Chapter 5: Wide Game

“Okay, the thing with a wide game is – the more people, the better it is. So if the camp friends are involved as well it will be better. Hmm? [somebody asked who could play].Well, anybody...

You need a captain for each team. Someone to lay out the troops. Both sides need a headquarters to hold and defend. You need it to be well hidden or not obvious. For example, you could just leave it undefended; no one around; so it isn’t obvious.

Harry – you are green captain, here is the green flag which signifies the HQ; Marie – you are red captain” He gave her the red flag. “Now, each contestant has two coloured pieces of wool. No cheating now! Look, I tie one round my wrist and one ... wherever, hidden. But look! The red wrist one is pink, and the hidden one is red. The green wrist one is blue, and the hidden one is green. You get five points for each wrist band you capture, and fifteen points for each hidden one.

The game ends when an enemy HQ is captured – fifty points. Then all the other points are added up. So you could capture the enemy HQ and still lose.

Yes, Kirsty-May isn’t it?”

“Yes, how do we get the hidden band?”

“Well, no actual violence is allowed,” he smiled “but anything below that is fine. You might pretend to be on their side to get close, you might gang up and hold her down, I don’t know ... When we played it at home, it could get pretty boisterous; but I’m sure you gals will be perfect ladies at all times and will end the game with not a hair out of place” Several girls were looking around with a smile. “Some rules though ... no being mean to the smaller, younger ones ... that’s about it actually. Myself and Jo-Lene will be umpires, we will wander round and any rule infringements will result in wrist band confiscation.

Oh, I should have said: HQ have a stock of new wrist bands, you can’t compete without one, so if you lose that, you have to return to HQ to get a new one – don’t walk straight there, obviously. You lose your hidden band and you’re out of the game.”

“You’re dead” shouted out a young camper, clearly excited at the prospect of this more active, adrenaline fuelled game.

“Yes, if you like.”

Some were nervous, some (like Mary-Jo), were wondering how they would cope with the running around; they needn’t have worried, their superior size gave them an advantage if they got close enough. A lot of the girls were clearly quite excited at playing a game like this without a load of boys using strength and intimidation to overwhelm them. Not for the first time, Clive wondered where they would hide their hidden tag, and wishing he could help find them. Jo-Lene McGiver had an odd look about her, was she relishing this to? Perhaps she was wishing she could be on a team. He knew that sometimes these games had become quite personal in the searching. Perhaps he should have said something? But what could he say that wouldn’t sound salacious? He could hardly blurt out “And you aren’t allowed to hide the hidden band in your panties because someone may debag you to get it” – though he knew that was precisely what could happen once people got into the game. Ah! He had it!

“One further rule I should have mentioned: the hidden tag can only be hidden above the waist or below the knee. Anywhere else and you are disqualified.”

“Nicely put, Clive; I was wondering how inventive some of them might become.” said Jo-Lene.

The teams were allocated at random by having the accurate number of hidden tags in a bag and each selecting one. Then they were given their wrist tag. The teams immediately bonded in shouting at the opposing team. One thing Jo-Lene insisted upon, was a list of names in each group. After the game there would be a role call. Lunch was in half an hour, which gave both captains time to identify an HQ. Then, after lunch, the teams fanned out and a loud whistle was blown. The game was on. The Greens immediately adopted the motto ‘better dead than red’. The reds came up with the slightly less inspiring ‘let’s be mean and get a green, YAAAA!’

“Shall we?” said Clive to Jo-Lene.

“Oh, let’s let them get started. It’s nice to have some peace and quiet.

That won’t last of course. Did you start the book yet?”

“Yes! It’s brilliant! I’m finding more and more that I love stories where nothing happens. I mean nothing major or world shattering; people just get on with their lives.”

“Yes, and it’s the writing that pulls you in to care about the characters. I’m glad. Well, okay, then, offt we jolly well go.” She put on a jokey English accent for the last part. It was evident that it wasn’t only the camp friends who liked having him around (and the campers of course); they walked off together, and then started walking separately round the area.

