He was after me again.

I crammed myself into the tiniest hole possible. I had only a few bullets left in my magazine and I had only two shots to get this right. The third shot would make us lose the battle and let the other side detonate their bomb.

Of course, I had to tag him before he tagged me.

If I got tagged, that would be the end.

Game over.

He was going to run past me, thinking I had turned into the next alley. And when he did, he would get hit with my Fast Flicker. I heard his fast-paced footsteps and I unrolled the weapon and aimed a perfect thrash to his stomach.

He howled angrily in pain and I started to disarm him when he pushed me to the ground. I rolled over just in time before he shot at the spot where I had been. I knew that if I shot now, he would still have a chance to tag me in the dregs of his life. So I ran again, weaving through the dark corridors, only going by the sense of sound and hearing the crunch of his shoes.

I looked at my watch. 4:19.

Of course, if I even dared to try to use extra environmental weapons (like sticks), he could get extra bullet points for my cheating. And that would also mean more elimination rounds in which I could not survive. I patted the gun in the my holster at my waste, making sure it was still there and not taken by Justin, who would probably use my own gun against me.

I ran and ran and ran, weaving until I got to a fence. I recognized this fence and I knew what to do. I jumped stealthily over and looked around before hiding in between two ledges that would conceal me if Justin didn’t look long enough.

I heard a “Pssst” from my left and I stuck my head out a little bit as Justin went crashing the place to find me. It was an ally, just as I had expected.

Andy.

He said, “We don’t have back-up here. Some of our men are captured in enemy territory in Sector B12 after failure of the Flag Mission. We must go save them in order to end this war before our time is up.”

I looked at my watch. 4:23.

I nodded and said, “Let’s sneak out the front entrance building and go through the HQP.”

He said, “Right.”

Justin was already fuming and went back towards the direction of Sector B12. Andy and I ran through the building and didn’t even care to shut the door behind us. We ran through the HQP; the “Headquarter Pathway”. Once we were in our Sector behind enemy boundaries, we prepared ourselves for the rescue mission.

Once we gathered all our things, we headed out for Sector B12.

Andy said, “I have my wingman at the station already. He should be with enough equipment to get us out when we’re ready.”

I nodded. We ran back through the HQP and found ourselves at the station, the unknown entrance to the HQ of our enemy—Sector B12’s auditorium. We were positioned right behind the Captured Zone, where they kept their prisoners.

I asked Andy, “How many are the possessed?”

He said, “Five possessed. And there’s been word of two traitors. They may have been tortured. Poor souls.”

I looked at the watch again. 4:30.

I grimaced and said, “Then we will only go for the five. Let’s do this.”

We snuck on our Silent Steppers and padded quietly through the dark rear of the Captured Zone. Drips of water leaks echoed through and through, giving the connotation of a nefarious ambush.

Our five huddled in a circle, tied and bound, guarded by two attentive Captors. I spun my index finger in a circle and Andy nodded. He would scout out the place for more guards.

In two minutes, he came back and nodded with a slice under his throat.

All was clear.

I nodded and whispered, “Op 3. Maneuver 4.”

He nodded and melted into the shadows. I crept closer, and put my hands around my mouth and flittered my fingers—the sound of a morning bird. The Captors stood more alert and looked around. The Possessed looked hopeful and excited.

One of the guards nudged the other one and jerked his head, telling him to scout out. I made the bird noise again and the guard came in my direction, with his gun poised to release a fury of bullets. I backed to a corner and waited for him to stand next to me, trying to peer in the dark.

I made the bird sounded before knocking him unconscious. I whispered an apology before stepping into the light of the circle, just seeing Andy standing over the unconscious body. We untied the others and gave them guns and light sabers.

We started to go out of the back entrance and run towards HQ when the enemy’s myriad was lined up with weapons of all sorts. Although we had everyone here, we had lost two of our most trusted men for traitors and we were now outmatched and outnumbered.

But we were ready to fight. We were going to charge and it was 4:36.

