Halo

Written for the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge with a word limit of 300.

The prompts: This story must contain the line "I'll give you one more chance."

Halo

The threat had been real, of that Winston had no doubt.

“I’ll give you one more chance. You make one mistake and I’ll put a sticky bomb on the back of your helmet.”

That’s what he had said and Winston was certain that Bobby was capable of it. They had been through one battle after another together and it seemed like each time, Winston was the one holding the entire team back. He just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it.

As they headed into battle, Winston did a check of his ammo, armor and weapons. He was loaded down with so much stuff that a single stray shot would set him off like a backpack nuke. He fought his natural inclination to hide behind some of the debris scattered all over the place. Hiding would increase his chances of surviving in the short run but if you didn’t take the battle to the enemy, they would find you eventually.

The first indication that they had been spotted was when the lead scout exploded sending gobs of goo everywhere.

Winston did what he always did in these situations. He began running as fast as he could, firing randomly in every direction. When one weapon emptied, he simply switched to another. His squad had become adjusted to this type of panic fighting and simply stayed low while Winston drew the enemy’s fire.

At one point, Winston began throwing hand grenades everywhere. He saw a huge explosion off to his left; he must have accidentally hit something big. There was smoke and blood and destruction everywhere.

The quiet came as Winston’s last weapon fired its last round. It was over and he was still standing! A first.

Smiling, Bobby set down the game controller and said, “Way to go Dad!”

Word count 299