Small groups of girls were creeping along, hiding behind bushes. The job of the umpire was to see all and not show they had seen. It would not do to give away someone’s position. In a group of bushes, a red team lay in wait, and then pounced upon an unwary couple of greens. The wrist bands were taken straight away, but they would not say where their hidden bands were.

Shoes and socks were removed and one was found inside a sock. What the girls hadn’t realised was that the extra points for the hidden tag had to be balanced against the added time to find them and the possible risk of being counter-attacked. The four reds were totally focused on finding the hidden tags. They didn’t see the three greens come up until two had lost their wrist bands to a snatch and grab. The greens now outnumbered the reds (the active ones), one red ran, which left the other red to have her band taken and then a plethora of hands searching up her teeshirt, in her socks. She finally surrendered it to her captors because it was inside her bra. Clive gave a silent sigh, the thought of their hands exploring the contents of her bra turned him on.

“What about the tags that we have captured back?” Asked one of the greens; Clive tried not to notice that her nipples were clearly erect. She had enjoyed rummaging under the other girl’s clothing.

“You keep them, or return them to HQ; but they aren’t counted by the enemy unless they are captured back again.”

One of their number was dispatched back with the captured and the recovered bands. Clive explained that the disabled (no wrist band) green could not do that.

Clive walked on, and found a couple of well built girls circling each other, both attempting to snatch the wrist band from the other. “Keep it nice, girls” he smiled and walked on.

An hour in, and he realised they should have also set a time limit; if neither HQ was discovered, this could go on forever. Behind a bush, a girl was ... she was doing up her shirt. “They nearly stripped me, looking for that band” she explained.

“Wish I’d come earlier” Clive replied with a smile, which was met by reddened cheeks and a smile from the young girl (Fourteen? Fifteen? Wondered Clive, hopefully no younger, considering what he’d just said; still, she didn’t seem insulted). But it was also clear that she had enjoyed it. She wandered back towards the chalet huts.

Round the corner, he met Jo-Lene. Again, he thanked his luck that he had not been helping the girl up as he’d thought of doing – and getting a good look down her half done up cleavage at the same time. “All seems to be going well. I’ve never seen some of these girls with their perfect nails run around so hard. And Lillee is a revelation” Lillee was another of the girls who probably ate a few to many Big Mac meals at home. “She has organised a band and she acts as a decoy – you know, fat, slow, easy target. It was her idea. That group has captured a lot of bands, some of them secreted in very secret places. I hope you haven’t witnessed more than we bargained for.”

“Not yet. No, I mean I haven’t so far.”

“Hmm; well, if we do this again, we may have to strengthen the rules a little.”

They walked off in different directions, and found Sandie putting her bra on “I was swamped by a bunch of twelve year olds. They completely overwhelmed me, and when I wouldn’t tell them, they just pulled all my clothes off – well, nearly all. They were savages! I’d be really embarrassed now if...”

“If I hadn’t seen them already? Well, I have, but it’s nice to see them again.” She blushed; then she added “If you want to see some others, you might head over that way.” She nodded in a particular direction. “After I was caught, a couple of my group came past, I think they are bent on revenge ... no, recovering the bands. But ... well, I’ll leave you to it” She walked away, and was pleased to see him head in the direction indicated.

Sure enough, not far along, he came to three girls. One green was kneeling across a prone girl. Apparently the red team that had caught Sandie had made the sensible decision that one would return the bands to HQ for safety. But that left this one on her own when she was caught. The other green – Kailey – was removing her shoes and socks. The one sitting astride the captured red had just pushed her teeshirt up and pulled the bra down. The band was not there, so she had left her exposed. Clive tried not to think about his penis rising over a twelve year old. He noticed a fleck of red in the girl’s hair. Clever, he thought.