-the war and phobia-

 

Hi guys!! How you’ve been doing? I know it’s been forever since the last entry, but believe me, 2012 is totally crazy and this year I need to be very serious in my studies. Hopefully this spirit would live within me for the next 4 years more. B.Ed Tesl is crazy! 

Well this entry is gonna be a trip down memory lane to my final year of primary school where I was in Year 6. Since the World trade centre had collapsed few years ago in 2001, the term ‘Islamophobia’ is often heard since then. Just before the mind-quivering incident haunted the Americans and the term like ‘Islamophobia’ being introduced to the world, we have already make used of the suffix ‘phobia’ and come up with the term like ‘aquaphobia’, ‘claustrophobia’, 'Anglophobia' and the list goes on and on. I believe that everyone has their own phobia. And yes I do have one.

A strong unreasonable fear of this frigging ‘thing’ a.k.a the phobia to this ‘thing’ began when I was in standard 6 in S.K Kamil (2) in the year 2003. It was at a calm weekend on Saturday. A bunch of lunatic closed-friends decided to hang out together over the weekend. We were so much under the games-war influenced that we finally decided to play the game WAR between us. After being busted many times at school for playing the WAR game during the recess hour where it’ll involve lot of running, hiding, ambush, shooting well not to mention shouting, our guns were also being confiscated by the disciplinary teachers that we decided only to play the game during the weekend. 

Airsoft gun

The bullet (courtesy of google)

Airsoft gun

The airsoft gun was a symbol of a macho and dignified-man back then in our school. Most boys would have one of these amazing guns. It was very important to have the original made of the airsoft gun to make sure the bullet won’t ricochet off the target. I used to buy the Thailand-made airsoft gun once before, where the bullet would take by the wind every time I pulled the trigger and of course my friends would laugh at the top of their voices at me. 

At that day, we decided to play the game between us. There were Umar, Cupok, Ammar, Farhan, Mat-Chah, Muiz, Judin and few more gathered at the Cupok’s house which is also my English teacher house. Cupok’s father was also our English teacher. Just before the war begins, we need to pledge that every of us need to obey the rules and regulations that we all have agreed upon playing the game. The rules is simple, we need to avoid shooting at the face and ear, and also the player need to be honest once they’ve been shot, they have to lie prostrated pretending that they’ve died terribly awful. Every player would stash some folded newspaper underneath their shirt at the front and at the back too, acting much like a bullet-proof vase used by S.W.A.T teams. Though the bullet of the airsoft gun is freaking small like a bead, but the pain it caused is amazingly painful and sure the small bruise like the bug bite would join in later. Very much like paint-ball game but the cheaper one. 

This time I’ll be the bad guy, where I have to conquer the coop behind my friend’s house. It was not long after we started the game, the shrieking of Judin my bad-guy companion could be hear followed by hordes of thuds of good-guy-companions after him, shooting him to death. I hunched not to reveal myself to them. The ultimate objective is to conquer the coop that I made my decision to stay low and cautious beside the coop. At some distance, I could see the good-guy-companions were gathering under the gazebo, while having Judin as their prisoner. Judin was dead. I have to forget my ambition to conquer the coop at that time as I was all alone by myself. It’s too dangerous, it’s not about you shooting at random but it’s about a well-planned strategy. I have to wait for my bad guys to show up, I was very sure that they were somewhere not too far. The good guys were now splitting into two groups; it’s time to make the move now. I got up and heading straight to the bush. That’ll be my shelter for a moment while waiting for my bad guys to show up and only then we would attack the good guys to take over the coop and widen our perimeter. 

As I was sitting duck in the bush, I heard something fast running towards me. I gripped my gun harder than before while my half-witted brain raced, running over all the possibilities. The adrenaline was pumping all over my body, I was very sure the good guys were planning to ambush me and here they’ll come. I gripped my gun firmer; aiming to the possible target ahead of me where all of a sudden something big enough to fit my thigh hit me from my back. It was something that scaly, rough, hissing like a mad at me. One thing for sure it wasn’t the good guys it was a type of reptile that has four legs and a long tail in other word it was a BIAWAK/Lizard. I was dumbfounded that neither ‘IT’ nor me budge. It was the longest few seconds I ever had in my life. It was the nearest experience I ever had in entire life. I was so sure that the thing had touched my skin that I could feel that thing was so rough and scaly. After a few seconds, I ran out from my hiding place while screaming like a maniac. The good guys team thought that I was so determined to attack them that they had profusely shot me. I was almost demented in mad and fear of that thing. None of my friends aware of what had happened to me at that time not until they pulled the trigger only to find that I did not respond according to what we had agreed . I was shivering and sat on the ground, perspiring heavily and vigorously. I told my friends about my dangerous encounter with the damn F***ING thing. They were all grimaced in a twisted face of fear and disgusting. The incident had stopped the war between us. The bad guys showed up. Mat-Chah and the bad guys team told us that they had feared the ‘thing’ that it was so shocked to run into the bush and eventually hit me. And I was like ‘WADAAAAAAAFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*’.Reminiscing all these had made every single of my body hair went up straight in the air. 

Ever since that day, I don’t have the guts to go into the woods, or fruit orchard alone because of that 'thing'. That damn effing 'thing'!! It was really unpredictable. Yes it's true, I've seen on Nat Geo channel. That 'thing' is like a survivor machine, it'll do anything to survive. They able to eat people, their saliva contains many dangerous bacteria that able to topple even the biggest moose in the world in less than 4-5 hours. The 'thing' is able to chew you!! Do not make any contact with this 'thing'. If you see this 'thing' on the road, just run over them!!