She placed her palms on the cement under her and leaned back looking up at the sky. It might have been because she was never really looking, but she had never seen so many bight clouds illuminating the blue overhead. Gazing up at them made her feel so small in such a giant universe. At last, looking up at the blue sky, she felt at peace, calm.

“We’re supposed to be looking for Kevin,” said an amused, yet serious voice next to her.

And back to reality. “Right, sorry. Just got a little…sidetracked,” she replied. Her partner flashed a sympathetic smile before returning his gaze back to the old metal door in the alley below. The rooftop they were on was the perfect hideout-high enough to keep them from being seen, but close enough to allow them to see the alley entirely, whether she wanted to or not. This was hard on her, on all of them; nevertheless they knew it had to be done. If her suspicions were true and Kevin was really a traitor, then it ought to be her team that dealt with it.

“Dave…” she started tentatively.

“No. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t. Even if it is true we-the team- will get through this. Right now we need to focus on finding out if he has betrayed us, later we can plan how to react. Our mission is clear. If he walks out that door with the rivals we are to report back to the team. That’s when we can begin worry. Not now.”

Just as she was about to protest a metal clang sounded from below, followed by four figures entering the alley from a rundown building. After a few friendly punches on the arms and farewell words, three of the figures left the alley leaving a heavy swirl of dust behind them. The one remaining figure turned with a devious smile to face the building the two teammates were hiding on.

“So, now you know,” called the figure to his former friends. The two were caught, or at least the one whose hairline was barely visible over the roofs ledge was. They had to think fast. Act fast. Plan fast. But what could they do? Standing up and scaling a ladder on the side on the roof, Dave took the first move.

“How could you? We were your friends!” Dave accused.

“I like to be on the winning side. Besides, you left me to be captured by the enemy. What could I have done?”

“We never left you! We were just caught up in a battle. We had every intention of coming for you.” By the time he had said this though, it was too late. Kevin had already made up his mind. It was time to end Dave’s game. Kevin loaded his new yellow paintballs and aimed directly for the camouflage vest across Dave’s chest.

“Now Katie,” yelled Dave as the girl on the roof stood up quickly enough to confuse Kevin. This gave her just enough time to fire a couple of her own purple paintballs at her former teammate, changing the score of the game.

Her teammate congratulated Katie on her job well done as she climbed the ladder down to the alley. Now that Kevin was out of the way, Katie, Dave and the rest of their broken team could focus on capturing the yellow team’s flag and winning the game. And, with the flag being less than 50 feet away it seemed like an easy task. The two ran out of the alley, but just before turning the corner Katie stopped and turned to her former teammate covered in purple paint.

“Look whose on the winning team now,” she sneered just before disappearing behind the building’s corner.