The hide and seek masters

The way to the forest is a long one, but it's still a reminder to many that this place is hell, and it should remain that way. "Alright everyone, while we are heading off to the forest please find yourselves up to at least four others so that way in each team there is five of you, do I make myself clear?" They all agree by shouting yes sir, it still feels awkward, but it's starting to slowly feel natural.

After arriving, I look around to see how the teams are turning out, but one duo catches my eye, " you guys gonna get any more members to join?" They both look at me, then at one another, until they both laugh a little, "sorry about that, but we decided to just run it as the two of us." They are quite the interesting pair, so I let it slide, letting them go as a duo in the challenge.

After what is probably only twenty or so minutes, I see all of them have formed up into groups of five, except for those two, still they might feel confident in their abilities to do well with just themselves.

"Alright everyone have their teams, if so I will be doing numbers for your teams, every even number these teams will start as a recon team, and every odd team will start as a search team, do I make myself clear?!"

They all responded with the yes sir, without hesitation I start numbering off the teams, eventually I get to the only two that decide to run it as a duo. "You two sure you can do this as a duo instead of a team?" Again they both chuckle a bit till they respond, "you have little faith in your trainees, don't you?"

The fact he isn't wrong makes me decided to have some faith, after all they are both confident in their skills, maybe have some skills I don't know of. After they get assigned as a search team first, I'm actually looking forward to what the two of them have in store.

The time passes by at a nice pace, along with half the teams already finishing up, I see a significant difference in searchers rather then recon team people. That was until the next team came back, it was the only two given the search test first, and recon was the second part of the test for them. "Hey, looks like we passed with flying colors!"

Everyone is shocked, including me because I wasn't expecting only a duo to pass both tests with flawless marks. When the team that lost came back they looked frustrated, "you two probably cheated, that's the only reason why you made it as far as you did!" The trainees start talking amongst themselves, until I decide to jump in, "if you think these two are cheating, then how about I take them on as to see what they are made of."

The whole area around goes silent, not even a peep out of anyone, "I take silence as a yes, alright you two, I wish to see these skills of yours." They both agree to show me, since at this point it would be better to silence the one that says they are cheating this way.

Once the three of us are ready we head to our designated spots, I took the roll of search, while they decided to do recon. The only thing that seems logical for them to do is come from two different angles, putting me at a disadvantage.

However it doesn't stop me from setting up behind the two books, the object that they need to secure as the recon team. While waiting and watching, I don't see them, it's strange, it's been almost fifteen minutes, yet I haven't seen any move to the left or right. The idea of them being able to see me come into my head, however I shake it off since that would be basically impossible.

The moment I do see movement, I continue to remain still, but to my surprise, it's only a squirrel, "where the hell are you two at?" Quietly mumbling that to myself, until I hear the sound of something hit the ground beside me, it was one of the dummy grenades, both teams had them in order to get members of each other's teams out.

"Alright match over, you two got me, you can show yourselves now." When they jump come out of their hiding spots, I was stunned to see where they were located. "That close, you two are basically on top of me, with were both of you are, I do wish to ask how both of you became this good?"

After hearing my question, one of them speaks up, "this test is no different from the game hide and seek, sure it's a little more unbalanced, but me and my friend here have always loved the game, we still enjoyed it even when we were drafted into service." The answer explains a lot as to why they are very good, even good enough to beat me.

While we walk back to all the other trainees, they talk a bit about how they saw me, and that I was slightly mismatched with the brush I was hiding in, "so that's how I was spotted, I'll keep that in mind, since I haven't practiced my hiding skills for some time." Once we get back to the other trainees, I make my statement, "I concur that these two are not cheating, as a matter of fact they are skilled enough to even beat me in this test, so please give them the respect they deserve!"

The one team that had lost completely to them was shocked, and now to tally up the remaining teams, out of the twenty-nine teams only three were completed eliminated, from the remaining rest of the upcoming exam. "Everyone we are heading back to base, so grab everything you brought along with you, and let's get back to base before sun down!"

The whole way back to base I was thinking of how I could do the next test, since so many still remain, the range test will be key, so it has to be the best one. After arriving back at base I tell all of them that they can go to the mess hall to have dinner, all of them quickly accept the offer as they all head towards that direction.

When I get back to the range, I see James there again, this time he is messing with the same rifle from this morning, "oh hey Daniel, almost didn't see you, do you mind helping for a moment, I'm checking the bolt system to see if anything has become damaged over the course of today's tests."

Gladly agreeing to help him, I hold open the bolt system for him to see inside, "hey James, one question how many of these are currently ready for testing?" The question I fire at him, makes his think for a moment, "uh probably up to at least one to two hundred, what are you thinking of doing sir Daniel?" The new idea in my head might just work, as long as I can get permission from the research team.

Once I discussed my idea to James, his face turns serious, "alright I'll try and run it by the team manager, however I can't promise anything, since he is kind of, well let's call it, obsessive over new things." That answer wasn't exactly what I was expecting, however it's a lot better then a flat out no, so thank him for seeing if he can get it approved.

After helping James fix up the gun, I head off to the mess hall, luckily none of the trainees are there, meaning I get to eat in peace. After getting my food and sitting down, I come across some notes left behind by one of the trainees, I decide to fold it up putting it in my pocket, hopefully who's ever notes they are I'm able to give them back to them tomorrow.

When I finally finish, I head off to my room to hopefully get some shut eye before the range test tomorrow. Once I reach my room, I sit down in my chair for a minute to look over some papers about all the trainees remaining. When I come across the duo trainees papers I look them over a bit, the one thing that strikes me as odd is that the reason for joining is absolutely crazy, "they both want to be camouflage artists?"

That does sound interesting, but not to far fetched, since they both could see the difference in coloring between me and the real brush. Continuing to look through the paper work, I see a lot of different reasons for joining, another one that hits home for me is Silers, "reason for joining, to defend the one back home," his reason is short and simple, which makes me think of Rebekah.

Once I finish with the paper work I lay down on the bed, all of the reasons as to why they joined got me thinking, what is mine? Other then just joining to defend the country, I would probably say it's similar to Silers, to defend those who I care for back home, those people that I care for the most, they are the one I fight for, not just this country, but the ones I care for most.

With all of those thoughts in mind I drift into a sleep, knowing that war is only some time around the corner, I also hope that I can make one more visit to see them, before everything goes to hell.