When he awoke in the morning, Kyle was delighted to confirm that he was indeed living in some form of reality, (for before that, he could not be certain, even with the pain he had felt from stumbling). After ascertaining the nature of the world around him, Kyle decided to explore it, (starting with a search for food), and ventured out into the village. As he wandered around, he realized that Gramm had neglected to tell him where the food would be appearing out of thin air. He also realized that he had woken up earlier than the others, which he noticed because of the unnatural silence and stillness in the air. After a careful observation of the village, Kyle concluded that there were only three notable places in the entire camp. The first was the large building where Gramm had given them his speech. The second was the area surrounding it, which was entirely filled with huts, identical to the one in which he had just slept. The third, which he had not noticed when he came in the previous day, was a training ground, which was made up of several obstacle courses, the tower like structure he had seen earlier, and a bit of exercise equipment. When he found that the training ground was deserted, he made his way over to the central building. Once inside, Kyle searched for people, and was starting to wonder if everyone had ventured into the jungle without him, when he discovered a door behind the stage. Upon opening it, he found about ten people moseying around sluggishly in a room filled with long wooden cafeteria-like tables. Around half of the people in the room looked like they were veterans, who had survived the jungle many times as made evident by their many scars, but the other half were as pale skinned and weak looking as Kyle, leading him to believe they were just early risers.
Searching in vain for food, (for he was very hungry), Kyle noted that the only food in the entire place seemed to be the food the people in the building were already eating. Timidly, he walked over to one of the veterans and asked in an awkward manner, "Excuse me, how exactly do you eat?" The veteran looked at him as if to ask whether or not he was entirely sane, but finally responded, "Help yourself from the pot," and pointed toward an enormous clay pot that Kyle had previously ignored as simply a decoration. "Oh ok thanks," he said, and walked to it, perplexed to find nothing in it. After about ten seconds of pondering whether or not the veteran had just been messing with him, Kyle poked his hand into the empty pot, checking to see if the food was invisible. To his surprise, he saw a loaf of bread, an orange, and a steak made of unknown meat, appear out of thin air. After picking up a plate and putting the food on it, he picked up a cup, and found himself just as perplexed as before. Not wanting to ask the veteran for help again, Kyle searched for something to drink. Finally, he found a smaller pot, (also empty) and, feeling rather foolish, turned it upside down above his cup. Scolding himself for being surprised at the same trick twice, Kyle was delighted to find his cup filled with water, from seemingly nowhere. Before he made his way to a table however, he decided to try an experiment. Looking around to make sure no one was looking, (there was no one because it was early in the morning) Kyle picked up the small pot and attempted to pour its unseen contents onto the floor. Not a single drop fell, as if the pot had been empty and dry for a long time. Next, Kyle put his hand into the pot, and, neither feeling nor seeing water inside, moved his attention to the food pot. He soon realized that he could do nothing to make food appear except putting his hand inside of the pot. As he was poking his hand curiously in and out of the pot, futilely trying to make multiple portions of food appear on top of each other, a veteran of about twenty walked up behind him and asked, "having fun there?" startled and embarrassed, Kyle responded, "Oh, sorry, am I holding up the line?" "No it's fine, all you noobies seem to have a fascination with the food system here," he said. Not sure whether to be offended at being called a 'noobie', or to be grateful for the pardon, Kyle made his way to a table which was now filled with three other new arrivals.
As it grew later, (the sun was just about up) more and more people woke up and came into the dining hall. All of the veterans sat alone, except for Gramm, who sat with one or two others. They all looked as battle hardened as Gramm, and like him, they were in their thirties. Kyle's table was now filled with about twelve other boys who were all drowsily poking their food. He didn't say anything to them because he was so interested in his surroundings, and they didn't say anything to him because they were half asleep. Eventually, people began to become more awake, and started animated conversations about how interesting their new home was. Kyle realized that Gramm had been telling the truth, and noted that every single person at the table seemed ecstatic to be in a village surrounded by a dangerous jungle.
After waiting for everyone else to finish their breakfast, Kyle darted out of the dining hall, dying to start his training. Following Gramm and several other veterans, he made his way over to the training area. Once there, the veterans divided them into groups and assigned each group to an instructor. Kyle was put into Gramm's group, and when everyone had settled into their places, Gramm began to speak.
"
Welcome to jungle survival skills 101," he shouted. "It's my job to teach you pathetic maggots how to not die. Right now I'd say none of you would last a minuet in the jungle. When I'm through with you, you'll at least have a chance."
