The sunrise gives birth to a new day and today is one I'm excited about. November 1st marks day one of searcher training. Other classes began two days ago but for some reason ours has to start on the first day of the month. It's been three days since the sandstorm had us locked in the school building and besides from Lj and Khiara I haven't seen any of the others. Cleaning efforts to remove sand from the streets and buildings have been top priority so I guess that's what most of them have been pre-occupied with.
"Hey Ejay have you seen Lj for the morning?"
"Um yeah mom he woke up early to go exercise and he said that he'd meet me at the school." I reply. "Actually I was just about to leave cause I wanna try and be early on the first day."
"Well ok then." She says while frowning. "Be safe."
"I will."
Khiara and her family were placed in the apartment right on the side of us. I waited about five minutes outside for her before we headed off for the school together.
"You and Lj are really brave for wanting to become searchers." Khiara says while fixing her hair into one.
"Why do you say that?" I ask.
"Well in my first two days I've heard some things about them and their training process."
"Things like what exactly?"
"Majority of the monthly deaths recorded are searchers who don't return to city." She responds in a concerned tone. "I hear they have to undergo an intense month of training and at the end you might not even get approved."
"If your worried about me or Lj don't be. We both want this and are more than prepared to handle the dangers of this."
"Hey newbies." Says a voice jumping in from behind us.
We stop and turn to see Angie walking up to us.
"How you kids doing?" She asked as we continue to walk.
"Never better." I reply.
"I could swear you're a year younger than us." Says Khiara.
"Don't watch that, anyway Ejay I wish you luck for the hell your about to encounter."
"Wait your not becoming a searcher?" I responded.
"Nah I'm training to become a guard like my old man. I wanna protect the people here yanno."
"Yeah I understand that." I say while fixing my eyes on the school approaching in the distance.
"DAMALI, wait for me." Angie yells at a girl ahead of us. "Anyway I'll see you kids later."
"Yeah, later."
We arrive at the building where me and Khiara then part ways. A lady told me that I'll find my class around the back of the building so that's where I walked to. I followed a pathway around the perimeter where I found a large crowd of people. Boys and girls who mostly seem to fall into my age bracket, but there were some that looked a bit older.
"Yo Ejay!"
I looked to my left to find Dameer and some others calling to me. I walk over to them and find Lj standing with them too.
"Hey I'm not late right?"
"Nah your good." Dameer responded. "Actually they're about to start soon. First we gotta introduce you to the squad. You already know me, Lici, Alyssa and Cory. The other two are Liam and Miguel."
Miguel was tall and slender while Liam who was a lot shorter was also slim, but he seemed a bit more muscular than Miguel.
"What's up I'm Ejay."
"It's about time you reached." Says Lj jumping in.
"Some of us don't wake up at five in the morning." I reply.
Just then a high pitch whistle captured the attention of everyone, silencing the crowd.
"Alright listen up rookies. You could call me Mr. Bootle or Rodney it honestly doesn't matter. I will be overseeing your training for the next thirty days but before we start I have some announcements. This month the training process will be much different than in previous months. If you look around and count heads you will find that there are seventy four people here excluding myself. By November 30th only twenty of you at most will become searchers. Actually I plan to discard a good chunk of this population before the day is out."
Conversations began to break out inside of the crowd as everyone stood shocked at the news they just took in.
"How will the people that wont make it be decided?" Cory asked with his question quieting the crowd once again.
"I'm glad you asked but I think you're going to despise the answer." Rodney replied with a grin. "It's simple, every ten days you will be greeted by a task. All you have to do is complete the task and you will be fine. Your first task starts now. If you look behind you on the wall of the school you'll see a map of the city, memorize it. You should know the locations of all major landmarks and all entrances in the city wall. Basically what you have to do is make your way to the northern entrance, there you will find a case of flags. Secure a flag then make your back here. If you make it back within the next five hours with a flag you pass, it's that simple."
"Wait but according to the map, that entrance is eight miles away from here." Miguel says to him.
"Yeah so I don't know why all of you are still here. I said the task starts now a while ago."
"But wait aren't there any rules?" A random voice ask from the crowd.
"The only rule is you have to walk or run and make it back here with a flag within five hours." Rodney responded "I mean I guess I could elaborate more."
"Ejay he's wasting time." Lj whispers to me. "He said that we could've went from when he said now, that means the clock has been ticking since then too. We know everything we need to know let's go."
"Your right he's intentionally burning time." I reply while turning to the pathway.
Me, Lj and the others ran out with some others realizing and following after us. Its ninety three degrees outside and we have to make an eight hour journey to the edge of the city and back in under five hours. This is a test of endurance.
"Wait I forgot to mention that there's only fifty flags." Says Rodney after everyone already left. "Ah well, they'll figure it out."
Our group decides on Lici to lead us since she's the most experienced when it comes to traversing the roads of the city. We're about two and a half miles in and some people have already stopped and others are slowing down. Me and Lj are use to running the lengths of marathon with little breaks needed but that doesn't change the fact that the heat from the sun today is draining everything out of us. The sweat on my body is running faster than I am and it doesn't help that there isn't any clouds over head for as far as we could see. Heat stroke could become a problem if we don't find water.
