Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

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Montage mode engaged. Further running tasks will be automatically time compressed.

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The next three hours passed by like a flash, as if I had run them in only a few moments. Out of the fifteen of us, only myself and two others stayed within arms reach of the drill sergeant. When he came to a stop near the main entrance, he called a halt and the four of us waited for the others. He pointedly didn't look at me, probably because I wasn't breathing heavily like the other two men or sweating like everyone else was.

He didn't ask and I didn't tell him that jogging like that wasn't even exercise for me. I could do that all day and never break a sweat. It took about fifteen minutes for the others to reach us and come to a stop. Several of them were bent over and had their hands on their knees as they tried to catch their breath.

“You can rest later, ladies.” The drill sergeant said. “Let's get some chow. You have 45 minutes to eat.”

“We're... supposed to have... an hour.” One of the men said through his heavy breaths.

“You had an hour when I called a stop. It took you fifteen minutes to finish.” Will said. “Fall IN!”

We formed two lines and he led us over to the mess hall. I didn't have to ask why it was called a mess, because it was a mess. He took us through the line and nearly everyone complained about the state of the 'food'. Not officially, of course. They were only complaining because they could. I didn't shake my head at them for being stupid, either. They were getting free food and getting paid to be there. What was the point in complaining about that?

Everyone stared at me, the drill sergeant included, as I ate every single scrap of food that had been given to me on the metal tray. I had learned a long time ago that if you didn't eat, you didn't live. I even dug the 'spoon' into all the corners and licked it off. I was finished long before anyone else was.

“Damn, that was weird to see.” Someone said from the next table. “Did you even taste it?”

“No teasing him.” The drill sergeant warned.

“This green stuff tastes like water beast.” A man said and spit out a wad of it.

“It tasted like diamond snake, actually.” I said and they looked at me. “It was good.”

That earned me a few surprised looks.

“Hurry up, people.” The drill sergeant said and stood up, his tray only half empty. He hadn't touched the green stuff at all. “The obstacle course awaits.”

I stood up and followed him as he dumped out the food and put his tray on a stack of used ones. I kept my mouth shut about wasting food like that. I would remember it, though. Nearly that whole stack of trays had a lot of leftover food in them. I made it a point to show the cleaned tray to the guys behind the counter and they smiled back at me.

I stood off to the side of the mess hall, right behind the drill sergeant, and waited for the others. They finished and did the same thing as the drill sergeant and threw out their mostly uneaten food. They came over to us and we left the hall and went over to the area designated as an obstacle course.

It was huge.

There were about thirty obstacles, assuming two or three of them weren't merged together, because a couple of the structures looked like they didn't normally go together. They were spread out over a large area, too.

“All right, ladies. LISTEN UP!” The drill sergeant yelled and then he told us what we had to do to cross over the whole thing. He explained in detail, twice, how to stay safe while doing it. He also said that it wasn't timed and the whole point was to test our strength, endurance, confidence, and agility. When we finished it, he could grade our performance and would be able to change his training to best suit improving us to the point that we could do the obstacle course while being timed.

“As you can see, there are soldiers all along the course to help keep you safe and to remind you to not fall and kill yourselves!” The drill sergeant said and looked at the man standing beside me. “Jenkins! You're first up! I liked your hustle this morning, so get in there and show me what you got!”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” Jenkins said and jogged over to the first obstacle. It was a four foot wide rope ladder with ropes in the middle at one foot intervals. It made a grid pattern and Jenkins climbed up the fifteen feet with both speed and care, so he wouldn't slip. At the top were logs that he climbed over and there was a log bridge with six inch spaces between them. He walked across the whole twenty feet, that was above a deep pool of water, and reached a thin wooden ladder.

He climbed up another fifteen feet, went over the top log to a ten foot wide rope ladder and carefully climbed down thirty feet to the ground. He ran to the next obstacle that was a forty foot tall wooden tower and climbed to the top. Once there, he grabbed the rope and pulled himself up onto the rope to wrap his legs around it, then eased himself down the rope across thirty feet of distance to a spot where the soldier told him to let go.

A ten foot long balance log was there for him to cross, then another and another. He came to a horizontal ladder and he grabbed the rungs as he dropped underneath it and swung himself by his hands and took his time to cross all forty feet over even more water. He reached the short platform and stepped off it to the ground. After a short jog, he was at a ten foot wide vertical wall of logs that wasn't complete and was missing every second and third log.

