Defying Terror

Chapter XXVII

August 20th, 2030, 9:52 am

All the aches and pains of yesterday are finally deciding to set in early this morning. I lied in my bed this morning, hardly able to move my muscles. I writhed under the sheets as echoing groans cascaded throughout the room. We were all feeling it, and it was only going to get worse. A quarter of the boys in my bunk-room claimed to Sergeant Lee that they were in so much pain that they had to go to the infirmary and miss out on the island run. Lee let them go, but he said their ranks would be hindered greatly. They didn't even hesitate.

Me, I have no other choice but to participate. Those boys who escaped to the infirmary just eliminated a small portion of my competition, so I guess that's a positive. I can take advantage of their absence. That's about fifteen recruits I won't have to worry about.

I don't know what to think about the state of my rank right now. The obstacle course placed me into the top two hundred, while the pool test shot me back down to the eight hundreds. At least, that's what Hal's prediction told me. I won't know for real until Saturday, at the ranking.

I wonder if I'll actually be able to find out what my rank is, even if I don't make it into the top one hundred. They say that the ranks will be posted on monitors throughout the facility, but I don't know if I'll actually get the opportunity. I still uncertain of what will happen when I don't rank, and even beyond that. What are they going to do to me, in the end?

Until then, I have to control what I can. Whatever bullshit the rankers decide to toss my way is nothing I can dictate. They'll want to nitpick and tear apart every little thing I do, anything, just to make sure that I don't make it into the top one hundred. I know that Sergeant Rory seems honest and trustworthy, but I have a sinking feeling that Sergeant Lee will try to interfere with me by any means necessary.

So, today is the island run. That's two laps around the whole island, even curling under the bridge. There is one downhill, which is pretty nice, but with every downhill, there is always an uphill. I didn't practice sprinting up and down inclines while I was with the Captain; I only ran in a straight line. I guess this is more like the time I was running away from the Medo, like the obstacle course. I have more to worry about besides parasitic grass.

Apparently, this is one of the most hyped events at the ranking. Hal will never let me forget that the all-time Imperial Guard ranking record for this run is eight minutes, forty-five seconds, held by none other than his mentor. Hal says it was because he ran cross country in high school and that kind of thing was his niche. That time will never be touched, he claims. I'm not going to refute it at all; I can hardly hit twelve minutes.

I stand beside Hal as the rankers maneuver around the exhausted recruits who just returned from their run. Some are collapsed on the dirt, where the dust sticks to their damp shirts. Their chests rise and fall with their arms sprawled out around them. They'll have plenty of time to rest until this afternoon's first two rounds of the combat tournament, but right now they just look beat.

Groups of two hundred run at a time, meaning that the last one, the one I'm stuck in, has only seventy-two recruits. It's a much smaller size compared to two hundred all at once. There's less of a fear of being trampled, but's that only if you're in the back. If you're in the front, you have to hold the pace and not trip.

We were given a tour of the course early this morning before anyone was given a go at it. We begin near the pool, beside the northernmost cliff on the island. There is a dirt path that traces around the back of the headquarters on the west end, and curls around to a view of the city. Once you spectate the Bluefield shoreline, you dip into a pitch-dark cave for half a minute, then you return to the light. That's where you find yourself under the bridge that holds the city and the headquarters together. From there it's an uphill battle back to the parking lot, then down another dirt path, and finally back to the start. And again.