Calling it an obstacle course undersold it. He had expected something like a jungle gym and a row of tires, with some scattered traffic cones defining a pathway. Instead, the room looked like the set of a bombastic game show. An enormous foam and fiberglass construction dominated the room, surrounded at its base by safety nets and padding. Dylan almost expecting the roar of a crowd, or a dramatic musical stinger while a dramatic narrator voice introduced The Enmity Elevation or whatever, but the room just had a handful of people, much less a studio crew.

“Hello!” One of the the people waved. “Are you here for the course?”

“Yeah, um.” He stared up at the course, trying not to appear as intimidated as he was. “I’m Dylan, I guess I was the first done with the written test.”

“Great! That’s great news.” He headed towards the obvious beginning of the course. “This way, this way. I’m Jordan Carver, the tech lead for Project Rundan. Also here are Yasamine and Arne.” He pointed back towards the other folks in the room. “Arne is the medical liaison between our team and the medical staff for the project, and Yasamine is the director of that medical team. They’re the ones who are going to have final say on if your performance displays an adequate level of fitness. Also here, not affiliated with any team at all, we have...” He snapped his fingers twice, searching for names. “Dorian and Will, who are our first aid technicians on hand because we don’t want anyone to be seriously hurt during the course.”

“It is safe, though, right?”

“Oh yes, with all the nets and padding, it’s completely safe. But just in case something absurd happens, like a mechanical failure or some such, we have an expert present to administer whatever first aid might be needed.”

“So what’s the deal with this, then?” Dylan asked, looking up at the course.

“It’s all pretty self explanatory. You have to climb the ladder to get to the start, and then you just go.” Jordan gestured emphatically, talking with his hands. “We don’t have a timer or any real rules or anything. You just do your best and Yasamine will probably take your pulse or whatever she needs at the end.”

"How does this help with figuring out who's ready for Project Rundan?"

"I can't disclose that just yet. But after you're done, you'll get to go talk to some folks who can answer all those questions for you."

“Um. Okay, so do I just…” He looked up the ladder. “Do I just go?”

“Yeah, whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay then. Um. Thank you.” Dylan didn’t quite know how to disengage from the cheerful and animated man, but grabbing a hold of the ladder and just climbing seemed to work.

From the top of the starting platform, the course looked even more intimidating. It was divided into four separate sections, and the whole course slightly sloped downwards to the bottom. The first section was a slope of uneven foam wedges, unevenly angled in all directions. Here and there there were openings in the floor, which would force him to jump across or else fall to the nets beneath.

Dylan did a few stretches and got moving. He had expected the uneven terrain to be solid, and so he nearly pitched over the side when he tried to lean on one of the raised sections and found that it was soft and yielding. It was more like stepping on a bit of shrubbery than on a stone, as he had expected. He managed to catch himself, though, and proceeded along with this new information. He got to the first jump and leaped, aiming low so that the next yielding wedge would cushion his fall. Unfortunately, this one was solid, and instead of catching himself on it, he bounced off, nearly tumbling the twenty feet to the padding and nets below. He barely caught the edge of the platform, and struggled for a moment before pulling himself up. It seemed that this padded wedge had a bar in it beneath the padding. He grimaced that there was such a trick in the course so early.

“Nice catch!” Jordan yelled from the ground below. It wasn’t entirely clear if this was encouragement or sarcasm.

The rest of the uneven section went much smoother, now that he knew he couldn’t trust the platforms to behave consistently. He navigated his way to the next section, pausing at the small bit of platform that acted as a transition before the next bit. Or perhaps a spot to catch your breath. Dylan was in reasonable enough shape to not need that, but he still took the opportunity to size up the next challenge.

The second section looked a bit intimidating. There was a dangling rope in front of him, with a couple of knots tied in it for handholds. The rope was dangling from a bar on a track like a zipline, though the track zig-zagged left and right wildly. A few foam pillars were scattered along the track, near enough that he was likely to collide with them on his way along to the next platform. He tried not to look down at the twelve foot drop, even though there was a net in between and padding on the floor.

There was nothing to it but to do it. He grabbed onto the rope and jumped, giving the zipline the forward momentum to start its way down. If he were 20 years younger, this would have been the time of his life, but as an office worker still in his slacks and button-down, he found himself gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, hoping for the best.

It was hard to keep his grip once the thing got started. Despite the knots, the rope cut into his palms, and when the zipline changed directions, he felt himself swinging out. He struggled not to hold the rough rope so tight as to lose any skin on his palms, but not grip too loosely and be thrown off. With his eyes closed, he didn’t see the foam pillar coming until he slammed into it, nearly breaking his grip. He forced himself to open his eyes to try and help himself brace for the next blow. What came first was the next change of direction, and his whole world whirled around. The zipline was picking up speed, and if allowed to continue, it wasn’t the obstacles that were going to knock him loose, it was going to be the change in direction. He saw the next pillar coming, and had the opportunity to shift his weight to avoid it. Instead, he leaned into it, bracing for the impact.

