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Reach

A new day dawned over Reach, and with it new challenges. Seth awoke on his own accord to find an instructor just about to zap him like last time. Upon seeing the child awake, the instructor lowered his baton in disappointment and left Seth to rub the grit from his eyes. He yawned and dropped down from his bunk managing to absorb the fall in his legs. Half of the other trainees were already standing around the barracks and the other half were crawling out of their beds.

The barracks door swung open and rays of light lit up a square in front of the door. The trainees walked outside and were guided by instructors to a muddy pit with a large plank suspended above it in the middle. Once again Chief Mendez greeted them: "Good morning recruits, today we play a game called Mud Sticks. You will be fighting each other on that board with a paddle. The goal: be the last one standing" The Chief ordered the instructors to divide the children into two teams of 20, Seth was separated from Lucy and Marcus, but Patrick made it to Seth's side.

The trainees gathered on each side of the middle plank, and watched as instructors fit them with protective padding over vital areas, but strangely no head-gear. Marcus's team, which was the red one, sent up a child onto the beam equipped with a pole fitted with a cushioned ball on each end. The blue team did the same leaving 2 wary kids suspended above mud on a plank with a big stick each. "KNOCK HIM DOWN" Mendez shouted at both of them, and with that the fight was on. The blue team's champion made a cautious swipe at the other's side, which was evaded with a step back. The blue fighter was readying another swipe when the red champion made an unexpected jab forward, catching the other off-guard and slipping off into the mud.

The red fighter raised his weapon and the rest of his team cheered. An instructor helped the mud-covered loser to his feet and out of the pit, he then stripped him of his armour and stick which he gave to the nearest blue team child; Seth. He uneasily walked up onto plank where his opponent waved his pole-weapon around. "I'm gonna eat you for food!" Seth stood in position and stared down the kid clad in red padding and at least half a head taller than him. "That's a terrible insult, get a vocabulary". The chief was eager to start as he produced a whistle from his pocket and blew it. The abrupt sound almost knocked both children off, but they quickly regained their footing. Seth recovered first and swept his weapon at the opponent's legs. His enemy had seen it coming and braced, Seth's blow bounced off his thick legs. The now unfazed red fighter stepped forward as he raised his weapon above his head and down on Seth with deadly power.

Seth raised his stick/pole just in time to block it, but he force pushed him back and forced him to lower on the plank. His only weapon was now trapped under the enemy's one, which would eventually overpower him. Both teams saw the tension and cheered for their champion. Through the shouting he heard Patrick's distinct voice: "I believe in you!" Seth then realised the stick wasn't his only weapon. He lowered himself unexpectedly causing the attacker to lean forward abruptly and take a step, bringing his legs closer in reach. Perfect. He stuck a leg out from his precarious position and hooked it around the opponent's leg, and pulled. Their tiring leg gave out bending forward and shifted his balance dangerously. Seth then stood, lifting and twisting their still locked weapons and shoved forward, sending Seth's enemy tumbling into the muddy pit. The blue team roared in triumph as the red team readied its next champion.

The pit fighting went until everyone had a turn, with good competition. Seth took on another 6 trainees before it was Marcus's turn. Seth went down and Marcus nearly beat all of blue team until they sent out Coleson. Coleson stepped out onto the plank with Marcus and not a second later, Mendez shouted: "FIGHT" They clashed together, quite evenly matched as they parried and swiped at each other. Marcus was about to swing a blow at his head when Coleson took the gap between attacks and dropped his stick, then charged head-down into Marcus picking him off his feet and dropping him into the pit. Coleson went on to beat the rest of red team until their last champion; Lucy stood against him.

Coleson went at Lucy with his pole lowered; it had worked for everyone else. But at the last second Lucy stepped off the plank and grabbed Coleson. She used him to pull herself back onto the plank and Coleson down into the pit. Eventually Lucy had picked off all of blue team but Patrick, who had until now not been expecting to fight a girl. He stepped up with Lucy and they took positions. The chief signalled the match start, and Lucy without hesitation lunged at him. Seth blocked the attack and made a jab with his weapon. She stepped off the plank and grabbed Patrick's pole, intending to pull him down into the pit when suddenly Patrick reacted; he dropped the stick. Without anything keeping her up, Lucy easily fell down into the mud making a healthy splat.

