Chapter 1: The Falling
'John, please. Stop it,' I pleaded. It was so typical of John to criticize on Camille's lack of fashion sense. She looked okay to me. I would rate her six out of ten. She was wearing a plain white sleeveless t-shirt with brown shorts and flip flops. It was a little boyish but passable through a boy's eyes. The only exception would be John.
Despite her slight lack of fashion sense, Camille Anne Morganne was gorgeous. The blonde had long wavy hair with a pink streak at the back. Her creamy white skin had some kind of light pinkish glow that matched her hair. The eyes were dazzlingly blue. She had long slender legs and a rocking body. She looked like a supermodel. Camille has this British-Russian accent that she inherited from her parents. It was really different, sort of…sexy.
John Nathan, my somehow identical looking best friend, is also good looking. He has extremely contrasted dark curly hair, pale white creamy skin, dark green eyes, a straight nose, wide jaws, full red lips and gleaming white teeth. He has an average built body. The only thing he considers a flaw is his voice, it was normal. We looked similar, really. Only, I have long and wavy dark auburn hair, chocolate brown eyes and higher cheek bones.
The two were my bestest of friends. We've known each other ever since we were born! We lived in the same neighborhood for seventeen years then we moved to the Pacific Ocean.Yes, ocean. See, the three of us are insanely rich (Technically, parents, but you get the gist). So our parents decided for us to go live somewhere private. Extremely private. Where else more private than the ocean? Well, there is the sky and probably an uncharted island but they thought that ships were less noisy than airplanes and pirates were more likely to visit than relatives. Not that we have a lot of relatives. I only have one family relative like John. Only Camille has two other family relatives. Our house was not built on stilts; it was built under the ocean.
Our parents didn't just choose a random location, the place had to have sunlight passing through for vegetation to grow, just the right amount of altitude so we could handle the pressure and other stuff. The house was built under a nearly unbreakable see-through globe-like structure that was so huge that it took one fifth of the ocean's space. Conveniently, the location of the house is in the middle of the ocean. Semi circle tubes were joined to some of the edges of the globe for us to get out from under water. Each family has one jet and pilot to get to places.
We rarely go out, though. Since we have everything down here and by everything I mean EVERYTHING. We can even go sky-diving here. We don't get lonely, because we have hundreds of workers here working for us. We treat them like friends. They treat us like friends too. It took our parents exactly seventeen years to make the whole thing. The three of us and our families live in the same house. Though, palace would be the more suitable word. School did not bother us. We already knew everything we needed. Having being home-schooled and taught by some of the greatest teachers in the world and having good brains was an addition to the perfect life we have. Everything was perfect.
'You're right. But seriously, Cammy, you'd be fit to be one of us,' John replied.
'I know, I know. I just don't get it,' Camille said miserably.
'Maybe you should get Sandra to help you. She always looks great,' I suggested. She is John's Pilot.
'You mean Cassandra? Yeah, I guess so. And stop calling her Sandra you know she hates that,' she said.
John chuckled.
'So guys, what shall we do today?' she asked. They both looked at me.
'Err…I was thinking of paintball,' I said lamely.
'Against who? Arteta and his group again? They will crush us, Luke!' John said with wide eyes. That was true. But Arteta, Damien and Francessca were not the challengers I had in mind.
'No. Bradley's group challenged us. They should be okay, right?' I asked.
They were quiet for a while. Then they nodded. Camille is our most talented shooter. Her eyes were extremely sharp. And her accuracy was…wow. You would be asking why we couldn't beat Arteta's group. Imagine this, three Camille's of the same quality in a group. That was how they were like. Paintball, to us, is like football is to Brazil. We love it.
'Excellent. I'd like to see the look on Gray's face when we beat them. He's been bragging all day about how they beat Arteta's group. Its lucky Arteta's group doesn't have a scout or navigator.' she said with a grin on her face.
'Okay then. To the Coliseum we go! Last one there is a rotten egg!' John said while running. Camille and I ran to catch up and laughed a lot.
The coliseum was already filling up with people when we came in through the open iron gates of the entrance. This looked more like a tournament than a friendly. Should have known Gray would have turned it into something big. We saw the trio in the center of the sand field talking to Simon, the referee, and approached them swiftly.
'Took you long enough. Hey, Cammy!' Gray said, flashing a grin at her.
Camille stuck her tongue out and scowled at him.
He laughed. 'No need to be sour, love. You'll be mine after the game'.
'Whatever,' she said, throwing him a disgusted face.
We huddled around Simon while he explained the mode and rules. This was a three hit match, with no refilling the paintgun tank. We were only given a certain amount so if ammo ran out, you would be a sitting duck.
The rules however, remained the same. No physical contact and no cheating. Now, how would you know if you've been hit three times? Well, the armor breaks after you get hit thrice. This was to prevent cheating. Cool eh?
We were given five minutes to prepare. Then we were asked to go to the preferred position. Preferably not too close to the opponent for you would be taken out easily. The field was simple. It has an 'o' shape and barricades scattered all around the field for cover.
Our group formed a triangle with one meter spaced between each of us. Bradley's group just formed a straight line. Probably trying to take us all at once. We, on the other hand, planned to knock them out one by one. Starting off with the weak link: Gray.