It hurt to hit the obstacle directly, and he heard someone cry out in surprise from the ground below, but it had the desired effect. He slowed down. Not only was the next change in direction less unpleasant, but the next impact was easier, since he hadn’t allowed as much speed to build up again with another glancing blow.

When his feet found the platform at the bottom of the zipline, it felt like it had been only a few seconds and at the same time hours since he first grabbed the rope. This time he did take a moment to rest, massaging his aching hands and stretching is sore ribs.

The next section looked like another he would have gladly hurled himself into as a child. It was a bunch of big rollers arranged horizontally. They were close together, and depending on how firm they were, it would probably be amusing to be rolled between two of them, popping out of the bottom onto the net below. As an adult, however, he wanted to get through as painlessly as possible. And that meant running over the rollers quickly and smoothly, and not falling to the bottom. He took a breath and broke into a run. All he needed to do was land his foot on each roller only one time, and he wouldn’t need to deal with any rotation that happened.

Unfortunately, the size of the rollers meant he only made it three strides out with that strategy. The fourth roller spun under him as his foot came down on it for the second time, and he hit the fifth roller with his face instead of his feet. He scrambled, all his limbs flailing as he was pressed between the rollers and fell to the net.

He lay still for a moment, his brain catching up to what had just happened to him. He’d taken that section entirely wrong. It was about balance, not speed. He’d had to take it one roller at a time instead of rushing like an idiot.

“Sir, are you alright?” one of the med techs asked. He looked up and saw that she was at the side of the net already, holding out her hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dylan said quickly, reaching out and letting her help him off of the side of the net. His eye caught her name badge, which was way easier than remembering her name. “Thank you, Dorian. I just realized I went about that all wrong. Do you know if I’m allowed to try again?”

She turned her head and called out to the group of Monsoon staff. “Mr. Carver, is he allowed to try again?”

Jordan looked surprised by the question, and turned to look at the others. The man shrugged and gestured at the woman. Dylan recalled that she was the actual doctor here, and it took her a moment to respond. Dylan couldn’t hear what she said, but Jordan gave the thumbs-up.

“I guess you can,” Dorian said, gesturing nearby. There was another ladder that led back up to the platform between the sections.

“Thanks.” He looked up at the rollers again. “Uh, keep some aspirin handy for me. If it’s not too much trouble.”

“I’m sure you won’t need it,” she said with a smile.

Dylan mounted the ladder and measured the distance between himself and the roller. He was ready this time. It was a test of balance, and of course it was. None of the tests so far had been as demanding on his physical abilities as much as they had been on his coordination. He took a careful step, balancing on the first roller, stopping it from turning beneath him. He took a breath and stepped to the next one. And then the next. And the next. Between the fifth and sixth roller was a larger gap, and he was tempted to force the issue and try and run across to the last platform quickly, but he held himself back. This was about balance, not speed. If he tried to run, he was just going to fall again. Once he made the large gap, though, it was more of the same across the seventh, eighth, and ninth roller before he finally hopped onto the platform before the next section.

The next section appeared to just be a downward ramp, almost twenty feet long traversing the final ten feet vertically to the floor level. At the bottom there was a pit full of unevenly-cut foam bits. From here, Dylan could see a few places on the ramp where the floor had seams on it, clearly trapdoors, and wondered what the test here was. He wasn’t being timed or anything, so-

THUNK

Dylan turned and saw that an unseen apparatus above him had dropped an enormous foam rubber boulder right behind him, and the incline meant it was rolling towards him.

He had to amend his earlier assessment. This test wasn’t going to be only about coordination.

Dylan bolted down the ramp as the obstacle behind him gained speed. The rest of the tests hadn’t really pushed his physical stamina, but they had battered him a little, and the day of work he’d just endured had him a little more worn-down than he liked to admit. He managed to stay ahead of the boulder pretty well, though. Even when he had to watch his footing for the trapdoors set into the floor, he got a pretty good lead. Gravity, however, was catching up, and the dramatic rumble of the foam rubber on the plastic walkway was getting louder by the second. Dylan didn’t quite know where to go when he got to the bottom of the ramp, and so he made his best guess and dived into the foam padded pit, covering his head.

There was a loud slamming noise, and Dylan braced. Nothing happened. The rumble had stopped. He rolled over to look at the boulder, which had been stopped by some mechanism at the bottom of the ramp. He blew out a breath of relief and sagged back against the foam cushioning.

“Do you need that aspirin now?” Dorian asked from nearby.

“What I need is a nap and a warm bath,” Dylan said without looking up. “But I’ll take what I can get.”

“Well done! Well done!” Jordan said, accompanied by the sound of polite applause. Somewhere nearby, an engine hummed and Dylan looked up to see the foam rubber boulder ascending back up the ramp. “As soon as you’re ready, the next room is waiting. You'll be able to get all your questions answered there and-”

“That sounds great, Jordan,” Dylan interrupted. “But can I get, like, a minute? Maybe two?” He put a hand on his side and winced. “I didn’t realize how strenuous beta testing could be.”