7 The Obstacle Course

When the recruits got to the obstacle course they were floored and blown away. It was unlike anything they'd ever seen before. It was like a giant adult playground. Everything was at least 20 feet tall. There were small forts, a small "forest" of wooden poles, barbed wire fields, tunnels. There were even fortifications crewed by some of the camp staff. The biggest eye catching fortification was the forty foot tall makeshift fort at the end of all this, even from far away it was clearly visible, especially with the giant flag at the top of it.

Off to the side Drill Sergeant Lloyd was sitting passenger side in a motor car, it was painted olive green and had a start in a circle on the front hood and the sides of the doors. "LISTEN UP RECRUITS, WELCOME TO THE PLAYGROUND AS I LIKE TO CALL IT. THIS IS GOING TO BE YOUR HOME FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS, YOU WILL LIVE HERE, BREATHE HERE, LEARN TO SHIT HERE." Drill Sergeant Lloyd took a breath before he resumed his little speech.

"THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL LEARN ALL OF YOUR FIGHTING SKILLS AND YOU WILL APPLY EVERYTHING YOU LEARNED IN TACTICS AND MANEUVERING! YOU WILL SPEND THE NEXT SIX HOURS HERE GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THIS COURSE. BUT BEFORE THAT, YOU WILL NOW FORM SQUADS! EXCEPT FOR YOU CONLIN! I'VE GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU!"

Thomas could already guess what he had in mind, in his previous life it was divided into four squads of five. Now though, he was sure that Wilson had said something Lloyd and it might be skewered in favor of one large squad, two mediums, and one small. Sure enough, his hunch was right on the money. "CONLIN YOUR SQUAD WILL CONSIST OF MCSNICKERS, MCLANEY, AND SMITH, GOOD LUCK, YOU'RE GONNA NEED IT! AS FOR THE REST OF YOU, FORM UP INTO THREE SQUADS OF SIX, FIVE, AND FIVE!"

"YOU HAVE SIX HOURS TO COMPLETE THIS COURSE, LAST SQUAD TO REACH THE FLAG GOES WITHOUT SUPPER! GOOD LUCK!" With that the drill sergeant drove off back to the camp, which was a good mile south. Complete the obstacle course, Thomas mused. There was only one way to do that and it was a good thing he had his previous experiences.

However, before he could detail a plan, Smith the newest member of the squad ran over babbling about a plan. "Guys we should..." Whilst he was talking, Thomas was checking him out, he was on the shorter side of a man, but still within acceptable army standard. He had light eyebrows and brown eyes just like anyone else. As the shortest man in the squad he should be perfect for a few of the obstacles on the course.

"Hold up there Smith, we've got a tactics expert here already," McLaney pointed out Thomas, "this guy managed to impress the tactics instructor Wilson."

"I had a complete plan though," Smith said before brightening up, "Alright then, let's hear your plan."

The whole squad turned to Thomas and looked at him expectantly. Thomas sighed, this was a bit of a headache, but he shouldn't really complain. This was the perfect opportunity to build his leadership skills. So with that in mind he pointed at the wooden pole forest and the staff in charge of that. "First we have to go through that forest, the objective is to play cat and mouse with the staff, who will be acting as the hunters, some of those poles are as big as trees so hiding is easy."

"What makes you say so?" McSnickers questioned Thomas, the rest of the squad nodded their heads in agreement. "If you look over there, you'll see that there is a table with flags, you should easily be able to figure out what the objective is. It's to train our ability to run and hide within a forested environment, even though this is a desert, you can apply this training anywhere."

The squad was shocked, they didn't think about it that way. The only thing that Thomas didn't tell them is that if any other squad had the same idea, then they'd have to survive against that squad as well as the staff. It was an unorthodox training tactic to be sure, but he couldn't question how effective it was. It allowed him to survive through many situations in Africa, and it was useful for cities as well. Basically it teaches you to maximize your surroundings to evade a superior force, whether they are well armed or numerically superior.

"Then we should tackle the first fort, then the barbed wire and tunnels, the biggest fight is going to be at the end in that massive fort. Must be all sorts of complex mechanics to get to the top. I'm sure we won't be able to climb up from the outside." Thomas lay out his plans and gave some sound reasoning, all based off his previous experiences. The rest of the squad agreed with him and tried making minor adjustments such as which courses to do first.

Baseline, they all agreed to do the forest first, at least that way they can get that out of the way before the other squads come to do it. Unfortunately for them, by the time they arrived, the biggest squad which consisted of six members was also there. Thomas also recognized the squad leader, a man by the name of Daniels. In his previous life Daniels was a bully and used his broad strength to bully everyone in line. Unfortunately for Daniels, strength isn't everything. Thomas had his previous experiences and his somewhat mediocre intelligence, that was enough to deter this wannabe for now.

"Conlin, what a surprise, I'm guessing you thought to get here first and complete this course before anyone else would show up?" Daniels was all teeth and fake smiles. For a large guy it made him seem a bit friendlier, but Thomas knew that under the surface, he was anything but friendly.

"Not at all Daniels, just trying to get my squad through all the obstacles before anyone else," Thomas wouldn't back down, he couldn't back down, he needed to give his squad a reason to respect him.

"Well between us six and the staff members patrolling, I don't think you have a very good chance, better luck next time!" Daniels and the rest of his squad laughed before taking their flags and heading into the forest. Thomas already had a plan in mind though, it wasn't the best, and it could fail, but it did suit their needs.

"All right men, I have a plan." Thomas turned to the rest of his squad and smiled. This was going to wipe the smirk right off Daniels' face.