Doing my best to remain stealthy, I walked over to one of the windows and peeked through the tinted glass where, despite my view being obscured by the wooden planks, I saw three players with some pretty solid gear moving up to my minibus.

“See?” one of them said, gesturing with his pump-action to my passengers, “They’re dead.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a genius.” another replied before putting her hand on her hip and letting her AK-47 dangle by her side, “We gonna bust into the house or what?”

“You crazy?” the third guy laughed, slinging his compound bow over his shoulder as he did so, “If there’s someone in there, which I reckon there is, they’ll put us down in a frickin’ heartbeat.”

“So, what? We just move on then?” the one with the AK mocked, “Leave behind a bunch of awesome gear because you guys are too chicken-shit to handle a few guys in a house?”

“No one’s saying we leave emptyhanded,” the guy with the shotgun interjected before the other guy could throw a fit, “we take the bus.”

“This piece of shit?” the girl laughed, “Yeah, ‘cause this is worth the trouble.”

The guy with the shotgun hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and climbed up into the minibus, “Better than what we’ve got now, and it’ll do until we hit Livah.”

“Provided no one happens to throw a stick our way in that time.” the bowman scoffed before looking around at the trees, causing me to briefly pull away from the window, and sighing, “Although… alright, say I agree with you, and not saying I am, but what would w-”

I didn’t give them the opportunity to continue their conversation, and instead whipped my smoke grenade out the window and watched it smash into the back of the girl’s head with pinpoint accuracy.

“Contact!” the one in the bus shouted before switching to his sidearm and opening fire on me.

His first few shots were wide of the window by a mile, giving me enough time to pop the one with the AK through the back of her calf, the bullet doing its job perfectly in bringing her to her knees, before he could get a shot through the glass.

FinnyBoi incapacitated NeverGonnaGiveYouUp

+5 Points (71 Points)

The shooter’s aim was still off, but he’d given his friend with the bow enough time to disappear while at the same time managing to stay in cover himself.

I’m not sure if he knew it, but the fact that he was in my minibus made it all the more difficult to fire at him.

That’s when my smoke grenade finally decided to go off.

“Shit.” I said flatly before making a break for the stairs, realizing that, if they were barely half as intelligent as I thought they were, they’d be able to bring their team back up to full strength and come after me.

I was halfway down the stairs when, with a quick spark and a sharp sound, an arrow glanced off the wall in front of me.

“Double shit.” I muttered as I spotted the bowman out of the corner of my eye and ran back up the stairs.

“He’s upstairs!” the archer called out to his friends, “Should I go after him?”

“Give me two seconds,” the girl replied, “Lukey’ll have me up and we’ll come with you.”

That’s when I had an epiphany.

“One,” I whispered as I put my AR over my shoulder, preparing for an arrow to lodge in my back at any moment, “two…”

“Heading up!”

I didn’t bother saying three, and instead just ran at the window and jumped through it, smashing through the glass and weak wood with ease, before doing my best to roll while unable to see the ground.

By sheer luck, I managed to pull the roll off, despite the guns and pack on my back, though not without causing some damage.

I’m not sure exactly what it was, but something in my right shoulder popped while something else in my elbow let out a disconcerting cracking sound.

“Where’d he go?” I heard the archer ask as I tried to breathe through the pain as quietly as possible while moving toward the minibus.

“How should I know?” Lukey growled, “You’re the one at the window.”

“Alright, alright, just… look for him, okay?” the bowman practically pleaded, “Where’s Cara?”

“She’s down there somewhere, patching herself up in the back of the minibus, I think.”

“Thanks for giving away my position!” Cara shouted, confirming Lukey’s comment, “Dick.”

I froze, before mouthing a painful ‘Fuck!’ and trying my best to stay within the fast-dissipating smoke cloud.

If I stayed where I was, I was screwed.

If I left the smoke, I was screwed.

If I approached the minibus, I was…

That’s when I got an idea, it was a bad idea, especially with my injury, but it was something.

In an effort to minimize sound, I drew in a deep breath, found the rough outline of the bus in the cloud, and crept around it.

Once I was at the back of the bus, I pulled my SVD over my shoulder, barely fighting back the urge to seethe as I did, and found the back door.

I had maybe fifteen seconds of cover left when I pulled the door open and stuck the barrel of my SVD into the red-headed Cara’s lower back, “Say a single frickin’ word, I dare you.”

Cara, despite clearly wanting to bark something at me, kept her mouth shut and put her hands in the air.

“Good, now, move to the front of the bus.”

“And wh-”

“Did I tell you to talk?” I hissed, “Front of the bus, now. Make sure to leave your gun on the seat.”

Again, Cara wanted to say something, but thought better of it and followed my order, eliciting a silent sigh of relief from me as I was able to climb up into the back and pull the door shut behind me.

“Here’s the key,” I said, tossing it over to Cara who caught it with ease, “get us the Hell outta here.”

- Car Key (Minibus)