The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse (11 page)

"My problem is that you don't seem to care about your own safety!" He stopped a few feet from me and glared. "You seem to put winning above your own life. Stop being so stupid and reckless."

I stepped toward him and poked my finger into his chest. "Look just because you're too much of a chicken to take risks, doesn't mean no-one else can. I saw an opportunity and took it. That is how it works."

"This isn't the streets any more!" Bradley said, pushing against my finger with his body. "It isn't always about winning. You need to be more damn careful with yourself."

Someone standing behind us cleared their throat. "Wow, will you two just kiss already?"

I jumped back from Bradley and looked over to see a whole group of people standing and watching us argue. I had been so wrapped up in what had happened I hadn't even seen them arrive. Most of them looked to be around my age. Almost all had their hands over their mouths, suppressing laughter.

"Good one, Thomas." I looked up at Bradley and his anger was gone, his cool demeanor back in place as if nothing had happened. "How'd you like to spend some extra time in the box for insubordination?"

A dark skinned boy stood up a little straighter and lost his grin.

"No, sir. I apologize."

Bradley stepped toward him. There was no trace of his usual smile. "Give me one hundred push-ups and I'll consider that apology accepted."

Thomas, for his part, didn't even flinch. He dropped to his hands and started pumping up and down on the spot. The rest of the group had lost their smiles and were standing to attention.

"Now what are you all doing here?" Bradley said. "I thought Peterson had you out on maneuvers."

"All complete," said Gus as he stepped out from behind the group. "And that's Sergeant Peterson, recruit."

Bradley snapped to attention and saluted. "Sir, yes, sir." Gone was the camaraderie that I had seen between the two earlier. Now they were on duty.

Sergeant Peterson smiled and turned to look at me. I wasn't sure what it was, but something about the way he looked at me made me stand up a little straighter.

"She holding up alright so far?"

Bradley gave a nod. "Just giving her the tour and a little run, sir."

Gus raised an eyebrow. "I see that. Losing to her as well it seems."

Some of the smiles returned to the faces of those assembled, but none of them made a sound.

Gus gave a sigh and wave of his hand. "Well I'm going to head to the mess to get some chow. I'll let you introduce her to the rest of these muppets." He turned and faced the rest of the group. "I expect you all to be back at training at thirteen hundred sharp, excepting those of you that have lessons. You know who you are. At ease, soldiers."

The men and women assembled relaxed as Sergeant Peterson walked away toward the green buildings. Thomas finished his set and pushed himself up to a standing position. To his credit he only seemed a little winded. It looked like I would have a lot to catch up on in the way of fitness.

Bradley cleared his throat. "Everyone, this is Alex, Alex this is everyone." He then turned, without another word, and made his way after the Sergeant toward the green buildings.

I stood on the spot, unsure of what to do. He was my guide for the day but it was obvious that he didn't want me to follow him. I hesitated, and was about to follow him anyway, when a girl stepped up beside me.

"Well that was odd."

I turned to look at her and my mouth dropped open at how pretty she was. She lifted a hand up to her long, brown hair and pulled aside a piece that had fallen in front of her eyes. Her mere presence made me feel like the most pale and ugly thing in the universe. Curse my mother and her genes which forced me to live with this red hair and these freckles.

Her words registered in my mind. "What was odd?"

She inclined her head toward Bradley's shrinking form. "Him. I've never seen him get so worked up over anything. He is always so calm, you know what I mean?"

I nodded. Even though I hadn't known him long, I could tell that his outburst was uncharacteristic. I frowned as I watched him walk into the distance, unsure of what to make of him.

"Your name was Alex, right?" I nodded to her and she smiled at me. "My name is Sarah. It's nice to meet you, Alex."

I gave her a small smile. "Likewise."

Sarah tilted her head to the side. "So you're going to be joining us for training?"

"So it seems."

Sarah grinned. "Good. It will be good to get a new girl my age around the place."

