4: Plan
George managed to get some sleep after dozing off during an episode of some home improvement programme, but he knew he was still going to be exhausted all the way through the exercise. The team gathered again in Katie's room, and this time George had made sure he wasn't late. Her room was decorated with pictures of male film stars and athletes, which made George and Ralph laugh until they caught a look from Katie. George was more impressed by the shelf covered in trophies, but he didn't get time to examine them more closely.
"Okay, so I've got a map of the compound," Katie said, spreading it out in front of them. "I've asked around to see if anyone knows any more information about the exercise, like whether there will be equipment drops, but nobody seems to know so we'll assume there are." She paused for a moment. "If anyone has any questions or something, let me know. I really don't want to lose, because that usually means getting shot up a lot, so if you think of something, tell me.
"I've worked out who most of the other teams are and they're mostly older than you lot, so we're at a disadvantage. They'll be able to stay awake better and will have more endurance, so we'll really struggle as it goes on."
"How do we overcome that?" Letty asked. "I mean, we can't win the exercise quickly or anything, so we'll have to last the whole twelve hours."
Katie shrugged. "It'll depend how we get on, but I suggest that since the instructors have put us at a deliberate disadvantage, we should bend the rules a little."
"Huh?" Kimberley asked. George had only met Kimberley a few times, but she was insanely clever and she was in classes with mostly navy- and black-shirts. He also got the impression that she liked to play by the rules.
"We're not going to actually break any rules, since there are cameras all over the compound and if you get caught, you get a huge punishment," Katie explained, "but not everything is actually against the rules. Firstly, if you get a clear shot, always shoot your opponent in the head. Those helmets protect you from most damage, but the visors are nearly impossible to clean without finding some standing water somewhere and if yours gets cracked, you're basically out of the game."
"But won't we get in trouble, since it's dangerous?" Kimberley asked, sounding anxious.
"Just claim you meant to aim for the chest but missed," Katie replied. "They can't really prove you did it deliberately."
George wasn't convinced but it was plain that they had to do something if they wanted to stay in the exercise, so he said nothing.
"What about our flag?" Letty asked. "Someone has to carry it, but if they get caught, we'll lose it."
"I'll have the flag," Katie said. "Those trophies over there are all for athletics, so if it comes to it, I'll drop everything save the flag and run away. There's nobody who'll catch up."
"But if you leave us, we'll get massacred," Ralph complained.
Katie nodded. "The aim of the game is to gather flags, so a defensive strategy won't work. If you get taken prisoner or something, just escape when you get the chance and try to find weapons somewhere. It's better that four of us get caught and the flag escapes than someone gets our flag"
"Yeah, plus, if one team has nearly all the flags at the end, we can ambush them and try to get them all in one go," George suggested.
"Exactly," Katie agreed. "Now, my general plan was for us to split into two sub-teams. I'll pair up with one of you grey-shirts, and Letty, you go with the others. My team will just try and avoid trouble and maybe take any opportunities we can to grab a flag, while the other team and hunt for flags. By being mobile, you avoid being pinned down, and we'll probably find plenty of nice material lying around.
"If we collect up the best equipment and conserve our energy and ammo, we can work out who has all the flags in the morning and storm the place, hopefully shooting everyone up and grabbing the flags just before the end. There's no way we can defend the flags for more than an hour at best, so if we're gonna win, it's like this."
Kimberley put up her hand like she was in a lesson, and when George laughed, she turned red. "Um, about the cameras… I thought the compound was really big?"
Katie nodded. "It takes quite a while to walk from one side to the other, yeah."
"Well if there are cameras covering everywhere, more or less, then they've all got to be connected. It might be possible to find a relay point and hack into them."
George grinned. "Yeah, switch them off then we can kill the other teams without getting into trouble."
Everyone else gave him a look, and he felt like an idiot.
"Or," Kimberley said, "we could watch the feeds to see where the other teams are."
Katie nodded. "Only problem is, you need sophisticated equipment to do that."
"I can do it with my laptop or something," Kimberley suggested.
"They won't let you take it in," Katie told her.
"Sneak it in," George said. "If it's small and light, it should be possible to hide it somewhere."
Katie looked at him. "Well, George has volunteered to sneak it in. Tuck it into the waistband at the back of your trousers and try not to attract attention."
"Wait, I didn't say I wanted to do it," George started, but nobody was listening.
"Do you think you can get into the camera system with it?" Katie asked Kimberley.
"I can try, but I will probably only be able to look at local cameras. The whole network will be monitored somewhere outside the compound."
