Emily started to run keeping in step with the person to her left. She got only about ten feet when Sergeant Coleman started to scream at them again. She mostly tuned the sergeant out although she had to admit that the Sergeant really could swear. It was like something out of Full Metal Jacket if the guy in the movie was a woman. Emily started to run again with her platoon listing to the sound of boots hitting the ground at mostly the same time.

"I guess that's close enough." Emily thought to herself. She let herself fall into the rhythm of running and letting her mind wander. She daydreamed that she already had superpowers and that she was speedster running over a hundred miles per hour. They turned off the sidewalk to a dirt path and in Emily's mind the dust rose up like in the moves when a speeder runs on loose dirt. It was all she could do not to make sound effect noises.

“I'd look like an idiot if I made sound effects.” She thought to herself a little nervously. “Just a nerdy girl in a uniform here. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along now.” She thought to herself trying not to laugh out loud. In her mind, she sounded like the character in the game she played last night.

“No more computer games for a while. Well at least for four months.” She thought trying to keep a straight face. “Don't want to look like more of a nerd than I already am.”

“I wonder how my guild is doing. Wow, girl, it's only been a few hours since you logged off.” She had sworn off games when she joined the army but when she arrived at Fort McCain she had found the computers in the Bachelors Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) lounge had Mastery Soul installed. The game had gone free to play a while ago so her account was still around. Her guildmates were happy that she was back even though she was only got to play a short time.

“It's not like they are going to let me play when I am in Super School.” She thought with a mental sigh. “But that would be cool though. We want to increase your stress level so you have to do High Castle on nightmare mode and if you die we wipe your character and deleted all your items in your banks. No rezes!” She smiled at the imagery.

“They see me, Rollin. Roll'en on my Segway. It's because I am white and nerdy. Yeeahh! I am White and Nerdy.” Emily mentally sang to herself while she ran. She knew it was the wrong words to the song but hey it fits. She kept singing the song's chorus in her head timing the lyrics to when her foot hit the ground.

Off in the distance, she heard thunder. “Odd, blue sky’s and no clouds,” she thought to herself while she covertly looked up to see if it was going to rain. “Hey what a great way to start super school. Kind of a cool story too. You know guys, the first day of training at super school before I turned in this super cool super soldier it poured like it was a hurricane but hey the sky was blue with no clouds in sight. Yea I know right, how weird but that’s Super School for you.”

The clouds never came but the thunder kept coming. “There are trees on either side of the path may be the dark clouds are behind us and it just sunny in front of us. I better not get my socks wet. Getting wet is fine as long as I have dry socks. Wet socks suck.” She thought as her eyes flickered down towards her brand new boots she had bought for super school. “They're waterproof right? I can't remember if the tag said it was waterproof or not.”

“Geez. How long is this run.” She thought to herself as her breathing was getting faster. She knew she could go a lot longer because she ran cross country track in High school. “That's right folks long distance runner here. I can run for hours as long as you let me stop along the way. Maybe at a bus stop. Yuck Yuck Yuck.”

The road she was running on made a sharp left turn that opened up into an obstacle course complete with a huge wooden tower that had ropes dangling down them and a small muddy pool. Besides the pool sitting on the back of an Army green pickup truck was the Mustache First Sergeant with about five guys with pistols.

“I must stash you a question.” Emily thought to herself mentally giggling.

Sergeant Coleman veered off a bit to give the platoon room but kept them aimed at the muddy pool. “Stay in formation through the Duck Pond.” She called out to us.

“Dammit, my socks are going to get wet.” Emily thought as they closed in on Duck Pond. “If wet socks don't turn me into a super I don't know what will.”

Emily ran into the pond and nearly fell as the ground dropped away fast. The water was icy cold.“Stay in formation!” Yelled Sergeant Coleman from the sidelines. “Yea that's not going to work.” Emily thought as she was forced to slow down because the water quickly rose to her chest. The others in her platoon crashed into her from behind making her stumble and she struggled to keep standing upright. Somehow she made it to the other side of the pond without falling.

