The tall girl confidently walked forward towards the starting point of the obstacle course. I expected her to find herself at ease with some of the obstacles. I had never ventured in the area her and Roberto resided in, but the maze-like structure was really set up to avoid intruders or gangs finding their way to coerce its inhabitants. The furthest I had seen, I had also noticed sections that required some form of parkour to reach, therefore some sort of pathing skills had to have been developed. There was also the fact that from my understanding she was affiliated to no gang, therefore similar to myself, had to go scavenge for food when the bombs went off.

She didn’t wait too long on the platform at the start and threw herself directly at the steps. She passed them with ease, not once hesitating in her jumps, and it wasn’t before long that she was once again on the solid footing of the intermediary platforms between the obstacles. The monkey bars followed, as expected, those posed no real threat. They felt one of the easier obstacles of the group. The bars were followed by what the instructor had dubbed the spider walk. You had to press your right hand and foot to the wall to your right and the left hand and foot to the wall on the left. I hadn’t focused much on this obstacle since it was very similar to what I had to do to enter my cabin during bombardments. Mayla on the other hand struggled a little bit. Looks like she wasn’t used to the feeling, but force wise it wasn’t one of the most demanding so she eventually made it. There was no separation between the third and fourth obstacles, instead she had to pass from the spiderwalk, which was now relatively high up compared to the ground, to a set of two walls, about as long as the shortest of the new recruits if put horizontally with their hands extended. This was like a harder version of the spider climb, and the person challenging the obstacle had to descend to reach the next platform, making slip ups very easy. Indeed, almost as soon as she started descending, Mayla slipped up and went crashing down. This was the second tallest point someone could find themselves in the course, so the fall looked painful. But she got right back up off the floor, brushing it off, and climbed onto the platform.

The slack line was next. I expected her to take it slow, carefully balancing herself, but I should’ve understood from my short interactions with her, that she was not the type to waste time. She threw herself on the rope and tried to run across it. Unfortunately, it was just too long. She lost balance about halfway through, and fell with her hip crashing onto the line before she slipped off its right side. This time, she stayed on the floor a bit longer. Luckily, the fall wasn’t big. The obstacle before almost put her back to ground level, therefore the injury must’ve been mitigated. Still, she held her side. The instructor simply sighed and beckoned the girl to get back up. Reluctantly, Mayla did. She lowered her shirt, but just before I could notice a clear line shaping up on her hip that came into contact with the rope. ‘That must be burning’, I thought to myself.

The pain likely played its part, but Mayla no longer was as confident as before when approaching the obstacles. From the 5 of the remaining obstacles, she only cleared two without error. Walking back into the pile, she looked a bit dejected, I was about to ask her how she felt when I heard my name being called up. It came a as a bit o a surprise, but apparently in our specific groping no one else had a name with the letter M, or the N and O as a matter of fact. I made my way to the first obstacle and prepared myself for what was to come. I took one look at the steps and jumped on the first one. The jump didn't feel far, the most awkward thing of the steps was the position you found yourself in before jumping off. That's what gave me the most trouble, but after every step I got used to the feeling and before long I had made it through the obstacle. As opposed to Mayla’s start, I took my time and looked at the monkey bars before holding onto the first one. I actually had relative trust in my upper body strength, sneaking into buildings, or running away from burning ones had forced me to get used to climbing up and down urban environments. This was a practice run, so speed didn't matter, I decided to go slowly to conserve my energy for later. The spider walk and its transition to the further walls was relatively easy. The feeling was not foreign, and the walls weren't slippery. I had to pay attention to parts where the previous recruit's sweat had built up, but it ultimately wasn't of matter. I had made it further than Mayla at this point without taking my first fall, we had no competition, but I had kind of challenged myself to achieve at least that. The slackline as opposed to her I approached with calmness. I fixed my eyes to a point slightly after the end of the line and held out my hands. They weren't perfectly straight, I preferred holding my arms a bit closed in. Taking a step at a time, while holding my breath made my movement stable. Before long I was on the other side, I had made it to the halfway line. These were the obstacles I was a bit more unsure on how to approach.