Several boys scoffed at looked disdainfully at Gramm, angry to have been called maggots, and desperate for a chance to prove him wrong, but he continued.
"Rule one for surviving in the jungle: you are never safe unless you are in a safe zone; not from animals not from disease, and most certainly not from your fellow man." The boys looked stunned, and one boy asked, "What do you mean 'not from our fellow man'?"
"What I mean is the only things that protect you from the guy next to you are either a safe zone or your own wits. Now, continuing, a safe zone is a place in the jungle were you are allowed to stay for as long as the owner of that safe zone says you can. There are two types of safe zones, medical safe zones, and supply safe zones. Medical safe zones are run by a medicine man. He can cure you of any disease you can pay to have cured. Supply safe zones are run by a shopkeeper, who will buy anything you have to sell and sell anything you have money for. Usually the owners of these safe zones let you stay until you are finished trading, or being healed. I will warn you though, they do play favorites, so don't get on their bad side."
"Do we get a certain amount of money when we start?" a boy asked. Gramm looked at him with an annoyed look in his eye and responded, "there aint no money the way your thinking of it; here we buy and sell using whatever is useful, food, clothing, or most commonly, weapons. Any other stupid questions?" No one responded.
"Good," he said. "Second rule of the jungle, nothing, I repeat nothing is free. Anything you have, you either earned or paid good money for. Also, remember that there are no free lunches, unless you decide to become one for the nasheek."
No one asked what a nasheek was, so he continued, going through eight other rules, which were more like tips and tricks than actual rules. Kyle began to wonder why they were even called rules if no one enforced them, but soon realized that the jungle probably killed anyone who chose not to follow them.
When Gramm was finished familiarizing the newcomers with the rules, the groups rotated, and Kyle began his next class: jungle botany. Contrary to his expectations, he found that jungle botany was infinitely more interesting than regular botany, for it quickly became apparent that the plants here were different than the ones he had known. Much like Gramm, the veteran instructing them started off with a speech after telling them his name was Nicholas.
"Many of you may think otherwise, but I'm not lying when I say that knowing your plants will keep you alive in the jungle more than anything else. It is absolutely vital to know one plant from the other, because if you go into the jungle with no clue what's what, you're either going to poison yourself or starve. If you do know the plants however, you won't have to go to the medicine man if you get sick, you'll never be hungry, and you'll have quite a few weapons that no one else knows about. Most of the veterans won't tell many stories about their time in the jungle, but I'll be honest, I know nearly every plant in that jungle and that's taken me pretty far. I've killed animals with plants, cured myself from sickness more times than I can count, eaten like a king, and sold a hell of a lot of food and herbs in the supply zone. Pay attention in this class, and you won't regret it."
Some newcomers were still cynical, but most, including Kyle, found a new interest in plants. It was however, difficult to learn the different types when no one had ever given names to any of them. To complicate things further, there was nothing to write on except a log, onto which Nicholas began carving the shapes of different plants and describing their effects.
After Kyle and his group had learned about five different plants with varying effects when consumed or touched, the groups rotated again, and Kyle walked with the others to his next class. When he was done waiting for all the members of the group to arrive, the instructor, who was about thirty, ordered them to form a line in front of him. Without introducing himself or announcing what class they were in, he shouted for them all to get into push up position. Not a single one of the new arrivals had been good at pushups as the instructor soon found out, so, picking up a straight stick about half his height, he began to walk down the line correcting them. As he passed each one, the man told them exactly what needed fixing about their push up position, and proceeded to smack each one harshly with the stick in the area that needed improvement. On most this left a dark blue bruise, and the most unlucky people were those who had their rears too high up in the air.
"Now," he shouted, taking a couple steps back to face the entire group, all of whom were still in a pushup position. "Everyone touch your noses to the ground and come back up until your arms are locked twenty five times." He stopped speaking and stared at the group for a couple of seconds. No one moved. "That means now!" Immediately everyone sprung into action, doing pushups at an incredible rate, until around the fourth one, at which point all except a couple of people had slowed to a very gradual speed. The instructor walked up and down the line, shouting at each person. "Keep your back straight! Put your hands under your shoulders! Get your butt out of the air!" when most of newcomers had stopped doing pushups, which was around fifteen, the instructor told them to take a ten second break and then do however many pushups they still needed to get to twenty five. Everyone did just that except three people, who were slightly overweight. When they refused to keep going and collapsed onto the ground, the instructor offered each one a hand to get on their feet, and then pulled them out of the line and caned each one without mercy on their backs as many times as the number of pushups they had refused to do.
