Staring into the nothingness that is being blindfolded, with my mouth taped shut, my arms cuffed behind my back and my ankles tied with rope one feels truly helpless. How long had it been now? I don't know. I lost track what felt like an eternity ago. The only comfort was knowing I wasn't alone. At least two others with me, only distinguishable by the different pitches of their attempts to speak from behind the gag that was acting as dam, holding in the reservoir that was their words, just waiting to spill out.
I remember in the beginning I was sitting up, propped up against a wall or perhaps a column in the building, to me it made no difference. But after a long attempt of struggling against my bonds and trying my hardest to break free using either shear force or nimble movements I found myself losing my position against the support and falling to my side.
Curled up on the floor like an abused little puppy who was only afraid the only thought I experienced was when will this end. If I could have remembered how long we had already been there, I could have figured out how much longer in captivity and what was an eternal struggle of madness and boredom.
But let me take you back to the beginning, to the beginning of the weekend and an arrangement to meet with some of my old friends for a huge paintballing experience that would take place over the entire two days. With a practically unlimited amount of ammo it was going to be fun. A group of twenty people. Ten people per team fighting in a eight acre space with a variety of terrain. Woodlands, a field, and a farming complex with three buildings in it.
They had a base, which was the barn, which is where I found myself as a captive, and we had a base, which was two caravans, back to back which I had towed into a point at the end of the woodland area. Yes there was bound to be pain over these two days, but for the experience alone I felt it was worth it. Until of course I found myself tied up and not being able to enjoy any of it.
Day one went well, and we established a rule that the bases were a no go zone. We were settled into bed in the caravans, with a bit of TV on before we all fell into our slumber. I was sat atop my friend, finding points in his body where a lot of paintballs had hit him and covering them up with plasters (or band aids if you're an American reader) and once that was done we turned out the lights and began to sleep... that's when they came.
Targeting only one of the caravans the door was burst open waking the five of us occupying the small space. Two of my team mates were in a side room of the caravan and managed to lock the door so that the goons of the enemy team couldn't get them. But then there was us three guys. Struggling to break free of our sleeping bags because of the panic, vulnerable targets lay out for the taking on the main bed of the caravan. Eight guys had entered and while one of them tried to burst open the locked door the others forced themselves upon us.
Using duct tape they sealed us in our sleeping bags. Wrapping length after length around our upper torso, lower torso and below the knees and of course finishing their work by sealing our mouths shut tight.
Having succeeding in restricting us they carried us in groups of two, leaving the caravan and being thrown recklessly into the back of a large flatbed truck belonging to the farm owner. And that's when they got unfair. The three of us still struggling to break free and getting close to succeeding we were all knocked out using tranquilizer. Of course, I should have known better when I agreed to take part. A group of teenagers getting together like this and not going to extreme lengths for the purpose of a joke.
And so now we are here, the point where I began this story. Staring into darkness, laying cold on the floor, surrounded by the sound of my friends trying to convey a message to me just hoping it would end.
After a while of struggling I actually made it worse for myself. Rolling onto my back accidentally and covering my wrists I felt the burn of the cold steel cutting into my skin as I had unintentionally tightened the cuffs to an uncomfortable position. And after even more time I could feel the flow of blood slowing down. My hands had pins and needles and I couldn't feel them. I panicked even more, resorting to putting my fingers between myself and the floor and trying to crush them, just so I could have some kind of feeling back.
I screamed into the gag, causing a lot of noise but I don't think anyone that could help was around. The sound of my screaming began to panic my friends as they couldn't see what was happening. If I wasn't blindfolded so tightly I think I would have been crying. This was turning into the worst weekend ever, I had the thoughts of old TV shows I used to watch where people would cut of the flow of blood to their hands and had to get amputated and that was making me feel worse.
But... I was exaggerating. The blood was still flowing, just not as quickly. I was going to be fine, but in the moment that it was I didn't know that.
About an hour passed and finally I had something to cheer me up. The sound of footsteps getting closer followed by being lifted up by my shoulder so I was sitting up again. The blindfold was removed and I was able to see my captor. Only his eyes were showing as the rest of his face was covered by his face mask. I looked to my left to see my two friends being helped up aswell, the friend I had patched up was going to need a going over again and we were all filthy off rolling around trying to escape.
The paintballers removed the hand cuffs and ran out. Leaving our ankles tied and the tape still on our mouths, I guess they thought we would be angry and try to kill them.
I ripped off the tape and screamed out bloody Mary, the burning of the action had felt more painful than actually being shot with a paintball. My friends and I untied our ankles but the other two refused to rip off their tape gags. Shaking their heads when I told them to I knew they were thinking 'after watching you scream like a girl, I'm just going to leave it on.' but I had other plans. In one quick movement I got them both, causing them the same burning sensation that I had felt.
And now with us free, it was time to find a gun and some armour, and more importantly, time to kick some kidnapping ass.
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Hope you enjoy my first share. A short tale of a little bit of being a Dude in Distress during my journey to my friends farm in Northumbria to have some games of paintball.