Chapter (7) The Bell Test
September 25th 2517
1330 hours
Reach FLEETCOM Military Complex, Military Reservation 01478-B
(Alpha Pov)
"Today we will be doing the obstacle course a little bit differently. It may be your second day of training but today we will have a test," Mendez spoke as we listened at attention, "Today your mission will be to go through this obstacle course with your team and reach the bell at the end of it. The winner will be the team that has all of its team members ring the bell first. Any questions?"
"Will there be a reward for whoever wins?" asked Ralph [S-103]
"Yes there will be a reward for this race," answered Mendez before raising his voice so everyone could hear the next words clearly, "The winner of the race will be given dinner while the losers will be going hungry. As I have told you all before 'It pays to be a winner and 2nd place is just first loser'," he finished, leading to murmurs breaking out within the crowd.
Mendez answered a couple more questions before telling all of us to gather into our teams and strategize. He warned us to be prepared for a 'sudden' start and that we would automatically know the signal before walking off.
"Since we have Alpha and Kelly, the two fastest in class, I think we should have those two run ahead and help the rest of us when it comes to the more physically demanding obstacles, and once they tire out we will reciprocate. What do you guys think?" Fred said while he, Kelly, and Linda sat on the ground formulating a 'plan'.
Meanwhile, I stood up at the line stretching. These guys would most likely hold me back if anything after seeing their pitiful performance so far, and I am not about to lose dinner if I have anything to say about it. John stood beside me and was doing similar stretches and ignoring them as well.
"Are you two seriously not going to work with us," Kelly asked hands on her hip in outrage
John looked back and said something. I wasn't paying attention but I didn't respond and simply kept my eyes forward prepped and ready.
"Alpha John please, we need your help!" Linda begged tears threatening to fall from her eyes as the shadow of losing dinner loomed in front of her.
John seemed to begin to crack at Linda's begging, but in his eyes, I could see that he was far too competitive to let that stop him. Out of the corner of my eye I watched in real time how a simple glance at me solidified his resolve. He made a promise that he would beat me and I am certain he was going to try his hardest to be the winner.
But that doesn't matter.
Looking ahead I began to go over the little information I had on the course. From where I was standing the course seemed to immediately start with a barbed wire crawl, after that, there seemed to be a large pile of crates about 3-5 crates high that we would have to climb up. From there I am unsure what is next but I know I saw some elevated platforms to walk across, maybe some balancing beams, rope climbs, and probably a couple of other things. All in all not too bad if I had to say so myself.
As I finished cataloging the obstacles in my mind Mendez had gathered everyone's attention preparing to start the race though he called it a mission. The tension was palpable in the air, this was the first time winning and losing had detriments and rewards. Looking around I could see worry written into nearly every candidate's face.
I couldn't help but snort with a smirk on my face. There is no need to worry if they were prepared but I digress as I am repeating myself.
"On your mark!" Mendez announced hands behind his back, "Get set!" he paused, "Go!"
As soon as the word left his mouth I was off and I sprinted forward. I could see that I had reacted ahead of my classmates probably due to their anxiety and I would have gained a sizeable off of the starting line, however-
"Oof" I felt a pair of hands on my side shove me hard causing me to fall to the ground after losing my balance.
'Who the fuck did that!?' I seethed and I scanned my immediate surroundings for the perpetrator, "Ralph that motherfucker," I could see that shit-eating grin on his face as he ran towards the barbed wire. He probably thinks I would just forget or let that slide but no I'll get my pound of flesh, however, first I need to win this race as Mendez says "The mission always comes first".
I did look to the side to see what Mendez would do. He looked back at me and shrugged before beginning to make his way to the end of the course. In my eyes that was the green light for revenge not that I needed it but it did help I wouldn't be getting smoked for this.
Springing forward I got back up and ran up to the barbed wire diving underneath its metal threads. I stabbed into the soft dirt, moved underneath it, and pulled myself forward using fingernails as well. At the same time, I kicked forward with my legs shoving them flat into the dirt. Systematically all I thought of was hands, legs, hands, legs moving forward and inch worming myself to the end.
By the time I exited the barbed wire, I wasn't too far behind the main pack who were all working on climbing the crates. I was going to retake first place, but first I needed to get even. I scanned the crates looking for the best path to take to climb up, and after a moment I found my route.
I jumped onto the crate and developed a different strategy to overcome the height of the crate. This time I would jump and once I reached the peak of my jump I would use my arms to pull me onto the crate. It worked so well that I saw others adopting the same strategy though they were quite a bit slower than me. I also saw Daisy climbing and couldn't help but crack a smirk as I saw her comically try and climb each crate with her short stature. As I passed she saw my smirk and I think I saw her eye twitch, but I am not certain because I was onto the next crate as she eventually had to have someone help pull her up from her team.
