Wednesday week 2 of obstacle course.

Even though the 2 teams were together for the evening meetings, and nearly everything else, Allen’s team continued to take care of the flag ceremonies. It was both a point of pride to Allen, and a mark of humbleness since his team could not seem to pull off a win. Shupe led the ceremony this time. Allen could tell he was nervous, so he gave him encouragement afterward. “I’m proud of you man.” Allen told him. “I’m proud of all you guys.”

“We can’t seem to win.” Shupe said discouraged.

“You’ll see soon enough.” Allen promised.

“When?” Cindy asked incredulously as she lifted her gaze from the ground that supported the flag pole.

Allen made a grimace and nodded. The gains that his team was making seemed slow, but it was at least partially due to Todd’s team improving as well.

“We are all getting better. Do you expect the #1 team to be the only one that improves? Their team is also getting better, but we are improving faster than they are.”

“Are you saying that they just started out that much better than us?” Cameron asked?

Allen just nodded his assent. His team considered it for a minute and then decided that he must be speaking the truth.

The next time they were doing the obstacle course there was a trip up the rat lines to the crow's nest, and more sword fighting included. It also became apparent that Andy Mac, (Andrew McIntyre) was doing quite well. He was getting good enough with the sword that some of his team started calling him Drew Blood. His intern even got red denim to cover his blades with. It had the feel of some kind of “Red Barron” tactic that improved his performance. And the amount of power that he possessed was incredible. And he never seemed to tire out. Drew Blood was going to be great. He was already great, and he was getting better daily.

When the obstacle course practice had nearly concluded there was a misfire with one of the blank charges in the cannon. It was immediately taken out of service. At class, they took all the cannons and cleaned them. When they looked down the barrel with a borescope they were surprisingly encrusted with calcified carbon and powder. Allen enjoyed working with them. He liked the smell, and the way it made him feel like an important part of the show. He put a special scraper down each of them and cleared out the scaling. Some of it was made up of rust. Remington wasn’t too concerned about it, so neither was Allen.

While he was working with one of the cannons Debbie came up from behind him and kissed him on the cheek. It startled him, and he jumped. But he put on his happy face and turned around to greet her. She was giddy and fake, but Allen played along. There is no reality in reality TV he thought. Cindy noticed the encounter, but she seemed stoic. Either she was aware that it was all part of the show, or she had given him up. His heart sank at the thought of the latter. Debbie seemed more affectionate than usual. Allen continued with the shine.

For supper they had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, and a small side salad. Allen sat with Debbie at his table in the corner. Allen noticed this time, however, there was another table for 2 set up on the other side of the restaurant styled atmosphere in the mess hall. Todd Chapman was sitting with Rachael. Occasionally he would lean in close, whisper something to her, and she would giggle or laugh. Allen envied Todd. He seemed able to pursue his own interests. He wondered if there was any way to get Debbie to leave him alone. He wondered how long she would be in camp.

“So, when do you head out?” he asked finally.

“Soon I think.” Debbie answered. “Daddy has some things to tie up, and then we’re probly going to Boston or something.”

“Probably.” Allen corrected.

“What?” Debbie asked.

“You said probly. It’s probably.” Allen corrected again with a smile. He would be happy when Debbie left. The smallest things about her irritated him now.

The flag ceremony went off without a hitch, afterward Allen got a game of kick the can started up. It was fun, and it was good for morale. They played until close to 11:00. The warm night air did little to discourage physical activity. He was sure they were in Texas, but wherever they were, Allen liked it here.

Just before everybody went off to bed Allen gave a speech about Miracle on ice. There was one particular scene in the movie where he felt for the young men that were going to be on the 1980 USA hockey team. That was when the coach announced that they may not be the best team at the Olympics, but they would definitely be the best conditioned. He forced the team to push themselves harder than they had ever been pushed before. The coach didn’t want any of his team members getting tuckered out before the final second of the game. Allen got a similar reaction when he told them they would have to train that hard to win. He didn’t want any of them to get tuckered out before the final second. The difference was? His team would be playing for a couple of months. Not just a few hours.

In the end, everybody committed to do their best, and to train hard.

Thursday week 2 of obstacle course.

