Note; I wrote this exhausted and with a pounding headache. I tried to make it somewhat readable, but do forgive a drop in quality. Thanks,
-Mark
I have a friend which we'll call Randy. Now, I've always thought Randy to be a fairly timid guy when it comes to pain and injuries. Nothing against him, but if he falls heavily on his leg he'll get up, walk himself over to a bench, poke and prod his leg, and anxiously ask if it's broken. Sure, it's good to take precautions, but he's always been very rigidly set in playing it safe.
Bearing that in mind, I was surprised when he called me up two days ago to play a round of Airsoft with him. It's a simple enough game- you grab yourself an extremely realistic looking gun, load it up, divide into teams, and blast the hell out of your opponents. If you're hit anywhere, even your pinkie, you yell "hit!" and are proclaimed dead.
Neither of us had ever played previously. I played paintball, once, but that was years ago. So we were both excited and perhaps a little bit anxious driving to the place.
We went to a place called Capital Airsoft here in Edmonton, which boasts 24000 square feet of rooms filled with walls, fences and crannies which you can hide yourself behind. Upon arrival we were quickly suited up with a gun and helmet, told we were the only ones there at that time, and sent off to shoot each other.
We started off slow, setting down the rules, picking our starting points, and then eventually going out into the labyrinth without any clear idea as to where the other was. I think he found me first. Bang! Bang! A horde of pellets came at me, all missing. I fired back. He continued. For probably ten minutes, we crept around corners, shooting crack shots off every once in awhile.
Eventually, we found ourselves at opposite ends of a large room. I started creeping forward, shooting random shots to keep his head down as I did so. Then, once I was maybe ten meters away, I jumped from behind cover, gun blazing, running towards him! I slid right beside him, shooting as I went. He yelled "hit!" right as one of his bullets pinged off my helmet. Because I hit him first, my point.
At that point we took a break, to see that he'd already developed a small, purple welt on his arm. For a minute, we just stared at it in amazement. Then, of course, we laughed and headed in.
For the next five hours this continued. He got me the next round when I barrelled around a corner into the barrel of his gun. His shot also hit my arm, this time drawing a bit of blood.
The actual hits were, though, extremely few and far between. In five and a half hours, at least three of which we were actively trying to kill each other as opposed to shooting targets or cooling down, I shot him four times and he shot me three. Five and a half hours of shooting this things at each other, and not once did anyone else come to the facility. We had it all to ourselves.
The description above barely scratches the surface of what our experience was like, however. Therefore I'll try again here, and maybe I can give you a better picture.
You know how when your extremely focused on an activity, your said to be in "The Zone?" With Airsoft, I felt myself becoming laser-focused as soon as I stepped into the arena. You become aware of your footsteps, of your breathing. Your heart pounds. Your eyes constantly scan for any breath of movement. Your hand rests on the trigger as sweat pools on your neck.
Playing Airsoft, I started to feel almost like an actual soldier. I can almost hear my sisters laughing at that, thinking their little brother stupid for thinking a little game is all cool and heroic, but truly I did. Of course, this was on a much lesser scale, but... the paranoia of someone being able to take you out at any time, the stress, even the fear... it was intense.I couldn't help but wonder if actual soldiers had similar feelings.
Assuming that they do, I have even more respect for them now then I did before. Me and Randy were able to stop whenever we wanted. If we couldn't take those breaks, and had to live with those feelings for days or weeks at a time, then I would have been driven half mad. That's with it being a game, too. Actual life-or-death would have those feelings multiplied by 100.
There was one point when, sitting crouched in my corner, I thought to myself how terrifying it would be an Airsoft grenade rolled into the room. Those things shoot pellets every which way, and would be next to impossible to escape. Then the thought of an actual grenade rolling in came into my head. This of course muddled it completely and so I quickly stopped thinking about it, but... man. Would a soldier panic? Would they have an automative response to do something about it, being so focused that he or she wouldn't have these normal feelings? Or would there just be a feeling of hopelessness, of resignation to your fate? It's impossible to say.
Overall, Airsoft was a fun, intense, and surprisingly thought-provoking experience. I'd definitely go again- if I can get the money, that is!
Now, though, I'm mentally and physically drained. I want to nurse my throbbing headache and go to bed. So... g'night!
Thanks for reading,
-Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment