“No wood fencing from here out,” Celeste told Wessy. “Watch both sides.”

To avoid bunching up, Wes had his squad follow a few meters behind the others. Celeste running on top of the dividing chain-link made for a crazy sight, but they stayed focused, jumping the next fence to a yard where a cranky old man yelled at them again.

“Hey, you kids!” he shouted from the back window. “You keep running through my driveway all day, and now you’re in my backyard? Where are your parents?”

“Let’s hurry before he calls the cops,” Wessy said with a laugh.

“Yeah,” Jared huffed back as they sprinted. “And let’s not go through here again.”

After another fence climb, the three reached the back of the empty house, where the last of their reserve bottle was waiting, which they would likely need to score.

Wessy spoke into his walkie, “Hey, we’re at the cache. Gonna need a minute.”

“Got it,” Zach’s voice weakly replied. “We’re a house ahead of you. We’re gonna keep moving, but a little slower and more carefully from here out. Try to catch up.”

Jared reached behind the house’s old, broken heat pump unit and pulled out the liter soda bottle filled with the red-colored life blood of liquid ammo. He unscrewed the cap and his soaker’s tank, looking ready to pour it in, when Wessy stopped him.

“J, we gotta split that into thirds. We all need some of it.”

“But I need more of it, man! I only have a few bursts left.”

“That’s your fault. You don’t try to conserve water when you’re firing.”

Having to endure another insufferable argument between the two, Jace backed off a bit and checked around the corner of the house. When he turned back around, he saw Daron and Duvall emerging from the opposite side. They effortlessly snuck up on Wessy and Jared, doused them, and then high-fived each other without noticing Jace.

“Great job, J!” Wessy said as water dripped off his face. “That’s your fault, too!”

“No way, dude!” Jared yelled back, and then fumbled the bottle, dropping it to the dirt where its contents quickly began to empty. “Now look what you made me do!”

The bestie boys began laughing, now more interested in watching Jared and Wes instead of moving on. Jace lost his patience and ran at them. The moment the boys saw him, they fired—but their water pressure was low, and they lacked range. Jace returned fire, spraying all four of them, taking out the “D Duo” in the process. Wes and Jared kept arguing even as Jace unfroze them. The two had been like that on and off all day.

“Aw, man…” Duvall grumbled. “I’m sorry, Daron. That was my bad.”

“No way, bro. That one was on me. I got caught up in the show here.”

“This wasn’t a show,” Wessy grumbled. “Anyway, thanks Jace, but now we’re not getting our resupply. I don’t think we’ll be of much use for the raid.”

“You guys trying some last-ditch run?” Duvall asked. “Man, we gave up on scoring a long time ago. We just started patrolling the block trying to run out the clock.”

“Then your captain’s a quitter! I don’t do ties if I can help it.”

“Wes, Jason, we’re good,” Jared told them. “Don’t worry about ammo.”

“Huh? What’re you talking about?”

“We’re fine. Let’s just keep moving. Trust me!”

Wessy shrugged, and they followed Jared into the next yard, leaving the slightly older, slightly more male versions of Tam and Trudy to chat amongst themselves behind an empty house. On the way, Jace began to wonder about Jared’s intentions.

The next residence was a small vacation home, which had been vacant for weeks. Before they hurried along to the following yard, Jared gestured them to follow him as he walked all sneaky-like to a faucet near the home’s back door.

“J, what are we doing?” Wessy asked him. “We gotta catch up with the others.”

“Hold on,” Jared said and began filling his tank with water. “Just a sec.”

“Jared, what the heck? You can’t do that. It’s cheating.”

“It’s okay. They’ll never know.” He took out a small bottle of red food coloring. “I got enough to make it look real. You just gotta shake up the tank…”

Wes looked at Jace, and then back at Jared, squatting near the faucet and about to put a few drops into his supply. With a sigh, Wes took out his pistol and pointed it at the cheater. Upon hearing Wes’ finger on the plastic trigger, Jared stood and faced him.

“Have you been doing this for a long time, J? You know… cheating?”

“Are you serious right now? C’mon, it’s no big deal. You know running out of ammo has always been a dumb rule. Any faucet should be an unlimited refill station!”

“We all agreed to it. That’s all that matters. I’m kinda disappointed in you.”

“Aw, get over yourself! What are you going to do, shoot me?”

“Friendly fire’s on for this game, remember? So I totally can.”

“But you need me, if you want to win. You need me, and some red water…”

“J, get over yourself,” Wes said and squirted him several times, the red water mixing in with the blue stains and turning purple. “Just chill here until the game ends.”

“Ugh!” Jared said angrily and sank to the ground. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Sorry you had to see that, Jason,” Wes told him. “C’mon, let’s find the others.”

They left a sulking Jared behind, and transitioned to the northern, nicer part of the block, with wooden fences exclusively. They hopped the bordering pickets, landing in a backyard with a swimming pool. The moment they landed, Wessy’s walkie buzzed.

“Wes, where are you?” Zach came in, amid shouting. “We need backup! We’re at their base and can see their flag, but they got us pinned! Maybe, I dunno, flank ‘em?”

“On our way,” Wes replied and turned to Jace. “Guess they’re counting on us.”

He replied, “Let’s find that loose fence Celeste mentioned. If it is still useable…”

“We can sneak up on ‘em! You had all the good ideas today. I… like your style.”

“Hey, I’ve had some experience. In my old neighborhood.”