At her words I looked to the group and noticed she was right. While there were an average split of genders, most of the girls looked to be a few years older than the two of us. Only one other girl looked to be around our age, but she had her back to us and looked to be going through a set of stretches.

"I would introduce the rest of us, but if I do that now you'll just forget everybody's names" She turned to me and opened her eyes a little. "Unless you're one of those super memory types?" I shook my head and she smiled. "Me either. I found it a little overwhelming at first meeting all these new people, but you will learn them all soon enough."

"How long have you been here?"

"Six months next Tuesday!" She pumped so much enthusiasm into every word it was hard not to smile with her. She turned to look out over the obstacle course. "It's a great place to learn more about your ability and get into shape. Plus it's great to be learning more about the world, and one day helping to contribute to making it better. Don't you think?"

I wasn't sure what to think, but I nodded which seemed to make her happy.

"Anyway you should go see Bradley to work out what to do for the rest of your day. I hope you do stay."

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. I wasn't sure what to do so I just pat her back a few times and frowned. She pulled away from me and relief washed through me. I said my thanks to her and turned to walk toward the green buildings. I was about to start walking when Sarah spoke up again.

"Oh, I saw that last leap over the pit." I turned to look back at her. "Well done! I've never seen that before. Was impressive."

I felt myself smile as I turned and began walking away. Perhaps this place wouldn't be so bad after all.

FOURTEEN

"Push, push, push!"

The voice of Bradley grated against my ears as he stood shouting at me from above. My shaking arms pushed against the ground and lifted my body once more into the air. I held myself just before the apex so my arms wouldn't lock. Locking your arms gave you more running, and I was sick and tired of running.

I lowered myself down for one more rep, but when I tried to push myself back up I found I couldn't. I grunted and strained, but no matter how hard I tried my chest didn't budge, and my arms shook harder than before. I collapsed.

"Not good enough."

I tried to talk between breaths. "I'm, trying, as, best, I, can."

"You're a fast runner, and have good spatial intelligence, but you're much more unfit than I realized."

I glared up at him and opened my mouth to respond, but caught myself before saying anything. Bradley was my superior officer now, and back chat just made it worse.

I grit my teeth. "Sir, yes, sir."

He shook his head. "Get up. We're going to run until you vomit."

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, but pushed myself up onto my knees and stood in front of him with my head high. My arms felt like jelly, and my breathing was still uneven, but the moment he blew his whistle the two of us took off at a jog and ran side by side.

He turned to look at me as we ran. "You know I'm not doing this to hurt you, right?" I nodded my head, not wanting to waste the energy on talking. He turned to look back at the path we were running. "We need to get you up to a minimum fitness level before you can enter into training with the rest of the regiment. They've been here a lot longer than you so you're playing catch up for the first few weeks."

I knew all this already, but it didn't make going through this process any easier. I knew I wasn't the fittest person on earth, but I had no idea how much training these people went through. Bradley had been side by side with me for every moment of it and he only had a thin sheen of sweat on his body. I envied his regular breathing as I sucked in air through my teeth to slow the intake. Gasping for air only made it worse somehow.

I had stayed in the mansion for the first two nights after signing up to the pulse training academy while I waited for my uniform to arrive. You weren't allowed into the military buildings in civilian clothes for whatever reason. They had arrived this morning and I was wearing them now. Long, green patterned pants; black high cut boots; and a dark gray shirt clung to my body. There were other items of clothing for when the weather got cooler, but these items were bad enough for the weather now. I could feel the shirt sticking to my back.

True to his word after twenty minutes of jogging I fell to the ground and emptied my lunch onto the grass. Bradley stood looking down at me as I spat the foul taste out of my mouth.

"That will be enough for today I think. The sun will be setting within a hour, and now that you have your gear you'll be joining us for dinner in the recruits' mess. Feel free to go have a look at your quarters before you arrive. I'd recommend a shower too."