"Miguel you holding up alright?" Asked Alyssa glancing over at him.
"Yeah.... I'm doin'.... fine." He responds while struggling to catch his breath.
"Guys we should take a break, he isn't looking good." Lyssa replies.
"Why do we all need to stop if only him needs a break?" Asked Cory.
"A group can only move at the pace of its slowest member, and soon he isn't gonna be moving at all." Alyssa says with growing concern.
"Your saying that like we're some sort of team Lyssa." Cory responds. "This is every man for themselves, whether he can keep going or not doesn't concern me because it doesn't affect me."
"So you wanna leave him alone?!"
"Lyssa calm down... I'll be fine." Says Miguel still struggling to catch his breath. "I... probably could go for another... half a mile or so. After that... don't let me... slow you down."
"But-"
"I've slowed down my normal jogging pace for you guys, I'm definitely not stopping." Lj says while looking back at them.
"Fine." Says Alyssa
Silence took control of our group after that. I don't want to leave him either but Cory has a point. This is a solo task and he's only being a burden to the rest of us. After another mile of light jogging Miguel collapses, landing face first into the sidewalk that's still covered with sand.
"HE'S PASSED OUT!" Alyssa yells while turning back for him. The rest of us stopped to look. "Guys he isn't sweating, he might've collapsed from heat stroke."
"Let's move him under some shade and set out again." Cory says while the rest of us come to a sudden stop.
"Cory you've known him for years now, are you honestly ok with leaving him alone in this state?" Alyssa asks as a tear begins to form in her eye.
"Look Lyssa I didn't force him to push his body to this point, and I'm not forcing you to follow me when I leave him here. My choices are mine and his choices are his, it's his problem if he couldn't deal with the consequences of his choices. Now I have a goal I need to reach and it's up to y'all if you're gonna join me." He explains as he turns and finish run towards the north gate.
Without hesitating Lj and Lici followed him.
"Liam... Dameer... You guys have known him the longest out of all of us. Please." She says pleading to them.
"I told him that we wasn't physically ready for this." Liam replied. "I saw something like this happening. The most I could do is give him my water." He says while giving Lyssa a half full water bottle, then turning to jog off.
"Sorry Lyssa, I need to complete this." Says Dameer while he follows Liam.
I'm torn. I need to finish this but then I can't just leave him here in that condition. Me standing here being conflicted isn't helping anything, I need to make a choice. Damn it...I have something.
"Lyssa, stay here and take care of him I'm gonna make sure both of you pass."
"But how?" She replies while looking up at me.
"Don't worry about how. I'm gonna make it happen, stay safe I'll be back." My final words before sprinting to catch up to the others.
I have to move fast if I want to help them. Although I could feel the effects of the heat more than ever now. I have to keep pushing.
One hour down now we're two and a half miles removed from the northern gate. The group isn't looking good. Dameer and Lici have stopped to break several times now, Liam is visibly shaking and the rest of us haven't said a word for a while because our heavy breathing is now controlling our mouths. Everyone else in the class either went different routes from us or stopped to break.
"Guys I think it's safe for us to break for a little while." Lici says while stopping again.
"She's right I think we have a pretty decent lead on everyone else." Liam adds in as he also stops.
The rest of us also stopped with no words being said. It's obvious all of us needed this and wasn't going to fight that fact.
"Lici how far do you think we are from the gate?" Cory asks while sitting on the sidewalk.
"We have to follow this road for another half a mile then turn right. After that it should be a straight shot for the gate. After we hit that road though, there isn't much of any buildings. We have about a mile and a half of being exposed to the sun, then we have to turn around and come back."
"I'm resting for five minutes, after that I'm continuing with or without you guys." Says Lj as he opens his water bottle.
"Why is this part of the city so quiet?" I ask while starring up at the buildings. "We haven't seen other people for about a mile now."
"Most of the cities population is near the center around where the school is or to the south." Lici responds. "Most stray infected that gets inside comes from the north so people gradually moved further down. Leaving these buildings abandoned."
"This area is kind of spooky." Says Liam. "It's basically a ghost town, and all of this sand doesn't help."
I can't shake the feeling that I'm being watched right now, but I don't want to alert the others. I'll just wait it out. The five minutes fly pass and we're off again. As we're leaving Lj runs along side of me and says quietly...
"I know you felt that too, when we're coming back with the flags be ready for anything."
I've been ready since that night to prove myself. I wish somebody or something would try me. A half grin cracks into my face as a rush of energy enters my body.
The road to the gate was clear and wide with about a mile of sand separating the buildings and the wall around the city. It's barren out here and vultures are gliding over head. The heat out here is intense and it's not even mid-day yet.
"Am I going crazy or do you guys see people out there." Lici ask pointing towards the gate.