“Platoon Halt.” The Mustache First Sergeant called out once everyone was out of the pond. “By threes run back through the pond. First three go.” Emily charged back into the cold pond learning that her boots were not waterproof.

Once everyone had run through the pond once again Sergeant Coleman had Emily's platoon line up single file in front of the pond. Mustache First Sergeant stood up from the pickup truck holding up a black ball that looked suspiciously like a grenade. “This is a fragmentation grenade. A piss poor choice to use in a body of water.” He said as he pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the pond. The platoon quickly backed up in fright.

“Geez, people it's a dud. Let the mind games begin.” Emily thought to herself when the grenade didn’t explode. She had just turned to the First Sergeant when there was a loud BOOM! Water exploded everywhere.

“These grenades have a twelve-second timer on it. You will have about fifteen seconds to make it to the other side before the grenade goes off. I will wait until you’re in the water this time because it's your first time. You are not to swim. If you try to swim I will send you right back into the water and toss another grenade in after you. Once in the water, you are not to stop. If you stop you will die. I can’t stop the grenade from exploding when I let it go” The First Sergeant said as the five other people with him walked towards us.

“Platoon take two steps backward.” The First Sergeant commanded in an icy cold voice. Still, in a single file line, we took two steps away from the edge of the pond. “If you refuse to run into the pond the Monitors behind you will shoot you with dart guns which are loaded with a fast-acting paralyzing agent that causes severe pain. Here let me show you.” He said nodding.

There were some loud pops and something hit Emily's leg. It felt like a bee sting at first. Almost Immediately fiery pain exploded throughout Emily's body. She collapsed to the ground as if she was a puppet and her stings where cut. Nothing worked and everything hurt. For a few seconds, Emily was frozen unable to move. She felt herself panic as she realized that she couldn't even breath. Her chest wouldn't move no matter how hard she tried. As quickly as it happened it stopped and Emily was able to breathe again. She took deep breaths trying not to cry.

“On your feet!” The First Sergeant called out to the platoon. Looking around Emily realized that the entire platoon had been shot. “On your feet or the monitors will shoot you again.”

Emily quickly scrambled to stand up. Not getting shot was her new goal in life. Sergeant Coleman had them line up in rows of threes again. Emily ended up the first in the second row again. She looked out into the pond and crouched like she was about to start a cross-country race at school.

“By threes. First row go!” The First Sergeant called out.

Emily wasted no time and raced into the dark brown pond. Her heart was hammering in her chest as the water level rose. “Go. Go. Faster. Faster.” Emily chanted to herself. “Your going to die go go!”

Emily panicked when the First Sergeant called out “Fire in the hole! 12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,..”

Emily made to the other side of the pond and dove to the ground covering her head when the First Sergeant’s count made it to one.

BOOM! The grenade went off and Emily screamed.

“Your fine recruit. Stop screaming or I will have to shoot you.” One of the monitors told her but she couldn't stop screaming.

There was a sharp pinch to her right leg and the pain came rolling in. With the pain came the panic as Emily couldn't breathe. After an eternity the pain went away and her ability to breath came back. She took a deep ragged breath and looked up at the monitor. He had his gun pointed at her. “If you scream again I will shoot you.” He told her.

“On your feet recruit.” Sergeant Coleman said walking towards her. “Back in line.”

Emily crawled to her feet. Her legs were shaking hard and she couldn't seem to get warm. She wrapped her arms around her to warm up but instead she started to shake.

“Next three on the line.” The First Sergeant called out. “Go.”

For a few panic seconds, Emily thought he meant her but the next row charged into the pond.

“Fire in the hole!” He called out and lobbed the grenade into the pond and he started his count again. Emily flinched when the grenade went off but everyone was already out of the pond.

The monitors only had to shoot two other people. One guy refused to go into the pond so they shot him and threaten to shoot him again if he refused. He didn't. The last person to get shot that day was a guy who refused to get up after the grenade went off. He kept shaking his head until the monitors shot him. He stood up afterward.