It was the last test for them all. More people had lasted to the second day than I thought would. We were racing on the track again, and they were all exhausted. Nate walked around and told some people to leave; that they had done their best but we wouldn't need them. I was at the head of the pack, and people were trying to beat me. I was the fastest runner on our crew so if they could beat me, we knew they were good. But so far everybody was at least fifty feet behind me. I had finally learned the three guys names who were at the head that first day. Roman was the only one close enough to finish with any consideration in this test. I could hear him trying to gain some ground on me, but I just kept running faster. I sped up a little more, and listened to him fall behind again. I looked across the track from me and saw the slowest female. I couldn't remember her name but I admired her for trying to get into my crew. It was obvious she would barely make the department's fitness test, let alone come close to mine.

She started to slow down out of fatigue. She ran like that for a few minutes and then sped up again. Someone was gaining another lap on her, and she didn't want to be that far behind. I slowed down so I could watch them. It was the third guy from that first day; the biggest of the three. He caught up to her and stuck his leg out to trip her. I knew with how close she was to the turf this would not be good. "Hey!" I ran over.

Everyone stopped except Roman and the guy who tripped her. She skidded and rolled onto her back. I stopped in front of her, and leaned over her, "Where are you hurt?"

I could see she was trying to hold back tears. "My ankle." She didn't even notice the skid marks on her arms and legs.

I knelt down next to her and felt her ankle. She whimpered at the contact as the other female leaned next to her, "Don't let the guys see you cry." They both looked me in the eye and I nodded. In any other circumstance I would contradict her, but not here, not when they expected her to cry.

Nate nudged me and pointed to Roman and the other guy. They were running equal to each other now and ignored us. "GET OVER HERE NOW!" I yelled at them. I was furious. Not only did they ignore a fallen team member, but they were the cause of this.

They ran over, "What's wrong?" I told Nate to bring this girl to the hospital, that it was a bad break, and looked back to the two.

"What do you mean what's wrong?" I knew they had planned this. They wanted to get ahead of everybody no matter the cost. "You purposefully tripped her!"

They both shook their heads, "I wasn't even near her," Roman said.

"I didn't see anything," said the other one.

I looked at both of them, "Leave now. I will not put up with this. Not only did you purposefully harm another team member for your advantage, but you completely ignored a hurt team member." They both shook their heads, "Because of this, your buddy can leave too." I pointed to all three of them, "Get out; now."

The training officer came over, "What's going on?"

I explained the situation to him, "Do you have any proof?"

I was shocked. Even though this was just a training exercise it was shocking that they would go to this degree to win. "I don't need it. They are not going to be on my crew."

He shook his head, "That's not true. The only reason you're still allowed to select people like this is because you produce results and make everybody else for the other crews." He lowered his voice, "The department would get sued if you weren't so clear on your rules. This will be very bad for everyone." We looked at the three guys, "Pick one of them. They are the best of this year's selection for you."

I rubbed my temples, "How bad would it be if I didn't pick any one of them?"

"The commissioner told me that if you didn't play by your rules this year that you'd have to drop one engine and it's crew."

I whistled, "Damn he's got some big cahones trying to pull a stunt like that." I thought it over and went and talked to the members of my team that were present. I explained the situation to them.

"You have to pick one of them. Besides, Roman looks like the least harmful of the three. He might actually have had nothing to do with this."

I shook my head, "He's too dense. He can't think fast enough for our crew."

"So make sure he's always with someone, or always by the truck. In a few months you can transfer him out and take the other person from here that you really want." I had told them I wanted the fastest girl, and the guy that had helped the person with the injured ankle on the first day.

I nodded, "Fine." I really hated the politics of this job.

"Roman, you can stay. No one saw you do anything except follow orders. The other two of you can leave." I told everyone else who wouldn't make the crew to leave. We were left with Roman, and the two people I wanted on my crew. I told the three of them that they would be competing for the spots on my crew. I picked the hardest obstacle on site and told them to go for it. The first person to stop was out of the crew. Because they hadn't had a break between the last test and this one, this wouldn't take long. This was a sucky way to make them compete because I knew the girl would be the one to drop first.

It took about 45 minutes, and I was right. The girl stopped and then the guy dropped not one second after she fell. They were evenly matched, he just had longer strides so he could go further than she could.

Roman ran a few more feet than stopped, "So did I make it?"

"Yeah." I shook my head and left. I knew this would come back to bite me in the ass.