I Am Become War

Different

Mark

We walked on grass. The gravel road we previously traveled on just ended. We had to jump over a fence to get in here. Caleb was in front of me, being carried by Jeanne. He was doing better, almost like he was. What we thought was a broken arm was just a dislocated arm so it should heal fast. We will only give him medication for the pain once a day so we can ration our supplies.

"You have to let me go," Carlos said, stinking from the bear I threw on him last night. He was still restrained the same way. Both ends of the stick that was jabbed under his knees and over his arms was carried by someone. Bruno and Alyssa volunteered to do it. Bruno kicked Carlos in the back.

"So, what is your plan?" Jake asked me.

"Don't have one."

"So what-"

Jake was suddenly cut off. He was right next to me one minute, and then the next one, poof. I then realized a hole, but the hole was square and the edges were made of wood.

"Jake, you alright?" I yelled down.

"Yeah. And I think I found some sort f bunker," he replied.

"War?"

"I don't know. I can't see shit."

"I'm coming down then."

I readied myself. I sat along an edge and dropped down. The place was dark with the only light shining in was from the hole we dropped from. Jake dropped the duffel bag that he carried filled with who knows what and opened his backpack. He brought out a military grade flashlight.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Frank got them off the dead soldiers before he, uh," Jake paused, then knocked on the low ceiling of the bunker which was also made of wood.

He pointed the flashlight side to side around the bunker.

"What's that?" he said, pointing to a light switch.

I walked up to it and flicked it on. The lights came on and I strained my eyes. Colors. Different colors were spread out across the walls. There was red, blue, pink, green.

"Paint balls. This is a paint ball bunker," Jake said. He then walked over to a shelf stacked with several paint ball guns. Some of them were styled in different ways.

"You shouldn't mess around with that," Alyssa hopped down from the hole. "Might lose an eye."

"You sound like my mom."

"This must be why there was a fence around this way. It's a paintball place," I said.

"Yeah."

Everybody started coming down. Caleb needed help to get down, but he claimed he didn't need it. He just fell down in result.

"What do we do about Carlos?" Bruno asked. I honestly never thought about that little shit. He was restrained so he couldn't get down here without getting injured.

"Leave the shit outside," I replied, feeling only a little heartless.

"I don't think you should do that. He saved your life."

"I could've handled it myself."

"Fine, whatever you say boss," Bruno said. If he called you boss, you knew he was serious.

"Well, lets explore this place," Caleb said, trying to keep himself up.

I walked around. This room was very large with a low ceiling.There was an immense amount of paint balls down here. Every step I took I heard a squish. My boots were splattered with paint.