Nothing but darkness. Pure black as far as the eyes can see. Sitting absolutely still, waiting. Huey had no idea how long he had been kneeling still as a statue, it had to be at least 30 minutes. His knees and feet were starting to ache, but he was not moving. Any discomfort in his leg joints was far more pleasant than the fate he would meet if he moved so much as a single millimeter.
Then, he heard it. Footsteps creaking along the wooden floors. Huey's mind went ballistic for a few short moments until he mentally calmed back down. He waited until the footsteps were loud, right next to his hiding place. "One, two, three!" the young duckling mentally counted before jumping out and firing his weapon as fast as he could.
Huey stood confused, there was nobody there. He looked left. Nobody. He looked right. Nobody. He looked up. Nobody. That is when the fear set in. He heard footsteps, he knew he had, and if there was nobody here he must have fallen into some kind of trap.
PHEW!
The sound of a dart launching out of a gun could be heard from behind Huey. He quickly turned around and ducked under the projectile just in time.
"And now, we run." Huey said to himself as he took off running full speed in the opposite direction. The red triplet was not the fastest mover, but he knew his adrenaline carried him quicker than his usual speed. He raced around corners navigating the halls for what felt like hours, until he finally reached a room he could hide in.
Huey opened the door and quickly jumped inside, quietly closing the door behind him. He held an ear up to the door and heard the footsteps outside pass by. The red triplet heaved a sigh of relief as he turned around. "I'll lay low here for a while."
Suddenly Huey heard a creak in the floorboards from across the room. He perked up and aimed his dart gun in the direction of the noise, a dark corner of the room with an old wooden desk.
"Ah!" Huey yelped as another duckling jumped out from behind the desk. The red triplet fired a dart and held his other hand in front of his face, waiting for the worst. But it never came.
"Huey, chill." whispered Louie, dodging the dart. "It's okay."
"Louie?" said Huey looking up to see the green triplet. "You're not gonna attack me?"
"Heck no," said Louie. "I need to save all my darts for you know who. And I recommend you do the same."
"Not sure if that will make a difference. I had the perfect plan and still was almost assassinated just a moment ago," said Huey. "I barely managed to escape before ending up here."
"Man, we will never survive this game ever again." sighed Louie. "Unless… we form an alliance. With your smarts and my sharpness we might be able to win."
"Not a bad idea," said Huey. "But we'll need Dewey to round us out. We're going to have to find him."
"Are you serious?" said Louie. "We could easily go down the minute we leave this room. I vote we stay here."
Huey shushed Louie as he heard footsteps outside the room again. The two Duck brothers listened in closely as the footsteps stopped in front of the door.
The two brothers aimed their guns at the door ready to fire as soon as whoever was on the other side came through. The silence was broken by a sneeze from the other side of the door, then the words "Oh great job losing the element of stealth Dewey."
Huey and Louie lowered their guns. Dewey opened the door and held up his own gun.
"Dewey, wait." said Huey. "Don't shoot. We need to form an alliance."
"Why should I trust you?" said Dewey, narrowing his eyes at Huey.
"Because if we do, we might finally be able to win this game." said Louie.
"I like the sound of winning," said Dewey. "I'm in."
"Okay now that we have all three of us, we just need to devise a plan to take down you know who." said Huey.
The three brothers huddled up and whispered their ideas back and forth. Every once in a while Huey would peer out of the huddle to make sure no one could be watching them.
Once Huey, Dewey and Louie knew their plan, they dispersed from the huddle but immediately stopped cold when the door knob started to wiggle.
Louie silently gestured for Huey and Dewey to hide behind the desk with him, which they did. The door creaked open and Huey, Dewey and Louie readied their dart guns. They waited several seconds, not hearing anything. More seconds passed. Eventually seconds turned into minutes, and nothing had happened.
