"So what does that mean?"
"It means you could be the fastest person on this planet—at least for a few seconds. I'm sure with training though we can get that time up a bit."
"This is something you can train?"
The general nodded and raised his eyebrows. "We're still only scratching the surface of pulse abilities. From what we know so far is that it responds like a muscle. If we can push it to its limits, it grows. Some of the researchers think that it's only our perception that allows that to happen. That we're nowhere near the limitations of what people with abilities can achieve." He gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "All I know is that training gets results."
I frowned and looked up at him. "Is there anyone else that can do what I do?"
"No, not that I've ever come across. Everyone has different abilities. There are no two that are the same. Some have similarities but they execute them in different ways. You'll see that kind of thing as you get to know your fellow soldiers."
I frowned. "Well… I've not decided if I'm going to stay yet."
"Yes you have."
I opened my mouth to object but found I couldn't. He was right. I had come here not knowing what to expect, but learning just a little more about what had happened to me, and knowing that they could train me further, was too good to pass up. I needed a place like this.
I closed my mouth and looked up at him, giving him a small smile. He clapped his hands together and gestured to one of the seats behind his desk. I sat in the left chair, and he sat in his own behind the desk.
"So is there anything you want to know before going back out there?"
I considered for a moment. "I have two major things I want to address before committing to anything. First is my freedom. I've spent my life with the ability to go where I want. To be fair, the place I lived didn't allow me total freedom, but it's something I would be giving up coming here. I want to know if I will still have choice."
The general leaned forward, put his elbows on the desk, and clasped his hands in front of him. "It's a fair question, and I want to be honest with you. If you sign up with us your life of total freedom will be over. You will be military for the rest of your life. Even if you leave us after you have completed your time, you will never not be one of us, and we can call you back to active duty at any time.
"On the flip side though there is a lot of freedom within our ranks if you have the ability. Those that don't do well are usually relegated to less critical posts like checkpoints and the like. Don't get me wrong, those are still important jobs, but those with a high aptitude have a wide variety of choice in what they do. You can pair up with other non-pulse units in the military as a pulse specialist. You can join relief and aid efforts in bringing supplies and the like to impoverished areas of the country. The true elite can even go on to join top Pulser squads that travel the world, bringing justice and peace to those that need it. Every mission carried out by the elite brings our county one step closer to its former power."
I nodded at his words and considered them. It was good to know that, given the aptitude, I could opt to dedicate the rest of my life to helping others. Regardless of the other issues that was something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. The elite squads sounded enticing, but secretive. I wouldn't commit to anything like that until I had a more clear understanding of what it was they did.
The General cleared his throat. "I believe you had another issue?"
"Yes, but I'm not sure how to phrase it."
The general raised his eyebrows at me. "I want you to be candid here with me, Alex. It would be a large waste of time and money for everyone involved if you weren't sure of your place with us."
I nodded at his words. "There are certain… things that soldiers do. I'm not sure I can do them in good conscience."
General Walker leaned back on his chair. "You're talking about killing." I nodded. He stood from the desk and began pacing back and forth across the room. "Let's do a little exercise. Say you're on an aid mission delivering supplies to one of the worse off areas of the country. You're securing the area for the drop of supplies, and you come across a man kicking a woman who is lying on the ground. The woman is not moving and if he continues any longer she will likely die. What action do you take?"
I didn't hesitate. "I would stop him." There are certain things in this world that you do not sit by and watch.
"The fact that you have that reaction shows that you are different than over eighty percent of all people. So you lift your weapon and scream at him to stop, but he does not hear you and continues kicking the woman. You have a choice to make. You can either run over to him to stop him, but the woman could die within that time. Your other choice is to take the shot. Granted, you might not kill him with the shot, but that is a chance you would have to take. What do you do?"
I considered for a few moments. "I don't like it, but I would take the shot. If the man dies, it would be awful, but it was his own actions that caused it. He gave up his right to life when he tried to take away another's."
General Walker stopped his pacing and turned to me with a smile. "Exactly. That is all I ask of you. That you make the hard choices when the hard choices need making. There are two types of soldiers—those that kill for pleasure, and those that kill when necessary. I much prefer the latter. We keep those that fall into the former group, but put them into low risk situations with little chance at violence. I would much prefer someone with a conscience behind a trigger. Those are the people that I know I can trust."
I felt myself smile at his words. I could see that this man had to make those kind of decisions in the past. Even with those decisions though, he still managed to maintain a strong sense of self identity and worth. I knew that, given the choice, I would always choose life, but it was good to know that life went on even after hard choices.
I looked up into his eyes again. "Thank you, sir. You've helped me a lot."
"No problem. If you ever have any questions I am open to hearing them. I spend my time split between the training facility here and the Pulse HQ, but I'm always available for meetings with my trainees. You're our future after all. Anything else to ask?"
I shook my head. "No, sir."
"Dismissed."
I turned and left through the doors. Bradley was waiting outside for me.
"How did it go?"
"Good. I'm ready to sign up."
A smirk came onto his face as we started to walk down the hallway. "He's quite the man, huh?"
"Yes," I said with a nod. He was at that.
