Stargate Aschen

Chapter 8 - Survival

“Alright, recruits.” O’Neill opened the file he’d been carrying with him all day.

Sam lifted her head and tried to hide her exhaustion. They’d walked through the forest for two hours, and she’d yet to see the purpose of it. From the looks of the other recruits, she wasn’t the only one who’d lost her motivation.

Her stomach growled and she pressed her hand against it with a wince.

O’Neill looked around. “You’re all stranded in an unfamiliar location with no way of getting home. Night is close, so you gotta make camp. You don’t have any weapons on you. Just your clothes.”

A collective groan rippled through the group. Sam closed her eyes. That probably meant she wouldn’t have lunch today. Or be able to take a shower in the foreseeable future.

O’Neill raised his brows. “That’s the spirit.” Sam could swear she saw a smirk play around his mouth. He looked at Colonel Sheppard and the other man stepped forward.

“You’ll all swarm out and prepare for the night. We won’t divide you into teams this time.” He gestured around him. “This clearing marks the meeting point. You can move in each direction from here, but don’t move more than twenty minutes away.” Sheppard held up a number of armbands. “Each of you will get one of these. They hold a sensor so we can keep track of your movements. We’ll pick you all up in about an hour.”

Tim Hanson stepped forward. “What are the rules, sir?”

O’Neill turned his head and dropped the file he’d been studying. “Survive the night.”

“That’s all?”

O’Neill straightened. “That’s all that matters, recruit.”

Sheppard looked up from his notes. “Use your heads, people, and think on your feet. And please don’t consume any food or water you might gather during this exercise.” He sat down on a tree stump. “Those of you unfortunate enough to end up ‘dead’ by the end of the day will be on kitchen duty for the rest of the week. So take this exercise seriously.”

A mumble went through the group. Sheppard cleared his throat.

“We’re aware that most of you haven’t had any survival training. The idea of this exercise is to train you to deal with new situations.”

He handed out the wristbands. Sam clasped it around her arm.

“Alright, swarm out, people. And good luck.”

Sam raised her eyebrows when some recruits spread out in different directions. Where should she go? She didn’t know anything about this forest so all directions might be equally right or wrong. She turned and started walking into the forest.

If she wanted to stand a chance, she had to approach this logically. Her stomach growled again, and she sighed. If only they’d let them eat before the exercise.

Hunger was merely an inconvenience at this point, though. She’d learned to go without food for days when she’d been on her own. If she wanted to survive the night, she’d need shelter—preferably a warm and save place that would shield her from weather and animals alike.

She faltered in her steps and looked around. In the distance, some of the other recruits trudged through the forest. Okay, running aimlessly through the forest was probably not the best approach.

She stopped and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree to look around. The steps of the others grew quieter, more distant. A calm silence fell over the forest, occasionally interrupted by the distant howl of a bird or the cracking of branches somewhere nearby.