The New Recruit

Chapter 4...The Training

The first week of training flew by really fast. We did the course three times. Twice individually and once in a group event against the other cabins. We came fifth with lots of regret, but I guess we still did pretty well. One of the courses we did daily was shooting and target practice which I loved. We also did a morning and afternoon runs daily, basic first aid lessons, lessons on war tactics, and stealth work. We did the course, wall scaling lessons, climbing, trench work, and other activities every two or three days. Most of the lessons and activities were fun, but some were very tough. Wall scaling is very hard. We have only done it twice, but we hate it! The easiest subjects for me were the course, running, shooting, and the battle tactics. I don't know why but they seem to be in my level of expertise. The planning for battle tactics is really fun too. Shooting was always the second subject of the day after the morning run. I also loved this subject. The best shooter in our cabin was Brogan though. He was simply amazing. He had told me that his family was made up of all warriors and that his dad was fighting at the border. That must have been where he got his training. He was also good at almost every subject. His running and agility needed the slightest improvement but otherwise he was a phenomenal soldier. He could do everything just the way he pleased, he was that good. The rest of the cabin was also made up of good shooters and military soldiers. Calvin and Sulakai were both the exact same talent at everything we did except for battle tactics which went to Sulakai. They were quite good shots but not as good as Brogan and I. Duncan was also quite good at shooting. He was slightly better than them at the subject, but overall was worse because he was not as good a runner or a battle tactician. Christopher had one clear strength and that was shooting. He was barely behind me at the subject and I was the best in my town! Seth was almost as good as Duncan in the shooting, but lacked running skill and battle tactics. Damien was not a very good shooter but was very good at battle tactics. Much better than Duncan. General Sandier was very pleased with Brogan's, Calvin's, Sulakai's and my performance at training. He said so himself in front of us. We were some of the youngest recruits, but we were performing well. Seth and Christopher needed more diversity, he said. Seth however was finding he had strength in first aid, so he was our doctor for the time being. Christopher was a good shooter so he was still useful. Also Chris had good strength. All in all, our cabin was doing well and training was good.On the ninth day of my training we did a group event. It was a test using running, shooting, first aid, and agility course. We again worked with cabin members, but there was one difference. You worked with only 4 people and each did one task. My group was pretty awesome. It was Brogan, Sulakai, Seth, and I. Brogan was chosen as the leader so he chose who does what task. The four events were perfect for our group. Brogan was clearly someone you can trust as a leader. His smarts helped us a lot. He chose that Seth would do the first aid, I would run, Sulakai would do the agility, and he himself would shoot. All of us got our best task and trait. I knew that this would be awesome. The first event was the running, which meant I was up. Next was the first aid where Seth would be performing fake emergency procedures. Then when he finished Sulakai would run to the agility course and perform through it. At the end of that the shooters would take five shots. The first team to complete all tasks would win, unless their overall performance was bad. That is why we had a really good chance of winning; we were fast and good at our tasks. I started my run at a high speed and passed all the other teams runners. The final half of the race was a lot closer. I ran and kept on running but they were catching. Duncan was the other half of our cabins runner. He had tripped someone earlier I noticed angrily. He was still cheating at camp despite the unity it gave all of us. Despite that I still finished first. The second I got to the first aid spot, Seth was at work. Damien was the cabins other doctor. After a very short while Seth finished, ahead of the others, and Sulakai ran off. Calvin would be their agility man I realized. Damien was their leader and he had obviously thought through his plan despite his lack of tactics. When it came time for the shooting, cabin 1's main team was right on us. We still had the lead however so I had to keep calm. Brogan started shooting quickly and carefully as soon as he could. He did simply tremendous. He shot perfectly four out of five shots, with the other hitting the edge of the precision circle. We had not only finished first but had done the best! We had beaten the other 14 teams! The second place team was from cabin one, the one that was just behind us, third was from cabin two, fourth was also cabin 1, and the fifth place team was our cabin! "They had been in third," I thought to myself "How? "Then I realized, "Duncan had been caught! He was penalized for tripping!" It was simply a horrible truth to recognize. Our cabin member had betrayed the rest of his team, who did nothing wrong! I was angry as was the rest of the cabin. Sulakai had the braveness and slight stupidity however to confront him. He had acted in power and anger which was clearly his weakest skill. Due to this I knew Duncan was not going to be happy.