Our Saber Masters hid with us gunners and archers behind the concealment walls, shooting at any stupid, amicable targets who loved seeing our bullets in their chests. Some fell on impact and never got back up to shoot again. Our Saber Masters blocked all bullets, but that’s the only thing they could do in defense. They had to wait for half-time in the battle so they could have their say.

At 4:40, both sides raised our flags for the Saber Masters so gunners and archers could get more supplies. However, our side had three dead, two wounded, and no supplies. The ones alive and slightly wounded took the Dead’s weapons and used them against the enemy. We were running low. So we depended heavily on our Saber Masters.

Clanging of saber against saber rang loudly as their warriors clashed with ours. I realized that our Masters were winning, but the enemy still had the upper hand. We were going to lose if I didn’t do something.

I stared at the green flag at my feet.

Could it possibly be the time?

It was 4:53.

Yes. It was.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and raised the green flag by the pole into the air. I could hear it flapping in the air above me, and silence began to drown out the swirl of the wind. Our Saber Masters came back and every one of my team stared at me in respect.

I looked to the other side and saw Justin peering back.

We were going to do this.

I grabbed my saber hilt and walked out into the open, into the now creeping fog. Justin came out from behind his concealment walls and smirked as he let me eye his saber hilt.


He said, “Hello, dear sister. We meet again.”

I looked at him and got into a stance with my hilt, clicking the button so the double-sided saber would light. “Less talk. More fight...dear brother.”

He smirked and brought down his hilt on me as he clicked his double-sided saber on. I blocked it and pushed him back. He skidded and then raised his head with evil eyes. He charged me, his saber humming, and thrashed at me violently. I blocked and counterattacked adroitly.

We sparred for a couple of minutes, thrusting, blocking, spinning, until I was taken off guard and he thwarted my saber aside, a few feet away.

I looked to it, and then back at him. He clicked his saber off, put it in his belt holster, and brought out his gun. He aimed at me and cocked it.

He said, “This war is over.”

I caught a glimpse of my watch.

No it was not over.

It was exactly 5:00.

I smiled. “You’re wrong.”

He frowned, obviously confused.

My smiled widened. “Because it’s exactly five o’clock, and we have to go inside.”

He growled and put his gun in his holster. My party cheered and rushed over to congratulate me.

We then heard, “Justin! Kimmy! Time for dinner!”

We all laughed.

That was our mom. And it was five o’clock—same time we always have dinner.

I said, “So who won?”

Justin said, “Well, I don’t know. You probably would’ve done something to get back your saber, so it’s unsaid. Rematch tomorrow.”

Then he frowned. “You should be careful with that yo-yo man. When you hit me in the stomach with that, it hurt really bad.”

Our Saber Masters pressed the button that made that shutter noise when the light saber was turned off, just like in Star Wars. I pulled my Nerf gun out of my holster.

I said, “Well, this would’ve been handy, but I only had, like, two darts left.”

I heard a voice yell. “Andy! Didn’t I tell you last time to shut the front door when you come in here!?”

I grimaced. “Sorry, dude,” I told Andy, “I’ll go tell her it was my fault.”

He pushed me back. “Nah, it’s alright. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

He gave me that look and I stared at him for a moment. Everyone around us started to whistle and hoot. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Because we all know you’re bound to get into trouble when you get home so I’ll just spare you a knock.”

We all laughed.

The “dead” and “unconscious” started to pick up their stuff and head home onto their own blocks. Justin, my brother, started to walk home with his girlfriend, Trina, kissing and hugging her like she was going away forever.

I walked with Andy back home.

He said, “Do you think your brother knows?”

I looked to him and rolled my eyes. “Everyone knows, Andy. It’s kind of obvious. You’ve gotta stop being nice to me.”

He said, “Well, excuse me.”

I laughed and he smiled. I changed the subject. “I can’t believe Jamie went traitor on us! I trusted him!”

Andy said, “Well, you can’t trust everybody. That’s just how Block Wars is.”

I nodded. “Yep, that’s just how Block Wars is.”