"Okay," he said, surveying the tired and miserable group as if he were looking for the best product in a supermarket. "I'm sure a lot of you are wondering if this is how it's going to be every time you come to this class." He paused for a couple seconds, to make sure he had everyone's attention. "Well it is, so get used to it! If you haven't already guessed, this is combat training. Gramm will teach you how to survive, I'll teach you how to make sure the other guy doesn't." From the moment they heard the word combat, the group perked up, paid closer attention, and all began to get a gleam in their eyes, anticipating some kind of fight. The instructor seemed to notice this and said, as if attempting to burst their bubbles of optimism: "for the next month, I need you babies to stop your crying, and start acting like men. I noticed a lot of you struggling, and a lot of you showing weakness, so I'll warn you, show me proof that you are a weak link, or complain even a little, and I will meet you with intense retribution. Remember, combat is pain! Know pain, and you will know combat."
The rest of the class was spent running from one end of the village to another, and by the time they broke for lunch, the only thing Kyle felt the instructor had taught him was that his name was Mike. After lunch, which nourished Kyle and the others incredibly despite the fact that many of them held back their appetites for fear that more running was to come, all of the groups went back to their classes.
The next, and final class that Kyle went to was jungle zoology. This was taught by a laid back instructor named Phil, who explained to them that the jungle was not filled with normal animals.
"Well then, what type of animals is it filled with?" asked one impatient trainee.
"Monsters." He responded. This made several newcomers emit suppressed snickers and giggles. Looking kind of annoyed, Phil, who was still leaning calmly against a rock, answered these laughs with: "call them whatever you want, but when they eat you alive, you won't be laughing. Some of the group still thought he was exaggerating or joking, but a couple including Kyle, realized from his face that he was dead serious.
"Now," he said, "let's start with the marrow eater. These things are especially dangerous because they hunt during the day." He drew a picture on one rock, with another rock that appeared to be a form of chalk. The picture looked like a big bulky hunchback with large bumpy spikes running down its back. It also had to dots on its oversized head, which Phil explained were its nostrils. "Where are its eyes?" One boy asked. Phil responded matter-of-factly that it has no eyes, and finds its way around by an acute sense of smell. After he was done telling the group that it is usually identifiable by its dull shade of blue or purple, several boys remarked that it can't possibly be real, and that Phil must be making the whole thing up. Phil told them that if they wanted to leave, they could feel free, but they should know that that condemns them to the awful fate of being eaten alive by any one of the horrible creatures in the jungle. After several seconds of thought, they decided that they would not take that chance, and sat down again.
"Where was I?" Phil asked.
"The marrow eater," one of the trainees responded.
"Oh yes, the marrow eater gets its name from its love of bone marrow. If it kills you, it won't eat your meat, but it will break your bones open and suck the marrow out. No matter how many you kill, there are always a lot of these guys, because most creatures don't eat bones, so when it can't get kills, it'll scavenge. Now let's move on to the Gore chomper..."
When about an hour and a half was past, the class ended, and Phil told the group that they and the other groups would all have siesta until dinner. Most trainees hung around random parts of the village and talked about the events of the day with each other, and a few went to their huts to make their arrangements more comfortable, but something else caught Kyle's attention. He had noticed it when he had first arrived, but never given it much thought until then. What he was so interested in was the large tower, made of some kind of bamboo looking wood. The tower was obviously not meant to be inhabited, because it was just a frame, with no floors walls or ceilings, but it was certainly not useless. An assorted mix of about ten veterans and trainees were climbing from beam to beam on the tower. As Kyle stared up at it, he remarked to himself that it was breathtakingly large and tall. It must have reached a total of four hundred feet at its highest, and stretched about a hundred feet from one end to another. Kyle wondered for a second if anyone ever fell to their death, but realized quickly that if one was to fall, they would hit about fifty bars before impacting on the ground. Taking a few steps back, Kyle stared at it in awe. It was like one of the jungle gyms he had played with at playgrounds as a kid, but on a much larger scale. When he was finished looking at it in wonder, Kyle ran up to it and began to climb slowly towards the top. He realized that it was not at all symmetrical, and on the inside, the bars were tied to each other almost randomly, which Kyle assumed must be to simulate the trees of the jungle. After ascending about fifty feet, he came back down, tired and out of breath. It was then that he had a sudden realization of why he was so slow. He realized that his upper body strength was lacking, and became determined to change that. Walking up to one of the bars that was a little above his height, he began to do pull ups, and, stopping at around seven he went to dinner.
Gender:
Points: 262
Reviews: 73