FUGITIVE

CHAPTER 17

We're standing in front of dummies. It's a sparring task, but it's handless combat. The key, I'm guessing, is to learn how to control the movement of your body, so you can keep yourself steady all the time. All of us are assigned individual dummies and I stand next to Is.

It sort of comes as a surprise to us when we find out that these are mechanical dummies. They move, they jump and they kick your butt really hard. Our hands are tied behind our backs, so we don't get tempted to use it on instinct. I struggle and try to wriggle out of the ropes a few times, until it registers that it's supposed to be handless.

After what feels like hours, but only a few minutes in reality, the dummies come to a stop. Lieutenant Alexander stands in front of us and all our superior officers seem to be smiling. I smile in satisfaction at the success of our first impression on the Lieutenant.

"Congratulations. You all just failed your very first task", he says as he chuckles. Is and I exchange a confused glance. "When you're in the field, there isn't supposed to be ANY handless combat. If you're outnumbered four limbs to your two, boom and you're dead, or worse whoever you're protecting is dead too. If you're faced with a situation where your arms are tied behind your back, your first move should be to get your hands free, so that you have complete control over the situation. Everyone knows how to fight, recruits. Even the bad guys. Mostly the bad guys. What will give you the upper hand? Your smartness. Your presence of mind."

"So, we do it again. This time you will be individually timed to see who can get your ropes off the quickest. Begin."

As the bell rings, I try to wriggle my hands out of the rope. I see the other recruits doing the same and we all are failing miserably. The ropes don't budge and every wriggle only makes the ropes tighter until it starts to cut into our skin. A couple minutes later, he asks us to stop, think and begin. Again. The next three times go similar to the first. I've heard the word again so many times today, I'm actually sick of it.

As we come to a stop, with nobody having succeeded to get out of the ropes, the Lieutenant sighs. "Use your minds, recruits. Think logically. When you're in a high-pressure situation, panicking is only going to make things worse. If you can't relax in a simulation like this one, what's the guarantee you come out alive out of your first field assignment? Again."

As soon as the bell rings and everyone starts squirming, I stop. I feel the ropes as much as I can with my fingers. I rotate the knot towards my fingers and hook them underneath the first knot. As I feel it loosen, I let a smile spread across my face. As I loosen the second and third knot and free myself, I look at the timer. 23 seconds. It took me 23 seconds to get out of three knots. As soon as I free myself, I see Sergeant Walter smile at me with pride. The timer goes off and the Lieutenant claps his hand.

"We've got one smart recruit so far this year, folks. Rest of you, again."

Is scowls at me as her face contorts in pain. I mouth to her to remove the knots and not try and squirm out of it. The other recruits follow suit and in a few tries all the recruits get out of their ropes.

As we break for lunch, Is walks towards me clutching her wrists. "How in the world did you think of untying the ropes? Also, if somebody wanted to tie us up don't you think they would do it tight?", she asks, sarcasm dripping out of her voice.

"Well, let's just hope for your sake, they're that dumb", I say, laughing.

~

The rest of the day goes by doing pretty standard exercises. A preliminary obstacle course, firearms practice, which I aced, and finally a 2-mile pursuit driving.

Pursuit driving turns out to be a bit of a struggle for me. I learned driving quite late, compared to most of the other recruits, who started driving at 16 or 17. Juggling work alongside high school, I tried to stay out of the house until my father went to bed and I also had to bear most of the expenses of my younger brother's education. Mrs. Tonks was a wonderful support system, but as much she tried to help, she had other children to worry about too. I was too busy to learn how to drive and it wasn't till I was 22 that my friend at work decided that I should at least learn how to drive, even if I didn't own a car.

Pursuit driving is high stakes, adrenaline pulsing through your veins kind of job and your mind always has to be on high alert. You cannot afford to make mistakes because even one can cost you your life. The lines they make during training using the traffic cones are quite narrow and navigating between them, is a huge task. Apart from that, you have to learn to control the drift of the vehicle, make sure you don't hit any civilians and the most important of all, catch the bad guy.

You hardly have any time to catch your breath in between and your driving is the last thing you have to focus on. You have to be trained enough to watch where you're going, follow the criminal and keep a lookout for radio chatter. Once you corner the perp, you also have to quick enough on your feet to arrest him, otherwise the drive won't be worth it.

The Lieutenant gives us a couple talks in between and honestly, he's amazing. He is so smart, experienced and most of all, tough but patient. Many of the officers we have had as instructors are quite rude. They hardly pay attention to you when you're learning and when you can't do it after the training, they humiliate you so hard it makes you want to hide under a rock. The only exception is Sergeant Walter, who is like everyone's second father. Everybody loves him and he's such a supportive mentor.

As we head to our rooms after a tough and really long day, Is and I collapse on our beds. Before either one of us can even complain about the lights being on, we're fast asleep. 

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Sorry it was a short chapter y'all. The first few chapters are going to be kind of filler, because its just building up to her training in the academy. Just stick with it for a while, it'll get interesting I promise. Every chapter connects and explains tiny plots that I've already written or might be important for one in the future. So keep a lookout and let me know in the comments if you've figured out any!

Love always xx