I stood and saluted him. "Sir, yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

***

As I approached the barracks I was nervous. There were separate buildings for males and females, but each room was designed for two people. I wasn't sure whom they had paired me with, but I hoped it was someone nice. I knew that no-one here was out to hurt me, but I wasn't sure how I was going to handle sleeping in the same room as someone else. It was going to be an adjustment.

I hesitated as I reached the barracks as I realized I had no idea which room I was in. I pushed open the door and stepped into the building. The air was cooler inside, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the place had air-conditioning.

I looked around the room and saw I was standing in a sort of common area. There were couches and tables scattered around the place, and a notice board up against one of the walls. As I approached it I saw my name, along with others, written up on the board. Next to each name was a room number.

Room thirty-eight.

I scanned down the list and saw another name against Room thirty-eight—Sarah. I smiled a little. At least it was someone with whom I'd spoken.

I made my way down the hallway, stopped at room thirty-eight, and knocked. Where there was no response I let myself into the room. A set of bunk beds stood against the wall, and two sets of drawers ran along the adjacent side of the room. I saw my backpack sitting to the side of one of them, and pulled open the drawers to reveal my new clothing all pressed and ready inside. I noticed the pillow on the bottom bunk was non-standard, so I assumed that was Sarah's bed. I opened the bottom drawer and withdrew the towel and fresh clothes, then made my way from the room to the showers.

The building seemed to be empty as I got to the showers, which was good for me when I noticed they were communal. I wasn't sure how to feel about showering with other people, and was glad that I didn't have to experience it right now.

Once I finished in the shower I stood in front of the mirror drying my hair. I left the bathroom once I was ready, and made my way back to my room.

"Hi," a voice said as I opened the door, causing me to jump.

I stared at the naked form of Sarah standing in the middle of her room. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry!"

She threw me a grin and put her hands on her hips. "What for? It's your room too."

I held my hand up and covered my eyes. "Would you mind… uh… getting dressed?"

"Sure thing!" She started humming a small tune as she pulled her clothes out of the drawers. "You a bit of a prude, huh?"

"No!" I paused and frowned. "Well, I don't think so? I guess I'm just not used to seeing people I don't know naked."

Sarah laughed. "You'll get used to it now that you've got a roomie. I grew up in a house with four sisters, so I guess I was already used to it before I came here. You can look now."

I took my hand away and saw that she had finished dressing. She gave me a smile. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No." I thought of my mother. As much as I was happy to have gone, I still wondered what she was doing now. Whether she even noticed I wasn't there any more.

Sarah continued on oblivious. "That's a shame. Siblings are great! Where are you from?"

"Uh, New York City." She turned to me with her eyes wide and grabbed at my hands.

"Oh wow, you will have to tell me all about it some time! I've never met anyone from there. I've heard it's dangerous, is it dangerous? I've always wanted to go but it's pretty far away from where I grew up. I'm from down in the central region near Arkansas, but I live in a smaller town there with only a few thousand people. Cities are crazy places with so many people everywhere. The first time I ever went to Little Rock I thought I was going to get lost! It's a pretty fun place with loads to do though, but I do like smaller towns still. Everyone seems to know each other and you can always find someone to talk to."

I stood stunned as she continued to speak for what felt like another ten minutes without breathing. I was amazed that she could keep it up without passing out. She finally stopped and I pulled my hands back.

I blinked. "Wow."

Sarah gave me a grin. "Sorry, people always tell me I talk too much. I hope it's not annoying?"

I shook my head. "No not at all." Once I had said it I realized I meant it. "I've never had many people to talk to before though, so it might just take me a little getting used to is all."

"Fine by me. Just tell me if I'm talking too much, okay?"

I laughed. "Okay."

She took me by the hand and the two of us made our way out of the room and toward the common area. More of the girls were back now, and as we walked passed the showers I could hear some of them in there chatting. I shuddered at the thought of being in there exposed with other people.