“Do you have boring summers every year? Do you ever feel like you want to do more during summer? Well sign up for a good summer game of tag!”, read the card.

There were six kids that got these cards. Only six. Not five or seven, just six. And these kids were specially picked. Each card has a number on it, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42.

“What is this?”, I asked.

“MOM! Can i do this this summer? It sounds like so much fun. Please?”, I begged.

“Why not. Sure, do you have to pay? Because if we have to pay then no.”

“Umm no it says its for free. It says i need to be ready at 8:00am tuesday morning.”, I explained.

“Well that’s tomorrow so eat your dinner, take a shower, get ready for bed, then ge to sleep because you are not missing this. I’m looking forward to a couple of days without you here.”, My mom demands.

When I get on the bus that was picking him up, there were already three kids on. There was one girl and two boys. The girl was tall but not to tall, with long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. Her name was Lacy. She had a phone and her lockscreen had a picture on her playing soccer. One of the boys had a bad haircut, had a shirt on with memes and high water pants. His name was Jackson. He had a computer in his lap playing a game online while using Hotspot from his phone. The other boy looked a little younger than everyone else. He looked like he was between 11-13. He had longer hair with glasses, dressed up in a plaid shirt with a bow tie, and had squeaky clean shoes that shined. Next to him in the seat, he had two computers with wires everywhere. His name was Mike.

It was a while until the other two kids got on the bus. They were both girls. Mindie started talking about science stuff as soon as she got on the bus. It was kind of annoying. The other girl’s name was Ally. She was wearing a dress with little flowers all over it. It was very short and it was different types of pink. She had three big bags that were filled up to the point that it couldn’t zip up all the way.

“That’s what you’re wearing to play tag?”, I asked.

“Is that going to be a problem for you?”, she said with an attitude.

“I was just asking and it’s not my problem, it’s yours.”
“Okay let’s not do this.”, Lacy joined in.

Ally just rolled her eyes and looked forward.

When we got off the bus there was this lady standing there, her name was Mrs.Lon. She was tall, with brown hair, and had a suit on.

“Welcome to the game of tag. You will be learning the rules as you play the game. There will be only one winner today and the others… you will find out.”, she said.

“Wait how can there be one winner if it’s tag?”, i asked.

“This is a little bit different. There are numbered cabins inside. Go to the numbered cabin that was on your card.”, she explained.

My card had 12, Lacy got 18, Matt got 24, Jackson got 30, Mike got 36, and Ally got 42. I guess they have been stalking us because I love football and there was football decorations everywhere in my room and Ally screamed in joy when she walked in. I put my stuff down and saw a letter on the bed. It read,
”Go straight to the main building”.

“Where is the main building? How do they expect us to know where we are going when we just got here?”, I thought.

I went outside and there was a sign pointing in a direction that read
“Main hallway this way”.
“Oh.”, I thought.
When I got there everyone was already dressed in their suits and waiting on me.
“I’m guessing i’m late?”, I asked.
“No, you’re just on time. Go in that bathroom and your suit will be there for you to put on and we will be waiting on you to start the game.”, said Ms.Lon.
I got out the bathroom and everyone was gone. I went outside and there they were.
“Why do y’all keep leaving me?”, I asked.
“We are sorry, now get ready because we are about to start the game.”

Everyone was ready and about to start running but first we had to pick who was it. There was a wheel that we could spin and it had our numbers. Ms.Lon then spun the wheel and it landed on the number 42. It was Ally. Her face got bright red and everyone looked at her. She was wearing flats, white skinny jeans, a flowy shirt, and her hair is half up half down. She was not ready for this game.

Everyone got a 10 second head start to run.

“Now go chase them. You have a time limit of 5 minutes to tag someone or you will be penalized. The time starts… now.”

Ally start running after me so I started running but too fast. I don’t know why she would choose me to run after but I had to make sure she wouldn’t touch me. There was a timer above her head that was a hologram.
“You suck at this game Ally!”, Lacy called out to her.

“Well maybe if someone would let me tag them this process would hurry up.”, Ally said.
“Well maybe if you wore the outfit they provided for you there wouldn’t be a problem here.”

She only had one minute left and she still hasn’t come close to one person yet. I felt bad so I got close to her to tease her and when she came after me I ran slow so she had a chance to tag me. She still didn’t tag me. She does not try very hard for things.

