Chapter XXIX: Let’s Get It Started

All the privates were led through the camp and into a large piece of land. There were obstacles with various sizes, and at the end of it all, were land mines.

Phil and his buddy were giving me and Stu some suspicious looks. They didn't know whether or not last night was real or not. Psychological manipulation is a great tool for success.

"Alright, shut up everybody! As you can see in front of you, this is an intense obstacle course. This obstacle contains various traps and weapons in secret spots.

Traps like land mines, tripwires, barb wires, and other things as well.

With that being said, who thinks they can successfully cross through this course, without losing their lives?"

This obstacle course was obviously a test. It was to see the difference between people who are cowards when faced with a difficult situation, and people who are willing to put their life on the line for their country.

After Colonel John finished speaking, he stood there and waited for anyone to raise their hands. I looked around at all the people who didn't raise their hands and clicked my tongue:

'Pussies.' I raised my hand at the same time as Stu. We both stared intently at each other, a blazing fire pit in our eyes. The feeling of competitiveness rising in the atmosphere.

"We can only do one at a time, but since y'all two are the only ones who raised your hands, you can both do it at the same time. Whoever finishes first, gets extra dinner tonight or something."

The Colonel clearly didn't care who finished the course first, because he didn't believe either of us could.

I walked up behind a white line and looked at Stu, who stood a few feet away from me.

"Speed?" He nodded his head no.

'I guess we'll do this as "regular" people.' I thought in amusement.

"Ready, set, go!" As soon as he gave the green light to take off, I prepared myself to do so. Going at the best above average human speed I could possibly go, I approached the first obstacle with ease.

All you had to do for this one, is climb up the rope, over the top of the fence it was connected to, and fall over to the other side.

I jumped onto the rope and started climbing it intensively. Even though I was going at "normal" speeds, I was still relatively fast. I climbed up the rope in less than 20 seconds.

It was at least 10-15 feet long.

I rolled over the top and landed gracefully on the ground. I continued running towards the next obstacle. I didn't lose my focus, because Stu was almost not far behind at all.

The next obstacle were a bunch of rows of large barb wire. The intended purpose of this was to obviously jump over these barb wires to continue on. This was quite easy to do.

The barb wires were around 5 feet tall, and spread across nearly the entire area.

I jumped over each of them with grace, as if it wasn't a struggle. If anyone thought that, they wouldn't be wrong at all.

I jumped over the last row with the same amount of grace as every other one I jumped across. I continued to run and made it to the third obstacle.

This one was the standard obstacle you would see in movies or television shows. It was more barb wire that was elevated a few feet above the ground. This obstacle required one to crawl underneath it to get to the other side.

I didn't waste anymore time analyzing, and started crawling under the bar wire. I felt slight tears and tugs on my training outfit, but neither on myself.

It's gotten to the point where nothing in this time period could pierce my skin. The only thing that could become the bane of my existence, is the Ultimate Nullifier.

Since it was available to me many times in the item shop, that means it exists in this universe. So really, if someone were to use it on me, I'd lose all of my current speed.

I wasn't too worried, because I doubt that the power of it could erase Savitars' pool of pure speed energy. So even if I lose all my speed, I could always gain it back.

I quickly appeared on the other side of the obstacle and ran once more.

Now, it was time for the fourth and final obstacle of the day. To be honest, I thought there would be more, but the possibility of a human being, being able to complete this is slim to none. Which might be why they didn't put much effort into making it harder.

This last obstacle, was the land of mines. A field of land mines that blended in with the ground. As if they don't exist, but even Patrick Star would know that this wasn't as simple as it looked… well, maybe not Patrick.

Stu's figure appeared next to mine as he too, stared at the land mines.

"Winner gets the other's MRE's?" He offered. From what I've heard from friends I've made who were in the army, MRE's didn't always taste the best. But I was a competitive person, I accepted the challenge despite how bad it might taste.