Blue team cheered and Patrick was astounded, he had never been popular. The teams came together and shook each other's hands. Seth, Marcus and Lucy came together and exchanged hugs congratulating eachother. Patrick and Coleson came up to Seth's group of three and he asked: "Hey, would you mind if we joined you group?" They all grinned at eachother and Seth replied: "We would be happy for you two to join us" And then it was a group of five.

After Mud Sticks, they had a 3 mile jog to a nearby lake. All of the children were either doubled over or on the grass gasping for breath when Mendez announced: "You all look pretty dirty! Why don't you all go for a swim?" He gestured to the lake and the trainees who had just ran under the hot sun, slowly made their way to the water's edge. They all got in the water and cooled off, keeping in mind to stay at the shallow banks. The trainees soon noticed the many instructors who had stepped up to the edge of the lake, each of them held a ring. Without warning they threw them into the water.

Most of the children instinctively ducked but the rings sailed above their heads and into the deep part of the lake. The rings quickly sunk and escaped their view into the water. The confused children turned to Chief Mendez for the explanation. "Each of those rings count as a ticket, and just like yesterday there are 39 of them. Grab one and bring it to me, for the unlucky trainee that turns up without one, they go without food tonight. GO"

The children waded over to the edge of the shallows and exchanged glances, then one by one they dived in. Seth had his eyes closed, it hurt when water touched them especially the unclean lake water. His head hit something solid, and with pain he opened his eyes and saw he had reached the bottom of the lake. Seth turned his head to see one of the rings get snatched up by a trainee who then pushed for the water's surface. He turned his head the other way and saw a school of fish swim past. He couldn't breathe anymore so he decided to swim back up. The sun making light ripples across the water seemed to fade and the darkness of the deep water close in. He coughed and immediately water entered his mouth making him gag and choke. He reached an arm up but the surface looked like it was flying away.

Coleson had gotten his ring; he was waiting on the shallows for everyone else to turn up. So far Lucy and Patrick were waiting with him along with about half the other trainees; then Marcus emerged from the lake clutching his ring. Cole stood by Marcus and asked: "Have you seen Seth? " "Not since the start actually, should we look for him?" Coleson didn't need another word; he dived down and swam around the immediate area. He was about to give up when he saw a shadow on the lake floor. The child looked up to see Seth's limp body floating in the somewhat clear water. He swam up and grabbed the body, hauling it to shore.

A small crowd gathered around Seth, Coleson was kneeling besides him, shaking him slightly. "C'mon... Wake up Seth..." He remembered something he learned in school for situations like this; CPR. Coleson pushed down on Seth's chest a few times, and then hesitantly brought his lips to Seth's mouth. They made contact, and Coleson blew air into him. He could feel it working, Seth's chest rose and he pushed it back down. As he gave mouth-to-mouth, Coleson couldn't help but notice the warmth he felt though the contact. It was nice to have his mouth on Seth's, but why? Coleson pulled away and pushed Seth's chest again causing a stream of water to burst from Seth.

Coleson stood and moved back from him understanding what was happening, "Move back everyone give him some room" Seth turned on his side and retched out another load of lake water. Most of the people surrounding him left and Lucy moved in to help him up. "Are you ok Seth? You nearly died or something!" She asked as they stood up together. Coleson walked away and sat down by himself, he thought about him and Seth. Were they kissing? No it just CPR, but I felt something...

Seth coughed up the remaining water and for the next 5 minutes he sat down and recovered. He then realised he didn't have a ring! He would be hungry tonight. Seth watched in defeat as his fellow trainees lined up and gave their ring trophies to the Chief when Patrick ran up to him holding one of the rings. "Seth, take this and hand it in" Seth was about to protest when he cut in: "I've already handed in one, but I picked up an extra one! So you should have it" Patrick put the ring in his hands and ran off, Seth was ecstatic. What great friends I have. He walked up to the Chief and gave it to him; Mendez took it and dropped it in a box as an instructor made a tick on his clipboard.

As Mendez received the 39th ring, he shouted: "All right trainees! Fall out!" Together they jogged another 5 miles to the mess hall, where they ate happily. All except of course the child without a ring, he only received a piece of bread with some water. He had seen Patrick with his ring, and then saw him take another one. He vowed to one day take revenge on Patrick, nobody messes with Victor.