"I think it's the people training to be guards." Cory replies. "Angie said yesterday they were going to be by a gate but she didn't say which one."
As we closed in the group of what seems to be at least one hundred people came into focus. There was Angie, Victor and Regine. Also Captain Nash at the entrance standing next to a box.
"Congratulations on being the first bunch to make it here." Captain says greeting us. "This is not the time to start slacking though. Something tells me the run back is going to be twice as rough. Good luck rookies."
One at a time we all grabbed our flags with me getting mines last. I stood over the box and looked back at Captain Nash. His attention was on the class of rookie guards doing jumping jacks in the sand. I look back in the box and grabbed three flags then quickly shoved them into my pants pocket. I look up to turn around and join the others when my eyes locked on to Angie's. She was starring at me with her big dark brown eyes, I stopped and starred back. She did nothing before turning back to do her drills. Right before I lift my leg to jog with the others a voice called on me.
"I assume those other two flags aren't for you Mr. Francis." Says Captain Nash. "I don't see you as anyone who would just sabotage people for no reason which means they're probably for two people. As a guard you could report things on your own, but outside these walls. You need your fellow searchers, never leave anyone behind."
With my back towards him I didn't say a word. I raised my head and ran to catch up with the others. Was he disappointed I left them or proud I did this to help them. That doesn't matter now, we have just under three hours to get back to them, and then the school.
As we're running back we cross paths with about thirty other rookies. Some in good condition while others are on the verge of collapsing. We enter back into the abandoned part of the city and that feeling came back. More rookies pass by us and then we pass four more passed out beside a building. Three miles removed from the gate and we're moving even better than before. We're reaching the end of the abandoned part of the city when a challenge crossed our path. Five guys, all of them holding pieces of wood in their hands.
"We don't want to hurt you guys, just hand over your flags and we'll leave you alone." Says one of the guys.
"You think we did all of this just to give our flags away?" Dameer responds.
"We don't have enough time or energy to make it to the gate and back now." Another one of them explains.
"Teacher said we just have to bring a flag back in time, no other rules."
"We'll let the girl go but the rest of you, don't take this personally. Last chance, give us the flags."
"It aint happening." Lj replies.
"Alright you asked for this." Said one of them while charging at us.
I was ready for a fight but I never thought it would've been like this. Lj took the first one dodging his first swing before getting in close and striking his body. The rest charged in going for a different one of us each. Mines swung for my side but I was able to catch it pulling it to me he stumbled right into my fist. After a second blow to his head he dropped the stick, which I then picked up. Before he could recover from the punches I swung the stick at him breaking it over his back. The yell he let off was satisfying as he dropped to the ground. My mind yelled at me to stomp his head into the ground and I agreed. I raised my leg over him to do it but then....
"AAAAHHHH!!!!" Liam had let off scream filled with pain.
I turned to see one of the guys standing over him as Liam held his Leg. He raised the stick to swing at him but before he could Dameer tackled him. Me and Lj then ran over to help beat him. I punched him again and again and again and again...
"Ejay!" Dameer says touching my shoulder. "Leave him he's done."
"Yeah." I reply looking down at his bloody face.
I get up and looked around to see the other guys spread across the street.
"Guys, Liam's leg." Lici says trying to treat him. "Could you stand on it?"
He tries to stand but it's clear he could barely do that.
"I can't finish this, not like this." He says hopping on one leg.
"Ok let's head out the rest of you." Cory says as he starts to walk off.
"Just like that Cory?" Lici asks.
"Yeah just like that. He's a liability now. What are we suppose to do carry him? We have basically five miles left to go."
"I'll carry him then." I say looking over at him.
"For five miles Ejay?" Lj asks.
"I aint leaving anybody else behind, and I know none of you are gonna volunteer to do it. So Liam let's go."
"You sure bro I don't wanna hold you guys back."
"Your wasting time just hop on." I reply while squatting down.
"Aight."
Everyone just watched in silence as he climbed on. I just suddenly heard Captain Nash in my head and I couldn't leave him. Once he was on I jogged off with the others following. The heat, the weight, the pain, I need to endure. After about ten minutes of running. We came across Alyssa and Miguel running towards us.
"I doubt we have time to make it there and back." Miguel asks.
"No need." I reply while taking out the flags I brought for them. "Don't tell anybody." I say to them before continuing to jog.
The run back was calm after that. We took only one break, but that was really just for me to catch up. The school now one turn away and we had half an hour to spare. I lagged behind again but I told them not to wait for me. A few others passed me too but I don't care about that. I turned the corner and saw them sitting in front of the building. Mr. Bootle looking at me with a smile and the others amazed at the fact I brought him this whole way. I wanted to crack a smile but I was breathing so hard I couldn't form my mouth any other way.
"Good afternoon gentlemen, you two finish 14th and 15th. Well done." Rodney said as Lici and Alyssa helped Liam off of my back.
The second he was off everything became fuzzy. The world began spinning. I finally was able to form that smile as my body gave up on me. The last thing I saw was concrete before blacking out. Test one complete.