Unfound

Epilogue

"Did your momma raise you weak? Come on, Faster! I know you can do better! Pick it up, now."

My captain was yelling at the four of us as we lept over the obstacles in front of us. I had completed the course many times before, but I wasn't fast enough to get a spot at Quantico. Not yet at least. I had a special feeling about today.

I was ahead of all the others, they always get stuck at the rope wall which I have learned to adapt to. It tripped me up bad the first time as I wrestled with a sea of ropes for a least a few minutes. It caused me to get one of the worst times in the training facility's history. But that wasn't the record I was trying to break. 

My captain stuck beside me, abandoning the other cadets, yelling in my ear the whole way across. He left the other officers in training to motivate my peers. I could hear the screaming and cheering behind me, but I was already through the tires and onto the dangling rope.

This one always caused me to pause. It was simple enough, grab onto the rope that floats above a pool of water and swing across safely, hopefully without falling face first into the mud. The scars on my wrist barely more than a memory, visible but no longer painful. I instinctively rubbed my left wrist before lunging for the rope. All my weight was put up against the ropes which stung worse than a bee. I didn't even flinch when my hands grasped the rough surface. My captain was screaming louder now. I didn't hesitate. 

I made my way to the dummy that was laying in front of the end wall. I couldn't even hear the others that were behind me anymore. I didn't know if that was due to my advance in positions or if the rushing in my head was drowning them all out. My captain yelled the all too familiar instructions at me: "Your partner is down. You have to find a way to carry them over the wall using nothing but a rope and your strength."

By the time he paused to take a breath, I was already in motion.

"Are you going to let your partner die, cadet?"

"No sir," I yelled instinctively. I pictured O'era laying bleeding on the floor in the hotel room as I grabbed the rough rope. I began tying it around the dummy's wrists, keeping its hands pinky to pinky. I looped their arms through my head and made an effort to stand up. They found something to weigh down the dummy to make it more lifelike, I guess they've increased the weight since the last time I did this. My second attempt had me up on my feet and running to the wall before I could process anything. I jumped, my fingers scraping the top of the brick and I pulled myself up to my hips. By the time I was swinging my legs over the top, I heard someone make a splash in the pool behind me. They were catching up. I took the dummy from my shoulders and gently lowered it down to the grass below before landing beside it. 

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as the captain congratulated me. 12 minutes and 23 seconds. My personal best and just a few seconds off from the overall best of the department. I was beaming.

My friend Sam came bounding over to me, light on her toes and embraced me in the biggest hug, nearly taking me down in the process. As the only two girls in the department, we have grown very close and have done almost all of our training together. She wasn't nearly as fast as I was, but she was always supportive and positive, never letting the competition get to her as much as it had the other cadets. "You did it! I'm so proud of you, Kara!"

I laughed, swimming in the joy that was beaming off of her as brightly as the sun. "Thank you, Sam. With a little more training you'll be here too."

This time she laughed, "Definitely not, but I'm not the one trying to get into the FBI." She playfully punched my arms as the other cadets began to drop their dummies next to mine. We scattered out of the way before the boys followed. They could crush us easily based on weighty alone.