บท 18: Getting Physical?
Afton walked outside the classroom as other students sent envious glances at him, once outside he was greeted by his parents and Adah who didn't seem surprised that he'd finished so quickly.
His mother hugs him to her chest before he's able to back away, "How did it go Afton? Do you think you did well?" she quickly asks.
Afton gently pushes her away as to not hurt her feelings and looks at them, "Judging by how the examiner almost passed out when he saw my paper, I think I did alright." he says with a small grin.
Zachary snorts, restraining his laughter as they were outside the test room, "That's my boy, maybe I can request for you to be made my apprentice once you're promoted." he wonders aloud.
Afton shakes his head, "Sorry dad, but even if that were allowed I'd not accept it... I know you're strong and could teach me a lot, but I want to prove myself. If the others found out you'd apprenticed me they'd think its only because I'm your son." he explains, getting a proud nod from his father.
Adah "Have you been training for the physical test? I've neglected that subject as I myself only barely passed it." she asks, worried that he'd fail due to her focus on his studies.
"I'll be fine, you'll see that I haven't forgotten to train my body." he says, calming the anxious woman he'd come to consider a sort of grandma. The trio leave and head up to the surface to wait for the next test to begin as Afton stays put.
Ten minutes later someone else had apparently completed their test early, Afton nods at a dark brown haired girl with a boyish face. "Finished?"
They nod, "I am... I didn't expect to see anyone else finish before me though, I'd pushed back becoming an Initiate to focus on other studies, so I thought I'd definitely be the best here." she says while giving him an appraising look.
"I'm Afton Parker by the way, ten years old."
The girl nods, "Sandra Torres, twelve, nice to meet you Afton. What did you think about the third question on page four?"
They talk about the test and what answers they gave as they wait for everyone else to arrive, Afton found the girl to be pretty good conversation, she was similar to him in a way. Rational, reserved, introverted, but still did her best in whatever she put her mind to. He was looking forward to see what she'd do in the future.
A few other students came out early, but most existed just as the test ended, probably rechecking their answers as many times as physically possible. Doran walked out next and nodded to everyone, "I bet your all mentally exhausted for that, right?" he asks and receives nods from the students, "Well, get ready because you'll be doing your physical test right about... Now. All of you follow me, if you fall behind then you automatically fail." he states as he begins jogging through the hall.
Some students are confused by the sudden activity and lag behind, having to sprint to catch up to the rest of the group. Doran increases his speed so that those following him are halfway between jogging and sprinting, eventually reaching a ladder that leads to the surface.
He jumps on it and quickly climbs up, throwing open the hatch and crawling out. Afton follows with dexterity none of his peers had seen him show before, standing to attention before Doran with not a drop of sweat on him. "Sir."
Doran just sighs and seems to accept his absurd talent and continues to wait for everyone to climb out. Some of the kids seem to think this was a competition and barged people out of the way to get to the ladder first, some even pulling people from the ladder as they climbed.
Once everyone was on the surface a Knight wearing Power armour climbed out aswell, walking over to Doran and pointing out a few students.
Doran shakes his head and points at them, "Those of you who barged, grabbed, disrupted, or attempted to stop others from climbing are hereby disqualified, maybe next year you'll learn some respect for your fellows." he says, causing the selected ones to grumble and leave, though, some of the more unruly ones were dragged away by some Knights.
Afton dabs his forehead with his forearm, the exercise hadn't caused him to start sweating, the sun had... As he spent so much time underground his skin had become pale and not suited for it, he could feel his skin slowly burning under its intense rays.
He glances around at the area and spots the many heavily armoured patrols wielding an ungodly amount of firepower... Only someone with a deathwish and a mini-nuke launcher would dare approach them unsolicited. Nothing had really changed from last he saw it, ruined buildings and vehicles sat around like monuments to humanities sins, though, he could see red cloth tied around some of the nearby lamposts that hadn't been knocked over.
Not only that, he could see his parents and some of the higher up members of the Brotherhood watching from the sidelines... Even Veronica and the Elder were watching, though, the latter seemed wholly unconcerned with them. If Afton had to take a guess, he'd say Veronica managed to get permission to watch.
He glanced back at the group and spotted his friends, Miles had already been sweating from the brief run through the tunnels, but Melissa seemed completely fine... She was an airhead but didn't lack physical abilities.
Doran smirks at them and pulls out a bottle of clean water, the condensation covering it gave the impression that it was ice cold, causing the thirsty students to audibly gulp their saliva. He cracks it open and takes a large swig, exhaling with satisfaction. "What? You didn't think this was for you right? Only those who pass the test may get one, so, consider it a reward to... Hmm, the top five ranked people, everyone else will have to wait until the third phase test is over before you can refresh yourself." he explains, even though Afton was well hydrated, he couldn't help but feel parched by the end of his speech.
