As airsoft players and RIF collectors, a familiar question is often levelled at us. Upon seeing a vast collection of somewhat expensive guns, magazines and paraphernalia, the layman often question the need for quite so many guns, after all they do the same thing, but one cannot over invest in security...
It is, upon this autumn eve, that my Modern Warfare 2 session was rudely interrupted by a flickering shadow in the corner of my vision. A shadow slight and fleeting, but nether the less demanding of my attention.
My gaze was distracted from the television and down to my right amongst the pile of socks and the bunches of canvas that formed the covering of my budget argos wardrobe.
There is was again, a spindly leg, maybe an inch long, protruded out of the shadowed area beneath the sleeping bag sack, slumped against the bedroom furniture. As soon as I'd noticed it, it was quickly snapped back into the safety of the shadows.
There was little doubt in my mind. My gaming session was abruptly ended and my socked feet were soon clad in the nearest pair of trainers.
There was a spider in my room.
Image taken from the 1990 classic, Arachnophibia
Not only that, but it was quite a large one, and it had the upper hand. All eight of them. It was holed up in a densely packed area of my room, amongst dirty laundry and in a difficult corner to access. As I tentatively lifted and shook off a few items in turn, it soon dawned on my that a good old stamp attack wasn't going to suffice. I could barely see the into the corner. My attack would likely fail and allow the spider to get on me, slip into the unknown, or worse.
Leaving the room would of course leave the spider free to wander as it pleased, into areas unknown. I had to deal with the creature with the tools at hand. The relatively comfortable working distance of a hoover would not be available to me... Or would it?
With a sudden flash of inspiration, I remembered. AIRSOFT! I was supposed to be playing airsoft tonight! As such, my trusty Tokyo Marui Desert Eagle, complete with Guarder Metal Kit lay just 18 inches from me, loaded and ready to go.
Armed with the deagle and an aptly named copy of a surefire torch, my trusty "spider fire", I set about levelling the playing field with the arachnid intruder. A few cursive scans with the bright, cold beam emitted from the torch revealed nothing under the wardrobe, but behind the sleeping bag, near the base of the laundry basket was my quarry. Previously hunted, with the deagle at my disposal, I had become the hunter, I had the upper hand now.
(With previous encounters with spiders leaving me confident in their inability to return fire, I felt confident in adpoting the "neck-index" torch/flashlight technique, regardless of the fact it may illuminate my own body significantly. Image courtesy of www.gunlight.org)
With the torch beam locked onto the spider like some kind of spotlight, I carefully took aim with the desert eagle. A momentary pause of breath and a steady squeeze of the trigger unleashed the full fury of one of Tokyo Marui's finest .20g BBs.
The ball bullet flew straight and true over the 20 or so inches that I dared to close on the spider, and as the recoil settled, saw that it had found it's target. The spider lay crumpled and destroyed, no longer a threat.