The only good player was Henry, who was the quietest of the three. But he would be nothing without Gray. Gray's navigating abilities were indescribable. It was natural to him. Gray is the eye of the team. Henry is the hands. Bradley, the eye sockets and arms. The supporter. In our group, Camille was always in the middle with John and me covering either side. Things go quite fast paced when we play. Things got even faster paced in this game. There was a barricade north from us not three feet away.
We glanced at each other and knew instantly what to do. When the gun was shot signaling that the game had started, all three of us jumped forward, shot carefully aimed shots at Gray and ducked for cover as a paintball swooshed pass my left ear. We heard the shattering armor about thirty meters away. Our shots were a success! Then we heard Gray swear at the top of his lungs.
Then we made another move to the left, rolling behind another barricade while shooting another volley of paintballs at Henry through the gap between our first and second barricade. There was another shattering sound about twenty meters away. This was going far better than planned. They were getting closer to us. But not close enough to surprise us.
This left Bradley alone. We heard nothing. The navigator in our team was John. He did not know where Bradley was. So he looked at me and I nodded. I knew what to do. I was the scout. I could scout well. I moved swiftly and stealthily forwards ducking from cover to cover. There was no sign of him.
I was almost at the other end when I realized what was happening. How could I have been so careless? I should have analyzed my opponents more thoroughly. We underestimated the enemy. Of course, Bradley was the stealthy one. I've seen him running around without a sound and extremely fast in the field next to the coliseum. He must have gone around the field as soon as Simon pulled the trigger on the gun.
I turned back and ran as fast as I could but I knew it was too late because I heard the two shattering sounds followed by a humorless laugh that reverberated off the walls of the coliseum. Usually, players would not hear the audience who were watching them. But now, I heard them. Gasping, cheering and booing. I was all alone now. A deathmatch.
I stared in shock as I realized that I had been shot twice. One more shot and we would lose. I could not disappoint my friends. I thought quickly. The other thing I was good at was assault. But could assault actually beat stealth in a death match like this? No. But I had to try. I listened intently to my surroundings and focused my eyes to the extremes. There. One 'o' clock from me and moving fast to the west. Going for the kill. I knew what to do in these kinds of situations: predict. So I predicted where Bradley would move and just shot. Thud. Thud. Thud.
'You did it!' Camille cheered and ran towards me to hug me closely followed by John with a huge grin on his face.
'You got lucky, man!' he said still grinning and punched my shoulder playfully.
I could not help but grin back at him. I loved these moments. But nothing made me happier than Camille and her warm hugs. She had this unexplainable cheerful radiance. You could not stay mad at her for long. Even if you wanted to. I loved Camille as much as I loved John. But Camille was different. I love Camille. I had been secretly crushing on Cammy ever since I was fourteen. The only people who knew were my mom and John. My dad died when I was six. He was a great man. I don't know how Camille feels about me but I hope she feels the same way.
Camille is fun, unpredictable, wild, charming, kind, fierce, selfless and caring. In other words, perfect. John, on the other hand, liked being single. He liked flirting with girls. He does not play with them of course. He just has flings. But the girls are crazy for him. Like I am for Camille.
'Nice game,' Bradley said. He held his hand out to shake my hand.
'Yeah! And you really have to teach me how to move like that someday!' I said admiring the memory demonstrated not so long ago.
'HAH! Just look at him!' Camille said, pointing her index finger at Gray sulking at the entrance and giggling to herself. The sound took my breath away. When will this woman ever cease to amaze me?
'We will play again someday, yes?' Bradley continued.
I nodded and said farewell. Then I put one arm around Camille's waist and the other around John's neck and pulled them into a tight hug. Then we walked home. We were pretty quiet all the way home. Too happy about winning, apparently. But it wasn't awkward. Definitely not awkward. Awkwardness doesn't really exist in our tight bond anymore.
'What time is it, John?' I asked.
'Four thirty, Luke,' he said while looking at his ridiculously expensive watch. Hm…the sky isn't dark yet, I thought to myself. That was strange. The sky usually got extremely black by now. But it was not. It was still as bright as day. Something must be going on up there…
'Kids! Oh my god! Are you guys ok?' John's mother asked with a worried expression. Mrs. Nathan is this tiny cute person who looked like someone who was twenty instead of thirty two. I made a questioning face at Mrs. Nathan.
'Ah, yes. You don't know yet. They say that some kind of giant space rock is heading straight towards earth. And you know what? Out of all the places it could hit, it's headed straight here! The ocean. How troublesome. The people up there are pretty worried. It won't make such a huge impact up there. This thing would only make tsunamis. Though, unfortunately for us, it may still have enough power to crush the glass,' she said pointing at the almost invisible layers of barriers.
'It moves pretty slowly, though,' she continued 'So we may have some time to evacu – 'she cut off as her eyes got wider. Then she fainted.
'Mom!' John shouted and saved her from smashing her head on the ground in time.
'Oh dear god,' I heard Camille whisper.
I instinctively looked behind me and up at the sky. It got redder and redder. Then I saw it. A huge, dark and round object hurling into the water hundreds of meters away, corrupting the aquatic color of the ocean into an eerie red color.
The impact was bigger than I thought. I could see the ocean surface rise and explode into the open air and made terrifying waves. I went to hold Camille into my arms and prepared myself for the worst.