When Allen went in for his morning cup of coffee, he noticed that there were big televisions set up in the room off to the back of the chow hall. There were several people in there watching interviews and editing interview footage. He recognized Mr. Flanders on the television and was about to go see what was going on when he was shooed away, and the door was shut. One thing that he knew about the interviews was that Christine, the attractive middle-aged judge with the brown dots in her eye, was interviewing his teacher. He wondered what was up. “Oh well.” He said absently and felt stupid the second it came out of his mouth. He looked directly into a camera on his favorite support post and gave a big shoulder shrug before grabbing his coffee and heading out.

On the obstacle course they had switched out the bottom of the rat lines with rope. Now you had to climb a rope 20’ and then the rat lines to get to the crow’s nests. Everybody was tougher now, but it was difficult. Cindy could do it better than many of the guys, but Rachael could not do it at all. They also had to swim a lap in the thin mud. That proved to be dangerous since it was too thick to get any good swim strokes in, and too thin to support your weight. This idea was abandoned when a couple people had to get rescued from it. After the mud bog there was a water fight that lasted more than an hour. Everything was dingy and soaked. Allen’s pirate gear looked more authentic, but not too tidy. He was in good company. Everybody that was in pirate gear looked much the same. And of course, everything was caught on video.

“Hey Debbie?” Sara asked while they watched the water fight. Both Debbie and Edward turned their heads to look at her while she talked to her.

“I’m going to have to ask you to keep away from Allen.” She stated flatly. Debbie got a hurt look on her face which caused Edward to get his hackles up.

“He needs to stay focused on the show.” Sara continued, but she seemed to change up her tactic when she saw Edward’s reaction. “You are becoming a pleasant distraction that may jeopardize his, and the Utes, performance. We need him and the rest of the team to be on their very best game. Don’t you agree?” She asked. The question was directed at Edward, but she was facing Debbie when she asked it.

“That sounds like it would be for the best.” Edward agreed, as he took the reins, and let Sara off the hook. “Sweetie don’t involve yourself with the students. It’s bad form.”

Debbie got a hurt look on her face and jut her bottom lip out again. Allen would have rolled his eyes had he seen it.

At class they got an opportunity to see some of the peer interviews on several televisions. They watched interviews on one screen, and a split screen with the commercial on one side, and the crowds at places like sports bars and wingers, and Buffalo wild wings, and the sort of hangouts that the students would frequent if they were in town. It was fun to see the old digs. It made everybody homesick. It was exciting to witness the crowd reactions to their life on the show. It made them feel like movie stars. This wouldn’t help them be more realistic, Allen thought.

At dinner time Allen and Cindy sat together and ate Thanksgiving style dinner. It wasn’t like a date this time. It was more like eating dinner at a family gathering with a cousin that you didn’t care for. Both parties thought it was awkward. And when Allen looked over to Todd, he saw that he was having fun, and joking around. He decided to smile at Cindy. Maybe she would brighten up a bit. It didn’t work. She looked like she was contemplating something, or she was distracted. Allen’s heart fell every time he thought she was hurt. He wondered if this is what love was like. He definitely had never experienced anything like it before.

“We should make a music video.” Rachael stated at the evening meeting.

“To what song?” Todd asked. He was way too energized to not be part of this plan. They must have rehearsed it, Allen thought.

“To the Utes fight song of course.” Rachael said with a smile that covered her entire face. They looked at Allen, as if for his approval.

“That’s an excellent idea.” Allen added. This would definitely unite them and get them to work together. Cindy’s face brightened at the thought. Allen was sure she had been a cheerleader now.

“We can choreograph a video in no time.” Cindy said.

“Then let’s get started.” Rachael implored.

They worked on the video for the better part of 2 hours before the enthusiasm had dissipated and was replaced by drowsiness.

Friday week 2 of obstacle course.

Allen awoke with a start. He was in the middle of a dream that started out neat, but scary. He was a pirate, and he was boarding another boat in order to take it over. Everybody was dirty, and scabby for some reason, but it made perfect sense at the time. When it came time to board the other boat his feet were stuck to the deck like they were glued down or something from some old cartoons. And then when the other pirates came up to him, he had to protect himself. He drew his weapons but they were in slow motion. The other guy was a whiskers breadth from hitting him several times before the unseen force that was holding him back finally released him, and he ran the other sailor through with both blades. The man coughed up some black blood that was like ichor into Allen’s face. Some even got in his mouth. Then he started to puke from the instantaneous nausea that came over him. When he awoke, he had puked a little into his mouth, so he ran into the shower room and spat in the sink. He looked at his reflection in the mirror to see if any of the black blood was still in there, but of course it wasn’t. He rinsed his mouth several times with cool water, but the taste of bile remained. Shupe came in to console him.

