Survivors [Book 1]

2. Mack

I kept my eyes on the ball as I ran backwards. The brown object flew across the schoolyard, above all the players' heads. It was a nice throw, all I had to do now was to catch it.

I saw Jude's figure running towards me but as I calculated, I still had time. Jumping up in the air as high as I could, I reached up and grabbed the ball. When I landed, I held it close to my chest and ran forward.

Jude's body almost hit me but at the last minute I changed directions and quickly avoided him. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only person I had to pass through if I wanted to make it to the endzone.

Trent appeared in front of me out of nowhere and lifted his arm, like he wanted to hug me. I ducked and tried to run past him but I already saw it was impossible. He was way bigger and stronger than me. No matter how smart or fast I was, all he needed was a little move of his leg and I was on the ground.

He jumped on my back making me groan.

"Oh, come on man!" Reed yelled annoyed.

The other team laughed at my failure to attempt a homerun, while my team was pissed. Jett got off of me and held his hand out to help me up as well.

"Thanks" I muttered as I accepted his offer.

"That was pathetic Mack!" stepped Chip next to me "My pass was wonderful! Did you see how it flew? It was magnificent!" he put his arm around my shoulder and showed me how it flew with his other "And then you ruined it" he dropped his arm and looked at me disappointed.

I shook my head and joined my teammates. We circled up and leaned into the middle to talk about our strategies.

After a week of raining, today it finally stopped and we used the opportunity to come outside and play some football. It's always nice to do regular things in this twisted world.

The ground was almost completely frozen, but we still managed to get muddy. My dark pants were covered with dirt around my knees, my grey hoodie had green patches from the wet grass but I couldn't care less. I just enjoyed having some time off with my friends.

We were the firsts to line up, then a few seconds later the others joined us. Jude stood opposite me. His light brown hair had grown too long and he had to tie it together on the top of his head in order to see anything. In my opinion, it looked ridiculous. Thank God, he doesn't wear it like this all the time. Usually it was just pushed to the side, but for the game, he chose to make a little ponytail from the front of his hair. Well, it looked more like the top of an onion.

He sent me a small challenging smile and wiggled his body. When Alex threw back the ball between his legs to Chip, I shot out bypassing my friend. This time my job was to hold up the other team's players and leave the homerun to Reed.

Colin was way too close to him, so I hurried my steps and threw myself on the skinny one, pushing him out of the way. We crashed to the ground and pain struck my left side as I fell on Colin's knee. He let out a small cry and quickly rolled over. Thankfully he wasn't really hurt, not more than I was.

When I looked up, I saw that Reed reached the line and smashed the ball onto the ground. He celebrated his- our- victory with a ridiculous dance. It didn't take long for Chip and Alex to join in.

A smile appeared on my face at the sight of my happy friends.

I stood up and helped Colin as well.

"That was very unnecessary," he said and cleaned his clothes.

"Sorry" I chuckled.

Reed walked over to me and we high fived.

"See? This is how you do it!"