Follow My Moves and Sneak Around

Sure, Sue could be trying to keep me here in the forest, but keeping her on guard was going to be the absolute best decision. Because she’ll be so alert, all I have to do is make just enough of a distraction to get around her. I ducked back further into the woods, getting out of her line of sight.

“I know you’re there, Alice!” Sue shouted at me, but refused to cross the line. She stood there at the border, watching carefully for whatever I’d do. Too bad for her that I had already snuck around. I looked for anything that I could use to my advantage and found a nice sized rock.

I picked up the rock and threw it as hard as I could in the opposite direction. Like a dog chasing a squirrel, Sue immediately turned towards it. “There you are!”

Using the opportunity, I carefully made my way back over the line and started heading towards Sue’s flag. “Heh heh heh, good thing that Kirsten’s gal pals aren’t the brightest bulbs.” After a bit, pausing every now and then to make sure that Sue hadn’t spotted me, and throwing a few rocks and pinecones to keep her off my trail, I emerged from the forest line. Quickly, I took a survey of the situation.

Dina was in hot pursuit of Emily, who was booking it as fast as she could. Sadly, she didn’t have any flags in hand. Kirsten was also there, making a beeline to intercept Emily from our side of the field. Still, no sign of where Polly was. Seeing Kirsten distracted, Barbara was starting to make a dash towards the center flag. No idea if Sue had noticed me or not, but it was now or never.

I made my way towards Sue’s flag, grabbing it firmly and spinning on my heels. Sue would likely still be in the forest, so my only hope was to dash across the field. I ran as fast as I could, waving down Barbara. Seeing me, Barbara waved back, but her attention was drawn to Sue, coming out of the forest.

“Hey! We got a flag stealer!” Sue shouted, running towards me. This made Kirsten stop in her tracks and turn to face me. I knew that I would barely be able to escape Sue, but to do so, I’d have to run right towards where Kirsten was. If Kirsten hadn’t been alerted to me, I might have had a chance.

Thankfully, Barbara had an idea. She ran right towards Sue, intercepting her and acting as a bodyguard to me as I ran past. “GO ALICE!” Barbara shouted as she and Sue tumbled to the ground.

“I won’t forget your sacrifice!” I shouted back as I crossed over the line.

“And with a wonderful interception, Alice has managed to score the first point for Jameswood High!” I heard Diane’s voice over the loudspeaker through my panting. “Though, she had to lose a teammate. A blow for a blow!”

I turned back to see Barbara give me a little thumbs up as she was taken over to their jail by Sue.

“Ugh, dammit!” Kirsten shouted as she stomped the ground. And then, almost weirdly in frustration, Kirsten took off her shirt. My eyes went wide as she tossed her shirt aside, standing there with her bra completely on display. Her shirt blew away into the stand from the breeze. It took her a moment to realize just what happened, then she covered herself up. “WHAT THE HELL? THE FUCK YOU LOOKING AT?” She pointed over to me, still covering herself up.

I really didn’t know what to make of the scene that just happened. Was that a result of the app? That only happened after we scored a point. Would Kirsten strip each time that we got a point? Oh, if I wasn’t motivated to score, I absolutely was now.

I turned to thankfully see that Emily had managed to get back safely to our side of the field. I ran over to her to give her a pat on the back. “Hey, great job.”

“Feh, that’s nothing compared to… what you did… You managed to get… us a point…” She was breathing really heavy, probably not used to all the running around. “Still… how are we going… to get the next flag?”

I turned back to Kirsten’s side of the field, checking out the scene. Polly was still MIA, which was concerning. The fact that I didn’t see her at all meant she was probably somewhere in the woods. And, now that I had basically the easy flag, the two out in the open would be even more difficult to get.

“I’ll talk to Leona and see what she thinks,” I said as I headed over to check in with our guard.

“Yeah, you do that… I’ll guard… the line here…” Emily said between heavy puffs of breath.

“Hey, Alice. Great job getting a flag,” Leona said once I walked over to her and handed her the flag. “But, be careful. I don’t know what kind of stunt they’re trying, but they’ve barely gone for the flags at all.” Leona gestured to where we hid our flags.

“I mean, we did put them in a really good spot,” I said. “Plus, with one of their flags, all we have to do is wait and win by default.”

“That’s what has me a little worried,” Leona said, looking around again. There were a few obstacles that could be set up to act as guards or to hide behind. This school REALLY loves its capture the flag. “Polly went into the forest area at the beginning and I haven’t seen her since. I don’t know what plan they have, but be careful.”

“You got it,” I said as I turned back around.

Kirsten was no longer covering herself up, but rather furious and angrily shouting to her teammates. Sue and Dina nodded, then Kirsten turned back towards us. “You’re going down!” As she said that, both Sue and Kirsten headed into the forest area, quickly disappearing into the forest line. Dina, on the other hand, looked ready to take advantage of Emily’s poor stamina. But, if I went to chase after Sue and Kirsten, that would leave the right side open. But if I help Emily guard against Dina, the forest would be completely open. Or, right now, only Dina was on guard. I could try to go for one of the flags with Emily running side. After all, Dina couldn’t chase both of us.