“Are you alright Bra?” Shupe asked. Allen just looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

“Are you alright?” Shupe repeated. Allen just nodded weakly. He still had a shocked look on his face, and the water had splashed on to his cheeks and nose.

He blinked a few times as he became a statue. Shupe tried to put his arm around him to console him as some other men came in to witness the disturbance and see what was going on. He blinked again and opened his eyes wide as he tried to get the vision from his head. His eyelids seemed to trap it there. The lights in the other room came on, and then the lights in the shower helped to chase the shadows left by the single night light. Allen took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it escape his lungs. He threw Shupe’s arm from his shoulder and screamed. The sudden noise caused everyone in the area to jump. One of the camera men came around the corner just in time to capture his freak out. He started to pull at his hair as he started at himself in the mirror and let out another scream even louder than the first. A fistful of hair clung to his fingers as he took another deep breath. He looked like he was about to scream again when Todd grabbed him and dragged him into the shower and turned it on. The water was cold and cleansing. It pulled Allen out of his dreamlike state.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Go get the doctor!” Todd shouted as he held him in the shower. Allen’s eyes were open so wide that they appeared like they were about to pop out. He would blink, and then open them even wider still. Several people ran out of the area for the doctor. A few were just trying to escape the chaos. Allen began to overpower Todd, so Shupe grabbed ahold as well. Allen dragged the 2 engineers around the inside of the shower area. A third and fourth person came at him to help subdue him. He was a feral animal. He saw evil visions each time he blinked so he was determined to keep his eyes open. Debbie appeared out of nowhere and shouted, “Leave him alone!” No one knew what the best course of action was.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Allen shouted as Cindy and Rachael came on to the scene in time to see him slip and fall onto the hard tile floor with the 4 men holding him.

“Where’s that damn doctor?” Todd asked of no one in particular, and he looked toward the door. Everyone in camp was there within a couple of minutes.

Allen shouted some more at the top of his lungs. Debbie and Rachael cowered behind tiny fists as they backed away from the chaos.

“Take it easy Allen.” Drew said as he inched his way toward him. Allen’s gaze was fixed on him as he inched in with his palms down. He looked like he was shushing a dog. It seemed to work, but Allen’s eyes were still wild. He was crazy for some reason. Andrew had the effect of calming everybody down as he moved in slowly, speaking softly to Allen. “Take it easy Allen.” Drew repeated. This time his eyes became normal. It was as if his daemon had been exercised. Allen’s muscles relaxed. His superhuman strength visibly vanished. He blinked a couple of times and looked at Drew and Shupe. “Take it easy Allen.” Andrew repeated as the doctor finally graced them with his presence. Allen looked at the doctor, and the rest of the people standing in the oversized doorway and blinked a few times more.

The doctor was carrying a hypo of some kind. It made Cindy nervous so she got in front of him and moved toward Allen. He blinked again. “Get it out of my head Cindy.” Allen pleaded in a whimper.

“I will. Just give me your hand.” Cindy offered.

It was several moments before anything changed. Allen was coming out of a dark place. It seemed to take forever. The onlookers finally gave a collective sigh of relief as they had a chance to breathe.

Allen took a deep breath, and gently took her hand. HIs breath shuddered as it exited. He was half expecting everybody to jump him for being such a psychopath. That’s what they do in the movies anyway, he thought. But he was over it for the most part. He only saw the images when he closed his eyes now so he kept them open as long as he could in between blinking.

“I’m sorry.” He said to everybody within earshot. Debbie started to sob. Rachael consoled her.

“I’m really sorry.” Allen repeated, and then he started to sob after spitting some more of the bile from his mouth. The thin green saliva made its way down the drain on the floor without any help from the water chaser that he sent along behind it to hurry it out of his sight, and hopefully out of his thoughts as well.

Cindy gave him a shoulder to cry on. His sobs grew in to a crescendo before he could let it all out. Cindy kept him in the shower area as Andrew herded the camera man out so that the world wouldn’t be privvy to his humiliation. He didn’t want the cameras plastering everything all over the nation as the rest of the people filtered out of the doorway. His sobs became shuddering, and his shuddering subdued until Allen was able to talk with Cindy about the nightmare. Every once in a while he would shudder violently again, but it became less and less severe, and more infrequent until he was under control.

