A grin slowly spread across my opponent's face like a plague, infecting his facial expression and contorting it with a twisted egotistical glare that burned right through me. Dave and I had always been enemies when it had come to water warfare. Even as kids we always found eachother on opposing teams, often finding ourselves dueling it out over the most strategic positions on the battle field; a "fight to the death" as we would say. I glared back at him and lowered my Supersoaker slowly to my side. My lip trembled as I spoke, more out of anger than out of fear, "A fight to the death is it?" I asked, already knowing the answer that he would give me. Dave snarled at me and spat at my feet, a challenge for me to fight back. "A fight to the death it is." He replied. It was short, but it was all that I needed to hear.

We each headed our separate directions back to our forts. I treaded lightly, trying not to leave a trail back to my team's hideout. A fight to the death was the way we reffered to elimination games, that is, if you get shot, you're out for the rest of the battle. Dave, being two years older than everyone else in the neighborhood was naturally the best water warrior on the battle field. While everyone else wore camoflauge into battle he insisted on wearing a white shirt, a bold statement of his prowess and skill on the battlefield - no one could beat Dave.  He was armed to the teeth, chosing raw power over stealth and mobility.  This is where our fighting styles differed.  Dave would carry an SS 300 into battle, along with two XP 35s he kept at his side.  If he found you, you were dead.  He had never lost a battle. Whether this was because of his skill or not I wasn't sure. I suspected that he had cheated on more than one occasion, there had been so many times that I had come so close to hitting him, only to hear him say that he hadn't been touched by my shot. My second in command, Andy, had sworn he had shot Dave in the chest, but Dave had dried himself off before he could confront him. I looked down at the red drops of condensation, forming on the outside of my tank; one thing was for sure, Dave would not be getting away this time.

I was almost back at my base by now, the forest began thinning out, the trees were further apart, and there was more room for a team to maneuver. Our fort was hidden away from the casual eye, high up in the branches of the oldest oak tree in the woods. We had built it this summer with lumber that Andy's dad had left over from adding onto his house. We hadn't used it until now, and I was eager to see how the little fort would hold up in the heat of battle.

Everyone was gathered around the base of the tree when I got there, Andy had already gone over the plans with the team, and they were awaiting my orders. I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a clear cylindrical container filled with red powder. "This, gentlemen, will be the key to our victory." I said, adamantly, holding up the container for everyone to see. "Now, I want all of you to put some of this in your reservoirs, and then shake it up." I gave the container to Karl, who scooped some of the powder out and dumped it in his reservoir. There was a look of doubt on Karl's face as he mixed up the red powder. "Why are we doing this?" he asked, "There's no way in the world we could ever beat Dave."
"Ah, but we can." I responded. "The red stuff is Kool Aid powder, if they get shot, there's no way they can hide it."
Evan burst out laugh, "Kool Aid powder, that is sooo sick, that is incredibly sick." We all laughed at the idea, and then headed out into the woods ready for battle.

By the time we approached no man's land I was beginning to think the Kool Aid had been a bad idea. If we hadn't given our position away already from being so loud the swarms of mosquitos following us were sure to do the trick. We took position behind a fallen tree and waited for the enemy to come. This was the last war of the year, we had two days until school started again, and I was not about to forfeit another summer's worth of battling (along with bragging rights for the rest of the school year) over to David Cunningham. We had been humiliated so many times before, and I was ready for revenge.

Time was going by ever so slowly, minutes dragged on into what seemed like hours, and hours into what seemed like days. It would be an understatement to say that I was tired of waiting. Something felt wrong, they had to be nearby, something was up, I could feel an ambush coming. I signaled to Andy that I was going to climb a nearby pine tree and see if I could spot them. He in turn signaled to the rest of the team to cover me if I was fired upon. Grabbing hold of the first branch I hoisted myself up into the tree, scrambling a little at first, but then finding my footing. Pine resin oozed out of the bark, and covered my hands, and it didn't help the situation at all. It was getting all over my hands, as I clung tightly to the tree, I was unable to let go to be able to clean myself off, or to fight off the hordes of mosquitos that were swarming around me. I readjusted my footing so that I was able to free my right hand from the tree. I swatted at the mosquitos for a moment and then began to climb higher up into the tree. Once I reached the upper branches, which where about 50 feet from the ground, I stopped climbing. Resting on a forked limb I peered out into the forest for any sign of Dave and his team. After about five minutes I noticed that the underbrush on the opposite side of the creek was moving - moving like there was something underneath it. I fumbled with my backpack for a few seconds and then pulled out my trusty binoculars. I could barely make out the five silhouettes moving quickly throw the foliage, but I knew they were there nonetheless. I signaled Andy with a quick motion towards the enemy's general location, and Andy in turn readied the everyone else.

I put my binoculars up and readied my Supersoaker 100, pumping it many more times than I was supposed to, just to be sure it was going to shoot far enough. My hand stuck to the handle of the gun, the sap oozing out from between my fingers. "Just a few more minutes until sweet victory." I thought. I could see that they were trying to outflank us, moving to right, over the creek and towards our position. This wasn't going to work, we had spotted them first, and had already countered their maneuver. Beads of sweat had formed on my forehead from the intensity of the situation, and they dripped down my face bit by bit with each second. I didn't bother to wipe my face, choosing to focus entirely at the task at hand. My breathing became heavier, they were almost in range now, just a little closer and - they were here! I opened up fire on the unsuspecting kids below me, drenching them with sticky red kool aid. The rest of the team let out a volley from their guns and charged through the brush towards the enemy. Dave countered with a barrage of shots from his SS 300, taking down two of my men.  Andy and Chuck ran out to his left, armed with XP 55s and chased Dave out of his hiding place.  We had soaked three of the five, and Dave and his remaining teammate were running for their lives! I couldn't let him get away now! I'd never live it down.