Snippet #1317206

Sam had started to drift off into his own thoughts as the wait for Aja became more of a drawn out activity and his thoughts led him down roads he'd never before dreamed of. He gave serious thought, for the first time in his life, to death. He thought about what it might be like to die and to spend one's last moments looking back on one's own life, which he attempted to do now. He didn't see much; a lot of dealing, some running from the cops, a few shattered relationships and some truly epic nights out. It struck him there and then that life could have been so much more but it may well come to and end as it was and the only thing he could do to stop that was to pay atten- The general shouted, breaking Sam's thoughts, and he jolted, completely caught off guard by the torrent of words. His thoughts evaporated and he listened intently to what was now expected of them... And what would happen if they didn't live up to those expectations.

As he saw what they all approached he wished that Aja had hurried the hell up so he could get here while the buzz from the jump was still lingering on. There was NO way that he could do this in one go, maybe not even at all. Climbing and jumping had never really part of his everyday activities, but he felt sure that he could outrun anyone here, perhaps even the hardened veteren that was yelling orders at them. If nothing else Sam was one quick little bastard and it had been said on more than one occassion.

They were ordered to line up in the order they would attempt the course and instinctively Sam slowed down to head to the back so he could postpone it as long as he could but something clicked in his mind and two thoughts struck him at once. The first was that being the last to step up was not something a soldier would do; hesitation was never an allie in the field of battle. The second was that if he went first then that set the bar, there was nothing to compete against. With that in mind he stepped forward to the front of the line with a very slight smile on his face, proud of himself for stepping up but already regretting the decision. Nothing for it now, let's go he thought as he crouched down into a similar position he had adopted on the plane before his jump.