Training Day

I glanced around the corner, holding my gun close to my chest. Using the mirror, I stared down my opponent. As he reloaded, I quickly fired.

POW! A dart flew into his shoulder and he scowled.

"You're going to get it!" he shouted. I ducked back to the wall as the darts came flying toward me.

POW POW POW POW POW! The wall became covered with darts. I remained unharmed. Cocky, I shot three more darts and crept toward the wall for more ammunition. I had to move quickly. My opponent had an automatically cocking weapon, while I had to reload after each dart.

The battle raged on. Suddenly, my opponents switched. A different opponent took the darts I had fired and reloaded his own weapons. He strode towards me as I struggled to reload mine.

"Draw," he said, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. I loaded my weapon and met him in the hallway. The air was still, save a few dust bunnies blowing around the fuzzy rug at our feet. I looked at him. He looked at me. His finger twitched. I gripped my gun tighter. The creases around his eyes deepened.

"I'll draw," he said. We both pulled our weapons and fired. Darts flew through the air, bouncing off our hair and clothing. He threw down his gun, triumphant, as I reloaded to fight my original opponent. I continued to hide behind my wall, firing. Suddenly, I was out of ammo.

"I need help!" I bellowed. "I need backup!"

The bystanders simply stared at me and went back to their magazines. My opponents were cackling in glee. With no darts to defend me, I crept among the fuzzy rug to the supply of stolen darts. As I reached the desk, darts began to strike my face and chest.

"Retreat!" I grabbed a handful of darts and ran back to my defense, darts hitting my back and butt. I scooped up some extras and loaded, firing back.

After the air cleared, I staked out a new position in the depths of a papasan chair. My opponents and I had declared a draw. My next mission was to defend myself against the invaders. They were due to arrive any minute. I crept and waited for what seemed like an eternity. The weight of the plastic weapon weighed on my arm.

Suddenly, the door handle turned and invisible hands knocked on the wooden door. This was it! I cocked the gun and waited, aiming towards the intruders.

As the door opened, my opponents and I fired towards the door. The invaders yelled and ducked, shielding themselves from darts of justice. They fell over themselves like puppies, yelping as they threw the darts at our feet. Big mistake. We quickly scooped up the darts, reloaded and fired. This time, they'd barely made it into their room before their faces and necks were struck. Eyes were poked, foreheads were targeted and their long hair was swishing around darts lodged in their collars. We were victorious.

We left the battlefield triumphantly, having strewn our weapons on the fuzzy rugs. Clutching my first opponent's hand, I grinned up at him.

"Honey, can we get some dart guns like that for our house?"

"No."

"Why not? It would be fun. Daddy liked them."

"No."

"They're cheap. We can get some at Wal-Mart."

"No."

"I would be careful with them. I wouldn't break anything."

He laughs loudly, his breath escaping in the night air. "No."