Jail Break - Part One

It was a completely messed up match. Four people on one side, three on the other, and, in my opinion, the four had the better side of the arena. Four to three, and the four weren’t giving us a chance.

When the match started, it was still light out, so sneaking into enemy territory was impossible. Both sides waited for dusk.

I was on border patrol, walking back and forth on the road that marked the border between the two territories—neutral ground. Occasionally, me or one of the enemy patrollers, Kate or Grace most of the time, would strike up a conversation as we walked past, and we would chat until our routes took us too far apart to do anything but yell at each other. Then we would watch each other carefully, making sure we didn’t cross into each other’s territories. More often than not, I would go a foot or two over the edge of the road and into their land, one of them would see me and come running, and I would simply jump back before they got to me.

I was the captain of my small team of three. I had Neolle guarding our flag, and Allison wandering the field about twenty yards back from the border.

Jessica was the captain of the opposing team. She had the better team, which consisted of Kate and Grace on border patrol, and Isaac on flag-guarding duty. Jessie herself was snooping around on the other side of the house, waiting for one of my team –namely me—to try sneaking in that way.

The layout of the two fields of battle were very different. My field was wide open, marshy, well mown, and easy to defend. There were only seven or eight trees on the edge of the field near the road, and one dead apple tree smack-dab in the middle. A medium sized swimming pool, more than half empty, complete with water toys strewn about the yard nearby, rested on a leveled out sand pile near the apple tree. Next to the tree and the pool was a vegetable garden, formerly overgrown, with a few plots cleared for the planting of peas, zucchini, tomatoes and the like.

Looking from the neutral road, the right border of my field ended at a large red barn. It housed a number of turkeys, a few random birds, and one old horse named Demi.

It was a perfectly shaped barn. The multi-angled roof, newly patched, sloped down to meet the stable roof to the left of the barn. To the right, a rocky hill rose to meet the large sliding door of the hay loft.

The back boundary of my territory was formed by a split-rail fence that stopped at the road to the left, and made part of Demi’s pen by continuing past the barn. A smaller portion of the same kind of fence made a right angle that went to the barn, turning back to the right a little to meet the corner while leaving room for a large water trough.

The front of the boundary was formed by the aforementioned road, along which was a large garage and driveway which doubled as a four-square court and basketball court, with the aid of one adjustable basketball hoop. In between the garage and the barn was a chicken coop, and behind the chicken coop was a large compost pile, as well as a big tree. I think it was a walnut tree, but it could have been a hickory, too.

Jessie's territory was a tree-infested, hilly, dry area with a big white house taking up much of the front of the field. There were at least twenty trees crowding the area, which made it a little easier for my team to sneak in, but at the same time, they also allowed Jessie's team to ambush mine. Specifically me.

Again, looking from the neutral road and into Jessica’s territory, the big white house was just to the left of the middle, its shadow providing a good amount of cover for the slope to the far left, across from the garage on my side of the road. To the left of the house was a wooded hill that rose up past the edge of the border, the edge of the woods forming the left border. At the side of the house the hill steepened, providing more cover for an assault from my team. But again, the same problem. The cover that could help me to win the match could also hide the other team’s ambush.

The back of the boundary was never really clearly spelled out. As far as I know, it curved to follow the edge of the road, and then angled back to follow a few trees back to the edge of the woods. A small, round hill, totally treeless, took up the greater portion of the middle of the territory, along with a blackberry garden at its base. Just to the right of the hill, a small fort, complete with sandbox, swing set, two slides and little hut on top, served as their flag stand.

The match really got underway just after dusk, while it was still light enough to see, but dark enough to creep into enemy territory. If the gutter along the edge of the road was had been dry, I would have squirmed along it until I came to the back right corner, cut up through the hedge, snuck up behind Isaac and taken the flag, making us that much closer to claiming the territory. Well, the fact that it had rained earlier in the day meant that the gutter was sopping wet, practically mud from last fall’s decaying leaves. I wasn’t about to crawl through that.

So, while Allison took over border patrol, I hid behind the pool, snuck around the garage, sprinted across the road, and into enemy territory. Allison didn’t seem to see me run across, and neither had Kate or Grace. I was relatively sure that Isaac was still guarding the flag, but I wasn’t sure where Jessica was. She had a knack for sneaking around.

I decided that she must have seen me coming and was now hiding somewhere in the shadows of the house and trees, so I told myself to be as careful as possible. Allison saw me and started edging my way, leaving a somewhat forced conversation with Kate. Apparently, Allison wasn’t aware that it was me. Either she thought I was Jessie, or she was trying to distract Kate and Grace.

Whatever the case, She jogged up to me, staying on the road, and said something along the lines of, “Hey, I think I found Jessie! Or maybe it’s Natalia. Hey, is that you, Nattie?” I nodded, but she didn’t see it. She ventured into enemy territory to see who I was.

“Is that you?” she asked again.

“Yes,” I whispered, “Shh!”

“Oh, ok.”

At the same moment, we both saw a flicker of movement at the base of the steep hill near the left side of the house. A crouching figure was trying to blend into the darkness. Naturally, we assumed it was Jessica.

“Hey, I think Jessie's over there!” Allison said, pointing.

“Yeah. I saw her, too. Hey, Jessie! We can see you, you know. You’re really bad at hiding!” I teased.

Jessica moved just enough for us to see her, then question whether we had actually seen anything. Sure that we had been spotted, either by Kate and Grace or Jessie, Allison and I moved back to the road.

“It would be really embarrassing if that was a tree stump,” I whispered to her.

She laughed quietly. “Yeah!”

“Ok, Jessie, you can stop hiding now,” I yelled.

A ridiculously high voice that was definitely not Jessica's said, “Oh, yeah, I’m definitely Jessie! I’m going to come get you!”

It was Isaac! He and Jessie had switched positions at some point without my team knowing. Allison and I both laughed, and went back to our territory.

A few failed attempts at Jessica's flag later, and the four still weren’t giving us a chance. Also, they weren’t taking the bait of our empty field. Isaac and Jessie had both gone back to their original positions, and Grace and Kate were still on border patrol. I called Allison from her rounds at the border, and we went to talk about a new plan with Noelle, who was still guarding our flag.

I said, “I want Noelle to go for the flag. They won’t expect it, and I can cover for her. Unless you want to cover for her, Allison. Which would you rather do: cover for Noelle, or guard the flag?”

“I’ll guard the flag,” she said.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to their flag without being caught,” Neolle said.

“Don’t worry! You’ll be fine! I’ll be right there with you!” I said, “Alright. Let’s go. Allison, make yourself look shorter so they won’t know that Noelle is gone.” She did. “Come on, Noelle . Sneak along the fence here, and I’ll walk in front.”

Noelle started out a little too fast. She ran along the fence, crouching low enough not to be spotted, but I wasn’t able to keep up at a non-suspicious speed.

“Noelle! Slow down!” She slowed down a little, but not nearly enough. “Slow down more! So that I can walk in front of you, so they won’t see you!” She slowed down to a better speed.

We made it to the pool, crept around the garage, and stopped.

“Ok, Noelle, listen. I want you to go around the chicken coop and meet me at the road. Try not to be spotted. Jessie's somewhere around the house,” I told her, and she ran around the chicken coop.

We met up at the edge of Jessica's land. I stood in front of her again, and we walked along the border until we got to where the gutter crossed under the road and went down the other side. The gutter ended where the big wooded hill leveled out before steepening to meet the bottom of the hill.

I’m not sure if Kate or Grace saw us while they were on border patrol, but they didn’t say anything. I thought we were in the clear, at least for a while, and we were!

For about thirty seconds.