He struggled as he climbed up twenty feet and went over the top, then carefully climbed down the other side. After that was a two foot high platform with logs two feet apart. He didn't walk across them, though. The soldier there told him to crawl. He did and looked really awkward doing it.

After that was a ten foot long log on posts three feet off the ground and across his path. He climbed on top of it and was told to jump onto another log across from it that was about three feet away and four feet higher. He did it and climbed over that to drop seven feet to the ground.

Next were a bunch of three foot tall wooden Xs that he had to hop over and not hurt himself. Next was a similar log hop to the one he did before the Xs, only this one had three logs to climb on and jump to. It had an eleven foot drop at the end and Jenkins bent over and took several deep breaths.

“You're not being timed. Relax. Breathe.” The soldier said and pat his back. “You're doing great.”

“Thanks.” Jenkins said and kept going.

He went a short ways and met a seven foot tall wall that was angled towards him. He grabbed onto the top and pulled himself up and slid down the other side. Out of all the obstacles, that one was the easiest. He dropped to the ground and crawled under what the drill sergeant called barbed wire. There was barely two feet between the wire and the ground, so Jenkins had a hard time crawling through it.

On the other side of that were three ropes hanging from a log twenty feet up and you had to swing up onto a four foot log across the path and then hop down. After that was a series of thin poles across the path that you had to step over and not use your hands. He had a bit of trouble, since the poles were three feet high. He did that for twenty feet and came to a log across the path that was six feet high.

Jenkins jumped and grabbed on, pulled himself up and sat there for a few seconds before he flung his leg over and jumped down. A thick log came up from the ground at an angle that he had to walk up and then he walked onto the ten foot long one. It spun on its axis and he slid right off and fell three feet to the ground.

He went back and walked up the thick log again, then he carefully walked across the spinning one and down the other side. Next was something called hurdles. He took his time again because there was forty feet of them, one every 6 feet, and he looked exhausted when he crossed them.

“You're on the home stretch.” A soldier at the large wide ladder said.

Jenkins didn't say anything and rested for a minute. He started to climb it and I saw that it was angled backwards towards me. He struggled at the top and barely managed to get over it and climb down. He sat on the bottom rung for several minutes. After that were more balancing logs, except they were thin and more difficult to cross across the mud pits. He slipped on the very first one and fell face first into the mud.

The soldier there reached in and pulled him out. “You can skip this one for now.”

Jenkins spit out some mud and wiped at his face. “You should have... told me that... before I fell.”

The soldier laughed and waved him around the obstacle.

There were a few more quick step things, a see-saw that you had to be careful walking across, a rope swing across a water pit, and the last major obstacle was another barb wire crawl, only the wire was loose. Jenkins sighed loudly and started to crawl and hold the wire up at the same time to work his way under it to get to the other side.

He finally managed it after an agonizing ten minutes and then he came to an area of tree stumps of different heights. He had to jump from stump to stump to get across and came to a wooden bridge.

“Is it a trap?” Jenkins asked. “Is it going to tilt or roll me off or something?”

The soldier laughed and shook his head. “It's just a bridge over the water canal that feeds the horses.”

“Thank god.” Jenkins said and walked across it. When he reached the rest area, he dropped to the ground on his back and didn't move.

“He definitely started out really well.” The drill sergeant said with a chuckle, then he looked at me and the humor disappeared from his face. “I let someone else go first, so I wouldn't have to explain again what to do.” He waved at the course. “Go ahead and show me what you got.”

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You have a critical choice to make. Will you choose wisely?

A) Do the course perfectly. B) Show off. C) Cheat. D) Run the whole way. E) Fake it. F) Choose two.

Oh. Oho. Hooo. I thought. Sandra warned me to not show off, so I'll choose A and D.

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“Yes, Drill Sergeant.” I said and I activated my vigilance technique as I took off running towards the first obstacle. It was a four foot wide rope ladder and I ignored the rope rungs and used the support rope to climb up with just my hands.

At the top I slipped over the log there and ran across the twenty foot log bridge without pausing. I climbed the fifteen foot tall thin wooden ladder and went over the top log to the rope ladder and did the same quick climb down that I did going up, using just my hands and the support rope.

