When It was clear we were about to start those who had not already done so pulled on their coveralls and in a nervous funk I pulled mine over the clothes I was still wearing.
By the time we were ready to play it became clear we were divided into two opposing teams, the red team, and the blue team. It seemed everyone but me, even the other girls, knew everyone which was great for them as we were expected to remember who was on our team and who was on the opposing team. This was all the more difficult as we all had to wear face shields. In addition to the two teams there were two referees. One was John and the other was the girl I had seen wearing a bikini. They at least wore orange sashes over their coveralls.
All I knew was I was on red and David and the two other guys whose names I remembered were on the blue team. That meant they would be against me if we met. As a red team member my paint ball gun was loaded with red paint balls and the other team’s paint balls were blue. The rules were pretty simple: if you were hit four times you were out and had to wait in the clubhouse.
I thought there would be a flag to be captured but it appeared the only goal was to eliminate every member of the opposing team. There was a time limit, however; at the end of ninety minutes the klaxon that would signal the start would sound again and the game would end. The team with the most survivors would win. In the event of a tie, they would tally the number of hits on the coveralls.
To start we were deployed to opposite ends of the wooded area that bordered the rugby field. This involved about a fifteen-minute walk for each team. Our team leader suggested the best strategy was to spread out and be as inconspicuous as possible while hunting the opposition. It sounded reasonable until I first encountered some of the opposing team.
I soon found the other team were moving in groups of three, which was intimidating. It now seemed to me we had a losing strategy because all the guns required to be cocked between shots. It was difficult for an individual to get off a series of shots when meeting multiple targets while the other team’s groups of three could fire shots in series or simultaneously. Unless I could link up with other members of my team, I felt we would all ultimately be hunted down.
On the plus side, their team only had four groups of three whereas we were dispersed more widely. Also, they tended to make more noise and thanks to my yoga and martial arts experience I could move very quietly.
The game had been going for about twenty minutes since the starting klaxon, and I had been moving forward very slowly, already feeling unbearably sweaty in my coveralls. I felt most of my team must be ahead of me and I had heard occasional confrontations. Luckily the first group I encountered were talking and laughing, and I lay down and waited until they had passed by. Now they were behind me I had the idea to turn and attack from their rear. I saw another lone figure who I recognized as being one of my team on their far side and signalled my intention. He signalled back as he too saw the guys who were my targets. We moved silently and as we got closer, I knelt ready to fire. Then a twig snapped beneath my colleague’s feet. The guys ahead paused, and I fired and dropped to the ground as they turned round.
I had just fired at the group but right away I knew I had hit one right in the bum. One shot, one hit! As they turned, they saw my companion who had also loosed off a couple of quick shots that both missed before taking off in the other direction. As they ran after him, I raised my head saw them manage to get off three or four shots, one of which hit him. His bad luck was that he ran right into another group of the blue team who saw him coming as he was looking over his shoulder. He was hit by three of their shots almost simultaneously which put him out of the game. I felt bad that my shot had left him exposed but he was the one who trod on a twig.
The two blue team groups met and talked for a moment. The first group I had encountered moved on, but the second group kept talking quietly. Clearly, they were debating whether it was worth searching where the first group had just been. Then they stood still and just listened. Absolute silence except my breathing and the pounding of my adrenal fueled heart, but they couldn’t hear those. They must have just stood there for two or three minutes. Then they started whispering to each other. Further off there were faint noises, sounds of the game being played.
I waited, thinking they would follow the sounds, but they began to move in my approximate direction. I was sure they had neither seen nor heard me and were just deciding not to follow the first group. Now to avoid this new group, I crawled aside, got quietly to my feet, and paused behind a larger tree that afforded some cover. They were moving very cautiously and more quietly now. Finally, they passed by, and I thought I had been successful in getting by them when the one nearest me, it was one of the girls, looked back and spotted me as I started to move away.
Instead of shooting straight away she alerted the others, and I took the opportunity to score a hit on her before they began to chase me shooting as they went. Two shots, two hits!
Trying to hit a dodging and weaving target isn’t easy with these single shot guns, because you have to watch your footing and re-cock your gun after each shot. All their first shots missed me. However, the girl I had hit was now out for blood. She was moving faster than the others and that’s how she managed to hit me in the thigh, before stopping for her teammates. I kept running and that was when I found my hollow with the fallen tree.
No longer quiet, they were making a lot of noise as they resumed the chase. Then what I presumed were one or more of my team were firing at them and judging by the swearing scored some hits. I heard the girl whisper quite close to me, “Where did that woman go?” and then I heard more shots and the sound of two people scrambling away through the undergrowth. As I stayed hidden, I realized she had called me ‘that woman.’ I guess age matters.
Despite my growing sweaty discomfort, after ten minutes hiding it was time to get back in the game. I checked my watch. More than fifty minutes had passed since the game began. If the referees just caught you hiding and not participating for too long you were automatically deemed to have been hit four times and they would send you back to the clubhouse. You can hide but you must be participating, which means members of the other team must be close and threatening or at risk. By now a host of mosquitos and other bugs were starting to congregate around me and I came to the realization that if I were discovered I had no escape.
I poked my head up and saw no one. I slid over the rim on my belly and crawled until I reached some denser undergrowth and a wild hawthorn where I felt safe to get to my feet, although I stayed hunched over. Most of the dense hedgerow that skirted the rugby field were hawthorn bushes, but maybe a hundred yards away I saw a large, lone rhododendron tree. It looked like a possible safe haven if a little obvious.