We formed a small group of five together to go paint balling over at some other kids house. When we got there we noticed that they had a group too, one man less than ours. So we challenged them to a game of capture the fort. They took a fort that had four walls with shooting holes in each wall, and a roof which was more like a big bunker, only 10 feet up. We started at a more open fort, actually it was more like a big swamp with lots of barricades and hiding spots for us. Only one person on my team actually played here before, so the land was foreign to everyone else. While the other team was planning out there strategy, we split up our own team. Two people in the base, Josh and Jared, and Three on the offensive, Sam, Eric and Myself. The other team blew the starting whistle and we headed out cautiously. Since Sam knew where he was going we let him lead us around the other team. We heard a few shots fired from the other teams fort, trying to make us jump and expose our position. We all knew better and stayed still. We could see their fort about 300 yards out, we were in an area that was clear as open to the view of the other fort. We got down and army crawled along the high grass line, it didn't work. Paint was landing only a few feet from our exact location, letting us know that they didn't know where we were exactly. Sam motioned me and Eric to sprint for a thick area of woods, then made a countdown signal with his hands. Three, two, one, then he stood up and ran back towards our base, the shots were following him. Eric sprinted to the area and I was right behind him. Me and Eric were on our own now and only one trail to follow. As we walked along Eric spotted what appeared to be a creek. We crawled over and sure enough it was. I crossed over and waited for Eric. He pondered what to do, then aimed at the fort that was now 350 yards away and shot about 8 rounds. He then, sprinted across the creek and we both hid on the other side. It seemed like an hour before we got the other team to find where the shots we coming from. There was two of them, and the were only 10 feet away from us, looking up the trail. I looked over to Eric and he gave me a nod, so I leaned around the tree a little, without the slightest sound. We unloaded on them and shot them both about 16 times in the head and back. They called themselves out but we stayed hidden till they left. We knew that the other team probably had the other two people in the fort, so we ran back to our fort. We saw the swamp and looked around for our team, we couldn't find them. We looked for a few more minutes till Jared whispered for us to come over. He was behind a tree and a lot of brush, and about 10 inches under the swamp. I laughed at the sight and then told him of our findings and accomplishments. He told me that Sam was shot in the mask early in the game, and he thought that we would be out later. Since it was four on two now we decided to take the offensive totally. Jared would go around the left side, Eric would take the right side, and Josh and I would take the middle. After a small distance of walking, we heard firing to our right, the found Jared. Eric started shooting once he found a good firing point, and Josh and I cautiously kept going. We used a tree jumping technique to advance closer. While on moved the other fired, then switch. We found out that the two last players were both on the roof. Giving them what seemed like an advantage, but since we spread out our force, we eliminated the advantage. It looked like Eric was about 50 yards away, Jared was 30 and we were about 25 away from the fort. They were focusing on us letting our flankers advance yard by yard. We knew that we had to all make a run for the fort so Josh and I unloaded about 40 rounds each, making the other team drop for cover. Eric was right next to the fort, Jared was only 10 yards from the door. The other team cautiously looked around for them but failed to find them. Josh stood up and fired about 20 more rounds, giving Jared and Eric the time they needed to sneak inside the fort. The other team looked around a bit then directly in my area. I had to make a distraction, so I stood up and ran towards their fort. They colored me orange and yellow from the shoulders down. By the time they were done shooting, Eric and Jared were peeking up on to the roof level. It was much longer that we heard a dual on the roof. As we walked back to the house we congratulated the other team on their effort, and they congratulated us on our victory. by Darren Weidenhammer can be reached at: Drizztdjw@aol.com |
