“You look amazing,” I told her when she walked out of her apartment complex.
“You too.” She skipped down the sidewalk, and when she got to me, I held out an arm. She pulled against me without hesitation, taking my face in her hands and giving me a kiss. She pulled away and raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t we supposed to kiss at the end of the date?”
“I think it’s clear we’re both rather unorthodox people, Quinn,” I responded, and she chuckled. I helped her into the passenger’s side of my car, went around to get into the driver’s side myself, and then we were off.
We had to drive almost all the way back to Pocatello for the date I had planned, but I knew it would be worth it. I parked in the lot of a run-down looking warehouse and climbed out of the car. I walked around the car and opened the door for Quinn, and she stepped out. She looked around the lot and then over at the building and raised her eyebrows at me.
“Are you going to kill me here?” she asked.
I kissed her cheek. “Funny. Trust me, you’ll like this.”
I took her by the hand and led her over to the front doors of the warehouse and pulled them open. She walked through, and I followed closely behind her into the much more alive and bustling interior. Directly across from the front doors was a reception desk with a few different people standing at it, and hanging on the wall behind them was a scoreboard. To the left was a small store, with different pieces of merchandise hanging on a chain-link fence above the salesperson, and to the right was a small seating area with coffee, water, and a juice bar. People were flowing freely between all of the stations, and some of them were standing in pairs at one of the sets of double doors to the left and right of the reception desk, above which were marquees reading, “Wait, sweep in session.”
Quinn looked around and then started to smile. “Is this a paintball arena?”
I grinned at her. “Ready to murk some citizens?”
She clapped and started to bounce excitedly in place. “Oh my god, I’m so ready.”
We walked up to the reception desk, and one of the employees looked up at me. “Hello, welcome to High Noon Paintball. Do you have a reservation?”
“I do, under Zeke Matheson,” I replied.
She smiled. “Of course! We’ve been expecting you.” She typed a few things on the computer in front of her, and a small printer to her left fed out a green piece of paper. She ripped the paper in half and handed one half to me and one half to Quinn. She motioned to her left, our right. “You two will go and stand at the set of doors over here, and one of our field agents will come and collect you. Your enemies have already arrived.”
Quinn let out a quiet rumble of excitement, and I was happy that I’d guessed right on something she would really enjoy.
“Thank you,” I said to the receptionist, and then we walked over and took our place at the door.
A few moments later, a guy dressed in full combat gear opened the door and pointed at me. “You Zeke?”
I nodded. “I am.”
“Well, get in here already. The enemy is on the front lines. We’ve got work to do.”
I held my arm out, and Quinn walked past me. I followed behind her. The man in the combat gear worked to get us dressed in all the necessary protective gear and outfitted us with a couple of paintball guns. He explained all the rules of the arena to us in the form of a mission and then brought us out of a door that had us back outside, though still contained within a chain-link cage. He pointed to our right, and there was another pair of people, a taller man with long black hair and a woman of average height with a black pixie-cut hairstyle and brilliant golden eyes, staring right back at us.
“The enemy has been identified. It’s kill, or be killed, folks.” The man in combat gear pointed at the door. “We were able to buy you a few minutes, but now we’re out of time. The second you hear a buzzer, that door’s gonna open, and you’re on your own. Make it to the other side before the enemy to retrieve the drop, and make sure to hit any targets you see. Our soldiers are counting on you. Good luck.” He saluted us and then disappeared back behind the door.
Quinn shook her head, still managing to look sexy even with a giant helmet on her head and black pads covering her from head to toe. “This is amazing,” she yelled.
A loud buzzer screamed out, and the door to the cage flew open. Quinn immediately pulled her gun up to shoot and started out of the cage. The other team must have had the same idea in mind because the second they left the cage, they turned on us and started to fire. The bearable sting of paintballs hitting my armor sprang me to life, and Quinn and I fired back. Finally, Quinn screamed, “Go!” and we both ran off down the path.
The course was a winding path of obstacles and moving targets that sometimes appeared by surprise. Despite that the goal was to hit as many targets as possible and get to the end of the course before the other team, points could also be scored for striking the other team’s armor, especially in specific, marked places. As a result, there were several barriers, nooks, and crannies sprinkled throughout the course where someone could hide, both from being shot or to get the jump on someone. Within a matter of minutes, Quinn and I had settled into a groove. She would defend me against the other team while I kept my eye out for targets. Our opponents noticed our tactics and copied them, with the guy keeping his gun at the ready to fire at Quinn when necessary while the woman fired at any targets she could see.
Near the bottom of the course, different pieces of our armor started to light up and vibrate, and if you could land a shot in one of the highlighted areas, tons of extra points could be scored. I got a little distracted while watching Quinn impressively snag the guy in the glowing parts of his armor, almost like she was a trained assassin, and I took whatever chances I had between targets to fire on the girl, as well. Finally, the two paths we were on converged into a single one, and it was open season. There were obstacles to hide behind, but they did little to protect someone if the opponent wanted to run around them. Quinn’s entire armor lit up, a sign that she was currently the high score holder, and the guy and girl turned on her and started to fire. I dropped my gun and bolted over and stood between them and her, letting their flurry of paintballs smack into me at rapid speed. I let out a comedically loud scream and dropped to my knees.
I pushed Quinn toward the goal. “Go. Save yourself.”
“You saved me!” she yelped. “I won’t go without you!” She grabbed my arm, and I went totally limp, forcing her to drag me down the path. “Okay, you ass.”
The girl on the other team put her gun in the air. “Okay, you two are awesome! I forfeit. Take the win.”
The guy held his gun up as well, so Quinn dropped my arm and bolted off toward the finish line. She must have triggered something as she ran because the entire ground rumbled as a giant alien-looking creature rose up from the ground between us and the finish.
A voice clicked on from somewhere around us. “It looks like you’re gonna have to work together, agents! Don’t stop firing until that thing is dead!”
I jumped up off the ground, and all four of us charged at the green, multi-tendrilled alien. We kept on firing until all of our guns were letting out nothing but empty clicks, and then a loud hiss caused us all to jump as smoke shot up from the ground. There was a loud bang, and green goop exploded from the fake alien, splattering across our armor.