How to Ruin Series Part 180

He shakes his head. "Amy, I hate to break the news to you but you've just entered military war games."

"War games? With real guns?"

"With real paintball guns." He picks up his rifle and shows me the gadget attached to it, which turned the gun into a paintball gun. "It's dangerous. I'm taking you back."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to say goodbye to you. It was an innocent mistake."

"All of your mistakes are innocent, and yet they still get you in loads of trouble.

Come on," he orders. He talks into his headset again as he leads me back up the mountain. He groans into the microphone, then turns to me. "I just got word from Nimrod that Ori got captured. He did manage to hide his weapon right before they got him."

"What does that mean?"

He winces, obviously p.i.s.sed at this new predicament. "It means I can't take you back, not now."

"I'll go back myself, then."

"When the other team sees you walking up the mountain, it'll give away my location. I can't let you do that. It could jeopardize my team." After making me put on his vest for protection, he motions for me to follow him.

"When will this exercise be over?" I whisper.

He gives a short laugh. "When one team wins and the opposing team members are either dead or captured. Dead meaning paintball dead ... not real dead."

"Oh," I say, grateful for the elaboration.

Avi leads me over the rough terrain. I slip every once in a while because my high tops aren't exactly made for mountain climbing ... or war games, for that matter.

Avi is moving quickly, holding my hand so I don't fall on my a.s.s.

"Get down," he mouths, motioning for me to lay on the ground next to him and stay silent. "Stay here." He crawls away, and is back in less than a minute. He takes my M16 away and hands me another one.

"This is Ori's. It's loaded with paintb.a.l.l.s.

They're dangerous, so don't shoot at close range and don't shoot unless fired upon."

"Don't worry." I might be a Jewish warrior woman, but I'm not about to shoot this thing without Avi telling me to.

I move right next to him as he pulls small binoculars out of his pocket and surveys the area. He pushes that b.u.t.ton again on the headset he's wearing and talks softly into the microphone in Hebrew.

"We'll stay here and wait for instructions from the team leader."

"Who's the team leader?"

"Nimrod."

"Why not you?"

"Because Nimrod doesn't have a civilian tagging along on the mission who also happens to be someone he's romantically involved with."

Wait. Does that mean ... "Avi, were you the team leader ten minutes ago?"

"It doesn't matter."

Oh, no. It's bad enough I've been dragged into military war games because of my own curiosity and stupidity. But Avi being stripped of his team leader status because of me is awful. "Let me be captured so you can be team leader again."

He shakes his head. "Not happening."

"Why not?"

"Because this is real, Amy. Even though this isn't real war, we're supposed to act like it is. It's not capture the flag in gym cla.s.s. In a real situation, I'd give my life up to protect yours. I know it and my entire squad knows it. That makes both of us liabilities."

I'm quiet as this new news sinks in.

"You'd die for me, Avi?"

He pulls the mask off his face. His soul is reflected in the depths of his pupils. "I'd do just about anything for you."

Heart-melting time. I'd do anything for Avi, even die for him. I'm not sure he's convinced I'm tough enough to deal with the war games scenario. One thing I know for sure, though, is that I've single- handedly ruined my boyfriend's reputation.

He got demoted because of me. How am I supposed to fix it?

Avi, oblivious to the fact that I'm ruining his military career, talks to his squad and waits. Then he talks again, getting information from Nimrod and pa.s.sing back information from our end.

"Doron got hit." He lets out a breath and shakes his head. "This isn't good."

"Where's Nimrod?"

"Near the other team's headquarters, where Ori is being held. Come on," he says. "Crawl on your stomach to the big rock over there. Stay low."

I follow Avi to the big rock, my knees sc.r.a.ping the desert floor and my mon.o.b.o.o.b pressed to the ground. I don't complain, but look on the bright side of being caught in the middle of war games: I'm with Avi.

I wished on the shooting star, and my wish came true. Next time I should specify for it not to be while he's in the middle of war games, but whatever. Being with Avi is better than the alternative, any day.

Avi is listening to instructions from Nimrod. He motions me forward, so we're side by side. "Udi is covering Nimrod so he can rescue the hostage. I told them they needed a second cover man, but Nimrod ordered me to stay put."

"You think they can do it?"

"Yeah. But it's risky with us being outnumbered." Avi pulls out his binoculars and surveys the situation.

"Can you see them?"

"No. They're out of sight range."

"What happens if they're caught?"

He looks at me and shrugs. "Then it's just us."

I hear the pop-pop-pop of gunfire. Avi curses again. "Nimrod's down. Udi's captured. The other team ambushed them.

Nimrod and Udi got two down before getting hit. It's just you and me," he says. "I probably don't have to tell you the odds aren't in our favor."

I'm to blame for Avi's team dying and/or being captured, one by one, as soon as I arrived. "Are you giving up?" I ask him.

"No."

"Because I have a plan."

