Training Part 1

A group of twenty men was traveling in a coach bus to Chennai. Vishnu sat in the very front right next to Michael on this trip to their training camp.

These past few months Vishnu, Michael, and Daas traveled all over India to recruit soldiers. The trip was rough, to say the least. Each candidate was in a unique situation and the three of them had to come up with creative ways to recruit the soldiers. They had to convince parents and other relatives to let the soldiers come with them. One soldier was apparently the heir to the Village chief position and they had to cajole the entire village.

Of course, the deciding factor in every case was Michael's miraculous healing abilities. Every candidate was either disabled or had some lethal injury and they were all fully healed. Since the swami disguise worked so well on Daas's family; Michael kept it for the rest of the trip. Fortunately, after nearly four months and a lot of embarrassing acting, they finally recruited twenty elite veterans to start the security firm with.

Right now, everyone was heading to a training facility that is used to train private security forces. The good thing about the facility was that everything was arranged. The food, rooms, housekeeping was all part of the package; so that the soldiers can just focus on the training. The facility even had their own custom training programs, but Michael turned them down. Apparently, Michael personally developed the entire training program. On one hand, Vishnu did not think Michael knew anything about training elite soldiers but compared to the miracles he usually performed, this was nothing. Therefore Vishnu was looking forward to the training that Michael designed.

The bus arrived at the facility at sunset. Vishnu and the rest of the soldiers piled out and checked into their rooms. After settling in, Michael called everyone for dinner. The dinner was sumptuous; Michael did not cut any corners and paid for the most expensive dining package. This did not impress Vishnu; He thought that Michael was going to spoil the soldiers. Elite units like the one Michael wanted to form was supposed to survive on field rations, and that was the best case scenario. The soldiers were also taught enough herbology to know what plants they could scavenge in the absence of rations.

" Well, let's see what else you are going to do" Vishnu muttered to himself. He wasn't going to fail Michael yet but was not impressed by the first step.

After everyone finished the three-course meal; Michael called their attention. " Alright everyone, I have some announcements to make.

I am going to pass out the schedule. The training will start tomorrow morning at 5 AM. We will be training for approximately two months. Most of you are unfit so you have to work hard to get in shape again.

There is also a list for Teams. Everyone will be split into teams of five. The teams will compete against each other during the two month period. The winning team will receive prizes."

Vishnu received the schedule and the team roster. The schedule was crammed; they would be training from five in the morning to five in the evening; doing a variety of physical workouts and lectures. This pace was maintained for six days straight; after a one day break, they would resume the intense schedule again. 'At least Michael did not go soft with the schedule' Vishnu thought.

Vishnu moved on to the Team rosters. He wasn't surprised to find that he was the leader of one of the teams. The teams were named after colors; Vishnu lead the Red team, Daas lead the Blue team, Prakash led the Orange team, and Amir led the Green team.

Prakash and Amir were two soldiers that had leadership experience from serving in the Navy. Michael healed Prakash's lung cancer and Amir's heart disease. Michael and Vishnu were looking forward to their performance to determine if they can lead squads properly.

Michael dismissed everyone and they all went to bed while wondering what the training was going to be like.

The brilliant glow from the rising sun spread over Camp Vajra; waking up its trainees from their slumber. Vishnu immediately donned his uniform for the Red team. He made his way to the trail along with four others in his team. Michael showed disapproval as he watched the others spill in one by one.

" Alright, We are going to be running 16 km (10 Mi). I congratulate the Red Team for coming together as a team. Everyone else can run an additional four Kms. " Michael announced.

" We didn't know that we are supposed to come together. You never told us anything." Daas protested.

Michael turned to him. "What you didn't know that you are supposed to act like soldiers? Do I need to explain to you how to lead a squad?"

Daas snorted but ultimately kept quiet. Vishnu knew that the young blood was impatient and aggressive. His character was not bad, its just that Daas was too competitive to take advice. If someone tried to guide him, Daas would just receive the advice with hostility.

" Let's go. You won't get breakfast till you finish the trail." Michael encouraged everyone.

Vishnu immediately led his team and maintained a moderate speed. Everybody was out of shape so there was no point in trying to be fast. Daas immediately let his team and overtook Vishnu. However, Daas was passed by someone else running alone.

Vishnu was pleasantly surprised when he saw Michael running with them. There were two types of trainers; the type that stood still and ordered the trainees around, and the type that joined the trainees. Naturally, Vishnu preferred the latter; he always thought it was best to lead by example.

The crickets croaked and the smell of the wet grass greeted the jogging soldiers. For a while, Vishnu watched as Daas desperately tried to catch up to Michael; only to give up and nearly collapse from exhaustion. Vishnu appreciated the fact that Michael was already giving some character lessons to the hyperactive Daas. He turned his attention to the four members on his team. Fortunately, they were holding up and keeping up with Vishnu's pace. Vishnu soldiered on, eventually overtaking Daas team as they ran out stamina due to poor control.

" Perhaps some people have been retired for too long." Vishnu mumbled to no one in particular. It was frustrating to see elite soldiers behave in such childish ways. However, Michael had to take some blame for this debacle.

The soldiers were used to a strict hierarchy; right now, Michael did not say anything about ranks, yet he split them up into teams and made them compete against each other. Clearly, everybody was trying to determine what the pecking order was supposed to be. Perhaps Michael did this on purpose, to let natural selection determine the ranks.

Vishnu threw the team politics to the back of his mind and continued on the trails. He still had seven more Km to go.