The JAS mission has continued. We had been refreshing ideas and refining plans for the second day and it started at 12:10 on Tuesday. We had decided to go in smaller groups this time to avoid getting all our group blasted in pieces by one single apple grenade. I and two comrades started in the U corridor, two other started near the R kitchen (where I had planted a bomb set to go off at 12:11) and one guy was walking by himself, disguised with his red arm band on a red shirt to make it almost impossible to see.
One minute after the game started, we got a tip about one D-section student sitting in a classroom with a buoyancy vest at his side and not paying attention to the game. The three of us sneaked towards the door, covering each other flanks (like in a cool movie). I carefully looked through the door window to see two people sitting there. One of them was wearing a red arm band, symbolizing participation in the game, and the other was a so-called “civilian”. I looked over my shoulder to see if it was a trap or not, then produced an apple from my pocket, pulled the safety pin, and opened the door just enough to let the “grenade” through the door. Closing the door, I rolled over and took cover from the “blast” that followed.
I looked into the window again and saw the guy smiling dejectedly inside. I and my friends walked in and closed the door. His reaction was: “Very funny. Do you want my life badge? I just put the arm band on *this minute*”. I got my first kill for the day, but that was easy prey. What would come would test the aglity and endurance of all in the team.
My friends who had been guarding the door for attacks started to make their way out. After double-checking the corridor outside, they quickly ran out with me covering them. All of us made our way towards C4, one of the bigger lecture halls in the school. We walked alone in the corridor, checking classrooms on each side for possible enemies. Having a few meters between us reduced the chance of all of us getting caught in a “grenade” blast.
As we reached the intersection with the hallway outside C4, we stopped to look around the corner. I, now leading the way in the group, looked carefully outside and saw one D student clad in a buoyancy vest outside the western entrance of C4. D-students are easily recognized by their (ugly) yellow-and-brown hoods they are wearing during Orientatoin. I pulled my head back and told my friends what I saw. Probably there were a few other D-students there as well, holding the more open part of the hallway guarded. I looked around the corner again, seeing one more of them. They probably also saw me then because they were looking in my direction at the time.
Attack or retreat were our only options. Were we to stay, they would sneak up to us and throw an apple around the corner, making us easy prey. Instead we decided to attack rather than going back the same corridor as we went before. The distance towards them was probably thirty meters, giving me a chance to throw a grenade from about twenty meters while running. There is one way to take cover from apple grenades, throwing yourself flat on the floor before it “goes off” (i.e. comes close to you or touches someone).
I was to run first and the other would follow with a distance of a few meters in between. I put my carrot (knife) in my pocket, easily reachable when I needed to. Since one of the guys was wearing a buoyancy vest just like me, he and I were invulnerable to the banana gun. Three, two, one, go!
I ran, with a banana in my right and an apple in my left hand. I pulled the pin almost right after leaving the corner, thrusting the apple forward towards the D-students (which there were only two of, I noticed). They both stood at the end of the larger section of the hallway outside C4. As soon as they saw me, one of them threw a grenade at me, forcing all of us to throw ourselves flat to the ground. I aimed my banana on the guy without the vest, easily taking him out. The other guy would be harder to take out, either an apple grenade or a carrot knife was needed.
I did not have anymore grenades to throw now, so I continued pacing towards the last guy. He threw his grenade, I jumped down even faster, avoiding the explosion. Now we were really close, I started to make my way up when I saw him running towards me. I reached for my trusty knife, only to find it had disappeared! Probably I had lost it while avoiding the grenades. Another split second passed. My two friends behind me were catching up, readying a grenade. The D-student ran even faster and when he came up to me he thrust his knife into my shoulder. I was defenseless without a weapon. Half a second later the closest of my friends launched his grenade, only to find it going too short and killing himself rather than the enemy!
Now it was a battle of one vs one. Both had bulletproof vests, so it was a match of carrots and apples. The D student threw a grenade so hard in the ground that it splashed on the floor. I shouted, but it was alright. My friend had thrown himself on the ground already. He prepared a grenade of his own, threw it towards the enemy and killed him.
When the apples stopped rolling and we all just stood there for a second we realized that the area was filled with about forty outsiders, looking up from their study books to look at us with the weirdest looks. Five guys in their twenties were running around in buoyancy vests, throwing apples and wielding bananas while shouting on each other. It was a most funny situation. I did not have much time to think about it now, one of our men was still alive and he needed to be protected. I quickly showed him the way into C4, calling the D students to follow us. This tactic is to prevent other enemies from attacking us while exchanging life badges and trophies. Not doing this caused us to lose three men last day.
In C4, we got to laugh a bit and the situation returned to the friendlier side again while we exchanged the proofs of death to our enemies and vice versa. The three of us took out the two of them, but we lost all but one in the fight. I got my second kill for the day, a kill that resulted in me myself dying.
We said goodbye to the D-students and I and my dead friends took our arm bands of to show we were out of the game. Still, with the bulletproof vests we looked like soliders on the move and were very valuable as decoys to protect our alive friend. As we passed the hallway in which the fighting had occurred only minutes earlier, I assured everbody that the situation was under control and that we in fact are fully normal. Sneaking through the Colosseum we made the way to the C-race, the lunchtime activity for the day. It was located in the slope of marks, just outside the other side of the C house.
Crossing between corridors and classrooms we made our way. As we exited the C house and almost were at the C-race, we saw two TBI (technical biology) students walking away from us with red bands on their arms and not keeping lookout. The three of us started to cross the square and making the way towards us. Discussing the plan, we did not go quickly enough and drew some attention to us because of our looks. When the plan was decied we started to run the fifty or so meters that remained to the TBI students. After just a few meters, I heard a thud on my left. Looking there, I saw my alive friend being hit with an apple grenade, taking him out with no more to say. All three of us were now dead.
The source of the flying apple was another D-student, still alive, who saw us standing at the square discussing and then as we ran, he threw the apple at us. The TBI girls had now seen us and charged at us, not realizing we had already been killed. They did not see the D-students that had killed us, and so there was another flying apple and they joined us in death.
That ended my second day of the JAS mission. My friends did not do so good. The bomb that was set to go off at 12:11 did go off, but no people involved in the game were close enough to get caught. The team members that kept guard there had been spotted by a few civilian TBI students who, by phone, had directed their army towards them. An apple rolling around the corner finished off the two in my team that were guarding the bomb.
The civilian team member had been more successful. He had been infiltrating the C-race, using a civilian wearing a buoyancy vest as a decoy walking five meters in front of him and pulling all the attention to himself. When two other TBI students saw the decoy, the threw an apple towards him, giving the real solider time to kill one of them with a carrot before getting shot with a banana.
In total the second day, our team scored four kills and six deaths, scoring -2 for the day.
It is really fun “playing war” like a six-year-old when you are almost twenty. We probably have the most interesting mission of all students, killing other sections. Many of my friends in class have expressed that they rather would have had our mission than what they are doing (for instance, cheerleading when the Y-section competes in competitions and races like the C-race).
Wednesday was going to be even more interesting…