8 Traning-Drill-Torture

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In the oval-shaped building, the floor we were on was divided into segments as I have mentioned before, four to be precise. Not sure if segments are the right word, but the classroom was rectangular and was the smallest one. There was a half circle on either of its sides and a larger rectangular-ish portion to its front.

These were the rooms we would be doing practical training. Do not be fooled, they were huge. A hundred of us could fit and do different kinds of exercises all day without obstructing each other.

Astrid took us to the room that was on the right. On entering, I saw many different kinds of equipment strewn about. Weight benches, workout unit, exercise bike, dumbbells, pull-down machine, barbell and many others.

"Right! Listen up. We have different routines for different focuses of the body. For instance, we can't recommend routines mainly hinged on building up muscles and strength for women at this point, and yes because of the gender itself.

You can build up muscle after the first training phase, but for women we want you to maximise getting your body in shape and consolidating your natural affinity to agility and dexterity unless of course, your innate ability has something to do with strength.

As a newbie, it's better to focus on what your body currently has an advantage in. For men, you will have routines more strength-based as a start and then focus on agility later.

This is not a matter of gender discrimination, trust me, people learnt the hard way that this isn't the time. This is to cover each other's backs, we can't all be doing routines that make us jack of all trades and master of none, we'll die," Astrid explained.

Some of the women had wanted to argue, but Astrid's reasoning made sense and they soon realised it. Women are generally lean and if given proper training, they can maximise their natural agility faster than building up strength especially with such a tight time frame.

For men, building strength would cover the women's immediate weakness while they cover ours. Perfect teamwork. At least at base standard.

"Alright, your regimes will be tight and brutal. But don't worry, what would usually take years can be achieved in months because of Invigoration. Your body will adapt to changes faster, burn fat quicker and make your muscles stronger. The routines are plastered on the walls, I'll be assisting you in getting used to them."

Thus, it began. The MOST PHYSICALLY BRUTAL MOMENT OF MY LIFE!

I remember a similar experience. When I decided to download a hard-core exercising app. I gave up a month later. The push-ups, crunches and the inchworms. I said 'Stuff This' and deleted the app.

Astrid was the reincarnation of a drill sergeant who lived in the 20th century. I sensed it. The way she slapped my back while I was struggling with the 30th pull-up, the way she yelled at me and almost called me the 'p-word when I was about to drop on the floor with 3 minutes of my plank walk left, nothing could convince me that my theory was otherwise.

I was surprised by how much I could take, the weights went from 50kg to 200kg for our first lesson. I died at 120.

Among the men, only Nicholas finished the drill successfully, albeit with extreme fatigue and muscle strain. He had a newfound resolve. I really should make friends here. We have all been so tense we barely talk.

After 5 hard hours, the demon finally gave us a break.

"Alright. That will be all for today, in the physical fitness room. You'll return every day and do your drills. However, as time goes we will steadily increase the time taken for each exercise until you meet the expected threshold. You may go to your next class," she said as she pointed at the doorway up ahead of the class.

We dragged our exhausted bodies to the next room only to find a smiling devil in a sports bra and sweatpants. It was Sandra. Camille was also there with her.

The room was fitted full of firearms of different calibres, hung on the wall, with their respective ammunitions right under them, on top of box-shaped wooden cases.

Behind Sandra was a large enclosed space that covered half the room with dummies and targets arranged in an orderly fashion.

On the wall that divided the two spaces, were dozens of divisions with space for firing the firearms for individual use. Earmuffs were included.

"Welcome everyone. I will be guiding you through the use of different kinds of firearms and the best circumstances to use each kind. Today we will be focusing on how to operate a handgun and developing your marksmanship. For each lesson, I'll introduce the gun's category, how to assemble and disassemble it and of course how to use it," Sandra said while giving us an amiable smile.

"Are guns effective for killing Stragglers?" I asked her.

"No. Regular firearms cannot harm a straggler, at least not by much. These firearms we use however are modified and Empowered versions supplied from  Safe Zone 1 by an Elite Invigorated who awakened to an ability related to such. Even their ammunition is stronger, only limited by the kind of gun holding them.

Naturally, guns are a good choice for fending off weaker Stragglers. It's better to deal with them at a distance anyway," she answered.

"Oh. Then how come you didn't have guns the first time we met during the scouting?" I asked.

"Actually, we did. We had to use handguns to avoid drawing too many Stragglers by the sound. We had people to protect remember?"

I nodded.

