The Patriots

CHAPTER 14 (TRAINING)

The next day, they were taken on a short shopping for more clothes and toiletries. When they came back, they continued their tour till they completely toured the whole base.

"You are now going to be treated as new recruits of the Colombian army. Tomorrow training starts. You need to be on the track by 5 a.m sharp. If any one of you is late, you will be punished. You will have breakfast at 6:30, then another training continues at 7 o'clock. Your leaders will take you through the training at different times. That will be the routine until you're ready for the next level of training. Understood?" Del instructed and asked.

"Yes sir!" They all responded.

"Good. You're dismissed."

Both Phyllis in the girls' dorm and Miles in the boys' dorm gave the same announcements to the new recruits when they went to their various dorm halls.

"You're going to wake up before 5 a.m. I will set an alarm at 4 a.m. No one will be pardoned when late. You all have your separate bathrooms in pairs. So take your bath in pairs, and dress up before 4:30. We will all match to the tracks and get set before 5 a.m. Trust me, if you are even a second late, you're as good as dead. So in short, we get to the tracks at 4:50 and wait for the trainer. Okay? Sound sleep."

As said, at exactly 4 am, the alarm went off. It sounded so loud and shrill that it could even wake the dead. Groaning, the recruits dragged themselves out of bed and headed to their various bathrooms. After washing up and brushing their teeth, they wore their official training outfits. White round neck shirts with long black track shorts for the girls and brown round neck shirts with long black track shorts for the boys.

All set, the boys and girls matched to the tracks even before Del arrived.

"Good morning sir," they greeted.

"Good morning," he answered.
"I won't be your trainer for today. I'll just observe. Today, Roger is going to be your trainer."

Roger was with them at the park in Colombia. He was very tall and built. He wore his military training outfit and he looked perfect in them, not to mention his handsome face and figure. Some of the girls blushed when he noticed they were staring. Vera did not mind staring at all. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and if Cecilia hadn't pinched her into sanity, they would have ran and she would still be stuck in her daydream.

"So your first training for today is just a warm-up session which you will do everyday even if you don't have a trainer to guide you. You're going to run with me on this track, back and forth in two straight lines. We're going uniformly. No one is supposed to go out of line. Anyone who falls out of line before the hour we have is exhausted, will be punished. That is, no breakfast. I'm telling you to motivate you, amigos. Del está mirando." Roger said with a wicked smirk and wink.

"Let's go!" he signalled after Miles and Phyllis arranged their recruits in two straight lines and followed behind them.

In less than an hour, most of the kids started falling out. Dan being the first, and Cecilia the last to fall out because she fought so hard to stay in the line. By the time it was 6, only eleven kids were still on the track, including Kelvin and Vera. Cecilia was shocked that Vera was still standing.

"Okay. Good job guys." Roger cheered wiping beads of sweat from his face with his shirt.

"Dan!" Del called.

"Sir!" he responded.

"What was that? You didn't even last for ten minutes." Del scolded. Dan looked like he had run a 1000 miles even though he run less than twenty minutes. He was sweating profusely and breathing so heavily, you'd think there was a shortage of air in the universe.