Chapter 5

It was obvious that the shower would have to wait, but it had been worth hoping for. It drove them on and they managed to finish four hours earlier than the sergeant expected.

"You're early, well done." He was pleased.

"Thank you, sergeant!" Wolf said

"Well don't get comfy, you've got assault course two yet. You will have a limited time of five minutes!" Alex saw the fear in Wolf's eyes. If they were going to find it hard, Alex was likely too as well. What about Kitten?

The sergeant marched them to the starting point. There was also another soldier there as well, to do the timings.

"Wolf?"

"Sergeant!"

"You first!" he commanded. "Then Fox… Eagle… then Snake… Cub, Kitten… you go together!" they all nodded and started to prepare themselves.

Wolf was ready quickly and took a quick look at the course.

"Stand by…Stand by…Go!" Wolf set off in a quick sprint and got to the first obstacle, the under and over bars, these weren't too hard and Wolf went though them quickly. Next were the monkey bars which were over a two meter deep patch of water. Wolf had a lot of upper body strength and managed them, with out getting wet. The worst for Wolf was after, the sixteen foot A-frame. Wolf climbed up, trying to push his fears to the back of his mind. He had to get to the top quickly but his fear of height came back to him. He froze. Panicked. Then luckily heard the voice of Fox shouting: "Keep going, Wolf!" he used this to push the fear back to the back of his mind and clambered over the bar at the top and down the other side. Next was a tunnel, half filled with mud and sludge. He got down on his belt buckle and leopard crawled through it using his elbows and knees to push him self along, getting covered in mud in the process. He appeared on the other side of the fifteen meter tunnel and stood up. The six foot wall rose up in front of him. Normally the whole team would be there and they would all help each other up and over the wall. He ran at full speed towards the wall and leapt onto it, his hands landing no the top of the wall. He used his upper body strength once again to hoist himself over the wall; he landed on the other side perfectly. He sprinted to the finish and the soldier who was timing his stopped the clock and read out his time.

"For minutes, twenty-nine seconds." Wolf sat on the wooden bench at the end of the course to regain his breath.

Now it was Fox's turn. He managed everything, until he got to the tunnel; he had got down on his belt buckle and started his way through, but his webbing had gotten caught on the tunnel entrance. He tried to pull away but it wasn't working, he crawled backwards a bit a quickly detached himself, once he had done so, he crawled through the tunnel and out the other side. He clambered over the wall at speed and sprinted to the finish line gasping for air.

"Four minutes, forty-six seconds!" Fox went over to the bench and sat on the muddy ground in front of Wolf and regained his breath back.

"How long did it take you Fox?"

"Err… Four minutes, forty-six seconds."

"Way I beat you mate!"

"Yeah, whatever."

"Eagle's turn now, this should be good." Wolf laughed.

Eagle waited for the command to go.

"Stand by…Stand by…go!" Eagle sprung forward towards the first obstacle; the under and over bars, then the monkey bars, he nearly flew over the A-frame. He sped through the tunnel, covering his books and uniform in think, slimy mud. He stood up and made a run for the six foot wall but slipped and fell face first into a patch of wet mud. He tried to get up but it was too slippy. Eventually he got his footing and stood up. He ran at the wall and scrambled over it, then reaching the finish line where he got his time.

"Five minutes, six seconds. Fail!" Eagle could hear Fox and Wolf sniggering behind him.

"It's not funny guys!" He told them wiping mud from his eyes. "I slipped and fell flat on my face." They laughed even more.

"Sorry, that's hilarious!"

"It's not!"

"Would you mind? Please stop arguing!" the soldier scolded.

"Sorry corporal."

Snake was ready to go; the sergeant gave hi the command to start and he went toward the under and over bars. He went under the first one, over the next but as he went to go under the next one he didn't realise he hadn't gone low enough and banged his head, hard on the wooden bar and felt himself become dizzy and Snake thought he was going to collapse. He put his hand to his head; there was no blood, just a bit of a bump.

He staggered forward a few paces before regaining his balance and completing the course.

"Four minutes, fifty-two seconds!"

Only just! Snake thought. He joined the others where they began to guess the time it would take for Cub and Kitten to complete the course.

"Five minutes, thirty-two seconds?" guessed Wolf

"Nah, it'll be longer than that, six minutes." contemplated Fox.