Recruit

Chapter 7

“Listen up, hayseeds.” Crippin paced in front of the recruits on the parade ground. “Today, we run the course proper.”

Jack ached from the previous day’s exercise. His cuts stung and his legs were stiff. He’d run the course again and this time, Torent would be left in his dust.

“We played nice yesterday. Today, you are going to work hard. Fall too far behind and you will be tazed. Miss your target on the rifle range and you will be tazed. And if you are standing here in the next five seconds, you will be tazed. Do you get me, hayseeds?”

Jack heard the recruits shouting, “sir, yes, sir,” but he was already running toward the hill.

“What are you waiting for, hayseeds?”

The hill was easy. Jack looked back to measure his lead. He was on the top before his nearest rival was halfway. Torent was jogging along with a group of his new cronies.

Jack looked down to the course. The small hills with the forts on top and the familiar paths that he’d run and crawled over the day before. The sound of panting breath and heavy foot falls behind told Jack that the rest of the recruits closing in. Jack ran down hill. He could run as easily downhill as he could on the flat. He knew he wasn’t strong, but he had balance and stamina. He could keep this up all day. He was sure Torent would struggle after a time. The thief might be good at crawling through tight spaces, probably practice from housebreaking, and he might have some practice at running, probably from the police, but Torent was a kravin’ gutter chit. Jack knew Torent could never match him.

The first obstacle was the wall and Jack was able to leap and grab the top. He scrambled and struggled and made the top of the wall. The thief would probably be better at shinning up walls, all part of the housebreaker’s craft, but Jack was still ahead of him. Jack turned to lower himself down the other side.

Jack ran between the hills, following the path that thousands of recruits had run before him. The next obstacle was a series of raised beams surrounded by thick mud. He ran across the beams, leaping from one to another, and finally jumped to the firm ground on the other side. A quick glance back and he saw Torent still running with his group.

Jack climbed and ran, and crawled and ran, and every now and then glanced back. He was pulling away from Torent. Today, he was going to stay ahead.

The rifle range was next and Jack prepared his weapon quickly. He took his time to breathe and aim, but he only needed to hit his target, a bull was not essential. Jack fired his rounds quickly and scored all hits and all bulls. He was a competent and confident shot. He didn’t need to think about it. He let himself admire his marksmanship for a few moments before setting off at a jog for the next obstacle.

The next path was clear and Jack ran on. He knew the military had drafted dozens of students who had dropped a grade in the last few months. He knew they had all been brought to one of these training bases. This one was completely empty. The only people he had seen in the last few days were Crippin, Hacker, and those who had arrived on the transport ship with him. Where was everyone else? There must be other training bases in the system, Jack thought. This was a small moon and he could probably run around it in a day or two, but there could be another base here that they just hadn’t seen.

Jack spotted the next obstacle, a series of hanging ropes that Jack had to hang from and work his way over the dark, sticky mud underneath. Some ropes hung vertically and some horizontally. He grabbed hold of the first and started off. The vertical ropes were the hardest to hold and move between. The horizontal ropes were easier. Jack hung from one, looking at the next.

Reaching out for the next rope, Jack heard recruits reaching the obstacle. He turned, hoping it wasn’t Torent. It was two other recruits, part of Torent’s little gang. One was skinny and fast, the other ugly and brutish. The burning in Jack’s arms threatened to overwhelm him. He looked down at the sticky mess below. There was no way he was going to let himself drop into that. He looked to the next rope. He had no time to spare.

The sounds of the rest of the squad running toward the rope obstacle caught Jack’s ear. Torent was surely still in the pack. Jack looked at the next rope and grabbed it. Arms burning and lungs gasping, Jack cleared the ropes. Looking back, he saw that the skinny recruit and the ugly recruit were catching up. Setting off at a fast pace, Jack ran off along the next empty path.

It was a short run. Jack knew he was starting to slow. He glanced back and saw that the two recruits on his tail had almost caught him. Jack could see they were almost exhausted. He could pull away from them over the next few hundred meters, they didn’t look to have the strength to keep up their pace to the end of the day. They would collapse any minute and get tazed by Hacker.

The skinny recruit ran alongside Jack and grabbed him around the shoulders, pulling him to the ground.

“What the krav?” Jack shouted. “Get off me.”

The skinny recruit said nothing, just held Jack tightly. Then the ugly recruit came and dropped a knee on Jack’s back.

“Got you,” the ugly one said and twisted his knee in Jack’s back. “Go and tell Squad Leader we got him.”

“No kravin’ way,” said the skinny one. “I ain’t got another squirt of energy in me.”

Jack realized what was happening. Torent had sent his cronies ahead to stop him. Now Torent could take the lead and cruise to a winning finish again.

Jack heaved suddenly and broke out of the hold. But before he could get to his feet, the recruit with the knee on his back grabbed Jack’s collar.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Jack struggled to get away, but the two held him down.

Another recruit came running around the corner. She was red-faced and breathing hard, but she had enough energy to smile. She slowed to a jogging pace and went on by.

“Not too fast,” the ugly recruit called out. “Squad Leader wants the win.”

The girl stopped. She put her hands on her knees and breathed heavily, sweat dripping from her face onto the ground next to Jack.

“No,” she said. “He just wants him to come last.” She smiled and then winked at Jack before taking off at a jog toward the next obstacle.

Jack felt fury. He waited until he felt the hold on him relax and fought suddenly to break their grip. It was a waste of effort. He needed to conserve his energy. Once Torent went by, Jack would be able to throw everything into the run and catch up. Jack relaxed and waited.

Soon, Jack heard a group coming near. They were running and someone in the group was counting and keeping pace. They came around the corner, the whole group of Torent’s cronies. And there in the middle was Torent. He looked down at Jack and smiled as he jogged by.

Jack seethed, but he admired the thief’s smarts. He’d got the entire squad to work together, sending some ahead to catch him and using the rest as pace-setters.

“Keep him here,” Torent said as he jogged by.

“How long for?” the skinny recruit asked.

“Until Hacker gets here,” Torent said with a wink.

“But we’ll get tazed,” the recruit complained.

Torent just shrugged and jogged on. “It don’t hurt too bad,” he said.

Jack wriggled again and struggled to get free. “Just let me sit up, for krav sake,” Jack said calmly.

“You run and I’ll hurt you,” the ugly one said.

But Jack didn’t have chance to reply. Hacker came jogging around the corner. The three recruits sitting in the dirt looked up at the big sergeant. The tazer fizzed and blasted out a wide beam that slammed into the three of them. Jack felt the blast hit every cell in his body at once. He tasted the energy flowing over the saliva in his mouth. His arms and legs jerked about as if they had been set free from Jack’s body and given life of their own. He felt the pain of them slamming into the ground as they flapped around. And then as the energy gathered in the base of Jack’s skull, he felt consciousness slip away.