After the simulations came the classes, it turned out that a day in the simulation was the equivalent of an hour in real time, so that left plenty of time for classes. This time it was geography and science. Though there was something off about them, geography focused on military thing like how to traverse terrain and using it for defensive operations, which was actually kind off interesting, or at least more so than learning about rock formations. Science was the same though, which was disappointing to James as he was looking forward to learning how to make an IED. What he got instead was how to tell the difference between two lumps of metal. After that it was back to the rooms for a one hour break. James spent this time sleeping, though it was less sleeping and more seeing flash backs of the mission. Shooting the gunner, everything, he could feel the kickback from the rifle. He felt the blood from the cut trickle down his side. And when he opened his eyes it was gone, as if the battle was a creature infecting his dreams. Giving up the hope of any sleep James stepped out into the common room. Everyone was huddled against a wall or twisting and turning, trying to get some sleep. One girl was panicking, her friend trying to calm her down but failing to do so. It seems he wasn't the only one feeling the shell shock of the battle. Out in the main hall people were doing sprints, running as fast as they could before turning around and doing it again. Most of them were from sigma and delta, and every last one of them was covered in sweat, James stopped one of the boys.
"What the hell is this?" he asked
The boy spoke between pants of desperate breaths "we're trying to pass out, get some sleep, you're welcome to join but...few guys have already gotten a concussions hitting each other." The boy shook his head, a rainfall of sweat poured down on the floor, and he was back to running. Walking onward to the gym James could see inside of the alpha rooms. Inside he could see a group fighting. Though most were chatting, their hand gestures revealed that they were talking about the battle, apparently not everyone was shaken up about the fight.
The gym was fairly big. It had two levels. The first was a gym like you would find at a school, and the top floor was dedicated to weights and other machines. James picked a bench press. He loaded on some weights and got to work. It was a light load but he was going for repetition. He took his mind off the workout by looking around. All the equipment was new. That was for sure. All the weights were the electro magnet type. And the floor didn't have a single stain. He heard grunting from one of the stationary bikes. Low and behold it was Kim. Before James could speak a word Kim pounced on the opportunity
"You can't sleep either? Yea heard it all about this post-traumatic stress disorder thing. Don't know much about it, but I guess it about the fighting we did." He paused for a moment, thinking "hey, forgot t ask! Where did you fight? We were set up in this jungle. It was so crazy. I think it was in the Caribbean but too hard to tell. You?" James closed his eyes and let the memories pour in.
"We were in Quebec, middle of the fall, about fifty degrees I'd say, we had to take this armoury in a city, can't quite remember the name of the place. We got cornered in a parking garage, so we booked it to the armoury and ended up getting killed in a crash." James could see everything so clearly. Even if it never happened it felt so real. Kim looked impressed.
"You got killed? You're like the most Bad ass guy I know, our mission wasn't so difficult. Fought like... ten guys at most" this took James by surprise, if Kim's group hadn't had that hard of a mission, then maybe, just maybe he was supposed to fail.
"it was a suicide mission..." James starred into space, his face didn't move, lips twitching as he thought. latching the dumbbell onto the safety bar, he jumped from the bench with the speed to shame a samurai. He had an appointment with the doctor.