"I do, too. It involves me opening fire when they start shooting at us. The other team knows me, and they know I'm not going down without a fight."

"I have a better plan. One that might give us the advantage."

"Let's hear it," he says, gesturing for me to share my idea.

"You'll really listen to my suggestion?"

"Of course. My girlfriend might be an American princess, and gets herself into ridiculous situations all the time ... but she's no dummy."

I straighten my back and hold my head high, ready to reveal my perfect plan.

"Avi, take off your clothes."

28.

Who knew the best time of your life could be on a mountain, in the middle of a desert, caught up in war games?

With an M16 retrofitted paintball machine gun in my hand and Avi's clothes on my body, I head into enemy territory. The mask is too big, the shirt is flimsy except in the b.o.o.b area, and the pants are about to fall off, but I manage to look enough like Avi maneuvering through the rocks.

My heart is racing wildly, because I know it's just a matter of time until they realize I've got b.o.o.bs and not muscular pecs. While my boyfriend is slinking around the other side in his undies, with black paint on his body (my artwork, thanks to the small container of face paint he had in his vest) and his own paintball gun, I'm the decoy.

Avi gave me specific instructions to surrender so I don't get hit. They won't fire unless fired upon. Although I know and they know that Avi would never go down without a fight.

I run from one rock to another just like Avi told me to. (Imagine one of those ducks going back and forth in a carnival shooting game.) I'm still a bit shocked he agreed to my plan, but it just goes to show that a great leader like Avi knows how to listen as well as lead. I admit it took a little coaxing from me. At first he wasn't into letting me become the target. But when I a.s.sured him I'd be okay, and that we were in this together, he finally relented.

He said to count to ten and then hold my hands over my head to surrender. But as two of the opposing team members move closer to me, cornering me on both sides, I start to panic. They're too far away to make out that it's me, but I desperately want Avi to have time to rescue the hostages from his squad and fix this botched exercise. I have to help him, even if it means opening fire to kill the enemy. I wouldn't shoot anyone in real life, because even after all of this training, I'm still totally for peace and happiness and rainbows and sushi.

But this is paintball. And I'm taking no prisoners.

I turn my gun on auto and shoot.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Little paint b.a.l.l.s are flying ferociously out of my gun. Since it's dark, I have no clue what I'm shooting, and hope I'm hitting at least some part of the enemy squad. I'm Rambo and GI Jane all wrapped into one.

Something hard whacks my back and thigh. "Ouch!" I scream. "That hurt!"

I look down at my thigh and realize I've been hit.

By a paintball.

I'm officially dead. I think.

29.

Everyone should try living in the gray areas of life at least once.

I'll have you know I took down two guys before I was paintballed to death. My idea actually worked. During the shootout, Avi was able to rescue Udi and Ori. They captured the last guy on the other team and we were victorious.

That's the good news.

The bad news (besides the paintball- sized welts I have on my thigh and stomach) is that I'm waiting in a large military tent, with Avi sitting on the chair next to me, about to be debriefed on how I got into the war games in the first place. At least they let us change back into our own clothes.

The guy who's in charge of the war games isn't Sergeant B-S. It's this other guy, with a bunch of stripes on the side of his sleeve, who happens to be sitting at a table opposite us in the tent. He's dark- skinned, bald, and does not look happy.

I don't know his rank, but he's high up there.

Considering I'm zero rank, I can't be demoted. But Avi can. And even though he personally had nothing to do with me wandering into the war games, he ended up being an accomplice.

When Sergeant B-S files into the tent, his stern eyes focus on me. This is not good. It's the same look my dad gave me when he found out I'd taken his credit card and signed him up for an online Jewish dating service.

"How did you get here?" he asks me.

The bald guy with the high rank stands next to him.

I clear my throat and will myself to stay strong and positive. With Avi beside me, I get an inner strength. "I kind of wandered away from our campsite to find a place to relieve myself."

I know that telling them the entire truth -that I also wanted to say goodbye to Avi -wouldn't go over too well. I decide to play the confused American girl. I know, I know, I'm not doing my country any favors by playing dumb. But my friend Kayleigh from Georgia totally uses her southern accent to get what she wants. And this girl Renee at my school-she's super-smart and super-blond-plays the dumb blond so that guys give her attention and come to her rescue even if she doesn't need rescuing.

Who says I can't play the game for my and Avi's benefit? They don't call it war games for nothing.

"I got lost," I lie. "So I followed noises, hoping it would lead me back to the campsite."

Sergeant B-S huffs at my explanation and definitely looks skeptical. "Gefen," he says, staring solidly at Avi. "Why did she have a paintball gun in her possession?"

Avi quickly glances at me, then looks at the sergeant and the bald guy. "After I found her wandering on the rocks, and realized I couldn't take her back without revealing my location to the enemy when we were already down by two men, I recruited her."

"Recruited her? Instead of protected her? She's a civilian. That was bad judgment, Gefen," the bald guy pipes in.