels. She looked at me and made irritated hand motions clearly telling me to get moving.

The stores didn’t have back walls. Aaron could easily creep from one to the next along the outside of the playing field. He made sure to check each one before moving, though. Emily’s plan wouldn’t do much good if he walked into an ambush.

The wagon was lined up with the last storefront. Looking around the final wall gave him a perfect view of Billy crouched behind the wagon. He couldn’t see anyone else.

He took aim and slammed his finger against the trigger as rapidly as he could manage. The gun let out a series of popping noises as plastic bullets shot across the field.

William swore. Aaron couldn’t hear him, but his motions made it obvious he was swearing his head off. Grudgingly, he held his gun up in defeat.

Aaron was so satisfied with the kill that he didn’t notice Paul until his arm burst into pin-pricks of pain.