By the time Allen and Cindy came out of the shower area they had missed the flag ceremony, and the obstacle course training was going on without them. Allen hadn’t even noticed that Cindy was still in her pajamas until he was ready to get dressed for the day. He wished he had noticed sooner.

“Stay golden.” Cindy said as she went to change into her pirate gear. Allen wasn’t quite ready to get dressed like a pirate, but he did it anyway. He had to think calming thoughts before he could even get his clothes out. He noticed that his gun cabinet had an extra lock on it. At first it made him mad, but then he thought it was a prudent move.

There was a hushed silence n the obstacle course that day. Everyone seemed to be pretending that his episode had never happened. They did more swimming in muddy water, and climbing, shooting, and then virtual reality scope activities. They had marked improvement. When Edward compared their competence with cannons to the other schools, he noticed that they were far superior.

There seemed to be a lot of sword fighting going on everywhere, all the time now. Cindy tended to demolish anyone she found. She didn’t use her feet anymore after a conversation with Allen about them changing the rules again. Allen noticed that she was probably better than him, but she lacked power and stamina. Her technique was sound, but she lacked the strength of the men she was competing against. She was racking up a lot of wins. The A+ team was in the lead heading into class. It looked like they were going to win for the first time. That would be nice for a change.

At class they were doing interviews with the interns asking questions. Sara was coordinating things, but she stayed out of interviewing. Most of the rest of the interns were asking the questions. While the students were being interviewed the rest of them worked on the music video. It was coming along nicely. There was some swordplay in the video, but mostly it was dancing around, and acrobatics and swordplay. Rachael must have been in dance classes at some point of her youth. Whenever Allen noticed that he was looking into the camera he would shoot it with an imaginary gun. After doing that for a while he pulled one of the wooden blunderbusses out and pretended to shoot the camera with that. It looked really fake when pulled out. That would add to the deception, he thought.

When Mr. Remington had the attention of the class, or some of the students rather, he tried to explain about the speed of light, and laser optics and the like. He explained that the cannons on the boat would use this sort of targeting to mark the hits, and where the damage would be taken on each boat. Allen found it fascinating although most of the students were doing their best to just stay awake.

Allen was tired for lack of sleep, and he looked over to Cindy who was suffering the same sort of affliction. She looked great when she was tired. Allen doubted that he looked so good. He looked in the restroom mirror when he got a chance, and his eyes were bloodshot. “Now THAT’s gonna look good in an interview.” He said to himself. He followed it up with a chuckle. “Oh well.” He tried not to think about the nightmare, but it still disturbed him. It wasn’t so much the gore. It was the feeling he got. The gut wrenching feeling of killing another human being. He could never be a murderer. He looked down at the fake guns on his chest. He pulled them and looked at them in the blueish restroom light. Then he holstered them, and went back out into the room. It seemed hot after being in the restroom where the air conditioner had little difficulty keeping the uninhabited room cooled off. He put his hands on his pommels, and strode into the room like he owned the place.

Fridays were kind in the mess hall. At least for Allen. He loved fish. For supper they had halibut or trout, veggies, and a type of cheesy bread or garlic bread. Allen sat with Cindy again. It was good to have her back, and little Debby sent packing. They spoke candidly about friendship. It was a sort of letdown to Allen. That talk never ended well if you really liked the other person. He kept forgetting how he wanted to stay single until the end of this contest. He pondered the thought of being more than friends with Cindy. He seemed to like everything about her. On the other hand, he wanted to have a good showing. They needed to be successful. They needed to be triumphant. “Nothing is real in reality TV.” Allen said absently. Cindy looked up from her meal and smiled at him. She never made fun of him for accidentally speaking his thoughts. That was one of the things he liked most about her.

At the end of dinner Cindy winked at him almost imperceptible. Allen noticed and smiled back at her ever so slightly.

After eating they were all surprised to find that it was Todd’s A team that was going to do evening flag. Todd led the ceremony personally. He actually seemed happy to lose this weeks contest.

Saturday week 2 of obstacle course.

