2007/9/9
My lab had an outdoor activity of a paint-ball battle game two weeks ago. The activity was held to welcome some new members and as a farewell for a few others. The place is located on the northeastern outskirts of Taipei. We had a total of 15 members which were divided into two groups, the police group and the rebel group. I was the captain of the rebel group. However, it was not a real battle after all. We needed energy, so a barbeque was made a prelude to the whole game. The police group and the rebel group had their own stoves. I was a little frustrated when I smelled the scent of meat from the police group and found my rebel members were still struggling to save the dying fire. Luckily, that was only a game. When I was starving to death, the police group passed a sausage to me. They also moved some flame-red charcoal to our stove. Then we could cook our own food. That was a wonderful outdoor lunch.
The host of that activity tried to warm up everybody’s fighting-determination and physical condition by carrying out some funny games. The two groups competed to collect ten white hairs, twenty coins and twenty shoelaces as quickly as possible. Then everyone was given a temporary name of an animal (for the police group) or a traffic vehicle (for the rebel group). When your temporary name was sung out you had to do some posturing immediately, and then sing any of the names of the opposite group on the playing ground. If you did not respond quickly enough or sing the right name you were out.
We were armed to the hilt at 2 p.m. After a comprehensive explanation, safety and technical trainings, we were brought to the battlefield. Our guns were all loaded with 250 paint-balls. In the first game, my rebel group had occupied the Taipei City Hall and set a time bomb in front of the hall, while the police group had to disarm the bomb. We fired at each other. I never imagined that the power of the shot was so powerful that I was able to precisely shoot a target as far as 20 meters away. The bullet bursts and dyes the object as soon as it hits the object. It really hurt when struck by the dye-bullet because the bullets were very powerful. It was so like a real battle that it was really interesting. Though the rule was only one hit on the helmet and you were dead and out, we all tried hard to dodge and ward off being shot, since it really hurt while being shot on the torso, legs or arms. I sweated a lot during the first battle. After a short break and water supply, we had the second game of battle. The battleground was moved to a tougher place over in which I could not hide myself well, so I was shot more than in the first game. I was almost exhausted after the second game.
As
soon as I dragged my weary body home, I lied on the floor of the living room for
more than 30 minutes. When I took off the muddy and sweaty clothes to take a
shower, I found more than 11 obvious dark purple bruises scattered throughout my
torso, arms and legs. I tried to cover up those wounds by wearing shirts with
longer sleeves in the following two weeks. Otherwise, I don’t know how people on
the road or my patients would have thought of me. Those purple marks did not
fully disappear until 14 days after the game.
Hong CJ
Photos of the paint-ball battle game