Covered Correspondence

Chapter 10 A.C.T (Part 2)

Part two!!! The A.C.T is happening people!! Good luck, Mark and all you other first years! Your Faithful Writers- Steve~Lewis-

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My training with Reed continued every night around sick o'clock. We would walk from dinner down to the  2nd Training Center where most people never went so we could train in peace. This routine went on for a month or so until it was the night before the A.C.T.

"Dude," Reed bent down to pick up his water bottle after a few punching rounds. "Let's hit the hay early, you need your rest for tomorrow." 

I looked down at my hands and began to unwrap them. "Yeah, that's a good idea." I agreed, then Reed and I quickly grabbed our things and walked back to our dorm room.

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The next morning I was all butterflies. I hardly ate any breakfast. Just four special ordered pizza pieces stacked to make a sandwich and six Oreos.

"You'll do great ,man! We spent every free our I had in the 2nd Training Center working our butts off, I can promise you that all that work wasn't for nothing!" Reed patted my back as he shoveled in his breakfast.

He didn't have to tell me! I could feel yesterday's workout in my triceps and calves. Every move ached. Doing well at combat was not what I was worried about. Neither was doing well at stealth. The thing I was worried about the most was the jump. I was afraid of heights. It sounded so dumb so I never said anything about it, but it scared me to death!

Reed and I walked to the arena where the A.C.T would be held. When Reed opened the metal doors, the screams of thousands of people rushed into my head, making my heart begin to beat inside me like hammer.

"Hello, agent's!" Gibson, one of the council members, yelled through a microphone to the other kids taking the Test. All the people that were watching the testing in The Testing arena, cheered. Gibson smiled his friendly smile and stroked his curly, black beard.

"first up is...Brian." Gibson said as Brian walked to the middle of the arena and finished the Test in ten minutes. The next few hours Gibson called up training agent after agent, until he called a girl named Sam up. "Sam?" Gibson yelled for her, and she walked boldly to the middle of the arena. I had just been playing on my tablet, but looked up to see her do the Test because my neck was beginning to ache.

"WOOOOH!" Reed obviously was feeling the vibes of the arena because he was screaming like crazy in my ear.

"Be quiet, Reed I'm trying to watch!"

"Oh, whatever!" I watched as the girl named Sam went through the routine. She was above average in combat, getting every punch correct and executing it beautifully. When it came to target shooting, she did just as well. Finally, it was my turn.

"Mark!" Gibson called to me. I walked slowly to the middle of the arena.

"You know the procedure?" Gibson whispered to me.

"Yes." I gulped.

"Do your stuff Mark, and try to not fail, I've got my money on you." he winked.

"What?" I frowned as Gibson walked away to his special seat among the other council members that included Miss Simone.

Suddenly I was punching, shooting and kicking like I was born to do this. The more I thought about it though, I kind of was!

CRACK.

 I stumbled as I felt a stinging pain surge up my leg and blazing through my knee. I had let my guard down on the obstacle course, tripped and smashed my knee on one of the heavy metal poles swinging back and forth. I looked down at my leg, it was swelling and my knee cap was pointing an un-natural angle. I broke something.

I didn't stop though; I kept running against the pain until I got to the stairs that led to the high jump. Keep moving you wimp, I forced myself to go on, I needed to pass this test!

I ran up the big metal stairs leading to the jump platform, wincing every time I put pressure on my leg. Finally I got to the top of the stairs, where a metal platform waited for me. "I can't do it." I said as I stared at the huge jump I had to make.

"MARK, MARK, MARK!" I heard my name being screamed, but one voice seemed to be louder than the rest. I turned my head to look in the direction of the voice.

My vision tunneled onto one girl with shoulder length, dirty blonde hair and sparkling, blue eyes.

Piper.