a splotch of bright red paint on Flintstone's back, staining him as property of the other team.

I reached out my hand to him but he swatted it away. "Keep going," he said, "I'm useless anyways."

Zombie nodded, ushering Nugget and I up the stairs.

"We need to do something," I said urgently. "The other team is just going to keep chasing us. They'll eventually end up shooting us before we can get the flag and make it all the way back to Reznik."

Zombie pursed his lips, thinking. "Do we have any more grenades?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, I don't have one. Reznik said there were three grenades for each team...so that means-"

I was cut off by the sound of a 'putting' noise. I looked sideways, to the window a couple stairs down. A paint grenade came sailing through the opening in the wall and thudded against the floor.

"Run faster!" Zombie shouted.

My eyes widened and I crashed my feet against each approaching step, using the surface to propel myself forward.

"Canary! Zombie!" Nugget wailed, loosing his footing, starting to fall backwards- towards the window and ticking grenade.

I let out a strangled yelp, making a mad rush to break his fall. In one swift motion, Zombie reached out and scooped him up, throwing Nugget over his shoulder.

In any other circumstance, I would've taken the time to appreciate Zombie's amazing strength and back muscles, but now wasn't the time. We dove onto the floor of the top level, away from the exploding grenade.

How had Squad 49 been able to throw their grenade perfectly through the window? How had they known we were there? It was impeccable timing.

I looked up from my place on the floor to see the paint- blue paint covering the five members of Squad 49.

A smile broke my face and a huge sigh of relief let my chest.

"That had to have been Ringer," Zombie said, a similar smile to mine dancing on his lips.

I nodded and took a much needed breath of air. For the first time since I'd been here at Camp Haven, I didn't completely hate Ringer. She had saved us, as much as I wanted to pretend otherwise.

"Yay, let's get the flag," Nugget said, scrambling out of Zombie's arms.

Zombie rose to his feet, laughing, and stuck out his hand to me. I smiled graciously and took it, stumbling as he pulled me to my feet.

"You've got to be shitting me!"

"Honestly, how the hell did that happen?"

"Seriously, how on earth did all of us manage to get hit?"

Squad 49's comments sent a ripple of laughter through my throat; my laughs were soon joined by Zombie's deep chuckles.

I took a quick glance at Zombie, admiring the smile on his lips and the light that had made its way into his eyes.

I almost seemed to appreciate his smiles more now that they came so rarely and went so quickly.

"Help me get the flag! I can't reach it!" Nugget called.

I swiftly came to and we ran over to where Nugget was standing on a small outdoor balcony, peering up at the flag. The wall of the building reached for another five feet or so before it formed into a flat roof, the flag waving on a thin pole in the center of it. It was most certainly too high for Nugget to get to, and was even a little too far away for Zombie to reach without a boost.

"Ok, Nugget, I'm sending you up," Zombie said, starting to roll up his sleeves.

"No, no...I can't do it," Nugget whimpered, looking up at the flag uneasily. "It's t-too high."

Zombie knew better than to push Nugget into doing something he didn't want to do. We did not have the time to spend on helping Nugget face his fears right now.

"Canary then," he said, nodding to me.

My eyes took a detour to his bare arms before giving him a firm nod.

Focus.

"I'm going to lift you by your waist," Zombie said.

I opened my mouth, not sure I had heard him right. "Wait wh-"

I didn't have time to finish my sentence before Zombie's hands were on my waist and my breath was knocked out of my throat. I felt my cheeks grow warm and I let a shaky sigh escape my lips, thankful he couldn't see how one simple gesture affected me so much.

He hoisted me up until I could reach the edge of the roof. My fingers found the rough edge of the roof and I gripped onto it as tightly as I could- my knuckles turning white. I took a deep breath and used whatever strength I had left to pull myself up and over wall, throwing myself onto the roof.

I ran over to the flag and unhooked the line holding it up. I lowered it as briskly as I could before detaching the flag and sprinting over to where Zombie and Nugget were waiting for me, down five plus feet, on the balcony.

I took a deep breath, refusing to look down at the ground. It wasn't like I was actually terrified of heights or anything...I just didn't prefer to be on the top of a building with my life in the hands of a zombie.

"Zombie?" I asked tentatively.

Coming up hadn't been that difficult...honestly, if I was being real with myself, it had been quite enjoyable. But climbing up was one thing- going down was another.

Zombie looked up at me, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. "I've got you," he said. "Just bend down and let yourself hang from the roof. I'll reach up and grab you," he reassured.

I gave him a small worried look, skeptical. Who did he think he was kidding? Hang myself from the roof ? That would probably end like that one scene in The Lion King, where Mufasa was dangling from the cliff and then ultimately fell to his death.

"I promise, ok?" Zombie said. "We really need to hurry up, Squad 49 is on their roof too," he added.

I pursed my lips into a straight line. Yes, of course. Because winning this game was far more precious than my life.

I carefully lowered myself to sit on the edge of the roof and placed my hands securely on one of it's many ridges. I looked down towards the two boys standing below me and smiled softly when Nugget gave me a thumbs up.

I've faced worse. I could do this. And If I couldn't, at least I died an epic, heart wrenching death like Mufasa.