In front of me stood a ramp. It looked a lot more impressive now that I was up close. It became so steap near the end that it effectively looked like a wall, and I figured I'd probably have to jump for the edge on top by that point. There was a ladder to its side for the people that failed its challenge, so they would get up and go to the next. I hoped not to need it. I took a few steps back, to the edge of the platform at my disposal, to have as much run up as possible, and ran at full speed towards the ramp. I was surprised with the distance I was able to cover, and when I felt like I was gonna struggle to take another proper step I jumped up with all my power and aimed my arms at the top part of the ramp. With the tip of the fingers from my right hand I was able to grab onto it. I had made it through this obstacle as well. The next one looked a bit tricky, but most of the people that had fared well in the first half of the course didn't have much of an issue on this one. It was a simple wall descent utilizing holes and inserts placed on the wall. Straightforward sure, but everything was the same color as the wall, so it was hard to actually see anything and I had to feel for the locations I could actually put my foot in as I descended. I identified this as one of the obstacles that might cause my trouble if I had to push for speed. This try though was just a test afterall, so it posed no real threat. I took it slow and made my way down. This was where I worried the most, the obstacle lined up in front of me. The salmon ladder.

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I took a few seconds to rest, but noticing the annoyed look of the corporal I decided not to test her patience and jumped up to the bar. I had studied how previous people had attempted it, but trying it myself felt different. I went for the first one, pulling myself up and exploding with energy, launching the bar to the next threshold above me. To my surprise, it was first lucky and I had made it. Just a few more repetitions of this left, the second was equally cleanly done, but it wasn't the third time that wasn't really a charm. As I launched the bar up once more, I missed one of the two edges for the bar to rest on, and while one side had made it, the other had dropped back down to the second threshold. I now stood in an awkward position and knew I couldn't hold longer this way, so I had to make a decision fast. I could either try to push it up again, or bring the whole bar back to the second threshold and try again. In the end I went for the latter. I had seen a few falls to this, and it looked painful. A descent of the bar felt like it'd be more controlled. Indeed it was, as soon as I pushed off, I immediately adjusted the direction of the bar and it safely landed in the second threshold once more. After that, I regained some confidence and went for the last few jump ups. They went better and I had managed to complete the salmon ladder, jumping into the next platform from the highest point.

The second to last exercise was the one I feared the most, I had to take two cylinders and insert them into holes. Those cylinders would be what I'd be holding onto, and taking the second cylinder out and into the next hole would be done while holding onto the first cylinder. The fall was also pretty high. I placed the first one and grabbed the second one. Almost as soon as my feet left the platform I felt an incredible pressure to my arms, a feeling I rarely had. It was a struggle to get the first one, but I was determined not to fall. I started moving my body back and forward, to use the momentum to throw myself into the next hole to place the cylinder. Knowing I didn't have the strength to do everything one by one, I skipped a few holes using said momentum. In the end, it paid off. I made it to the last one and threw myself onto the platform. I had now made it to the end, just the rope was left. I grabbed the rope after taking a breather and easily pulled myself up. I was still keeping concentration, as, contrary to expectation, I had gone flawless till now, and I wished to keep it that way. I finally made it all the way to the top and let go of a sigh of relief. I knew it was possible now, I just had to do it again for my second try. Hopefully the fatigue won't catch up to me. As I started to go back down, I heard a clap coming from Corporal Leya.

“Maybe some of you aren't useless in this batch. We have our first completion, if bets were in play, I'd price you as the favorite for the reward right now.”

I said a quiet thank you as I walked past the corporal and headed back to the pack. Mayla greeted me with a whistle before whispering to me.

“Make sure to share some of the reward when you win later.”

My response was swift,

“I just learned your name and I can already tell your delusion knows no bounds.”

We both gave our interaction a small chuckle, but feeling the eyes of the corporal on us we shut up and followed the rest of the action. Most of the remaining recruits were uninteresting until one of the last people went up. ‘Wilson’ was how I heard Leya call him. He didn't have an overly imposing build, but you could clearly see how well defined his muscles were. His skin was a lot more tan than the average around him, and his haid was almost completely clean shaven, definitely adding a few years from his actual age to his appearance. What followed was an impressive show of force. He completed every obstacle with ease. Yet, his slow pace showed that he was simply conserving energy, clearly gunning for the first prize. He showed not a trace of sweat in completing the whole course. One more contender, this time a girl, would finish the course without a hitch. The battle for the prize was gonna be interesting.