BLARE!!!!!!!
An alarm ran through the dormitories of the recruits startling them and waking some up from their slumber.
«All recruits are to gather and assemble correctly at the third mountain top»
«You have 10 minutes to do so»
«Failure will result in penalty»
The following messages popped up on the watches of the recruits. Kieran, who had already woken up long ago, stared at the messages on the watch for a while before getting up and making his way out of the room to the designated location with the aid of the watch.
There, he met a few recruits already present and some just arriving like him. After waiting for a few more minutes, two soldiers walked up and introduced themselves.
"Alright, ten minutes are up! The rest will have to deal with the penalty. Now I want the rest of you to arrange yourselves before I move on"
The first soldier said while looking at the stopwatch in his hand.
The recruits moved swiftly, arranging themselves into five rows of ten. Glancing at the neat arrangement of the recruits, the soldier commenced his introduction while the second soldier went off to the entrance and guided those who were turning up late to another area at the side.
"My name is Keith and my colleague over there is Marcus and we're going to be your instructors for today." He said while also turning his head to face the latecomers that had been rounded up, indicating that he was addressing them all.
"You were all given ten minutes to get ready and assemble here. It takes an average soldier half the time given to you to get ready during emergencies and for soldiers of this boot camp, it takes three minutes for one to be ready!"
He started off with a stiff face and cold voice common to the soldiers they had seen around.
"Although those of you in front of me made it here in under ten minutes, you all still failed the mission", he declared, causing a slight uproar among the recruits while some of the more composed one's frowned.
'We all failed? The objective of the mission was to gather and-' he paused in realization of what the instructor was talking about.
Looking around, the instructor noticed some recruits who didn't share the surprise of the others. With this in mind, he continued,
"Judging your faces, some of you have realized what I was talking about. For those who still don't get it, the mission was to gather and assemble correctly at this spot." He paused, taking one moment to look into their eyes.
"Although, the fifty-five of you completed the first objective which was to gather, you all failed to assemble yourselves correctly until I told you to which was after the allocated ten minutes"
Without waiting to assess their reactions, he turned to the other group of recruits that had been guided away by the other soldier he addressed as Marcus.
"As for the twenty of you, it's your first mission and you're already failing! I'm quite disappointed." He started in a sterner tone before resuming in a louder one,
"Since you all failed the mission, you shall be punished accordingly! Those of you who completed the first objective will be made aware of your punishment later."
"As for those of you who were total failures, you will be repeating this morning's drill five times and 20 points will be deducted from each of you. Your second round of punishment will be made known to you after this is all over!" He declared in a cold voice.
"Let me make it clear to you. You are no longer in your homes, you are no longer a young master, heir or whatever you were before you made it here. That part of you died the moment you stepped foot into this camp. You are recruits training to become the best of the best among the soldiers humans have to offer and, in this camp, every one of your actions has implications"
"The punishment you just received is going to be the lightest you ever receive till you leave this place."
"Now back to the purpose of this assembly. It is going to be your daily routine. Each morning you will all assemble here and take part in this drill, take it as a warm up."
Marcus, the second soldier who had been silent until now then took over,
"For today, you will be having a race, an obstacle course but what you need to look out for is the terrain."
"Just like you've been told, you're no longer on earth and the terrain, although similar, is quite different from Earth's terrain just like you all saw in the desert."
The recruits face changed at the mention of the desert, even Kieran who had been quite calm until now shivered at the memory of the storm; he had almost died.
"In a moment I'll be introducing you to the path and your race will commence"
Following that, the two instructors introduced them to the path which their race was to follow.
It turned out that this impossibly huge mountain range on which the camp was based was actually the boundary between two different climates- there was a tropical forest on the other side of the mountain. They were to run through a part of the forest which had been cleared of its major threats and circle back to their starting point.
On paper it was quite simple, but it was quite far from it in reality, navigating through the huge trees of the forest without getting lost was just one of the issues, the most obvious disadvantage was the time frame they were given. Two hours!
It seemed much but Kieran and most of the recruits were aware of how quickly time flew. After concluding the specifics of the challenge which could hardly be called specific, Marcus officially started the race
"You've got two hours, it starts…. NOW!"
The recruits sprinted in the direction they had been given. Looking at the backs of the recruits, Marcus muttered with a sinister smile
"Good luck, you'll need it, a lot of it!"
...….
The recruits ran from the clearing through the different passageways back into the mountain, navigating through the monotonous metallic walls that could confuse a person into oblivion.
The first part of the race was getting to the foot of the mountain without their watches, which had been temporarily disabled. They had been shown a few different paths to achieve that goal and it was up to each of them to memorize a path and follow it to a T, because a single error could take them back to their starting point.
From the lightly detailed map that was shown to them, Kieran noticed that the camp was structured like a maze, possibly a security detail. Focusing on the task at hand, Kieran wasn't as worried. Growing up in the slums had its own perks, committing the safest path to memory was an essential skill to survive in that toxic shit hole so he had no problem memorizing one of the shortest paths, and by visualizing a mental map based on his current position, he had no problem navigating his way to the foot of the mountain.
The moment he got out, a cool breeze, strikingly different from the hot air he experienced in the desert assaulted him, along with the smell of pines and the scattered rays of sun that shone on his face through the trees. He took a pause letting his pale skin bathe in the scattered rays of sunlight, and took a deep breath filling his lungs with the clean air of the forest unlike the stale air in the base, the scent of pines assaulted his senses giving him a refreshed feeling as the winds caressed his skin.
Snapping out of his daze a moment later, his being once again became cold and calculated, his focus back at the task at hand, he hadn't any time to waste and with that in mind, he sprinted into the forest of amazing tall trees, the sound of pine leaves being crushed beneath his foot being the only sign of his presence there.
Moments later, other recruits appeared on their respective paths, some even arriving at the same time staring at each other with hostility and competitiveness in their eyes.
Among these recruits was a white-haired boy whose facial expression showed his disinterest in the whole exercise, a rather bulky guy with rough spiky hair and a wild aura around him, the red-haired girl in the dorm opposite Kieran, and serene the blue haired noble which sat opposite Kieran during the orientation, the guys who behaved like her bodyguards were also present with her.
The five of them along with all other recruits, despite being in different locations, only took a moment before moving in the same direction which Kieran was headed.
Back during the briefing, they were given a path which was to be the main lane of the race, so regardless of their landing path at the foot of the mountain, they were all going to rendezvous at the specified path, the landing path only determined their official starting point of the race, some being rather close while others found themselves at a distance from the main path.
Kieran, having taken most of these factors into play, had managed to pick a path through the mountain that was not only short but was rather close to the main path. The other five recruits had also made similar decisions, giving them a head start in the race.