"Right. Let's start with this." She took a Glock 19 from the wall and explained to us about the parts of the gun; magazine, trigger, firing pin, cartridge etc. She then explained to us the mechanism behind the functionality of a gun. In the most basic sense, it's an explosion that causes pressurised hot air trapped within the barrel to propel the ammunition i.e. the bullet, at high speed towards the target.

She then went up to one of the divisions and demonstrated how to fire a gun and the simple steps to ensure steady aim and good shots. She recommended the BRASS technique. Breathe Relax Aim Squeeze and Squeeze some more.

In short, breathing steadily ensures that you maintain a steady aim. Holding your breath may cause an acceleration of the heart rate which causes excessive body movement and disrupts the aim, thus relaxation is also crucial. Aiming is aiming. Both eyes open helps to get better focus while aiming.

For squeezing the trigger, it should be between the finger joint and fingertip, maintaining a slow and steady pressure to avoid jarring the gun. The trigger must remain impacted until the bullet leaves the barrel.

Easy enough, right? Nope. We spent hours just getting to be decent at the basics. Then came marksmanship. Surprisingly I wasn't so bad.

Maybe it's because I know a little about balance. After all, I've had to deal with the hell of holding cameras and setting up equipment for my YouTube videos. I can't compare that to facing the recoil from the gun for the first time but I was pretty decent.

The best for this class was a Brazilian girl with long light cool brown hair. Her name was Ana. She was pretty thin and tall, with marble grey wide-set eyes. She got the most targets in all the sessions.

After a few hours, even with our augmented physiques, the experience from the pain in our hands was not pleasant.

Sandra smiled the whole time, being encouraging and sweet as always. When she giggled at watching me fail my shots from time to time, I would feel like pointing my gun at the mischievous slouch in my chest to shut him up.

I was happy I wasn't too bad at marksmanship. It was a start.

The next class was hand to hand combat.

Leading the class was the one and only Josh.

"Hello. I'll be teaching you basic hand to hand combat. This class isn't relevant for most Stragglers but it can be a great help in teaching you coordination between your body parts for quick reactions. I'll also be teaching you specific points in your body that help with specific functions like short boosts in strength or agility. Your weak points will also be taught to you," he said in a disinterested voice. "For example, you, come here."

He pointed at the guy beside me. He was Caucasian, with short dark hair. He walked up to Josh.

"Watch closely," Josh said.

We all got tense on behalf of the guy who had been called forth by Josh.

BAM!!

WOOOOOOO! Dude, what the heck was that?!!

I literally saw nothing! I looked at my colleagues and they were all as shocked as I was. The dude who was lying on the floor didn't seem to be conscious. Good thing this room was different from the others. I felt the floor made of impact-absorbing foam material.

"Um... what was that?" Ana asked in a frightened tone.

"The first lesson. Everyone step up and prepare to defend against my attack. I'll be using the same move," Josh said again, with a hollow voice.

One by one, we all went up, standing in front of Josh, only to see the floor a split second later and the rush of circulating adrenaline that made standing up impossible.

Is this still class or are we punching bags?

Camille by the side was sighing in resignation.

Our time was spent doing the same regiments over and over again, like a school semester, moving through course after course.

Just like that, two weeks passed with our regimes becoming more intense.

I improved significantly in that time, managing to lift heavier weights and build up endurance. Believe it or not, Astrid wasn't joking about our bodies being highly adaptive. Our bodies started to gain mass and muscle at a rapid pace. I ate as much as I could to supplement my body with the nutrients it needed to grow stronger.

I got better at marksmanship, nowhere near the standard, but I could comfortably wield different kinds of guns, unload and reload them at optimal speed as well as handle the recoil quite well.

The combat class was..... progressive I guess. Josh was a better teacher than I expected. After a few rounds of his relentless attacks, we developed a quicker reaction to attacks and started looking out for our blind spots. Only after that did he delve into basic combat techniques that minimised movement and maximised efficient use of power.

I mastered a lot to an admirable degree, but there was still room for improvement. The first training exercise was supposed to last for a month and we were just half done.

We learnt more about the human body and how to use our base abilities to the fullest while minimising strain on our muscles, evasion techniques, blocking tactics, impact shifting techniques and assault methods that were potentially harmful to humanoid stragglers.

At this moment, the bulk of the actual physiological changes apparent within Straggler was unknown, thus devising proper dismantling methods was still in progress. Samples were needed and that was a very risky endeavour with the limited number of Invigorated at hand.

My stamina had increased by quite a lot and I felt life energy in me pulsing as it gave me renewed strength. I was definitely stronger than when I first came. I even got a haircut and a shave. I looked and felt proper.

It was time to do dig into the mystery of my innate ability. I wanted to know what I can do. The limits of this gift given to me.

Let's do this dice!