"You're on." I started to sense the electrical wiring or whatever electrical component that were in these kind of explosives, to figure out wheee each one was located.

After I was confident that I knew where each individual land mine laid, I took a step onto the field. To be quite frank, I could easily yank the explosion that would be released by the land mine, but it would be very suspicious if I walked out with tattered clothing and no injuries.

I took more quick, but careful steps. I was more ahead than Stu and was going to cross the finish line, but my plan of being discrete was ruined by Stu.

He ripped off one of the pockets of his uniform and threw it at the land mine behind me. I heard the land mine clicked and I looked at Stu.

He had a crazed grin on his face. I glared at his reckless antics and quickly took off.

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

A chain reaction of explosions took off around the area. Stu and I ran towards the finish line, determination lingering in the air.

'He wants to be a dickhead? Let's make it fair play.' I extended my foot and tripped him. He jumped over my foot, anticipating the move, but that one moment allowed me to run faster than him and cross the finish line.

As soon as he crossed over, I slapped him on the back of the head. He could've dodged, but he knew he deserved it.

We walked around the obstacle course and back towards the Colonel and the other privates.

"Who the hell made you two?" The Colonel seriously couldn't believe his eyes at the pure ease and competitiveness he witnessed out there on that course.

He's never seen such fuckery before, on a bunch of land mines. He could only hope that Stu doesn't do something like that on a real battlefield.

"America sir. America." I gave the lost patriotic response I could think of, and did a salute towards the American flag behind the Colonel.

He turned around and followed where my gaze was. He turned back around with a promising grin. A grin that promised victory and success.

"You two are some real damn patriots." He led everyone towards a smaller piece of land in the camp and resembled the obstacle course. This is probably where where our combat and physical training would held. Every private was staring and Stu and I as if we were insane, we're we insane?

There was a small circle in the middle of the land, probably going to be used for sparring.

"This is where you privates will be doing various physical exercises and activities. You'll be doing simple things like pushups, sit-ups, squats, and running around this piece of land until you can't no more.

After that, we'll get into some more complicated things, like bladed and combat training."

He lined us up for the first physical challenge.

"I want you all to drop down and give me 50 pushups. Do not stop, if you stop, you have to start all over. Go!" We all got down and began to do the pushups.

Only a select few of us privates would be able to complete the pushups in one go. I couldn't say the same about the rest. We had to wait there for at least an hour before everyone could finally finish their pushups.

"Finally! Took you long enough! My grandma could do that shit faster than you lot! Now, get down again and give me 50 sit-ups. Go!"

This went just the same as the pushups, but luckily, sit-ups were easier than pushups, so everyone was able to get 50 without stopping.

"You know the drill maggots. 50 squats. Go!"

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"Alright, this is the last part of physical training. Give me 50 laps around the land. Go!"

I already knew that more that every person here besides me and Stu, would fall and have to restart. It went exactly like that too.

I picked up the pace a bit, just so I wouldn't have to suffer through the annoying groans of these undetermined swines.

"Private Loomis and Private Macher. You are excused for the day. Grab your food from the cafeteria and go to your sleeping quarters."

We had no contest with his orders and walked towards the cafeteria that we passed by on the way there.

It was silent for most of the walk, but I couldn't hold in my childish boasting any longer.

"How does it feel to lose Stu?"

"Oh fuck off Billy."

We got into a friendly argument about him being a sore loser by activating those land mines.

"You know how serious I am about winning. I am willing to do almost anything to win Bill." I glared at the nickname immediately.

"You son of a bitch!" I grabbed his head and put him in a headlock. I started giving him a noogie.

"Ay, ay! Stop! I'm sorry!" These childish antics went on for a minute, till we made it to the cafeteria. There were MRE's already there, ready to be eaten.

Not being experienced in the flavors of MRE's, I picked a random bag and walked towards the sleeping quarters.

"You're still a sore loser."

"Shut the fu-!"

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