Republic of Tactics

Republic of Tactics: Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I decide not to run to the practice range in order to save my energy. Olden strolls along behind with me.

"I see someone has a crush on you." He says referring to Amelia.

"Please. I'm not sure about that." I say.

"C'mon. I saw how she was flirting." Olden says. A smile cracks my lips.

"Do you have a special lady?" I ask him.

"No. Not yet." He replies.

The practice range has been quickly set up into a firing simulation. The dummies are scattered all throughout the area. Soldiers from Septimus are handing the other eight Elite's soldiers a slight different uniform. The gray shirt and camo shorts with the black boots. Not black shorts this time. They begin dressing and fitting into the outfits. Soon, all the five hundred soldiers are dressed exactly the same. Indistinguishable without a number or color.

"Alright. Four miles in the obstacle track." Says a female soldier who I recognized from here already. The obstacle track is to our left. It consists of disparate obstacles like log jumps, hurdles, and battle simulations like pop-up soldier dummies or targets we have to shoot while running.

We begin to stretch before the four mile run. The uniforms are fitted properly on everyone to facilitate the run.

The whistle is blown and we begin running. I always initiate by jogging and then picking up to running and later sprinting. I start feeling pain in my knee and I'm trying to maintain a decent jog. I fight the pain up until I reach a hurdle. When I try to jump over it, I hear a pop noise in my knee. I fall over. My hand wrapped over my right knee.

"Wow! Watch out!" I hear Olden yell.

"You alright?" He says knelt down next to me.

"Keep going Soldier Olden." A man orders Olden and comes over to me.

"You okay?" He asks.

"I don't know. It popped or something." I say stretching out both my legs. The man observes my knee and taps me on the shoulder.

"Eh. You're fine. It was just a strain or something from your amateur stretching routines." He says standing back up.

"Great." I said smiling. The man reaches his hand out for me and pulls me up.

"What's your name?" I ask him

"Nelson." He says.

"Nice to meet you." I say.

"My pleasure. Let's go, you have four miles ahead." He tells me. Then he goes off running again.

I start jogging now. The knee begins healing a little after the first mile. The track is two miles long round way. I haven't really gone this far out from practice range before.

The heat is making me a bit dehydrated, but there's a water bottle table that's on the side of the track every loop. Every time I came to the soldier dummy, I had to kick it down or fight it to the ground. The log jumps were the easiest of all. There were targets to the side of the track which we had to shoot with guns. Sometimes, fog bombs to represent the ones well encounter in battle. By the end of the run, I was exhausted.

We had individual or pair training followed by a field test. Physically and mentally. It was only for the ones from Septimus because the rest already took it. They tests are ran by Elite one's head battle mentors.

During individual training, I simply work on my self-defense skills with Olden. I might even say I was a bit better than him.

Then, during break, the voices of my mother and Derlie and Koppe are suddenly bouncing in the walls of my head. I couldn't hear anything in the practice range around me. Only the voices of my loved ones begging for help, gunfire and explosions in the backround. My throat feels like it's been clasped by a strong hand, obstructing the air flow to my lungs. I am stumbling on my feet and disorientation takes over my brain. I look at where I feel a sting of pain in my arm. I see a needle poke into my arm and then the light is turned off.

I see faces looking down at me when I wake. I feel the gravel with my hand and support myself to get up.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You had a nerve memory attack." Nelson answers right away. I look at the small lump in my arm caused from the needle.

"Why?" I ask.

"Many have these attacks. Nothing really rare." Nelson says.

"We had to put you to sleep. As you can see." He says applying a drop from a small bottle on the lump. Immediately, the lump sucks itself into the inside of my skin and my arm is now smooth.

"You still have your test soldier." Nelson says. I look over at the head battle mentors inside a closed off, cavern-like tent. Only the walls are made of metal.

"Thanks." I say back.

I jog over to the tent. Ready for whatever they throw at me.