I'm Going to War

"Shit!", I thought, as my comrade has been hit. The enemies are closing in, and I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out, hiding behind the barricade and firing point-blank in hope of defending my base. As I slowly raised my head from above the barricade, I noticed the helmets of 2 enemies from behind a concrete structure. I tried to take aim, and "BANG!". I missed. I had expended all the rounds in my magazine. I shouted to a nearby comrade to cover me while I reloaded. Once I was done, I rose from behind my barricades and fired another shot at the enemy, but I missed once again. The enemy counter-shot, but the bullet did not head towards my direction. Instead, it hit the mark a couple of meters behind me. A blaring siren sounded. It was over.

Yeah, the match was over in our little paintballing game, and it was time to switch bases with our opposing team. I was starting to enjoy it, unbothered by the smell of the bloody helmet which had probably been worn by hundreds of people before me. Using the last few seconds of time left before the next round started, we devised a rough strategy which involves 3 attackers and 2 defenders. The siren sounded to signal the start of the next match, and in the midst of the rumbling chaos, I was once again lost on whether I should attack or defend. However, since 3 of my teammates had already begun to charge, I decided to do the defense, along with Kest.

Like the previous round, the aim of the game is to burst the enemy's balloon which is attached somewhere near their base. If you got shot, you would have to run back to your base to touch a mark - simple as that. This time, our base was the castle, and the enemy's was the fortress. As much as I would love to charge and experience the acclaimed painful feeling of being shot, I considered it a blessing to be able to do the defense as I was totally aware of my feeble stamina, and I knew there were more rounds to come. During this match, I was more careful with spending my ammunition, as I was using the last of my 2 magazines, which would be needed to last me for another few matches if I did not want to spend $15 for another 2 extra magazines. This match was scary though - it ended even before I had the chance to aim at an opponent. We had lost again.

Upon returning to the rest area to be briefed about the next match as well as to catch some fresh air outside our helmets, I realized that Chee Keong's neck was blue-black from the impact of the shot he had received. It was an eye-opener, as I had finally witnessed the power of the paintball gun which I was initially rather skeptical about. Luckily for him, the paint pellet did not split upon the impact on him, else it would be rather messy.

Our next mission was what I had initially expected - capture the flag. However, instead of having to capture our enemy's flags, both teams had flags of our own which was planted near to our own bases, so things were greatly simplified. We were supposed to capture 2 flags each. Danny, the leader, suggested that all of us charge towards the flags at the same time upon the start of the match, and run back to the base as soon as we had gotten them, without much need to focus on any offense. Soon, the match was started with a hail of the siren.

Danny's plan worked out better than I had expected - I managed to grab a flag despite it being placed on a tall tree, and then ran as fast as I could back to the base. Birdie managed to get one as well, and soon, we were waving the flags to our victory atop of our base. It was a quick one, and I was already huffing and puffing away non-stop. I barely had time to recover for the next match during the switchover of bases.

We decided to use the exact same strategy for the next match. We had to win this match in order to tie against our enemy. Soon, the starting siren sounded. The 5 of us charged towards the flags with all our might. I managed to grab one once again, and ran back to the castle. Victory once again - earning us a tie! On to the elimination match.

The rules for the elimination match were simple - just "kill" every single opponent off or exhaust their ammo. Once a player was shot or ran out of ammo, he's out. The origin of the last man/woman standing would decide which team gets the victory.

Unfortunately for Chee Kiong, he had expended all his remaining ammo during the previous match, which would mean that he would automatically be out. But since I was already tired out from the sprinting earlier on and I knew how much my accuracy sucked, I decided to leave my weapon in better hands, so I exchanged my loaded rifle with Chee Kiong's empty one. Then, I volunteered to remain at the base instead of the resting area, so I could still experience at least a bit of action. I might really have made myself useful though, cuz an opponent had actually mistook me for a free frag and tried to shoot at me, wasting 2 or 3 of his precious ammo. I was so close to getting hit that I could hear the ammo whiz past me and splatting safely onto the wall behind. Deciding to stop confusing the players, I raised my weapon in surrender and walked towards the rest area.

In the end, Chee Kiong managed to outlast the last opponent who ran out of ammo, scoring a victory for our team. Woohoo!! Victory is nice, but that aside, it was a nice game. I'm sure we would have felt that way even if we had lost. In my case, it's a totally new experience - unlike the monotonous gameplay of similar computer games like Counter-Strike or Day of Defeat, I could actually PHYSICALLY feel my stamina depleting as I ran and hid about.

Still chilling out before the battle	The weapon rack
Team A	Team B
Team C	Team D
Cheekeong's Gunshot Wound

After Team A and B had a go, it was Team C and D teams' turn. Eric, as well as Huiling, belonged to Team C. Meanwhile, the players from the previous participating teams, including me, stayed back in the rest area to watch the next 2 teams play. Though not as fun as participating in the game itself, watching it was rather interesting too.

In the first and second 'pop the balloon' matches, Huiling and Eric's team fared well, scoring a victory in both matches. However, they had lost both of the 'capture the flag' matches. This earned them an opportunity to partake the extra elimination match. During this match, a couple of comical things happened. When the siren sounded the start of the match, no one from Team 3 appeared until some time later when Huiling finally emerged into view, alone! It was comical how garang she was, charging out to the front lines all by herself.. Wahahaha.. However, a few seconds later, the rest finally appeared. Huiling was taken down rather quickly, with a HUGE dark bruise on her right arm. Ouch!! Soon, she had attract a few people to gather around her, just to ADMIRE and take pictures of her wounds. It was just really funny.

Huiling in action	Proud of her war medal
All-Stars!!

At the end of the match, Eric happened to be the last man standing, earning a victory for his team. The match was over, and most of us were shagged, though I really wouldn't mind if I were to be invited for another round. Eric and I headed towards the toilets to get our sweaty clothes changed, and we did a bit of looking around the Discovery Center, before heading to the canteen to join up with the rest of the participants. We were like waiting for nothing to happen (for the bus, actually). I ordered 2 pieces of pizza as I have not had lunch yet, and still had plenty of spare time after that. Soon, right before the bus arrived, we were given gifts for taking part in the event. After that, we headed towards the car park and boarded the bus. I talked crapped for like the entire journey with Huiling, Eric and Cheekeong. Finally, back to Kampong Chai Chee CC. We're home free!!