The timer ran out and there was a loud buzzing noise that almost busted my eardrums. I mean it was so loud that the dead people heard it. The facial expression Lacy had on her face looked like someone had just died right in front of her. Ms. Lon came out and pressed a big button. It hadn’t done anything and Lacy looked scared for what was gonna happen next.

“Someone help me!”, she cried out.

“They told me I would be penalized if i didn’t tag someone. Please don’t let them do anything to me.”, she begged.

We all just stood there watching her cry. There were barking noises coming from the woods that surrounded the camp site. Two dogs appeared and started chasing Lacy. Lacy took her shoes off and she started running like her life depended on it. Well… it kind of did. Everyone was shook. They just stood there with there jaws dropped so far it could reach the ground.

“What is going on?”, I yelled out.
“You didn’t tell us that there would be dogs chasing us if we didn’t tag someone.”
“No, but I did tell ya’ll that you’d be learning the rules as you play the game.”

Ms. Lon spun the wheel and it landed on 12. That was me. I was so scared I did not want to play this game anymore. I stood there for 10 seconds and after that I started running as fast as I could. I did not want to get penalized. I went for one of the nerdy kids because I knew they would be more easy to get. I ended up getting mike and the timer that was above my head transferred to his head. It took me one minute to tag someone. When it was on his head the clock was still going. I ran so fast because that meant if the timer ended on me that means I get penalized.

Mike didn’t get to tag anyone. Then Ms. Lon came out a pressed a red button. No dogs came out. Instead everywhere Mike stepped the ground would fall in that spot so he had to be quick on walking if he didn’t want to fall into whatever is underneath the ground. Ally was already up in a tree, trying not to get eaten by the dogs. She had scratches on her arms and her pants were ripped up with dirt all over her. I regret coming here so much.
Rocks appeared from the ground.

“You may use these rocks to hide behind. There will soon be more things coming. That is it and there are no more rules”, Ms. Lon explained.

She then spun the wheel and this time it landed on 24. That was Matt. I just want this game to be over. This is torture. The clock started ticking down from 5 minutes and Matt was freaking out. He didn’t know what to do. Fear instantly ran through his eyes. He looked straight at Jackson. He ran faster than I thought he could.
“Pease! Please im begging you, don’t let me be next.”, he cried.

Everyone just started stepping away from him. Nobody wanted to be next. We all wanted to win. Out of nowhere we heard a loud, piercing scream come from the woods. Everyone just stood there, staring. Tears started rolling down from Mike’s face.

I ran up to him and he just looked up and stared at me. I touched him and I got the timer.
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?”, Lacy called out.
I started running toward her and she started backing up.

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna tag you, I have a plan. What if we tagged Ms.Lon? I mean she told us there were no more rules and she never said that she couldn’t be tagged. So what if I go tag her at the last couple of seconds and get her out?”, I explained.

“Oh that’s smart but u better hurry up”, Lacy said as she was catching on.

There is only two minutes left on the clock and I have already spotted her. She was hiding behind this tent over by the cabins. I started running towards her as fast as I could. Big guards started coming out towards me and I had to make sure I didn’t touch any of them because they would get the timer and I don’t want to give it to them.
There’s only one minute left and i’m so close to her. The guards started chasing me so I had to dodge them and juke them like I was playing football. The big bald one was acting kind of dumb so I made him trip over himself and the other one was just all over the place. He looked like a chipmunk that had just drank three cups of coffee. So I acted like I had took something from him when I really didn’t and I held it behind my back. I then threw the nothing toward the woods and when he looked, I ran past him and started at Ms.Lon. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and the guard had the timer. I slapped him so hard so I could get away and get the timer. When i get up and turn around, Ms. Lon is staring at me.

She looked so scared, like a big dog coming after a little 5 year old.

“Please. I’m sorry, I will let you go just please don’t.”

I did even want to hear her. I knew exactly what she was doing. She was trying to convince me to not tag her and then if I didn’t, she would press the button. So, I tagged her and I didn’t feel bad about it either.

“Tag, you’re it.”

I grabbed the red button out of her hand and pressed it. She instantly fell through the ground. You could hear her scream echo through the underneath of the ground, getting softer and softer, feeling better and better. But, the game was not over. Not yet.

To be continued...