"Alpha! I could use a little help pulling up Fred here!" I heard right as I stood up on the top crown of crates. I glanced over seeing Kelly struggle with Fred's extended arm I didn't respond and instead forged on. I wouldn't be held back by them, I was going to win and that was all that mattered.
Next were the balance logs where I saw him.
Ralph.
I ran across the logs. I was careful on these because they spun unlike the platforms ahead that just swayed. Ralph ended up looking back fear and shock in his eyes, I bet he thought that he would be able to duck me after class. I didn't say anything because I wasn't going to give him any kind of heads-up as he did with me. As I began to close in on his side I pulled back with my left hand as we were just about to get off the platforms and open palm slapped the shit out of him. His eyes got dazed for a second and that along with the force of my hit caused him to fall off the platforms. Fortunately for him, there was cargo netting placed below the platforms so that no one fell and broke something.
I snorted and ran ahead. I was currently in second place with John at first, but I was gaining on him. With each obstacle we passed I shaved seconds off of my following distance, he didn't know that and continued to stay focused on the path ahead.
After what had felt like a marathon of running and other obstacles were onto the last one a rope climb. I was dead even with John and wasn't even breathing that heavily, meanwhile, he was soaked in sweat and had slowed tremendously. I grabbed one of the three ropes leading to the bell and pulled myself up. Forming a stair with my boot-cladded feet I climbed up the rope before jumping off and diving for the bell.
"First and reporting for duty," I said with a smirk as I took deep breaths in front of Mendez. I stood at attention after saluting him and watched as he didn't pay attention to me. John was next behind me ringing the bell and standing at a similar form beside me.
Mendez remained silent and disinterested in either of us to which I glanced over at John seeing if he knew the cause. He just shrugged and we went back to standing. Over time the rest of the cadets began to catch up and start coming up the rope.
Kelly was fuming as she came up the rope I could tell by the way her eye was twitching and the way she sauntered over toward us. I just gave her another glance before looking back forward. I swear the only thing she does is complain and get angry.
Kelly once she had arrived at her destination spat on John, "You two assholes! Thanks for nothing!" she said with venom in her voice. I gave her a look and continued looking forward her little tantrum had nothing to do with me-
*slap*
I felt a sudden stinging sensation on my cheek. Turning and raising my hand to my face I realized that I had just been slapped by Kelly. That realization was overshadowed by creeping rage as I felt the last threads of willpower snapping, 'Did this fucking bitch really just fucking slap me for her own lack of capability?'
Then she did the last thing that was needed to send me over the edge. She smirked. She gave the same shit-eating grin Ralph did at the beginning of this stupid ass race. So I took a VERY deep breath.
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'Oh, it's fucking on!'
As Kelly turned to walk away one of my hands shot out gripping the strap to her black tank top. It grappled on and snatched her closer to me where I had already brought my other arm up, leveling it with her face. I swiveled on the balls of my feet and put all of my weight and force that I could into the punch.
*crack*
My fist smashed into her face on her upper cheek and eye. My fist didn't stop after hitting her and kept traveling. Due to the force of my punch, she stumbled and fell backward. Thankfully because I kept a tight hold on her uniform she wasn't able to get away and instead brought me down on top of her.
From there she covered her face with her arms as I prepared to start raining down a barrage of hits. However, Mendez had other thoughts, an armored boot found its way into my stomach as I had slouched down and knocked me off of Kelly. Before I could get back up Mendez placed the same boot over my chest and applied enough pressure to keep me down.
"Nice work today trainees! Dinner for everyone! Except 017 and 117's team!" Mendez announced loudly leading to joy erupting from the rest of the class.
"But sir Alpha and I were the first ones to finish!" argued John
"Yes, both of you were the first two to finish. But your team came in last! You don't win unless your team wins!" Mendez said loudly for everyone in the room to hear, "And looking at your team it even turned on itself. As far as I am concerned your team didn't even start!"
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Boom new chapter
Not much to say I am going to give a little spoiler and say that next chapter Blue team will come together like the originals did. To be honest I wasn't planning on that happening but as I rewatched the bell test from the fall of Reach and kept in mind that John immediately changed his attitude after it I began to think differently. Hearing Mendez's words "You don't win unless your team wins" made me think of what would Alpha think in this situation. And tomorrow you will see how he would most likely deal with it.
Anyway have a blessed day and I will See You Star Side