A bright green light flashed in my eyes as I quietly sped through the darkness. I rounded each corner watching, waiting for something to leap out and attack. Drums pounded in my ears and hints of a distant battle blew through the area. I swept through the smoke and around a corner to see a tall man with his gun pointed at the sky. I tightened my grip on my rifle and shot one blast at the man and quickly ducked around the corner. Sweat seeped down my face, waiting for his reaction, but nothing. I slowly poked my head around the corner, but he was gone. The sounds of battle had spread, and it was only a matter of time before it caught up to me. Standing in one place was dangerous; it was time to move. Also, it seemed I was being followed.

“Wait up!” It was Hallie, a friend of mine, rushing to catch up with me.

It was very difficult, so many corners, so many snipers. Any second, one of the creatures that prowled through the corridors could leap out and attack. I had to be extra careful. But as I was about to pounce on my own prey, I heard another familiar voice, “We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” I turned to see two of my school friends standing behind me. When I peeked back around the corner, my prize was gone. Sighing softly, I returned to my friends, “Libby, Kirsten, let’s join forces, and we can watch each other’s backs. Perhaps we should take the high grounds?” Libby nodded, and Kirsten beckoned me to lead.

Now we had the advantage, strength in numbers. I scouted ahead. My skills from my life before when I would sneak around to scare my brother finally paid off.

A path led us up to higher ground. I poked my head out to see an enemy soldier closing on our position. He spotted me. I tried to warn my friends when I heard a blast from a gun; I spun around. He had been shot and he ran away. As my companions and I thanked our rescuer. She started shooting, we were where forced to return fire. Before long, the girl screamed, “WAIT, WAIT! IT’S ME!” Looking around my cover I saw that it was my cousin Ariana, “Can I stick with you?” my cousin asked with an unusually large smile on her face. Now any chance of sneaking was out of the equation. But now the only enemies we had to deal with were snipers and others who formed up into small groups.

We had to move. We decided that we should take the highest point on the field. We stomped up the ramp and found two snipers firing at enemies below. We prepared to ambush the snipers, but my new found compatriot rushed forward shouting her brothers’ names. “Avery! Aiden!” she cried. Avery looked up. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He sighed.

It wasn’t a very defensible position. If we stayed there, huddled together, the seven of us would only attract the worst kind of predators. But the group thought it was a good place so I positioned myself at the second approach and waited for someone to try and stop the snipers.

After scaring off a few people, I was starting to get nervous. Any second a horde of enemies would rush the approach. They did, just not on my side. Slowly, everyone backed toward my position and we retreated. As we left, I looked back to see Avery, still up there, trying to defend his home. I knew that would be the last I saw of him.

I swam through smoke until I came to a large wall where I decided to take a breath. I looked around to find my friends and found only emptiness. I was finally alone, but was that really want I wanted?

I followed the wall around to find my comrades, backed into one corner trying to fight off enemies from two directions. I lifted my gun and shot the two up ahead and called my friends to follow me. We didn’t get very far before we found another group of people, but the last fight taught me a lot; go for the back! I left the group only for a second to sneak around. I gunned them down and we all rushed for a ramp. They somehow got ahead of us and covered our retreat. This was going to be my last stand. After two tours this was my last, and I was not going to end it without a fight. I raised my gun, ready to fire, when, “HONK HONK HONK!!!!!” a yellow light flashed meaning play time was over, and all the participants walked back to the beginning.

Everyone waited at a TV screen as code names from the game flashed with the final tally. I smiled. “That was a good game, don’t you think?” All six of my friends nodded their heads in agreement as we walked out of the laser tag arena.