Figuring they wouldn’t run into any foes on the way, they picked up the pace and crossed another three yards, which brought them to the side of Team Blue’s base: the back of another for-sale home. The sound of yelling and blasting water guns reached their ears, and they quickly found a hole in the fence they could use to survey the scene.

Gavin and Mikey were up in a low-altitude treehouse, taking turns behind cover or firing a few potshots out of the windows once their soakers were pressurized again. But the kid keeping Team Red from advancing was The Terror, who simply stood in the treehouse’s door firing a constant stream from his tank’s seemingly endless water supply.

Gavin’s team abided by the outdoor flag rule, keeping theirs just out of reach in the sandbox between the treehouse and a rusted swing set that had an old refrigerator door propped up against it, able to absorb all manner of water-based gunfire.

Team Red was piled up behind it, taking turns peeking over and firing sporadic shots, hoping to hit someone. If they got tagged, they had to wait five seconds before they could be revived, which was a rule just for big skirmishes to make it possible—albeit difficult—to wipe out a clustered team and keep them from insta-unfreezing.

“All right…” Wessy said in thought. “Blue has the high ground and good cover, but they’re trapped, waiting for us to waste our ammo… What do we do?”

“Terror’s being backed up by one kid at a time,” Jace replied. “Problem is, they can hit our friends, but our guns barely reach them. But… Celeste has range.”

“So… you thinkin’ we have her do her thing and grab the flag while two of ‘em are down?” Wes watched Jace nod, tested the loose fence plank, and then got on his walkie, “Okay! Cel, time to use those balloons. I’ll grab the flag before they revive.”

“Countin’ on you, Wes,” she replied. “Ready? Here goes…”

She waited for Mikey to take cover and Gavin to start shooting next from the window—and just as he took position, she jolted up, loaded her sling, and lobbed an effective water grenade right at him with pinpoint accuracy. The Terror let out a war cry and aimed at her, but couldn’t get a burst out before also taking a balloon to the chest.

Wessy leapt into action, with Jace right behind, heart racing just as it did during any intense online FPS match. After three seconds, Wes had already slipped through the fence and nabbed the flag from the sandbox, only tripping at the five second mark as he tried to run off. Mikey tagged back in The Terror—who then got hit again by Celeste right away; there was no respawn invincibility to prevent it. Gavin let out an audible swear, as Mikey couldn’t cross the doorway to unfreeze him without risking getting hit.

“You guys get out of here!” Zach shouted. “I’ll keep them in the treehouse!”

“Okay, have fun sacrificing yourself,” Sadie said as they all agreed to the idea.

“Yeah, baby…” He stood up and adjusted his shades. “I’ll do it in style.”

He suppressive-fired both Super Soaker 50’s at the treehouse, looking pretty cool as he did so. But he only had enough water to keep it up for a minute at most.

“Careful, guys,” Arthur huffed once they were in the next yard over. “Haven’t seen Stu in a while. He’s like the Sadie of their team; probably off reviving everyone.”

Celeste pocketed her slingshot, took out her pistol, and said between breaths, “It’s a long run back to base… Hey, what happened to Jared, anyway?”

Wessy replied with vagueness, “He, uh, didn’t make it.”

As they were running in another yard, Janice and Dierdre ambushed them with devastating results—both Wessy and Arthur went down before Celeste could react and return fire with her sidearm, taking out Janice and sending Dierdre back to cover.

“Just keep running!” Wes yelled at them. “You can make it! Bring it home!”

He had managed to toss the flag like a javelin to Colin just before being hit, who caught it and began sprinting and hopping fences with all his strength. It felt like there was a helicopter at the end of everything waiting to bring them out of a warzone.

After another two yards, Daron and Duvall flanked them from the top of a fence and sprayed down a deadly blue rain. Sadie was hit, Jace ducked to avoid it, and Celeste shoved Colin away and got her back soaked in his place. She enjoyed one of her rare chances to cool off on a hot day, giving them a thumbs up as they left her behind.

“Oh, man…” Colin panted. “Oh, man, it’s just us, Jason. I—I can’t do it, I won’t make it. The entire blue team is gonna converge on us. I’m gonna screw it up.”

“No way. You got this, Colin. I’ll watch out for Stu.”

It turned out that Team Blue’s sneaky small kid who focused on unfreezing his teammates was waiting for them in Jace’s own backyard, right in the bushes. He shot at Colin as he ran by, but he didn’t feel any water hit him and kept going, somehow avoiding the stream long enough for Jace to get a bead on his attacker.

Stu soaked Jace just as Jace soaked Stu, locking the two in place. As Daron, Duvall, Janice, and Dierdre jumped the last fence in pursuit and shot out a torrent of H2O, they all watched as Colin’s experience in baseball came out. He slid home, and planted the blue flag right next to the orange, getting a face full of dirt in the process.

“Colin!” Jace called out and got on his walkie. “He did it, guys! Colin scored!”

There were distant shouts of triumph throughout the neighborhood, while the invading Blues groaned and caught their breath. Colin looked up from the ground and saw Gavin ahead of him, who had just arrived from the opposite side of the yard.

“Ah…” He nearly keeled over as he struggled for air. “I ran… all the way across the block… for nothin’… So close… Whew… Man… Man, what a game…”

Colin stood up, brushed himself off, and looked at the others. “So… what now?”

“Why don’t we… get our bikes off your lawn and… Eat some pizza?”