My first game ever

As with many endeavors, the first time a person plays paintball the memory is pretty well etched in his/her mind. My first time is no different, but I thought I’d record it just in case I have a stroke or something. Besides, I’m told that sometimes other people like to read such accounts….

I don’t recall how I found out about it, but somehow I learned that one of our new-hires at work was into paintball and was looking for a game. He had a total of 8 guns (and goggles, etc.), so he was willing to provide everything except CO2 and paintballs if only he could find 7 other warm bodies to play.

I offered up my body immediately. Paintball had always been something that sounded fun, but I’d never had the chance to play. In high school I was too
poor. Ditto for my Navy and college days. Later I had the money, but nobody to play with. No way was I turning down the opportunity.

That Saturday 9 of us (My wife decided to play as well, and as a result we ended up purchasing a couple of Talons.) drove up into the Sierra Nevada mountains in search of a good place to play. We quickly found one, set up two “camps”, separated into teams and started our first game.

I don’t want to talk about that first game. Suffice to say that I never fired my gun and “caught one” right in the forehead.

The second game though…. Ah yes, THAT game I enjoyed. My team spread out in search of the evil bad guys. I was on the right flank. As we slowly
moved into the danger zone I looked to my right and saw two bad guys (Silvia and Richard) trying to make a WIDE flaking move.

I watched the two for a few seconds and then decided that they were going to get into and move up a small (8′ wide, 4′ deep) gully that cut a rough swath from their position to very near my flag.

I hopped into the gully to cut them off at the proverbial pass. Slowly, I moved down the gully until I found a nice little bend. The bend allowed me to remain under cover while allowing me to see about 20 yards straight
down the gully. If they came up the gully, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

My trigger finger itching, I waited for them.

And waited.

And waited.

By this time, the rest of my team had encountered the enemy elsewhere. The sound of paintball guns firing filled the valley and I began to wonder if Rich and Silvia hadn’t doubled back to join the fray. Deciding that this must be the case I stood up….

As I turned around to head back towards the fighting, I saw Richard not more than 20 feet from me! Somehow he had snuck through the bushes along
the gully (but not *IN* the gully!) and passed right by me without my knowing it. Seriously, he had to have passed within 10 feet of my position.

But just as I’d not known of his presence, he’d not known of mine. In other words, I was looking at his back as he “hid” behind some bushes slowly “advancing” on the enemy.

I took careful aim at the spot right between his shoulder blades. I fired.

Alas, having never fired a paintball gun before, my aim was a bit off. I hit him square in the back of the head.

But before I had time to pat myself on the back, paintballs started impacting the bushes all around me. Dropping back down into the gully I cursed myself
for forgetting to look around for Silvia. She had a semi-auto and was using it for full effect.

I soon noticed something, however. Even after I’d dropped into the gully Silvia had continued to fire. Surely she knew that she couldn’t hit me as I
had 100% complete cover. Surely she knew that I could move more or less at will up and down the gully without exposing myself. So why did she continue
to fire?

The only answer that made sense to me was that she’d never actually seen me. That she’d heard my shot, seen Rich go down, and was merely trying to
rattle me as she felt she was at the disadvantage in so much as I’d scored a quick kill on her partner and she didn’t really know where I was.

I decided to test the theory.

I moved a twenty or so feet to my left and carefully popped my head up (looking through a a bush to hide the movement to a hopefully large extent).
I saw Silvia about 30 yards from me, moving from tree to tree, keeping a up steady stream of fire as she moved.

But none of the fire was directed at me. At my former position, sure! But not my current position. I brought up my gun and took careful aim.

I fired.

I’ll never forget the seemingly slow-motion of the bright yellow ball as it arced from my gun….

…And hit Silvia right between the eyes (Aren’t goggles nice?).

Two shots. Two kills. And head shots at that! Oh yeah, I was
hooked….

—
David Hall
Propulsion Geek At Large