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I knew so out of this bruised, battered, and paint-splattered And I can’t even shoot him until I’m rotated onto another team

There’s a horn blast, and I’ on hands and knees up an incline aardly, the loose dirt iven our strategy I’ll scout the way forward I’m the most expendable

My arms won’t seem to hold me up properly and I collapse onto my stomach Annabelle runs ahead of y or stealth I kneel up and try to call her back A hand claed backward until Joshua flops down next to un in hand He motions at me to lie down

“Don’t,” I hiss at him

“You’ll get shot in the face if you pop up like that”

“Why didn’t you let me then?”

His hand spreads across round In the privacy of ht of his hand is delicious The slivers of fabric between our skin begins to glow

“What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

“Nothing’s wrong” I try to squirm away

“You look terrible”

“Thanks We have to cover Annabelle” I edge up to see her tottering aardly aallantly leaping after her The flag is an orange scrap in the distance

I’, Joshua behindtea her in the shoulder She says a disappointed, “Aw,” and walks off

When I look at Joshua he looks mildly impressed “Badass”

Annabelle is out of sight The air is filled with cracks, pops, and cries of pain After a few short runs, I find Andy kneeling on the ground trying to tie his boot lace with a big splat of paint on his chest

“Oh, Andy!”