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บท 19: Obstacle Course
Afton started to stretch and limber up as Doran began to explain the test, "You will follow the marked lamposts as fast as you can, do not attempt to cheat or bypass the route, we will see it and you'll not be happy with the result."
Doran pulls out a 9mm handgun and cocks it, "The test will start when you hear me fire this gun... Now there are a few other things you should kn-"
*BANG!*
He cuts himself off and fires, confusion the students who were carefully listening in-case they missed something. The rest had already sprinting towards the first red-marked lampost.
Afton was obviously ahead of the group, Sandra was somewhere behind him but he couldn't see Miles or Melissa when he took a glance. Melissa was physically capable, but she was still just a ten year old, against older students who were already in the midst of puberty she didn't stand a chance.
He looked up ahead to see what was coming up, quickly spotting the first obstacle, large jagged rocks had been placed in his way, he could probably go around it but judging by the fact it was enclosed by red-marks, he would be forced to traverse it.
Without hesitating he leapt atop the first one, carefully placing his footing just-in-case they'd greased it up or something, the rocks were pretty sharp so the risk of injury was likely if you fell. He hopped from one to the other with relative ease, he looked back once at the end and saw that Sandra was taking it pretty slow, probably to avoid slipping and injury herself.
Continuing ahead, he saw a fenced in-enclosure, the marks were suggesting that he had to go through it, but he was stunned for a moment when he spotted the small group of rad scorpions inside it... Did they want to kill us?... No... Upon closer inspection, he could see that their claws had been shattered and crippled while their venomous tails had been cut.
This was more than likely to be a test of bravery, though, now that he'd noticed that there was no risk it looked relatively easy. He climbed over the fence and sprinted towards the other side, the rad scorpions move to intercept him but he simply hops onto of one and jumps clear over the rest, momentarily feeling like Mario.
He could hear people talking from the side where the spectators had been, obviously they'd not expected him to jump onto their captured beasts... He climbed out of it and ran to the next obstacle, a large wall made from rotten wood and scrap metal.
There seemed to be a door that you raised by pulling the robe at the side, he gave it a tug and immediately realised that you'd need more than one person to actually lift it... Shaking he head, he'd rather not wait for someone to arrive and lose his lead, instead beginning to scale the wall.
The wall itself was around 15ft tall, but he managed to climb it in under a minute, he wasn't all that good at climbing, but the wood and scrap metal made good handholds to pull yourself up on... While it wasn't as easy as climbing say, a ladder, he didn't find it all that difficult. Maybe the other would though as you sometimes needed to lift your body with just your arms.
He got over and took a peek around the wall to see how the others were doing... Most seemed to have completed the jagged rocks, but he saw the medics carrying away a few people who had horribly twisted ankles and large bloody gashes going up their legs.
The scorpion enclosure had definitely halted a few people, even Sandra was hesitant to go in, he spotted Melissa just laughing as she raced past the scorpions as they chased her... She might have a few screws loose.
He didn't stay any longer as it might be a while before they reached the wall, no point in ruining his advantage. However, as soon as he made a step towards the next obstacle he found his foot trapped... Quicksand!
Fortunately, all of the students had been briefed with how to deal with it, he leant forwards to get his stuck feet out and started slowly making his way to the edge, becoming slightly irritated by how dirty he was getting.
He quickly made his way through a couple more physically based challenges before he finally spotted the last obstacle... It was another wall, but had a small gap in the middle of it. It looked like only one person could squeeze through at a time, which was probably intended to make sure that they'd be able to pick out the winners even if it were a close race.
He made his way through the gap, only now noticing that the rancid stench of rotting flesh had begun choking him. Taking a glance around to see where it was coming from, he could see bits of meat hanging from above him. He got a little further into the gap and realised that there were actually small bits of meat stuffed into cracks on the wall, almost causing him to vomit right there on the spot.
He held his stomach and thought happy thoughts as he tried to get to the exit as quickly as possible. Eventually he stumbled out with a pale look on his face, rotten meat was bad enough, but those ones there had been sitting in the desert sun for what must have been hours. He couldn't really decide what that test was for, to see those without a strong will? To see those who could handle disgusting conditions?
Regardless tried to settle the contents of his stomach as he ran teh course, following it until he arrived back at where Doran was standing... "Is it done?" he asks, sweating profusely from the heat and exertion.
Doran slowly nods and tosses him a bottle of water which Afton started gulping down, he was covered in tried mud and bits of rotten flesh but that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was that he completed the course and shown his competence.
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