Page 84 of Cream and Punishment
Surprisingly, the vast majority of the wasps didn’t bother the pair, instead opting to chase the more interesting prey: us. How she managed to walk so calmly away, I’ll never know. But this was Hattie. I swear the woman thrived on chaos.
When we were far enough away from the nest I’d apparently hit, the wasps slowly retreated, bobbing towards us just to show us who was boss before returning to their home.
Lex groaned, cringing at the welts and holes the wasps left in their wake. “I sure hope Hattie has some extra Advil. No one is deathly allergic to wasp stings, are they?”
Annie paced as if cooling down, flag hand resting on her hip. “I’ve got some Benadryl in my bag.”
Of course she did. She probably had a first aid kit and a nice selection of snacks, too, which I might just take advantage of. I’d need something to tide me over until the hot tub oasis we’d booked for the girls after this. And if it happened to help heal the ache in my, oh,everywhere, I’d take it.
Colt took inventory of everyone’s injuries. “Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like anyone is allergic.”
Booker freed a wasp from one of the multiple ruffles in his skirt, exchanging a look with Colt. “So, just to be clear, everyone is okay?” At our nods, he included Isaiah in his look, whatever it meant. “And so the game is still going, right?”
Oh hazelnuts.
All those with fast or even normal reflexes snapped back into action while I, graceful warrior that I was, spent that entire two seconds fumbling with my gun.
Lex and Colt faced off against each other, while Rowan took on Isaiah. This left me to fight Booker while Annie sprinted toward no man’s land.
Was it poor etiquette to shoot the man you’re going on a maybe-date with in a few days?
He didn’t give me the chance, instead chasing Annie. I fired at him as I ran, trying to cut across to intercept him and Annie. I missed, surprising no one. But, I hadn’t been shot by any of the boys yet, either, so I’d take it as a win. I wasn’t sure my stung and bludgeoned body could withstand much more.
Annie grunted as two paint bullets burst across her back. She whipped behind a tree, spraying out a few shots at Booker until he was forced to take cover, too.
I’m not entirely sure what possessed me to keep running toward Annie, since I definitely didn’t have a plan, but I continued on my path either way. Maybe there would be strength in numbers? I knew better than to think I’d be her saving grace, but I wasn’t about to abandon her, either.
I fired haphazardly in Booker’s direction as I neared, hopefully at least deterring him enough for me to join Annie behind her tree. “Go! I’ll cover you.”
Ha! That was optimistic. But whatever.
“I’ve got a better idea.” Annie fired off another handful of shots, her voice barely discernible between her heavy breathing and the ruckus of guns shooting and paintballs biting into the trees and ground around us. “I become the decoy and lead him away while you pretend to cover me. As soon as he chases me, you take the flag and run like crazy, okay?”
“Uh, you really trust me with that?”Isure didn’t.
She spared me a glance before returning to her quest to splatter Booker into oblivion. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
A couple reasons came to mind, one of which being “good judgment,” but I digress. If she chose to believe in me, that was her fault. I’d just have to try my hardest not to disappoint her.
No biggie.
When Booker ducked behind his tree to escape our barrage, Annie passed the flag over to me, careful to keep it concealed between me and the tree trunk. She nodded curtly at me and zipped away, a blur of lace and paint.
I continued my assault on Booker’s tree, sometimes even hitting it, until he noticed Annie’s escape. My heart leapt into my throat as he took off after her, dodging through trees to avoid my errant paintballs.
I shot a few more paintballs at him after he passed my latitude, sucked in a bracing breath, and ran for my life. My stride ate up the ground as I tore through the forest. Not smoothly and efficiently, like a champion hotdog eater, mind you, but more like a toddler trying ice cream for the first time. What I lacked in prowess I made up for in enthusiasm. Or in this case, desperation.
My arms pumped at my sides, my lungs heaving and breaths horribly loud in my mask. Everything hurt. My legs burned, my bones ached, and my stings, well,stung. Sprinting was arduous enough. Sprinting with a paintball gun, wedding dress, and a bedazzled flag whipping in the breeze? That was another matter entirely.
I hadn’t made it far before I heard a shout. Branches snapped around me as paintballs flew, the ground spitting up soil and leaves as the bullets impacted. I yelped, jumping and zigzagging.
I abandoned all hope of shooting back at whoever was pursuing me, focusing all my limited energy on getting to no man’s land. It was so close. So, so close.
“Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die,” I muttered, my voice high and panicked. I jumped over a log, slid in some loose dirt, and readjusted my course as the paintballs didn’t let up. My muttering morphed into a desperate mantra, tumbling out of my mouth at a higher and higher pitch. “Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die.”
I hurtled into no man’s land. All I had to do was make it across.
I made the mistake of looking behind me halfway across. Booker had either incapacitated Annie or abandoned the chase sooner than she’d anticipated, since he was entirely too close behind me. He raised his gun to shoot. I braced myself for the impact, just barely too far from the nearest tree to take cover.
