Paintballing

Well, I didnt have a clue of what paint balling was until last Thursday. I am a member of the 'social committee' at work and a month before we met to discuss the possible team activities. One of it was painitballing, suggested by one member. As an enthusiast for fun and team events I was looking forward for this activity. Last Thursday we went to a place call 'Apocalypse' near Royston in cambridge. Unlike earlier times, I decided to drive to this place with my colleagues. That morning I took the routes rather print outs of teh maps from google, had early lunch and was all set for fun. We started from office at around 12:15 PM and headed to the venue. The route was very easier (thanks to google maps) A14-> M11-> A1198-> A505. I had earlier checked in google that this place was quite close to where I live, so my return drive was easier. We reached the place and chaged to the "dirty" clothes that was given at Apocalypse. After seeing few small balls lying on the ground, I kind of understood what we are going to do. After wearing the socalled 'Laundry'd' clothes we were given the instructions of the game by the Marshall. There was a good response for this event which was an advantage.More the number of people more the fun. So the marshall first spilt our group in totwo teams. We were asked to wear the face mask at all times inside the play area.

We were given a pot of small plastic balls filled with paints. The outer layer of the ball was thin. These 'paint balls' are to be fed to the gas gun (looked like a small machine gun) and when triggered the paint balls are fired out. The marshall said that the paint ball when fired travels at a speed of 220 mph and hence the protective mask to cove the face.
The main aim of the game was to capture the enemy's flag from their fort and bring to our own fort without being shot by the enemy.If the player is shot by the enemy or by a friendly fire he is declareed dead and should move to the dead zone with both his hands on the air inorder to indicate to the other 'alive' players that he is dead and to avoid more shots.
There were 5-6 10 mins game shooting each others with the paint ball and declaring the person dead when he is shot and the paint splashes. When shot, because of the force, it hurts a little for few minutes (atleast for me).
The play area was like an unmaintained jungle with trees,ditches,wooden houses, old ambulance to resemble a war zone or a haunted place.
It was interesting and fun till last free fire round during which anybody can fire anybody.No teams here and the player can be in the field until he feels he had enough shots.So people just started firing even when the person is so near and when a person is shot by the paint ball at a shorter distance it hurts a lot because of the force. So it was fun after all and had a nice evening .
We had fun shooting at each other and were also delighted to have candies after every 10 minute game.

We then went for a company sponsored dinner at a chinese place and I should say teh food was great. I was back home at 9 PM after dropping my friends at a bus stop near my home.