I turned around and gripped the edge of the building, lowering myself as cautiously as I could.

"Zombie-"

"It's alright." he said, just as I felt his hands on my waist again.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips and I released my hands from their hold on the building, dropping them to my sides. Zombie brought me down to the ground slowly.

"You ok?" he asked

I nodded. "I'm fine," I said. I disentangled myself from him quickly (and rather regretfully), aware that we still had a game to win. "Let's go," I said urgently.

Zombie nodded and I pulled Nugget behind me as we retraced our steps and ran out of the concrete building.

Once we were out into open air, I squinted my eyes against the sun, trying to spot Reznik.

"Where is-"

"Over there!" Nugget yelled, pointing towards the far side of the war zone.

I following Nugget's finger and found Reznik, standing in the distance, just a blur of a figure.

Zombie looked behind us and then to each side before nodding. "Forward," he said, his deep voice sending vibrations down my spine.

I nodded in understanding and took Nugget's hand as we started running towards the outline of Reznik.

My eyes started to water from squinting too much in the sun and my legs still ached from our previous run, burning as I put the extra pressure on them. All I seemed to be doing lately was running. Run here, run there, run down stairs, run up stairs, run around the track, run away from Reznik when you take an extra cookie in the dining hall. Did anything in Camp Haven not involve running?

I heard Zombie beside me, taking deep, raspy breaths, and I looked down at Nugget, who was almost dragging on the ground, too tired to do anything but act like a rag doll. Who knew a game of paintball would take this much out of us?

Despite the sound of my feet hitting the earth pounding in my ears, I heard a loud pop vibrate through the air.

I whipped my head around quickly, just in time to feel a hard thump on my shoulder.

I reached my right hand over to my left shoulder, feeling the sticky paint against my fingers. I skidded to a halt, cursing underneath my breath.

I pulled back my hand, seeing the red paint covering it entirely.

Zombie stopped, despite the sound of more paintballs whizzing through the air, missing our bodies by inches. "Give me the flag," he huffed, reaching out his hand.

I gave him a small disappointed look and handed him the flag. We needed one unscathed soldier to return the flag.

"I'm sorry, you did good," he said softly, before taking off with Nugget to meet Reznik.

I let an irritated groan escape my lips, reaching up to unclip my helmet. I brought one hand up to my hair, running my fingers through it hastily.

Another paintball collided with my thigh and I whipped around, towards the direction where it had come from. "I'm already hit, ok?" I said angrily.

Teacup shrugged, coming to stand next to me. "Just thought I'd use the rest of my amo," she said.

I rolled my eyes. Typical Teacup, Finding excuses to inflict pain on others. "Whatever. So were you hit or something?" I asked

Teacup nodded, her lips pulling into a grimace. "I'll rip Squad 49's limbs a part the next chance I get," she growled, clenching her fist around the trigger of the paintball gun.

I gave her a concerned look before pushing her gun away from me. "Ok...well, how'd the rest of the team do?" I asked.

"Dumbo and Oompa fell out pretty quickly. Ringer's shooting the other team now," she remarked, pointing at Ringer's silhouette, who was letting a rapid fire of paintballs erupt from her gun. She was chasing two of Squad 49's members, who were trailing Zombie and Nugget by a mere few feet.

I saw Nugget fall, letting out a strangled yelp as his body crashed against the hard ground. In response, I let out a small cry and raced forward, running until I caught up with him.

Zombie had stopped again, standing a few feet ahead of Nugget. He turned around, "Is he alright?"

"What the hell are you doing? Go," I urged, swatting him away. He was the only person left on our team who could deliver the flag. Ringer was obviously too preoccupied to help with anything.

Zombie nodded, looking dazed for a moment before sprinting off.

After what seemed like eons, Reznik's voice filled the air, absorbing any other sounds in the war zone. "Squad 53! Congratulations!"

"Oh thank god," I muttered, cradling a whimpering Nugget against my chest.

"For all of those who were shot, you owe me five laps around the track," Reznik barked, her voice echoing through the microphone.

My relief was short-lived. I should've known Reznik would have something up her sleeve. I could barely walk without wanting to pass out, how would I be able to make it five times around the track? I looked down at Nugget, frowning. And Nugget? He wouldn't make it two steps.

I heard a collective groan as the other soldiers- from both squads- walked towards the track, letting their paintball guns drag in the ground behind them.

Multiple thoughts sailed through my mind, coupled with conflicting emotions. I should be happy, right? I mean, we did win. It shouldn't matter that the only people who made it were Zombie and Ringer. It shouldn't annoy me that my efforts in getting the flag were completely overlooked. And it most certainly shouldn't annoy me that Ringer, again, seemed to be completely incapable of failure.

I began to stand up when I felt Zombie beside me, taking Nugget from my arms. He let Nugget hold onto his back, carrying him piggyback style.

"We're a team," he said, "We're going to do this together."

I just nodded, a small smile glazing my lips as we walked over to the track.

Together sounded nice.

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I know I just updated like a day ago, but it's my birthday today! So I decided to treat everyone and give another update! I really appreciate everyone for staying with me through my sporadic updates!

Oh and MUFASAAA. I'm really not that sorry ahaha.

Let me know what you think! Vote, comment, fangirl, etc. etc.