As city kids we have been conditioned never to go to Oakland, to avoid the whole entire city, that death by gang warfare gunfire was most certainly lurking around every corner. Which is really quite terrible, because as a result of this none of us had even really been to Oakland, meaning we had no knowledge of where to run. It also made convincing our parents to let us go very difficult. But plans were made and parents convinced and friends invited and we found ourselves at MacArthur bart station walking over to Mosswood park to gather ribbon and map and eye other players all hoping to make it through to the end of the night. As we apporached the park we saw Lank walking away looking mighty scary, orange ribbons trailing.

At the start, we looked to Adam to orient and direct us. He knew the most about Oakland out of the four of us yet he has only lived in the Bay Area two years compared to the nearly two decades each of the rest of us have. We made it to the first checkpoint easily enough. We spotted a chaser a couple times ahead up on the hill and followed some groups of players through the backyards of houses, eventually emerging to the rose garden.

I think going fast for the first leg managed to put us ahead of the people who were getting tagged. Right when we stepped out of the safezone of checkpoint one, we saw people running, so we ran too. We kept hearing that "chasers are behind us!" so we headed into the hills to escape the vulnerability of open air and wide sidewalks. We made it to Checkpoint 2, the lake, after carefully darting across an open grassy area.

Then the real trouble started. As we were about to leave the safezone around checkpoint 2, a chaser looked at us and said, "I will count to ten, and then I'm coming after you." Yikes. It would probably have been better not to take his challenge and to stop and wait calmly in the safe area for him to get bored. But, caught up in the chase, we darted out of the checkpoint as he hollered, "ONE!!!!!," and we ran out across Lakeshore into the hills once more. He reached "TEN!!!!" and came after us with another chaser. Mind Boggle got tagged! The rest of us kind of stopped running and looked as a chaser took her green ribbon, but unwilling to leave us and become orange, she elected instead to walk with us without any ribbon at all, not a player anymore but not a chaser either. We continued into the hills. The hills in San Francisco are covered with straight streets. It's much easier to tell where you're going because the street is laid out in so plainly a checkered, box pattern. But in Oakland the streets curve with the hills, making it take more time to figure out where we were. Suddenly, across the street at a corner, a tall man stopped. We stopped. We looked at each other. An orange ribbon was barely visible on his arm. We started inching backwards. He started inching forwards. And we turned, and we ran. I darted off to hide somewhere, losing my teammates. Called Adam to reconnect and found that a truce was called and no one had been tagged. Later, we ran into the same chaser AGAIN. The Artful Dodger and I hid in a pizza restaurant. Again, no one was tagged. We finally were within a few blocks of the checkpoint when we were chased once more, by different chasers. I got tagged! But then he looked at me, looked over at his chaser friend, who was up ahead, said, "Actually, you're not tagged," and ran away. Okay, fine by me! I At this point I was all alone so I tried to make it to checkpoint 3 and meet my team there.

I walked for a while when I saw my team, across the street talking in a circle. They were next to the red and orange umbrella carriers! I was walking towards them when Adam ran at me, sporting an orange ribbon, saying, "Oh, I'm going to get you!" and he was so close I just yelled, "WHAT, are you SERIOUS?" completely stunned, and then I was tagged. Ambushed by those I once trusted! And then, right after I was tagged, I realized that checkpoint three had been right in front of me across the street. Apparently my team had seen me coming towards them and decided to plan my demise, and it hadn't occured to me they would be turned orange.

The four of us were now all tagged. We decided to walk to the other checkpoints anyway. Being a chaser meant we were able to openly walk around the lake as the sun set, which was really pretty. We encountered a chaser who had climbed a tree, hoping to jump down and tag unassuming players below. "Pay no attention to the chaser in the tree!" he yelled out as we passed him. We arrived at checkpoint four, watched some minotaur battles, and then headed to checkpoint 5. As soon as we became chasers we didn't see any other players. We had no idea whether we were in front of all the players or far behind them. It could have been that by this point many had been tagged and their numbers were so dwindled the chance of seeing any at all was slim. By now Adam and The Artful Dodger had gone home, but Mind Boggle and I kept walking to other checkpoints. Neither of us being great runners, we knew we wouldn't catch anyone, but we could have at least made the journey a little more difficult/exciting for the remaining players. But we saw none! When we got to checkpoint six we asked if we were early or late but were informed that there were no more runners, we should just head to checkpoint 7.

As we left we ran into some other chasers walking to the finish. And then, we see someone sprinting. A player! We were right in his trajectory, and all scrambled to intercept him. The bellhop of the hotel we were running past got there first, allowing a chaser to catch him. All the running and catching caused quite the commotion, a taxi driver even ran over asking if everyone was okay. The captured player walked with us to the lake.
Even though we didn't even make it halfway through, we were outside, walking around with at all the lights and the lake and the city buildings, and next time we'll take more obscure routes to evade all that trouble encountered between checkpoints 2 and 3.