Frank raised an eyebrow. “You really do believe this is a miracle, don’t you.”
Cal gave a broad smile. It wasn’t the first time someone had been skeptical of his faith. “Frank, every day you and I wake up is a miracle. Some miracles are just bigger than others.”
Just then, another of their number — the boy from Alabama, Ellis Longstreet — sat down at the table with a hello that Cal knew was only meant for one of them.
“Well, figure I better be getting on,” Cal said, rising to excuse himself.
Frank gave him an apologetic smile, and Cal shook his head slightly to let him know it was all right. He didn’t have any issue with Frank, or with Miss Maggie (he could not, in good conscience, call the young woman just “Maggie”), but he knew that look of Ellis’s very well indeed. The Alabaman hadn’t spoken a single kind word to Cal since they all arrived, and pointedly excluded him from conversation.
He knew boys like Ellis. They’d never change, and even if one in a hundred might, it wasn’t worth the effort. The MAJESTIC people saw Cal’s worth, and Frank and Miss Maggie did too. That was more than enough motivation to simply keep his head down and stay away from trouble.
Cal walked back to his quarters, taking stock of the base as it awoke from its slumber. A half-dozen military folk were out running in formation, doing push-ups, that sort of thing. In his prime — well, even a year before — Cal could keep up with them reasonably well. Now his doctors were telling him to take it easy, but he was feeling fine this day and promised himself to do his best in whatever training they had cooked up for him.
“Sir? You’re not allowed out of this area.”
Cal looked up in surprise to see he’d wandered a bit off track. Before him were two MPs, and beyond that, the gate that led out of the fenced-in area toward that massive building where all the scientists went every day. The “mystery hangar,” as Miss Maggie called it.
“Sorry ’bout that,” Cal said with a friendly grin. “Mind wandered, feet followed.”
One of the two guards gave him a smile back. “No problem, Mr. Hooks.”
Cal nodded and turned back toward his cabin to get changed into his Army-issue exercise get-up. Nice boy, that guard. Cal had lived in Tennessee all his life, but he was beginning to think the rest of these United States were a far sight friendlier than the South, especially to an old black man such as himself. Maybe he’d move his family north after retirement. Snowy weather beat disrespect any day.
Thoughts of cold climates and kind folks followed Cal to morning exercises. One of his doctors asked him whether he was up for it, but he said he’d simply do his best. Frank, Ellis, and Miss Maggie were all younger than Cal by at least a couple decades, after all — but he’d still try to keep up. Another thing Cal found in living with respectful people was that he had a bit of self-pride after all. He just hoped the Lord would help him keep it in check.
“All right, people,” Captain Anderson said as the Variants arrived and lined up — sullenly, in the case of Mr. Longstreet and Miss Maggie, Cal noticed. “Today, we got a special treat for you. You’re going to go through the official Marine Corps obstacle course, which we had flown in all the way from California for you lucky ducks. And you’ll be real lucky if one of you makes it through without quitting.”
Cal had no illusions about where he stood on that count, though he was heartened by the fact that Anderson hadn’t automatically excluded him. As for the others, Ellis looked put out as usual, while Frank simply nodded — Cal’s money was on Frank. But Miss Maggie had a little glint in her eye now, and that girl kept up with most everything they threw at her. Couldn’t count her out, either.
They were all given combat boots, heavy packs, helmets, and dummy weapons, then marched out of their little fenced-in area, in the growing heat of the desert, toward an elaborate set of obstacles set up about fifty yards off. There was mud and barbed wire, ropes and walls, tires and Lord knows what else. At least a half-dozen Air Force MPs stood on either side, some of them armed — more obstacles, maybe, or just there to yell at them. Military boys did a lot of yelling.
“To make this a little easier on you, we’re gonna go in order, based on the aptitude you’ve shown so far. Lodge, you’re on point. Miss Dubinsky, you get to go next. Longstreet, you’ll go right after her and see if you can catch up to a girl. And Mr. Hooks, how you feeling?”
“I’m right to give it a try,” Cal replied.
“Well, your doctors agree for once, so you’ll bring up the rear. But if you feel anything at all, you’re under orders to stop at once. Ain’t no shame in it.”
“Yes, sir,” Cal said. “Like I say, I’ll give it a try.”
Anderson nodded. “All right, then. Lodge, you’re up.”
Frank nodded and started jogging toward the course. It wasn’t long after that the first shots were fired by the soldiers on either side, and Cal watched Frank dive to the ground. From there, he began slogging through the mud on his stomach, barbed wire over his head and soldiers firing guns just a few inches above that.
“Are those real guns?” Ellis asked, eying the course nervously, then looking pointedly at Cal and Maggie.
“Yes, Longstreet, the guns are very real,” Anderson said.
“You seriously going to make me do this?” Ellis asked, his eyes drawn to the weapon flashes before flickering back to Cal. Something was on Ellis’s mind, Cal could tell. He was more nervous today for some reason, but then, Cal wasn’t too keen on the gunfire either.
Anderson walked over with all the menace a Marine officer could muster, which was considerable. “Longstreet, I am thoroughly and completely in charge here. If I tell you it’s Easter, you’ll goddamn hide eggs until I tell you to stop. Understood?” Ellis grew pale under Anderson’s withering gaze until the latter man broke it off and turned to Maggie. “Miss Dubinsky, whenever you’re ready.”
Maggie gave the Marine a grim nod and jogged off toward the course, hitting the ground where Frank had and crawling forward under a hail of fire. It was obvious that she seemed to find it easier to navigate that first section than Frank — she was smaller, after all.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Longstreet,” Cal said. “Ain’t gonna use real bullets on us. They didn’t bring us all the way here to put us in danger like that.”
“Didn’t ask you your opinion,” Ellis said under his breath, just loud enough for Cal to hear, then dashed off toward the course without even waiting for Anderson’s signal.
“Your turn, Mr. Hooks,” Anderson called out.
Cal took a breath, shook his arms out, and began a slow jog toward the course. Frank was already through the mud and over the first wall, while Maggie was just finishing up the muddy part. Ellis was floundering through a bit — he’d followed the trail Frank and Maggie had forged, and there wasn’t much left to push off of.
But there was plenty of fresh mud elsewhere on the course, Cal thought. Don’t have to follow in a straight line, do I?
Cal heard gunfire off to his left and half-knelt, half-dove for the ground, his knees protesting a little. But once he was down, he found the elbows-and-feet crawl to be pretty intuitive, and since he chose a different path through the mud, he was able to make decent time under the barbed wire.
Once out of the mud, Cal rose to his feet as quick as he could and jogged over to the first wall — a wooden panel about fifteen feet high, with handholds scattered around it. He couldn’t see Frank or Maggie anymore, but Ellis was struggling up one side — again, following exactly where the other two went, using the same handholds now covered in slippery mud.
Cal tromped his feet on the ground to shake off the mud and ran his hands over the top of his helmet — probably the only part of him not dirty now. Then he went over to another part of the wall and started climbing.