He laughed. “Don’t worry, lunch is in anotherhour.”
“An hour?!” That just wasn’t fair. I didn’t know if I could last the next five minutes, much less an hour. Texas rolled his eyes and dragged me off behind him towards a protected section of the field. We stopped in front of a large net structure that separated the larger area we were standing in from several yards of flat land and large stacks of haybales.
“What–”
“Here we go.” Texas turned and produced what looked like a bullet proof vest. He slipped it around me and did up the side straps. I realized it wasn’t a bullet proof vest, but a vest with some sort of softer padding on the inside. He stared at my bare arms for a moment before turning around and snatching something from the ground. I leaned to the side and noticed that there was a large pile of supplies similar to what he was putting on me. He slipped a light black jacket over my arms and zipped itup.
“Okay,” he said. “It’s not gonna do much by way of protection, but it’ll shield you for the most part. If you hit the underbrush you’re gonna wantit.”
“Underbrush?” I repeated, confused. Texas merely turned around and found a vest for himself and started doing up the straps. He bent and picked up a large, black rifle. I stared in shock. “Oh mygod.”
Texas glanced at me as he slipped the band attached to the gun over hisshoulder.
“Okay,” he said. I continued to stare at the gun. “Have you ever done airsoftbefore?”
I blinked at him. Then, it hit me. Airsoft – guns.Airsoft guns!It wasn’t real. I sighed in relief and almost choked. Had he noticed that I thought it was real? I peeked up at him and realized he was still waiting on an answer. “Oh – uh...n-no. Ihaven’t.”
He nodded. “Okay, you’re getting a spring-powered gun then.” He reached back and produced a gun that looked similar to his except that it was marked on the end with a piece of blue painter’s tape. “It works from air pressure,” he explained. “What you’re going to do is go in there with me–” He nodded his head towards the other side of the netting, “–and if you see someone in anything other than black, you’re gonna point and shoot at them.” He demonstrated, holding the gun up and pointing towards one of the small trees alongside the field. He pulled the trigger and I jumped when a pellet launched out of the gun with a burst ofair.
“Doesn’t it hurt, if I hit someone?” I asked. “What about Max’srules?”
“Max meant more the archery thing, or knife throwingor–”
“There’s knife throwing here?” Iinterrupted.
Texas sighed. “Do you want to know how to shoot this thing, so we can go in there? The sooner you get this down, the sooner we can go in there and kick some butt, and the sooner we can come back and getlunch.”
“Give me the gun,” I said, snatching it from him. “Point and pull the trigger, right?” I took a step closer to him, holding it up like he had, with one end jammed into my shoulder and the other pointed towards the sametree.
“There’s going to be a–” I pressed the trigger and the gun jumped in my arms, smacking me in the shoulder. I grunted and rotated myshoulder.
“Ouch.”
“I was trying to tell you that there might be a bit of a kickback,” Texas finished with a shake of hishead.
“It didn’t kick you back,” I pointed out. “It’s the same gun. Maybe it’sdefective.”
“It’s kickback not – it’s not defective.” Texas huffed a breath. “It’s your first time, you’ll get the hang of it. Just don’t point it at anyone’s face or groin. Aim for the chest area, it’s the biggest target.” Texas stopped and looked up, his eyes moving over the tree line in the distance. “Come on, let’sgo.”
“Wait!” I called as he started off for an area of the netting that was cut out and flapped in the breeze. “You didn’t tell me if it’ll hurt! I’ve never done thisbefore!”
We reached the cut-out area and Texas slipped in, holding it open for me. I slid in behind him and he ducked down, tying the strings that held the netting in place. “To the woods,” he said, lowering his voice. “Look out up top. There might be people in thebranches.”
“What?” Texas didn’t reply because he had already taken off, jogging at a clipped pace towards the tree line. I slid my gun strap over my head and held it in two hands, taking off after him. I found my gaze straying upward, looking for the people he had mentioned that might be up there. I didn’t see anything. Texas held up one fist and waited for me to slow to hisside.
“How good is your eyesight?” heasked.
“Uhhh….”
He shook his head. “How good is your patience then?” heasked.
I raised a brow at him. “I live with you and the guys, don’t I?” At that he cracked agrin.
“Okay, then,” he said. “You see those bushes over there?” I turned and nodded when I saw the area he was pointing to. “Go crawl in them and face this trail,” he said motioning to the dirt path we were standing on. “If someone runs past wearing anything but black, shoot ‘em.”
I glanced over my shoulders at the bushes, but when I turned back I noticed he was heading away. “Wait, where are you going?” I whisper-yelled. For some reason, I felt like it would be better not to raise my voice while we were both holding guns in an airsoftbattlefield.
He turned around and winked my way. “I’m gonna go flush ‘em out, Princess.” With that, he disappeared around a tree and I turned and headed for the bushes. Getting down on my knees, I army crawled under the thin branches. I jerked my gun behind me and then set it up, digging my elbows into the dry dirt under the brush – andwaited.