Basic Training.
Outside Cairo; the Fauon Desert, one of the toughest deserts near Cairo. The instructors gave little warning on how harsh it would be before throwing the trainee's out in it and telling them to make it to the other side without going mental with heat.
Blake felt the heat pound down on his shaven head; he looked towards his training partner James Millikin, who had a similar haircut to Blake's.
Blake was carrying his pack while looking at the compass they had been given, James on the other was reading the directions. " links is left, isn't it?" James asked Blake who had been learning German for 99 days; Blake nodded to in response to his training partner.
"So that means we should turn left at the next red pole" James told Blake and the two walked on for another half an hour but there was no sign of a red pole.
Blake had been worried they had passed it and decided to voice his suspicion out loud. "I think we passed it 6 miles, remember we got confused because we found an extra pole? Well I don't think it was an extra pole." Blake said and James yelled in anger and stormed over to Blake.
"Why didn't you say this half an hour ago? We'll never find our way back to that pole; we must have changed direction a million times without noticing! We're lost!" James yelled for most of it but groaned for the two words. Blake decided to go back track south but forgetting to tell James.
"Where are you going?" James asked angrily and Blake turned his head but didn't stop walking. "We might as well try finding that red pole, so I'm heading south, that's the last direction I remember before you read about the red pole." Blake explained and the pair started walking again.
Blake was roasting and dehydrated but the partners had agreed to ration the water every five hours. Blake looked at the sky, keeping his eyes away from the sun; he'd been warned enough times what happens when you look at the sun.
"Almost nightfall, we might as well just admit we're screwed." Blake moaned and sunk to his knees; he was tired, dehydrated, boiling hot and lost, this was officially his worst week and to elaborate this whole thing, he let roared at the top of his lungs. James grabbed Blake's t-shirt and started pulling at it.
"C'mon you head case, we're just was wasting time here" James ordered and Blake got up and shoved James so he let go of his shirt, James fell onto the boiling sand and hastily got back up.
"What's your problem? I was just trying to help, no need to push me." James yelled at Blake and angrily stormed over and pushed Blake who was so weak and tired, fell straight on his arse.
"I'm sick of you trying to help me, you think you're so great and better than everyone else, you hang out with Andy and both of you laugh at me like I'm not even there when you do it, but I'm always there when you laugh at me." Blake yelled as he got back up and punched James in the shoulder.
"We don't even look at you, we're disgusted by your ugly face, but we both know this is about Andy replacing you with me! You're nothing but a coward!" James yelled back and returned a punch to Blake's shoulder.
Blake finally snapped and jumped on James; Blake tried to punch James but they soon started rolling down a hill of sand Blake didn't notice they were on.
"Get off me you spaz, and do one of your anger management techniques!" James struggled to yell as sand entered his mouth but spit it out at Blake.
"Why don't you go make love to your best buddy Andy, heard you do it a lot!" Blake yelled and spit sand back at James. As the two made it down the hill in each other's arms, Blake bashed into something.
"Ow, what the humpdidory was that?" Blake yelled in pain but James ignored him and scrambled to his feet and just stood in awe. "What's wrong?" Blake asked as he got to his feet and turned towards the direction James was facing. Blake just looked in awe as well but soon broke the silence.
"Is that a purple pole and a wooden shack a few meters in front of us?" Blake asked and James nodded still in awe. "Purple is last pole right?" Blake asked and James nodded; Blake was beginning to think James wasn't going to speak for a while but James startled Blake by Jumping around and yelling.
"We did it; we have to be the luckiest people in the world! We skipped like 7 poles! We did it!" James yelled the last bit at the top of his lungs as he started dancing, Blake soon realised how big this was and started jumping and dancing along with James; the pair soon fell back into the sand in exhaustion still laughing.
Blake wondered if he'd gone crazy from too much sun but he crawled and touched the pole, it was real and Blake was only a little crazy! Blake and James lay in the sand well after they stopped laughing; thinking of what they had said to each other, Blake again broke the silence.
"James, I'm sorry for what I said earlier, the sun got to me and I was thirsty; I didn't mean any of it. Are we friends again?" Blake asked and James stayed silent a bit longer.
"To be honest, we were never really friends" James finally said braking his silence and Blake had to stop himself from bursting out with mixed emotions he was feeling.
