I made it. I'm alive. I'm not a Fractured pancake. Alhamdulillah, I repeat it over and over, pressing my hands against my face. And then my head, my hijab is missing, only my cap remains and I feel a pang of sadness.
Then Four enters my view and I sigh, he made it too. "Hey, good job, Rita." He kneels beside me and I give him a weak thumbs up.
"Thanks, I feel like I broke every bone in my body. Great workout."
He laughs at me, smiling widely. For a moment, I'm struck by how pretty he looks smiling, "You okay?" I shrug and then he takes my hand, I'm confused but then realize he's checking my pulse. "You'll live, come on." He hauls me up and my head dips and sways.
"Woah," I drop back onto the ground, shoving my head between my knees to ease the swimming feeling in my brain. "Gimme a second," I regulate my breathing and then slowly get up. "There we go. The world isn't swirling anymore."
Tris runs over to us, her eyes wide with surprise. "That was insane, how'd you get it working?" In her hand is my hijab, she hands it to me shyly and I thank her.
"Had to think fast and we got lucky." He glances at me and we don't explain how close I came to meeting my demise. It's not every day someone manages to turn on an ancient Ferris wheel.
"Wow, wish I could have gone up, I bet the view was amazing."
I shake my head, "Eh, it's not too great when you feel like you're on the verge of death every time you touch something."
"We gotta go get that flag, come on," Four leads us back to the group and Tris gives me my paintball gun back. "Where'd the others go?" I hear something similar to excitement in his voice and for some reason, it reminds me that he's only 18. He seems so mature most of the time that it slips my mind. He's still just a kid too.
"Did you guys turn on the wheel? What the hell were you thinking? You might as well have just shouted, 'Here we are! Come and get us!'" The girl has a whopping four piercings on one eyebrow, but that's the least of my worries, she's pissed. And honestly, I can't blame her.
"I probably would have died if he hadn't done that, so." I shrug, "Kind of worth the risk."
The girl rolls her eyes at us, "If I lose again this year, the shame will be unbearable. Three years in a row?"
Four waves her concerns off, "Doesn't matter, we know where they are."
That's when I notice it, Christina's looking between the three of us with narrowed eyes. "We?" She asks, settling her gaze on me. I can't help but break eye contact first.
"Rita climbed the Ferris wheel to find the other team while the rest of you bickered like children." Tris snickers from beside him and I almost laugh but Christina's curious look is still irking me.
After that, we explain what we saw and Tris formulates our plan. "Split in half," She starts, "Five of us go to the ride side of the pier, four to the left. The other team will charge as the group of three sneaks behind the other team to get the flag." I'm honestly really impressed by her plan, it's good.
"Sounds good," The eyebrow girl says, "Let's get this night over with, shall we?" Me, Christina, Tris, and Uriah are the smaller group. We're all rather slim so we should blend in quite well. I decided to shove my hijab in my pocket so I'm completely dressed in black.
We begin to run for the pier, I want that flag and I can tell Christina does too. I hold my gun in front of me, breathing through my nose as I slow my pants down into shallow inhales and exhales. We hear the charging group before we see them, paintballs splatter on the ground and I see a large number of bodies charge out to defend their base.
I rush to lead, I can see relatively good in the dark–it's kind of freaky actually. Uriah tags the last guard as we run in. I see Peter hiding behind a crate and I shoot to his right. He does as I expect and rounds the left side of the crate and I spray him with red and yellow paint.
Ironic. I smile at my aim, these guns have a much more manageable recoil compared to the pistols we shot. Tris fires at someone and I hear Molly shout in anger. I glance to my right and see the flag, Christina meets my eyes and I shake my head before bolting. She's smaller than I am, but I'm quicker.
I jump from a crate into the tree and clamber up the branch, it's a breeze after climbing up that Ferris wheel. I snatch the flag from its confines in the branch and then holler. Christina–while disappointed she couldn't reach the flag–also yells in excitement. The team of supposed weaklings won.
By the time I make it out of the tree, my team is surrounding it, shouting in support of us. I find Four among my teammates and he gives me another one of those nods. Though this time, he has a hint of a smile on his lips. I'm not even hiding my grin. I let Christina hold the other half of the flag with me, it glows bright blue and it's like a beacon, and our team is like a bunch of moths drawn to the flame.
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