Shawn almost felt sorry for John's team, but shrugged and moved on when he remembered that John would steal some food for them later.
As for him and his team, they ate their meal happily as they went over strategies they could use should Chief Mendez test them like this again.
The next few days were full of more grueling training as the handlers pushed their bodies, and Daja pushed their minds, some didn't preform as well as others, but after seeing how much importance Chief Mendez placed on teamwork during the obstacle course, the children were more inclined to help each other, less they all fall together.
One day, after being dismissed for the night, Shawn was pulled aside by a handler and taken to Halsey's office.
To say he was stressed was an understatement. Did he do something wrong? Had he asked the wrong question and was able to be black bagged?! What happened?
He pushed all of this down as he entered her office. As usual Halsey was sitting at her desk, typing away as Deja spoke to her about something. She hadn't looked up at him yet so he just waited, not daring to look around when he felt the air behind him move.
CRACK
"Not bad kid, anyone else would've ate it." A voice said as he turned to face his assailant. He was male, with short black hair and green eyes, officer type uniform but no rank? Why was there no- MOVE!!
Without thinking Shawn threw himself to the side as a knife buried itself into Halsey's desk with a thud. "Hey watch it! You're testing him, not killing him!" She yelled as the man shrugged, "I'm not going easy on him just because he's a kid."
Shawn had gotten back on his feet and glanced back in forth between the bickering adults. They stopped once they remembered that there was another person in the room with them.
"I'll be straight with you kid, you qualify for extra training that I can't tell you about, you get no choice in this at all, this is just a heads up." The man said as Shawn racked his brain to try and remember anything related to this in the lore, he found nothing.
"I'll take you silence as consent, everyday, an hour before and after Mendez's shit, you come to me. You will also be removed from your team as your training will require you to work alone." He went on as he looked down at the dazed kid in front of him.
"Any questions?" He asked just in case, but when the boy shook his head he smiled and handed him the knife he threw at him, well knife for him, dagger for the boy.
Shawn turned over the knife in his hand, it was sharp, and had a small insignia on the end of the hilt, of an eagle with two heads, each facing a different direction.
Shawn's mind blanked when he noticed the small almost insignificant insignia, but for Shawn who came from outside the canon and knew what that symbol represented, he felt fear as he looked up at the man in a panic.
Seeing the boy's panic, the man smiled, 'I fucking knew it, he's just like us' He gave the boy a sheath for the blade as he numbly put it away, "Welcome to Reach kid."
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The next month became a special type of hell for Shawn.
Mendez as usual continued his grueling training and increased it as the trainees adapted. Shawn had a much harder time though, Mendez already had them getting up at the crack of dawn, but the man who's name has been revealed to be Magnus, drug him out of bed an HOUR EARLY, just to make him do double what everyone else did the whole day, in an hour.
Then after a hard day, instead of going back to his nice warm bunk, he had to stay up another hour extra as Magnus put him through hell.
He went over everything, from teaching him different languages, to making explosives in the field. Such a variety of subjects was starting to hurt his brain, but he pushed through knowing that it would all be worth it in the end.
Today he woke up right as Magnus shoved him back down, "Sleep kid, Mendez said you're all his today." He whispered before walking out of the barracks, Shawn tried to remember what he could be talking about, but decided to sleep and worry about it later.
Not even an hour later Mendez had the handlers wake them up as usual before corralling them all into a transport big enough for them all. They left the base as the sun rose up and Mendez explained what they would be doing.
"You are each being given a piece of the map of the area below, your mission is simple. You will be individually deployed and use your piece of the map to navigate to the extraction point."
He handed out everyone's piece before telling them the other half of the test. "Last trainee to make it to extraction will be left behind, and it is a very long walk back. 117, you're first."
As he walked after Mendez, John pointed out the river to Sam who passed it along so that the others knew to meet there. Soon the only one left was Shawn.
Once he was let out he watched the transport leave before he made his way towards the river, despite already knowing what was going to happen thanks to him meta-knowledge. He still felt a bit nervous being out in the wilderness since he'd been stuck in the city for most of his last life, and the first part of this one.
He eventually found the other, and learned of John's plan to get everyone home. Already knowing that it would work he didn't complain with what John had him doing.
After almost a full day of hiking, they finally reached the area where the extraction point was. As the children walked through the woods, John who was at the front held up his fist, "Hold. You guys, with me." He said pointing to Sam, Linda, and Kelly, taking them with him to investigate a noise he had heard up ahead.
Already knowing what was about to happen, Shawn busied himself by picking up sizeable rocks and handing them out. "Rocks, what are you handing us rocks for?" Jorge asked as Shawn explained, "We don't have any weapons, so this will have to do."
Just in time, John, Sam, Kelly and Linda came back to tell what they had found.
Up ahead was a trio of men, armed men. They didn't know if they were who they were looking for since they weren't in uniform, John thought they might be insurrectionists. They weren't without a plan though so they huddled together as they plotted to get home.
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Though a bit nervous, Linda played her part of the plan well.
"I need help! My friend is hurt!" She yelled at the two men once they'd noticed her before running back into the forest. "Go bring that girl back." "Yes, sir!" She heard behind her as heavy footsteps followed.
Hiding, she and the others watched as Sam played out his part.
He groaned in pain as he held his leg. The man didn't seem to care as he stomped over. "Where is the girl?" Sam didn't seem to hear him as he cried out, "I think I broke my leg!" The man scoffed as he advanced wielding a baton, "Oh, I got your broken leg right here kid."
Thud!
Before he could do anything, Sam made an owl noise right before Shawn hurled his rocks, hitting the man on the side of the head as he crumpled to the group.
"What the hell Vince! One little girl too much for you to handle?" The mans companion said as he rounded the bend to see his partner bleeding on the forest floor. "What the?! Ack!" He soon joined him after being pelted by several rocks, curtesy of the trainees hidden in the trees.
After tying the men up, the children swarmed all over the Pelican that the men had left unattended. Inside they found rations and weapons, so they ate as they tried to figure out how to pilot the Pelican. Shawn had a vague idea of how to fly, but Magnus had yet to teach him other important things, such as how to communicate that they weren't an enemy beelining towards a secret ONI base.
John ultimately found a way to set the auto-pilot and the craft lifted off and went back to base, with everyone on board. None would be left behind.