Page 82 of Cream and Punishment
Within seconds, McBride’s shrill whistle pierced through the air.
Maybe we could’ve gotten closer to their flag before getting shot at if we didn’t sound like a herd of walruses crashing through the trees. As it was, we were impossible to miss, even without taking the white dresses into account.
By the time the first paint flew, everything blurred together in a haze of fight-or-flight instincts and panic. We took the brunette guy out first, with a lot of yelling on my part. Then it was eerily peaceful until Hattie broke off from our group at a sprint.
And by golly, that lady could run, especially considering her age. When she got a good twenty feet away, she started hollering and charging forward, dodging between trees.
I exchanged confused looks with Rowan and Lex, unsure whether to follow Hattie or stay with the rest of the group.
And then I saw what Hattie charged toward.
Concealed in underbrush, I almost would’ve missed the man if not for the bright white of his wedding dress. Hattie opened fire, missing horribly, but succeeding in giving the man’s position away.
“Quick, flank him while Hattie draws his fire,” Lex instructed, lithely advancing on the man with Rowan at her side.
I felt the hit before I saw it. Pain exploded across my hip, and I stumbled, graceful as always. This time, though, my klutziness saved me, since bright blue paintballs whizzed over my head.
“Dekker!” Lex returned fire at whoever shot me, apparently another guy we hadn’t seen hiding. “Are you okay?”
“I think I’m dying,” I groaned back, rubbing at my hip as I tried to stand back up. My hips had apparently acclimated to the lifestyle of a senior citizen along with my sleep schedule, since they were as brittle as toffee. Maybe I’d need a hip replacement at the ripe old age of thirty.
“Okay, she’s fine.” Lex signaled to Rowan. “You take out whoever’s shooting at Hattie, and I’ll get this guy.”
Holy cannoli, these paintballshurt. I didn’t want to imagine how much it would hurt with a slimmer skirt. I never thought I’d be grateful for the loads of bubbly folds in my dress, yet here I was, staring at the sky and mentally writing an ode to poofy eighties dresses worldwide.
“What are you still doing down there?” Lex asked, towering over me. And let me tell you, as the taller sibling, that was a strange thing to experience.
She sported a bright blue burst of paint on her shoulder, though, unlike me, she stood tall and awesome like a supersoldier instead of groaning on the ground desperately pressing her LifeAlert button. Apparently she was impervious to paintballs. Or pain. Maybe both.
Well, she wasn’t the only Piper girl who was tough. She just happened to be tough like steel and Kevlar and I was tough like beef jerky and burnt cookies. Either way, I could hold my own. And I would.
I groaned again, forcing myself upright despite my hip’s protests. “Just writing my last will and testament, that’s all.”
She chuckled, helping me up. When did she get so strong?Good gravy, it was like I was the carrot, and she was the super ripped gardener. “Come on, Grandma. No dying at my party.”
“Wouldn’t want to be a drag on your special day, now, would I?”
“That’s the spirit!” She patted me on the shoulder, purposely ignoring my sarcasm.
I rubbed at my hip with my free hand, semi-limping like the granny I was. “Who shot me and what happened to them?”
She looked over her shoulder in the direction whoever had shot me had hidden. “Booker was the one Hattie found, but Colt was the one who shot you.”
“Did you avenge me?”
She shrugged, picking up the pace as a blue-speckled Hattie and a somewhat dirty but otherwise paintless Rowan joined us. “Naturally. I don’t think he or Booker were planning on shooting us on our way in, at least not yet. Their hiding spots were too good, especially since shooting once would give their position away.”
No kidding. Thepopof each shot made locating each shooter stupidly easy once you knew there was some white fabric nearby to find. Colt hadn’t been discovered until after he’d shot me to help Booker, and there’s no telling how long that would’ve been the case if Hattie hadn’t gone wild.
“So they were going to just get us on our way out?”
Rowan shook her head, looking every bit like a warrior maiden armed with a gun instead of a sword. “Or just wait for us to pass so they could ambush us.”
“We’ll see if any of the other boys are waiting further in to complete the attack,” Lex finished.
Oh. Ambush. Awesome.
When we finally reached the boys’ flag, we froze. It sat in a small clearing surrounded by trees, underbrush, and dead leaves. Completely alone. A light breeze taunted it, tickling the edges and flipping a corner without fully unraveling it in all its black and blue bedazzled glory. With all our movement halted, only the sound of panting—and gasping on my part—filled the clearing.
