"Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down On Friday... " Bond Part 1

It's Friday night at ten thirty and about seventeen college-aged kids are standing in a high school parking lot waiting for the game to begin.

I had never played "Bond" before. My best friend upon hearing the general description of the game told me it sounded just like Cops and Robbers, but I had never played that either. I was with my friend Tyler and this kid Jeff I had just met who was mutual friends with a group of my old best friends. We didn't all know eachother, but we were all somehow connected to Nathan, the guy who planned it.

Most of the the people there were wearing jeans and dark colored shirts, jackets and sneakers. I was the only one wearing all black, something Tyler had recommended to me, so I felt a little foolish. I've loved secret agent stuff since I was a kid though so I tried to shrug it off, Ty had said everyone would think I was hardcore anyway. Whatever.

When Nathan was sure that everyone who was going to come was there he climbed onto the concrete base of a lightpost and welcomed us to Bond. He then gave us the layout of the game and it's rules:

First, there were the runners. We had to get from point A to point B without getting caught by chasers. Chasers were in cars, one driver and one passenger in each car. Chasers weren't allowed to get out of the car unless they saw something suspicious. If they did, they were to park, get out and tag any runners they saw. Anyone they tagged was supposed to get in the back of the car and was now a chaser. If more than three runners were tagged by the same chasers, those runners had to walk the rest of the way to the checkpoint without tagging anyone. The runners had to do whatever possible to get to the checkpoint without getting seen or caught. This meant trying to go ways besides the main streets, and a lot of running, ducking and hiding. Nathan then went over the rules the police had given him such as, no hiding under parked cars, speeding, or hopping fences into neighbor's yards.... He said we could do those things, but he wouldn't be responsible for the consequences since he had already warned us against them. Nathan then said he would be a chaser and chose a kid in flipflops to be his passenger. A girl became the other chaser for this round, and Nathan chose Tyler to be her passenger since no one was volunteering. I blanched. I had never played this game before. Tyler was supposed to stick with me, I didn't know what I was doing! "Okay, you guys have 5 minutes. So get the heck out of here!" Nathan said, jovially shouting the last sentence. I was frozen in place as everyone suddenly dashed away in all directions. I looked at Tyler like a deer in the headlights and he said, "I'm so sorry. Go!" and gave me a shove, and with that, I was off.

It wasn't long before I realized how completely out of shape and under qualified for this game I appeared to be. These two guys slowed down for me and let me join them however, as we tried to find our way out of the maze of the neighborhood. They hopped over a wall into a neighbor's backyard when they saw a car coming, and I started to use a palm tree to get up there when Jeff, who I hadn't noticed join us, told me to get down so I hid with him in the bushes. When the car left, Jeff did too, taking off running. The two guys came back over the wall and we continued until another car rounded a corner. We hid behind this big white van, uncertain as to whether or not we had been spotted. One of the guys rolled under the van, and the other one swore and said we should probably run. I looked around and saw that the car had stopped and saw the passenger door opening. Taking a chance, I ran for the backyard of the house we were by, hearing the other guy running behind me. Then someone pushed my shoulders so I stumbled and turned around. It wasn't the other guy, it was Tyler, who upon seeing the shocked look on my face burst out laughing. I got in the car and refused to admit that there were two other guys with me or give away their location, being indignantly and perhaps, stupidly, loyal to the two strangers. I had a pity party in the back of the car as we looked for any other runners, and almost asked if they would take me home since we were close to where I lived by then. Deciding that I didn't want to be both a loser AND a quitter I remained silent instead. We had a stakeout in my neighborhood by a shortcut to the checkpoint. Then three guys did show up, walking around the corner to get to hop the wall to the checkpoint. Tyler and the driver took off after them, and brought back the two guys I had hid with earlier! Apparently Jeff had been with them but had taken off without warning when he saw the chasers, so they had been caught by Tyler unaware same as I had. We drove back to the checkpoint as the two guys filled in for Tyler that they had been hiding under the van when he had got me, and Tyler deduced that that was the reason I had been being so quiet. He himself felt foolish for not checking under the van, but said that he was able to redeem himself by getting them later. The two guys let into Jeff at the checkpoint for ditching them without a warning as we waited. When everyone was gathered again, Nathan chose the drivers and passengers, and this time Tyler was a runner with me. With another five minute head start, we were off.