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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1980)
Express” 'in, Robert ational spy th and runs »ster while jle a defec- aboard a . (PG-1 hr., The Young toger Kern, Teen-age the wilder- itas in the lew life for e Women” aarer, Joan wage war over gossip 979) Frank Olivier. In a al town, an seeks ven- centuries- lurdered his i9 min.) >rce” (1975) X. Slattery, a U.S. mili- actical skills I pull off a g Pioneers” Linda Purl. Is move to he Dakotas e a new life writer tional on the way sr with only developed November magazine. 3 machine typing two ing a corn- three keys, acing. ichine was racters, its n-lsrael In- id it can be languages. :ially useful e operator se for other govtnoo K.A.O.S. ‘killers’ stalk the campus rsj ww i-cHje o By BARBARA LYNCH Battalion Reporter Gloria Slobnik glanced at the lib rary clock. It was 8:50 a.m. She knew she’d be late for chemistry if she didn’t get moving, so she grab bed her books and dashed into the bookstacks, hurrying as fast as she could through the narrow aisle. Someone called her name softly; she turned to see a young man fol lowing her, smiling strangely and carrying a wadded-up raincoat. The thought flashed through her mind that she’d seen him som- where before. He pulled back the raincoat, and she caught a glimpse of steely blue. Looking around fran tically for a place to hide, she gasped, "oh, rats! I don’t want to die yet!” Her assailant pulled the trigger, and the dart struck her in the shoulder. Grinning, the “killer" dropped the crumpled raincoat and pulled an equally withered scrap of paper from the nether regions of a back pocket. “Here,” he said, “you gotta sign this saying I killed you.” Just this sort of sinister occurr ence is now taking place on and around the Texas A&M University campus. Killing as Organized Sport, or K.A.O.S., has come to College Sta tion, and anyone who has become a member of this organization now finds himself looking over his shoul der for the diabolical “killers” who might be lurking behind every bush. K.A.O.S. is a game. Each person is given a plastic gun with a suc tion-cup dart, a photograph and dossier on his victim. Each killer is issued a “sanction authorization” which permits him to shoot only the person named on the authoriza tion. Mark Ollington, the organiza tion’s president, got the idea for starting up a K.A.O.S. at Texas A&M after reading about the game in a magazine. "I figured crazy Aggies needed something to vent their craziness,” said Ollington. “I thought it would be fun to put some effort into something not worthy of our time for once.” Ollington and the two vice- presidents of K.A.O.S., Sean Pat rick and Scott Holliman, persuaded chemistry professor Dr. Rod O’Connor to sponsor the club so that they could get University recog nition. Ollington himself is not a partici pant. “I would like to have a meeting of all the players in the spring, and elect new officers so we can play again,” he said. There are certain rules in K.A.O.S. to which every good assassin must adhere. The killers cannot shoot their victims in the head. Every shot must be below the neck. Any other part of the body, be it arm or foot, counts as a fatal shot. Killers cannot go after their vic tims during a class in order to pre vent total disruption. Also, killing a member of the Corps while he is in formation is strictly taboo. “You can’t just run up to some body out in the open and shoot them,” Ollington said. “You gotta do this thing like you’re really trying to kill somebody.” Every assassin must be as stealthy and calculating as possible to avoid detection. What recourse does a victim have if he knows he’s about to be killed? Shooting his stalker in self- defense, of course. If the victim manages to kill his assassin, the killer is out of the game for 24 hours. A successful assassin picks up where his victim left off, and begins stalking his victim’s victim. Every assassin must remember that while he is stalking, he himself is being stalked by someone who holds his dossier, photo and sanc tion authorization. A killer who is tracking his victim might consider being suspicious of anyone seen dogging his own tracks. Once a killer has completed his mission, he must obtain his victim’s signature on the authorization. In this, Ollington said K.A.O.S. de pends on the honesty of good Ags. In other words, if you’ve been killed, admit it. The point of the game is to re main alive while everyone else around is being assassinated. Ollington said the last person alive in December will win a prize (which hasn’t been determined yet.) The fall semester game began Monday. So far, of the 120 mem bers of the organization, five have been successfully “hit.” One prolific killer hit two victims in five hours. Another killed his victim by taking a “political poll” in the vic tim’s dorm hallway. The last ques tion the victim responded to was, “And what do you think about being assassinated?” Ollington said he hopes to be able to have a party at the end of the year for all the members. There will also be a prize for the most original assassination. The $2 entrance re quired of all players covers the cost of the guns and the prize. K.A.O.S. is also a good way to meet people. Can’t you just hear it: “By the way, now that I’ve killed you, what are you doing Saturday night?” Above: the "sanction” which authorizes the "assassination” of a Killing As Organized Sport player is shown along with the photo of the in tended victim and the gun which will be used to carry out the “killing.” Below: Mark Ollington, president of K.A.O.S. Ollington does not partici pate in the game, since he keeps all the records of who is after who. Ollington says he hopes there will be new officers next time, so that he will get to participate. 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