Allen had just barely fallen asleep when he awoke from another bad dream. This one was benign when compared to the last one, but it left him shook up for a long time. He was breathing hard for several minutes, and stirring on his bed before he awoke, but he continued with the labored breathing for another couple of minutes while he came to his senses. He dreamt that they were on a ship in a squall in a dense sort of fog. It was dark but it was day time, and while he was dreaming he felt like it must have been early evening. Another ship pierced the fog right in front of him and he had to jump clear of the prow of the boat as it smashed its way through the boat he was on. Timbers flew, and rigging snapped. Cannons broke free of their moorings and crashed through the bottom of the boat signing a death sentence for his doomed craft. Salt water splashed in his face and his eyes. The salty water burned his eyes, and nasal passages as some of the foul stuff made its way into his lungs. He coughed several times which did nothing to stop his lungs from burning. There were people clinging to the rigging of the other ship as they scurried toward safety, but the boat was sinking so fast that not all of them got to the other boat. Allen and Todd were among the survivors treading water in the churning water of the squall. There was flotsam and debris all around, but the ship that had struck them vanished in the mist to leave them there. There were others clinging to the debris, and crying for help that didn’t seem to be coming. Allen’s hat flopped over his eyes, and he pushed it back on tightly, and drew up the leather drawstrings to hold it in place. They were shouting for help. They kept shouting, and shouting but none came. Allen saw Cindy swimming toward him. She smiled when he saw her and he let go of the floating garbage that he clung too to reach for her just as a shark started to eat her. She screamed as she was dragged beneath the dark surface of the water into the blackness of the abys. Allen shuddered and swam down for her as his lungs were burning for air. He held his breath as he reached out for her and she went faster and faster toward Davy Jones locker. He thrust his arm out to get her in one last hoorah, but he could hold his breath no longer and he tried to get to the surface with nothing in his lungs. And that’s when he awoke. If the other students weren’t so tired from his previous night’s terror, then they would have seen him do it again, and he would never live it down. He panted and regained himself, and then calmly went and got some coffee. Apparently, he had slept longer than he thought. He got his coffee and returned to his bed where he lay awake for another hour until it was time to get up.

There were fresh doughnuts and bagels on the back counter as he went back in to the mess hall, and Debby came over to greet Allen at first, and then turned around abruptly and went in to the back room. Allen shrugged his shoulders and got another cup of coffee. The carbs in the pastries were calling to him, but he was committed, and he was able to abstain.

Sometime after flag, and during the obstacle course training another truck with supplies arrived and they gathered around to get the rest of the costumes. Some of them had 3 or more, and some of them only had about one and a half, but everybody had at least one full set of pirate gear that they could wear now. Allen got a big hat like captain Barbosa with a big plume and everything. The students were informed that they could make requests that may be granted if the producers felt it was best. Todd and Allen instructed the teams to wear the suits with the markers after mud bog stuff so that they wouldn’t get all ruined. When they did a sample of what a sword fight looked like it was impressive with the markers. They would have the system down pat by the time they got to the sea. This was going to be neat.

There seemed to be an accumulation of people standing by the fences near the camp. Some of them were dressed like pirates, and some were just cheering them on. That must be what it’s like to have fans, Allen thought. He wondered why these people weren’t doing something important, or working, or something. The crowd would shrink and grow as the day wore on. No one seemed to give them any attention, so it was curious that they would hang out there all day.

Instead of class they worked on the video into the evening. The spectators seemed to like that. Some of them knew the words, and would mimic the cast as they danced, and fought during the choreography. Then everyone packed up to move to the next area. They were loaded onto the buses and the fans just followed them as they drove to the next area. They stopped at another movie theater with an entrance outside a mall. They were definitely in Texas. They got off the buses and interacted with the fans. There were more than before, and it was a lot like the game rock band. Each time you got better and better you would get more fans. It was neat. Everybody had a great time. They were ushered in to the theater to watch the next commercial. It was played on the big screen again, and it didn’t do you any favors if you had a bad complexion day.

Commercial #3.

The commercial showed obstacle course training, but only for the other 3 schools for some reason.

It showed teamwork and people working hard to beat each other on obstacle courses.

Cannons firing from gimbals at targets.

Arguments.

Big old Spanish galleons at sea.

Allen and Todd swordplay all backlit and dusty.

Allen defeated and kneeling, panting, and backlit. Blood was running from his mouth.

The crowd was sympathetic as they discovered that the two combatants were in the group that they were following. They had seen the commercials many times by the time they met the cast. They hung out and went through the music video several times with the crowd. They signed autographs and took pictures with people. They had a great time. By the time they were back on the buses headed toward the boat yard everybody was worn out. They didn’t pull into the boatyard until late. The girls slept in an RV on site, and the men had sleeping quarters with their names on the beds. The 2 teams had been combined. Now the team could really jell. Most of them were asleep within minutes. Allen worried about having bad dreams, but not enough to keep him awake. He dozed off within a couple of minutes.