THIRTEEN
I turned and threw a grin at Bradley as I reached the obstacle course. He was a good twenty feet behind me and shaking his head with a smile. As I slowed to a stop I fell to the ground, putting my hands out to stop myself from hitting the dirt. Once we had gotten outside of the mansion Bradley had challenged me to a race to the obstacle course. As I had agreed he had pushed me down onto the ground and sprinted off toward our goal.
I panted hard trying to catch my breath. He'd forced me to go all out to catch him and was now I paying for it. I looked up at him as he slowed to a halt and glared at him. He was breathing without trouble and hadn't even worked up a sweat.
Bradley looked down at me. "Your speed is amazing, but you can't sustain it for long can you?"
I caught my breath and stood up. "Never needed anything more than a bit of burst. No-one ever came close to catching me."
He gave me a nod. "It's good anyway. Gives us a solid foundation to work with."
The two of us walked over toward the start of the course. Bradley pointed to the paths. "There are many different routes that you can take. Some are simple, and others more difficult. We'll start off with the easier ones." I opened my mouth to object but he cut me off. "I know you have the ability, but it's about safety more than anything else. Your leg still isn't fully healed, and I don't want you to tear the wound open again."
I grumbled but didn't argue, deciding not to ment
ion my broken ribs. I hadn't thought about them, and a quick touch revealed that they, too, barely hurt anymore. That medicine was good stuff.
"Okay, so we want to head through the rightmost path here. There will be three intersections we will go through if we stay to the natural path. The first two we want to go straight, but the third we will turn right. Got it?"
I nodded and stepped up to the line.
Bradley threw me a grin. "Now I know you're faster than me on flat ground, but let's see you beat me here."
He took off running and after a heartbeat I was on his heels. As we hit the first set of wooden stairs I could feel the familiar pump running through my system. This was the kind of movement I wanted, not running full out on flat ground. This was my element.
We reached the top of the stairs and ran through a series of poles that stood in the path. I spotted the most efficient route and tore through them. I passed Bradley who had taken the easier, but slower, route on the outside. His eyes widened as I gave him a wink and broke out of the end of the poles ahead of him.
"I shouldn't have tried to take it easy on you!"
I grinned and pushed on.
We came up on another section of poles, but these were horizontal at different heights. I wasn't sure whether to duck under them or go over, but with my leg in the condition that it was I decided crawling was out. I leapt up onto the first pole and moved as fast as I could without taking any risk. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, Bradley hit the poles at full speed and fall into a slide. He was under me when he spun on his side and rolled, faster than I had seen anyone roll before, sideways past the rest of the poles. I landed back on the ground a few feet behind him and he was up and running in an instant.
We passed through the first intersection and I caught a glimpse of another section of the course. From the looks of the barbed wire that ran across the section we just passed I was glad that we had decided on the easy section for my first time. The next part was a long rope slide that dropped us back down to ground level. There were four ropes side by side with devices on top for zip lining down at speed. I launched myself at the rightmost of them and caught on to handles in mid-air. Bradley and I were side by side again. I looked at him as I flew through the air, he had his eyes closed and a grin was splitting his face. I laughed and turned back to face the ground, pressing down hard on the brake as I reached the end of the rope. We leapt at the same time and hit the ground running side by side.
We passed through the second intersection and came up on a series of odd shaped boxes. Some were small enough to leap over, but others required climbing to pass. Climbing wasn't a new thing for me, but as Bradley had more experience on the course he started to break ahead. It was harder than I thought to judge the distances between the boxes, as their sizes made it impossible to predict what was coming up. As we hit the ground again, Bradley came out ahead of me, but I was still only a few feet behind. I tore after him as we rounded the corner to the last section of the course.
When I saw the last obstacle I slowed a little. About fifty feet in front of us was a huge gap, much too large to clear with a single jump, and I couldn't see from this distance how to get past it. Bradley got further ahead as I waited for him to slow. He didn't. I was about to yell at him when he stopped right on the edge and spun, reaching down to grab one of the ropes I now saw at the top the drop.
It became clear when I saw the ladders lined up on the other side of the pit. They had designed the obstacle for us to slide down and climb back up. Simple, but slow.
I was about to start slowing down when I had another idea. It was dangerous, and stupid, but if I followed Bradley I would lose to him for sure.
Besides, I always loved to fly.
I put on a burst of speed and increased the width of my steps. I curved out toward the wall that ran alongside. It was a large brick wall, much the same as what we had back home. I head Bradley shout from below me as I leapt out over the drop.
My body twisted and my feet hit the vertical brick of wall and scraped for grip. My shoes found some and I proceeded to run up the wall for three steps. When I could feel my momentum start to work against me, I gave the wall one hard kick and launched myself toward the other side.
I landed about five feet over the edge and ducked into a roll, absorbing any impact that might have jarred my knees.
Elation filled me as I crossed over the line that signified the finish point, and I turned, a little winded, to wait for Bradley. It was a good six seconds before he crossed after me, but instead of the cocky smile I saw only anger on his face.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
My mouth fell open. "Excuse me?"
"Do you want to get yourself killed? Is that it?"
"What's your problem? Are you that mad I beat you?"
"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 w
hat 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?"
The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse Page 8