I woke up early this morning with a headache. My head felt like it was being held between a jackhammer and an anvil, and I had no idea why it should hurt so much. I swallowed a couple of aspirin before taking a shower and committed myself to actually getting up. Despite the pain behind my eyes, I was going to see Jackie today and the forced early start would give me an advantage.

I was ready to hit the road at just after seven o’clock in the morning. I had packed everything that I thought I would need for the weekend and changed into my gym clothes. My girlfriend, Jackie, and I were planning to head straight to the rock gym when I got to town for an early workout. I did not want to waste any of the time the two of us had together this weekend; being dressed for the gym when I got there would save the unnecessary minutes it would take to change in her apartment. That, and I wanted to use those extra minutes to make her a surprise breakfast when she woke up.

Jackie lives about a hundred and fifty miles north of me. She works at the local hospital and lives in one of the newer apartment complexes nearby. It is convenient for us because the athletic center with the rock gym completely takes up the first floor of the complex. It is one of those new space-saving architectural concepts you read about sometimes in the newspaper. I really think that should have made the rent for Jackie’s apartment more expensive, but she had negotiated a student discount with the manager. She was crafty like that.

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The windshield had fallen off and rainwater was running into the car soaking Matt’s face. The car was upside down and, from the position he was in, Matt had long lost sensation in his legs. A pool of mud, blood, and icy rainwater had begun to collect below his head, roughly where the steering wheel had been and where the remains of his chest were now delicately held in place. Matt could barely hear the clap of thunder above the car through the sheet of pain in his head. His eyes drifted closed and he passed out for the third time.

∞

Kristine had been planning the trip to for over a month. When Matt told her he had a last-minute business meeting that morning, she was livid.

“But you scheduled time off last month, how can they call you in,” she demanded as she strangled her pillow.

“I’m sorry, Kris, but I have to put in time if I want to get that promotion at the end of the quarter. We need the money.”

“I know, but you were supposed to be mine this weekend.” Kristine pouted as she flopped back into bed. She could never argue with his cool logic.

“We can still drive down tonight,” Matt offered. “I should get done around seven, so we can be through the pass and to the hotel by eleven. I’ll even let you sleep on the way there.”

“What a prince charming you are,” she poked. “Offering to let me sleep after working so hard to do nothing all day long while I wait for you to get off work.”

“One of us has to do the heavy lifting,” he joked back.

Matt worked at an accounting firm downtown, and he made a handsome living. Two more months would show whether his hard work paid off – in the form of a promotion and substantial wage increase. He and Kristine had been dating for over a year, and he planned to use his next advance to buy her the engagement ring of her dreams.

Unbeknownst to him, Kristine was tired of waiting for him to make a move. She had planned this weekend excursion to preempt a proposal and turn the tables on their relationship. She had taken the whole weekend off work and talked Matt into doing the same so they could have four full days of alone time at the beach. Kristine knew Matt had been too busy to notice the extra planning she had been putting in for the weekend and was ecstatic about the trip – right up to the point of his 6 am phone call.

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The moon was out, but the tall grass around me prevented its light from helping as I navigated my way through the darkness. I ran around the corner of a path in the tall snake grass and ducked into the reeds as the beam of a flashlight passed over my head. It was hard enough to be quiet in the rattling weed without having to duck, crawl, and otherwise avoid the lights of the other team’s sentries. I was deep in enemy territory, without any support, but I knew I was close to the target. It was lying in a clear area about five feet ahead, wrapped in a white trash bag to hide its glow from sight. I smiled; it was amusing that they thought a Safeway bag was enough to hide it from me.

The single guard turned to investigate a sound from the other side of the clearing. I took my chance and dashed from my hiding spot, snatched up the flag, and dove back into the wall of grass before he could catch me. I crawled for a few feet and then took off running in a different direction entirely, hoping to confuse my pursuer. I grinned as I neared the boundary between our territories and looked over my shoulder to make sure I was still safe. There was no one behind me. I wanted to shout with joy that I had scored, but as I turned forward I ran straight into a brick wall. One of the older scouts on the other team was standing in front of me and grabbed me a short two feet from the home stretch. He eagerly took his flag back from me and escorted me off to spend another night waiting for my teammates in the opponents’ jail.

We had been playing ‘Capture the Flag’ for two nights straight now, but I was new and was not likely to be missed. I had spent two hours in ‘jail’ the night before when I finally gave up and went back to my campsite. Tonight was probably not going to end much differently, and there was no reason to sit in the box when I could go back to my tent and play cards. Read the rest of this story »