"Fugitive" sends SF teens on the run.
The game is afoot.
Justin C' De Baca revs the engine on his mom's white four-door sedan and barrels down the alley behind Trader Joe's toward three startled teenage boys. The teens scatter into the shadows of a rainy Saturday night in Santa Fe. One escapes. The other two are
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cornered behind a dumpster. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.
"Blue jeans!" C' De Baca yells out the window. "Black hat!"
The two boys-both Santa Fe Prep students-reluctantly trudge to the car and clamber into the back seat. Busted.
C' De Baca isn't a police officer. He's a sophomore at the Academy for Technology and the Classics, a soft-spoken kid with spiky hair, dark-rimmed glasses and black headphones tethered around his neck. But, for tonight at least, he's the long arm of the law.
This is his first time playing Fugitive, one of several so-called "urban games" that have become wildly popular with bored teens and twentysomethings the world over. And now it's come to Santa Fe.
You can thank The Ninja for that.
The Ninja is a 17-year-old Santa Fe High senior who brought Fugitive to town earlier this summer after discovering the game during a trip to Seattle. She doesn't want her real name used, lest
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her parents find out she's a ringleader of this frenetic free-for-all, but she nevertheless insists that Fugitive is simply good, wholesome fun.
"It's really exhilarating," she says. "It's so much fun. Plus, instead of partying on a Saturday night and doing drugs and alcohol, we're actually getting out and doing something active. I like that."
She isn't alone. In fact, an hour before C' De Baca corners his quarry behind Trader Joe's, about 40 young men and women gather at Fort Marcy Park to listen to The Ninja explain the Fugitive ground rules: Stay in small groups. Don't damage property. Don't trespass. Be safe. Have fun.
Fugitive is basically a cross between children's games like hide-and-seek and capture-the-flag. The objective is for "fugitives" to travel on foot from Point A (Fort Marcy) to Point B (Salvador Perez Park)
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without being caught by "cops" roaming the streets in cars. Cops identify fugitives by their clothing (i.e., "Ramones shirt!" or "gray hoodie!") and apprehended fugitives are escorted back to the Plaza to begin their trek anew. First fugitive to reach the destination wins. But victory is really a secondary point of the game.
"The veritable black hole of things to do in Santa Fe is totally shattered on this night," says 18-year-old Ryan Kochevar, a recent Santa Fe High graduate. "I've been to my share of parties and you get something more than a hangover out of this."
The game is still in its infant stages in Santa Fe, but it hasn't taken long for word to spread among local teens starved for stimulation.
"I heard about it from some friends and it sounded very cool," C' De Baca says. "It's something to do other than go to Warehouse 21 or go to a party, and it seems like a cool way to meet new people and have fun."
Unlike many cities where most participants are college students or young professionals, the majority of Santa Fe participants are still in high school. But while Fugitive has grown in Santa Fe primarily through word-of-mouth advertising, the popularity of such games from California to Canada and Utah to the United Kingdom is thanks largely to Internet buzz.
"I like the game," C' De Baca says. "There isn't a lot to do for teens in Santa Fe and this is something to do besides sitting at home watching TV. Being a cop was cool, but next time I'll definitely be a fugitive."
