Hood of Bone

3 - Enemyville

Day 41

Not far from the academy was an old sports stadium that was no longer used for its original purpose. It had fallen into disuse over the decades, and today was a rusting relic of a bygone era. No cheering crowds had gathered here to watch a game of football in over twenty years. However, the academy had seen opportunity in neglect, and transformed it into something the students found much more exciting: the setting for combat training exercises involving weapons.

The stadium was now like an amphitheatre from the days of the Roman empire. The field had been transformed into a rough mock-up of a village, designed to give students a range of environments both natural and built, and training in many types of armed conflict - engagement with snipers, riot control, pitched battles and rescue operations.

There were concrete structures of two levels, tin shacks, foot-bridges over trenches, market stalls, streets, narrow alleys, random walls, and old car and truck bodies designed to both give protection for defenders and also hiding places for attackers.

Engineers had created a series of different natural environments around the field as well. They had created artificial chaparrals by planting thickets of bamboo poles together, crescentic dunes by pushing sand with a bulldozer, and even made an artificial swamp in which the unlucky could get mired in.

Overhead, there was a network of narrow steel walkways and bridges suspended above the field, so that instructors could oversee and direct the ground operations with the advantage of elevation.

Like the others, Senan had been so excited about getting to train in here that he could barely sleep the night before. Today would be a warfighting game. Dressed in camouflage uniforms, heavy body armour, and holding their assault weapons, the eager group of 16-year-olds stood around Sergeant Minka, as she explained the game.

'Welcome to a place dat we call Enemyville,' Sergeant Minka barked in her thick Hungarian accent to the class gathered around her on the side of the field.

'In here you vill get a taste of combat. I must warn you to expect de unexpected. Dare are booby-traps waiting to catch de unwary. Dare can be some nasty surprises. In de same way dat we can inoculate a baby against virus by giving them a small shot of it, we are going to immunise you against combat by giving you a few shocks. In dis way, when you are later exposed to de stress of de real thing, you won't fly off de handle.'

Senan noticed that overhead, Major Ganis was observing them from a walkway. Minka continued with her barking:

'Today ve play a game called Extraction. De rules are simple. You are going to be divided into three groups. Team Red, Team Blue and Team Green. Each team has de same objective: to find and return an orange flag like this one here.'

She pointed to a sample flag that stood beside her on a thin plastic pole.

'The flag is hidden somewhere on de field. Not buried, but inside one of de structures. Find it and return it to dis point here.'

'Where do the weapons come in?' O'Connor asked eagerly, gesturing to the automatic rifle that he and all the others carried that resembled an AR-15 assault gun.

'Your guns have been modified to fire dese plastic bullets,' Sergeant Minka explained, holding up a sample projectile between her thumb and index finger. 'Dey won't kill anyone, but dey will hurt very badly if dey strike an unprotected area. That's why you are wearing body armour. Do not fire your weapons at unprotected skin. If a projectile hits de shield on your chest or back or helmet, you are out of de game and must lie down on de ground. Do not try to cheat and keep going, because when de bullets hit doze areas, it triggers an automatic kill switch on your gun so it won't work any more. Also, on our monitoring screens, we can see who has been hit, and can arbitrate disputes. Cheating will be punished. You only get thirty rounds of ammunition each in your magazines, and only one magazine each, so do not be wasteful with your shooting.'