Chapter Three: Training
As the jeep stopped Chris grabbed her bag and jumped out not bothering waiting for the driver to kill the engine nor fiddling with the door. Chris walked over and threw her stuff in the back of the Rover then walked over the Captain Mitchell who was timing Kelsey and Chad on a course. Ryan stood back with Joel and Dana observing Chris. Once they finished Captain Mitchell turned to Chris.
"Welcome to the training center we do this twice a week, each week an obstacle is added." He said as he walked over to her. He handed her a paintball gun.
"Sir?" She asked accepting the gun.
"The first course you'll go through is the House," He said, "If there are monsters in the area I want you to lead the way and keep it clear."
"Ah" Chris said following Captain Mitchell to the entrance.
"Ready…and GO!" He said as he clicked the stop watch Chris rushed into the building and looked around firing at each targets and moving on. She shot down each target in the next room and so on. In the final room she took out the targets when one popped up it was between explosive canisters. Her hesitation allowed the thing to move forward and Chris fired knocking it down then exited the course.
"Done" she said briskly.
"51.8 seconds not bad on the first run." Captain Mitchell nodded as he and the Recording crew began through the course.
"Not bad at all" Joel said holding his hand out for a high five which Chris complied with. She also exchanged high fives with Chad and Kelsey. 'Better than Carter' he thought.
"They weren't shooting at me made it easier." Chris said, "In boot camp we were divided into groups for war games. In one we had to rescue one of our people from an "enemy strong hold". We all had paintball guns and were shooting at each other. Having to avoid that slows you down a bit."
"Boot Camp for what?" Ryan asked.
"Air force" Chris said as she shrugged.
"I'd think you'd learn to fly planes," Kelsey said.
"Not in boot camp." Chris said, "Boot camp is six weeks ground training and other general training. Flight school is at least another year."
"Why another year?" Dana asked.
"You've got to learn the parts of the plane, actually learn to take off, land, fly. After that you have to build up simulator time, actually flight time and not to mention training time." Chris said with a shrug, "It takes a lot to be a pilot."
"Whoa, sounds intense" Chad said. Chris nodded and sipped a bit of water from her water bottle.
"What's your rank?" Dana asked
"First Lieutenant." Chris said proudly. Captain Mitchell returned ending any more discussion.
"Good work Chris now there's a few more I'd like you to run through." Captain Mitchell said as signaled for Ryan to follow as well. Then he and Chris ran through a few more exercises before calling it a day.