"But after training I'd like nothing more than too be friends, I doubt Andy will approve but he can screw himself" James said and Blake grinned, he was seen to be a giant jerk to everyone but he was going to change that
. "Thanks dude, I've been a t*t for the last year, but I'm going to change that." Blake told James as he got up from lying on sand and dusted himself off.
"C'mon, let's see what's in the hut." Blake said and James happily obliged him. The two walked for a few minutes before reaching the shack, Blake tried to open the door but it was locked.
"Aw, c'mon, they can't do this to us, we're so close!" Blake yelled and furiously pounded the door. "I'll check for a back door." James told Blake and walked off. Blake tried to force his way in a few times but lacked the strength.
Blake noticed James had been gone for over 10 minutes so he walked off to the back to find James. Blake quickly found him standing right beside a doom buggy.
"Awesome, they left doom buggy's for us. Why are you standing there?" Blake asked and walked over to James. "Shhhhhhhhhh" James quietly ordered Blake. Blake did as he was told but proceeded to walk over, he was curious to see what was up with James.
He soon figured out and had to stop himself screaming; James's feet were covered with huge scorpions, they were positively massive. Blake wondered if he had been given bug spray but as he slowly bent down and searched his bag but found nothing.
Blake stood in the same spot for what seemed to be an eternity; he was collecting his thoughts and devising a plan, he looked up into the sky and noticed that the sun was almost completely gone. While Blake stared at the sky he came up with a hugely risky plan. "James, just kick them off and jump into the buggy."
Blake ordered and James just looked at him with a face that meant 'How much sun have you taken in?' "Just trust me; kick them off and jump, I know what I'm doing!" Blake ordered again and this time; noticing Blake's calm face, James kicked the scorpions off and jumped into the buggy; Blake ran past the scorpions and jumped into the buggy.
James quickly started the buggy and after 99 days of training to drive, rode of perfectly into the night.
"How'd you know they wouldn't sting and poison me?" James asked and Blake smiled. "First off, they had no poison, they were too big, remember what we were thought? The bigger the less lethal the poisons, so I guessed those scorpions were too big to contain any. And my second reason was I noticed the temperature dropped and it was colder than before, due to the sun disappearing, so I guessed all they wanted of you was your body warmth." Blake explained and laughed but James's face was horror stricken.
"Guessed!" James stated but Blake ignored him and kept laughing.
"So just keep heading north and we'll be fine, no sleep for the wicked it seems tonight." Blake's laugh turned into a giggle which was now annoying James. "Shut up!" James ordered but couldn't help giggle as well. The two boys drove off into the dark desert giggling.
Blake and James yawned, they'd been driving all night and now there ride had just run out of fuel. They walked for an hour before spotting a monastery. "Is that right, do we head into the monastery?" Blake asked James but James just looked at the directions they'd been given.
"Doesn't say, just says, go north until you find the hidden object." James explained and Blake weighed in their options, they had time and nowhere else to look for what was hidden.
"I have a good feeling about this place, let's head in." Blake said and the pair slowly and cautiously entered the monastery. It was completely empty, there was literally empty, no chairs, or any object by that matter.
"I think I know what's missing" Blake told James; which he responded by hitting Blake over the head. "You may be a combat expert but if I hear you say something that stupid, I will hit you again." James said and Blake decided against breaking James's arm.
"Split up, you look left and I'll look right for the stuff" James ordered and Blake walked left he searched each room which was also empty, but as he searched the last room, he found it was full of objects and furniture. "James, found the stuff" Blake yelled and James ran over, he looked at the stuff and smiled.
"We won, you can come out now and give is Grey shirts, I'm a medium shirt size" James yelled but no one replied. The partners waited another few minutes but nothing happened.
"This is just ridicules, come out we won!" Blake yelled but then saw James face. "This is was too easy" James said; then he noticed the slightest movement in the pile of objects.
James quickly started forcing his way through the objects. "Will you help?" James ordered Blake, who quickly helped James force his way through the objects. After getting through all those objects, James and Blake faced not what they were expecting; a monk in brown robes.
"You win now, you got so caught up in looking for the objects you forgot what was truly not there, the monk that makes the monastery what it is." The monk explained in a cheerful tone, the two trainees' were to gobsmacked to speak.
"Come hide with me, we can't let the other trainee's find us easily." The monk said and started hiding again but not before he dug two Grey shirts still in there wrappings out of the pile of objects. "Congratulations', you deserve it" The monk said and handed the boys there new shirts.