Huey tilted his head a few centimeters further around the edge of the desk and saw the tip of a dart gun from the other side. He got Dewey and Louie's attention and pointed to the other side of the desk. The three brothers nodded and Huey counted to three on his hand. When the red triplet held up three fingers the brothers jumped over the desk and fired darts as fast as their guns would allow.
"What!?" Huey and Louie exclaimed when there was nothing but a life size dummy with a dart gun taped to its hand.
Dewey ripped the tape off the gun, noticing it still had darts in it. "At least we have some extra ammo now."
"Guys we have to be careful," said Huey. "This was clearly a set up from you know who."
"For all we know she could be somewhere in this room." said Dewey. "Or at the very least knows where we are. We need to make a run for it and find a new hiding spot."
"You guys run to the left," said Louie. "While I keep a lookout to the right.
Huey and Dewey nodded.
After a few moments of dart reloading, the three brothers ran out of the room ordered youngest to oldest. The green triplet going right and the red and blue triplets going left.
Huey stopped Dewey at the next hallway corner. He signaled to his brother and peered around the corner, only for a dart to immediately fly toward him. The red triplet pulled his head back in the nick of time.
Huey motioned for Dewey to aim and cock his gun, which he did. The brothers jumped around the corner and fired their dart guns, sending a barrage of bullets toward- "Louie?"
"Hey, why are you guys ganging up on me?" said Louie, swiftly ducking under the bullets flying toward him.
"You tried to shoot us?" said Dewey. "I thought we had an alliance."
"What are you talking about?" asked Louie. "I didn't make an alliance with you guys."
"And another thing," said Huey. "How did you get over here so fast? You were-" The red triplet paused, his heart sinking and face paling as he mentally put the pieces together.
"You okay Huey?" asked Louie.
Before Huey could respond, he felt two hands shove him to the ground as a dart whizzed over his head from behind. He turned to see Dewey had saved the two of them from getting hit. Another Louie stood behind the red and blue triplets with a gun aimed toward them. He pulled a hair pin out from the back of his head, letting his neck length hair flow down. A sly smirk spread across the now obviously female duckling's face as she put her pink bow back in her hair.
"Psychological warfare is a new one." said the real Louie, quivering.
"N-not for me," said Huey with a shake in his voice as well.
"RUUUN!" shouted Dewey as he, Huey and Louie got to their feet and booked it down the hall.
Despite their best efforts, the Duck triplets each knew full well running away was futile, she would catch them. And just like that Dewey felt his ankle hit a trip wire. The blue triplet fell hard on his face, and then three darts hit him in the back of the head.
"Ah! I'm hit!" cried Dewey. "Avenge me brothers."
"We won't!" Huey and Louie yelled back as they continued running.
"I know," sighed Dewey.
Louie found himself slowing down as he ran out of breath. He might as well accept his fate at this point. And just like that "Ahh!" the green triplet screamed as he was lifted off the ground by binding ropes. Louie found himself snared in a net high above the ground.
"End of the line." came a higher pitched female voice.
Louie felt a dart land right between his eyes. "I'm out."
Huey turned back to see his brother snared in a net and a certain someone now aiming her dart gun at him. The red triplet swiftly raised his own gun and rapidly fired darts, hoping in vain one of them would hit his target. He cringed his eyes shut once he was out of ammo.
PHEW!
Huey felt a dart hit him in the middle of his chest. "I'm out." he whimpered, utterly defeated.
"Woo-hoo!" Webby chanted. "That was so much fun!" She let Louie down from the net just as Dewey caught up from down the hall. All three Duck brothers looked tired and disheveled.
"You win, Webby." said Huey.
"You guys wanna play again?" said Webby. "I'll go grab my night vision goggles for this round!"
All three triplets voiced hesitation at the thought of a second match.
"We'll play darts with you again." said Dewey. "After we recuperate."
"Okay." said Webby. "How long do you need?"
"Give us three weeks." said Huey.
"At least." added Louie.
Webby gave the triplets a confused look as they tiredly walked back to their shared bedroom for the remainder of the day.