I ran to the next obstacle that was a forty foot tall wooden tower and quickly climbed to the top as if it was a tree I had climbed hundreds of times. Once there, I grabbed the rope and pulled myself up onto the rope to wrap just my ankles around it, so the leather of the boots would take the punishment, then I pulled myself, hand over fist, as quickly as possible down the rope across thirty feet of distance to the spot where the soldier had told Jenkins to let go.

He stared at me as I ran across the ten foot long balance log, then another and another. I came to the horizontal ladder and hopped up on top instead of going underneath and ran across it. I jumped down to the platform at the end and ran to the ten foot wide vertical wall of logs that wasn't complete and was missing every second and third log.

It proved to be no obstacle as I ascended the twenty feet easily and went over the top, then I barely touched the wall as I climbed down the other side. I ran to the two foot high platform with logs that were two feet apart and I crawled across them as if it was the most natural thing to do. The soldier there stared at me as I did it in only seconds.

After that was the ten foot long logs on posts that were across the path. I used them like steps and hopped up onto the first one without stopping and hopped to the other higher one behind it. I jumped to the ground and ran to the Xs. I treated them like hurdles and passed over them easily. The triple log hop was next and I used them like steps as well. It had an eleven foot drop at the end and I didn't even pause as I jumped off and landed on the ground and rolled into another run.

I approached the seven foot tall wall and jumped as I put a hand on the top and cleared it completely. It was definitely the easiest obstacle. The barb wire obstacle was next and I lunged and flattened myself as I hit the ground and slid halfway along the distance, then I wiggled like a snake and came out the other side without even touching the barb wire once.

The three hanging ropes were next and I ran, jumped and grabbed a rope, then swung up onto the log. I placed a foot onto it and then dropped to the ground in front of the series of thin poles across the path that you had to step over and not use your hands. I easily hopped over them like everything else and ran to the six foot high log that was across the path. I leapt it like I had the angled wall, since it was actually shorter.

Next was the thick log that came up from the ground at an angle that I had to walk up, soldier's orders, and I walked up it as quickly as I could, across the spinning one as if it didn't spin, and down the other side. The hurdles were next and I crossed them as easily as everything else, since running was now allowed again.

I came to the backwards angled ladder and only used my hands to climb it until I got to the top and then pulled myself up and ran down the other side. I did the thin balancing logs next and crossed each of them with only a couple of steps. The soldier there just stared at me as I passed him.

I did a few more quick step things, the see-saw that I used two steps to cross, since if you only stepped on the pivot point, you didn't have to worry about balancing it. I used the rope swing to cross the water pit and arrived at the last major obstacle, the loose barb wire crawl. I knew exactly how to cross it easily and laid down on my back, lifted the barb wire, and literally crawled the loose wire from underneath and pulled myself across the dirt to the other side in only ten seconds.

I stood up and ran to the area of tree stumps and didn't stop running as I crossed them to the bridge and ran across it. I pat my uniform a few times to knock the dust off of it, then went to the rest area with Jenkins and sat down beside him.

The entire area was deathly quiet and I looked around to see that everyone was staring over at me. It wasn't just the drill sergeant, either. A whole bunch of soldiers, men and women both, had stopped whatever they were doing to watch me.

“Platoon!” The drill sergeant said loudly. “Do NOT do that.” He said and waved to me. “That was not how this course was meant to be used.”

“Drill Sergeant.” A woman's voice said into the silence. “It seems you didn't notice that he did it perfectly.”

We all turned to see the XO standing by the corner of a nearby building.

“Ma'am, that's not true. He ran through...”

“There are no rules against that.” Anna said and smiled. “The only questionable part would be the long horizontal ladder.”

“Ma'am! I was ordered to cross it. He didn't say how.” I said and that made her smile bigger.

“Then I retract my statement.” Anna said and looked at the drill sergeant. “I suggest adding caution to the warnings that it's not timed and that they don't have to rush.”

“I'll change it to 'don't rush'.” The drill sergeant said.

“I didn't rush.” I said and that got everyone's attention. “I can run faster than that.”

“By the Son's Light.” Someone said.

Anna gave me a look I didn't recognize, then she nodded to the drill sergeant. “Carry on, Will.”

“Ma'am.” The drill sergeant said and saluted her as she left the area.

For the rest of the morning, I got to watch the others do their best to cross all of the obstacles.