Tea invited us all out paintball-ing; Ess, Bea, Jay and me - up Kulnura way. Up a mountain, higher and higher we wove along the winding road, Tea's mum singing loudly in the driver's seat while Ess dozed and I enjoyed the scenery. We tailed Tea's dad's car and ended up at 'The Paintball Place {'Skirmish at its Best'}'. It was an unarmingly idyllic place - there were green trees and grass, very farm-ish, reminding me very much of my old place.
We padded up - at least, Ess, Tea and I did - and strapped multicoloured bandanas 'round our heads that Tea's mum, Tnya, had brought for us, looking suitably dorkish. We signed a few wavers and got suited up in gear and padding that was very army-esque, and which blew us up to twice our normal size - Bea, being quite small, looking quite dwarfish, but alarmingly capable with her giant gun. The visers (no helmets) were as Tea said they would be - as if they'd been plucked off the set of a Star Wars movie.
We were thrown into it quite suddenly, and it was awesome! You approach it with trepidation at first, until you're hit for the first time - then, you become much more daring than before. Both Ess and I took innumberable shots to the head and our hair grew slick and multicoloured. There were all these courses - giant black pipes, green screens, wooden slatted walls, a rocky bush incline - and though our team, the Yellow, lost every challenge to the formiddable Black, it was fun all the same.
In a capture-the-flag game, our team surged forward together for the first time, and it paid off - Ess had the flag, but no where to hide it so we could get her to the other end. "Ess!" I yelled to her over the gunshots, from my hiding place a few yards away "Do it tag-team style! Pass it off!"
Ess was nodding, and gesturing - Did I want the flag? She seemed to be asking. I still had my vest on, you see - I could stuff it in there. "No, not that!" I was saying, but suddenly they had rushed through the onslaught beside me - about ten of them, nine boys from our team and Essm and they were planning a way to get me to the other side! I shoved the flag up my vest and we plotted, and were about to set out - one boy was going to run ahead of me, the rest flanking us, another bring up the rear so I could pass the flag off to them if I were to be shot - when from all sides there arose frantic yells "SURRENDER!" The Blacks were saying, surrounding us. They were within the six-metre radius, they couldn't shoot us, and we had to give up - but none knew I still had the flag...
So we threw up our arms, and we surrendered, and we moved off to the side with all the other eliminated people, me bent over like a pregnant woman to hide the bulge beneath my vest. What do I do with the flag?? I kept asking, for we were meant to relinquish it, but when I got no answer I threw it into the air and let in lie on an upturned tree. Then "No no no!" someone was saying - and we hid it in a tree for the Blacks to find.
They say all's fair in love and war - and in the free-for-all, I'm afraid Jay and I did a dreaduful thing - I'd been shot, but I had ammunition left over, and I had thrown up my hands to yell: "Does anyone need shot? I have left over Shot!" when the referee yelled to me: "You have shot? Then just unload it on that person over there-"
I looked - it was Jay, standing there about twenty metres down the incline. The ref' saw me pause, my gun lowered - "What? I she your mate?"
"Yeaah..." I said.
In the distance, Jay had waved her hand in a slow, anticipatory wave..... I returned it. Then I threw up my gun -
But Jay was quicker, and soon we were firing point-blank at one another - and she had me in the shoulder, and my ammunition was out, and I threw up my hands - and it was over.
Jay went on to win the free-for-all, and when she came up to meet the rest of us we apologised to each other.
To my utter disappointment, while my friends are speckled with bruises, I have very, very few. Three is all I've been able to find - two nearly invisible, only one of these sore - though my scalp is a little tender. Next time, I think I'll wear less padding.
We padded up - at least, Ess, Tea and I did - and strapped multicoloured bandanas 'round our heads that Tea's mum, Tnya, had brought for us, looking suitably dorkish. We signed a few wavers and got suited up in gear and padding that was very army-esque, and which blew us up to twice our normal size - Bea, being quite small, looking quite dwarfish, but alarmingly capable with her giant gun. The visers (no helmets) were as Tea said they would be - as if they'd been plucked off the set of a Star Wars movie.
We were thrown into it quite suddenly, and it was awesome! You approach it with trepidation at first, until you're hit for the first time - then, you become much more daring than before. Both Ess and I took innumberable shots to the head and our hair grew slick and multicoloured. There were all these courses - giant black pipes, green screens, wooden slatted walls, a rocky bush incline - and though our team, the Yellow, lost every challenge to the formiddable Black, it was fun all the same.
In a capture-the-flag game, our team surged forward together for the first time, and it paid off - Ess had the flag, but no where to hide it so we could get her to the other end. "Ess!" I yelled to her over the gunshots, from my hiding place a few yards away "Do it tag-team style! Pass it off!"
Ess was nodding, and gesturing - Did I want the flag? She seemed to be asking. I still had my vest on, you see - I could stuff it in there. "No, not that!" I was saying, but suddenly they had rushed through the onslaught beside me - about ten of them, nine boys from our team and Essm and they were planning a way to get me to the other side! I shoved the flag up my vest and we plotted, and were about to set out - one boy was going to run ahead of me, the rest flanking us, another bring up the rear so I could pass the flag off to them if I were to be shot - when from all sides there arose frantic yells "SURRENDER!" The Blacks were saying, surrounding us. They were within the six-metre radius, they couldn't shoot us, and we had to give up - but none knew I still had the flag...
So we threw up our arms, and we surrendered, and we moved off to the side with all the other eliminated people, me bent over like a pregnant woman to hide the bulge beneath my vest. What do I do with the flag?? I kept asking, for we were meant to relinquish it, but when I got no answer I threw it into the air and let in lie on an upturned tree. Then "No no no!" someone was saying - and we hid it in a tree for the Blacks to find.
They say all's fair in love and war - and in the free-for-all, I'm afraid Jay and I did a dreaduful thing - I'd been shot, but I had ammunition left over, and I had thrown up my hands to yell: "Does anyone need shot? I have left over Shot!" when the referee yelled to me: "You have shot? Then just unload it on that person over there-"
I looked - it was Jay, standing there about twenty metres down the incline. The ref' saw me pause, my gun lowered - "What? I she your mate?"
"Yeaah..." I said.
In the distance, Jay had waved her hand in a slow, anticipatory wave..... I returned it. Then I threw up my gun -
But Jay was quicker, and soon we were firing point-blank at one another - and she had me in the shoulder, and my ammunition was out, and I threw up my hands - and it was over.
Jay went on to win the free-for-all, and when she came up to meet the rest of us we apologised to each other.
To my utter disappointment, while my friends are speckled with bruises, I have very, very few. Three is all I've been able to find - two nearly invisible, only one of these sore - though my scalp is a little tender. Next time, I think I'll wear less padding.
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