Captive of Subterfuge

Training Begins

Hayden and I spent part of the day with Dominic and the rest of the day with his personal team of guards. We didn't go to our usual training arena, which is just a large open field. We went clear over to the other side of the camp to more open, barren, rocky landscape. There was a large clearing with all sorts of weapons, equipment, and at the far end was an obstacle field.

To give you an idea of how huge this place was just think of a football field. Times four. Most of the people there were men, there were only 3 girls in the entire place. They were climbing rock walls with no ropes or protective gear. They were climbing through web-like ropes tied between poles, crawling under barbed wire, swinging from ropes, scaling smooth walls bare handed, jumping from one tiny platform to another, and many other seemingly insane obstacles.

I noticed there were only three nets, they were at the very beginning of the course. The rest. . . well let's just say that if you fell you'd definitely feel it the next day.

"This is where you will begin your training. What you see here is the main arena but there is another which is strictly off limits for the time being, it is reserved for sparring. You will begin at the end closest to us.

Start with the webbing, barbed wire, and other grounded obstacles. Conquer those and you will move on to the next faze." Dominic explained leaving no room for interruptions. "Any questions boys?"

At that moment in time I had an infinite amount of questions swirling through my head. But I didn't ask a single one of them.

"No sir." Hayden replied

"Good. You will begin your training now, with Alek, he's the one who receives all the new trainees."

As if on cue Alek walked briskly up to us.

"Alek these are the new recruits Hayden and Alister O'Brien. I'm sure you won't have any trouble with them. I expect a full report buy the end of the week on their progress through training." Dominic said ordered.

"Yes sir." Alek said just like the well trained soldier that he was.

"That will be all, get to work." Dominic said as he turned and began striding away. "Oh, and one other thing boys, the harder you work, the faster you'll move up in the world. Just remember that." And with that he left us there under Alek's authority.

"Alright Alister, Hayden which one of you is older?" Even though I thought it was a stupid question Hayden answered quickly anyways.

"I am sir."

"How old are you then?"

"Fourteen sir."

"And you?" Alek inquired looking to me.

"I'm ten years old sir." I replied doing my best to sound as mature and soldier-like as Hayden had.

"Good, Hayden you will start off with the beginning of the course first." Alek instructed.

Alek led Hayden over to the very beginning of the course. He pulled out a stopwatch from the pocket of his cargo pants.

"I will time you as you crawl through the barbed wire, under the fences and the logs, and through the webbing. Then you will proceed to the lasers, the lasers aren't real but if they touch you they emit a high pitched alarm. The more alarms that go off the more time is added to your total time. Is that clear?"

"Ummm. Yes sir pretty clear." Hayden replied a little uncertain.

"Ummm" won't cut it kid you gotta train the best to be the best. Let's see you conquer the ground obstacles." Alek replied icily.

I was a little confused at Hayden's reluctance, he's the more athletic of the two of us. He does amazing in normal training and was 2nd in his academic class. Although I couldn't blame him much, those obstacles did look pretty daunting.

After that moment's hesitation though, it was clear that Hayden was in his element. He had to crawl through coils of razor sharp barbed wire,which he did without too much trouble. He went under fences avoiding trip wires that Alek so conveniently omitted from the overview of the course. He wriggled his way underneath 15 low-laying logs. Then through the intricate webbing of para cord for about 10 yards. Finally, the lasers, he paused for a moment to get the pattern etched into his memory. You could almost see the gears turning in his mind, or maybe it's just me because I've grown up with him.

After a few moments pause, he attacked the remaining obstacle of the course leaping, bounding, dodging, and sliding. I knew Hayden was always the more athletic of the two of us but I could never have imagined all the strategy and athleticism coming from my own brother! He was fantastic.

Then all of the sudden a buzzer went off. It was high pitched, loud, and it attracted the attention of many of the other guards who were training. Many heads turned towards the end of the beginning portion of the course, some laughs and remarks of "newb" and "rookie" were heard among the ropes and platforms of the more advanced area of the course. Three more alarms went off before Hayden was done with the beginning portion of the course.

As Hayden made it out of the course and towards where Alek and I had been watching, I felt my anxiety mount.

~author's message~

If your are enjoying my book so far please consider voting, commenting, and sharing. The picture isn't exactly how the ground obstacles look but they give you the general idea. Also please let me know if there's grammatical errors or spelling errors (etc...) since this is just a first draft. Thanks so much for reading my book!