"Good enough for me. We'll try it, and if it doesn't work, nothing lost," Katie said. "Now, I don't know where we'll be dropped, so it's pointless picking somewhere to head for. Last time I did an exercise, it was a defensive thing with eggs and my team leader made us hole up in a corner somewhere for the entire thing. We won by a mile, but it was bloody boring. Instead of that, I suggest we stick close to the edges of the compound and only go inwards to find equipment. Ammo always gets rare by the end, so don't waste it and carry as much as you can, even though it weighs a ton."
Katie had been to the compound before, so she spent the rest of the time pointing out key areas to avoid or good places to hide, mostly based on what her team leader had planned from the last time. There were some horror stories about the simulated ammunition, and by the time they left to go to the front gate to get picked up, George was worrying if he'd be able to handle it. They made a quick detour to Kimberley's room to pick up her netbook.
"Lift up your shirt, George," Katie demanded, producing a roll of parcel tape from her pocket.
"What happens if I get caught?" George asked, turning away from her and lifting up his shirt.
"Just act dumb. The worst they can do is disqualify us, which means a punishment, but we'd get out of the exercise," Katie said, making him yelp when she yanked on the waistband of his trousers. Letty wrapped the parcel tape around him, securing the netbook, then Katie tucked it into the back of the trousers.
"Alright, now just remember not to sit on it or anything," Katie reminded him, pulling his shirt down over it.
Letty shook her head. "You can still see it."
"Strap it to his front?" Katie suggested, lifting up his shirt again and tearing off the tape painfully.
They readjusted the netbook, this time embarrassing him by tucking it into the front of his boxer shorts.
"Much better," Letty said. "It's invisible unless you lean backwards."
"Only problem is, now I don't really want to touch it," Kimberley complained.
"Feeling okay?" Katie asked Kimberley when they arrived at the front gate with five minutes to spare.
Kimberley shrugged. "I've done basic so I should be fine."
"It's much easier than basic," Katie grinned. "Best thing to do is to get stuck in when you can, it's the anticipation that's worse than actually doing it."
Michael's team was waiting not too far away and George was surprised to see Beatrice with them.
"Looking forward to it?" he asked Michael, who was looking sweatier than usual.
"Just hand over your flag now and save yourself the trouble," Beatrice said, interrupting. "We're gonna absolutely thrash you."
Michael laughed. "She said it."
George shook his head. "We've got a couple of tricks in store," he said, not mentioning the lightweight netbook which was currently taped to him.
"I'll look forward to seeing them," Michael grinned. "Anyway, we're probably leaving in a minute so you'd better go back to your team."
"Good luck," George said before turning back to Katie and the others.
"You'll need it more than us," Beatrice countered, so George flipped her off.
They were driven to the compound in one of the larger minibuses that lived on campus and sat arranged by their team. George's team was blue and they were set to be dropped off second, while Michael's team was green and they were dropped off last.
"We'll probably be dropped off in each corner," Katie said, judging the time it had been since the first team was dropped off. "The game is supposed to be about aggression, so it would be pointless if one team had all the flags after an hour and just hid somewhere. I would expect it to be a while before we see anyone."
Their drop-off point was at the edge of the compound, where it curved around in a circular shape. There was no really good corners, but having half of the approaches blocked off was a good start. However, when they zipped up their protective suits and checked everything was working, looking at each other through clear plastic visors, their equipment bag only contained handguns instead of any rifles.
"If the other teams have been given rifles, we're in trouble," Ralph said, picking one up.
"I expect it'll all be handguns," Katie said. "The ammo will be spread around and if there are lots of different guns, most of the ammo will be useless."
"Looks like they're semi-automatics," George said, tempted to fire a test shot.
"There might be better stuff hidden in the buildings," Katie said. "We're exposed here so let's get inside."
She led them towards a tall building which looked as if it had telephone wires running into it, situated in a corner.
"Time to test your plan," Katie said to Kimberley. "I bet those wires are for the cameras."
"Hope so," the youngest team member said as Letty grabbed George and, after unzipping his protective suit, ripped the tape off, leaving another set of red marks on his skin.
"I'm gonna have burns or something," George complained as they climbed through glassless windows into the lower floor of the building.
"Okay, let's pause for a second," Katie said. "We've probably got less than ten minutes here before someone will turn up looking for us. Letty, take Ralph and George and go into every building which you can get to easily and pick up any equipment, especially guns more powerful and accurate than these. If you spot anyone coming towards us, try to get at least one shot off so we'll hear you."
George grabbed his gun and headed off, heading towards a low building next door. There was nothing inside it, and as he headed out again there were a few gunshots, which made him duck, but they were too far away to be aimed at him. He realised he was sweating and his heart was racing, which wasn't a good sign when he still had twelve hours to endure.