Atlas Academy: Secrets Uncovered

He wiggled his finger at me and I sighed, almost dragging my feet over to him. I didn’t see what he had in mind for this huge backpack and an empty room. “You’re acting like you’re sore. That wasn’t too much for ya was it, Damien?” he asked, seeing me wince as he let the full weight of the pack on me.
He gave me a look, smirk included, and my eyes narrowed. “No, I’m fine.” I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much my body despised me.
The rest of the students came barreling in, and the first thing I heard was, “What, are you Coach’s pet now?” Silas and another guy made their way to the front of the crowd and gave me a look.
Buddy looked over at him as if to say ‘What are you doing?’, but I ignored him as Bear started the lesson. “Let’s say your mission puts you in a position where you and your team have to, let’s say, hike a mountain to get to your destination.” Suddenly I heard a beep as one of the other coaches touched a control panel by the door and the green room’s walls morphed into two realistic steep mountainsides with trees, dirt, rocks, and everything. I sighed and closed my eyes. Then Bear turned to me, pointed at me and then the mountain. I looked at the mountain, sent him a good defiant glare, and then started making my way up the almost eighty degree angled slope while he kept talking. “You don’t know how long you’re going to be out there on that mountainside, but you have to be prepared for anything.” As he continued, the coaches started strapping the backpacks onto everyone. “Each of these packs have enough food to last for a week if rationed properly, they have a sleeping bag, some protective gear, and other essential camping and staking out equipment. Now, let’s see what you can do.”
I was almost kinda halfway to the top when they split everyone into two groups and mine came after me, but when they had all gotten a good balance on the mountain, there was another beep from the control panel and then the mountain started to move! It started moving us all downwards, so we had to fight against it to keep moving up, and let me just say that it was not a pleasant experience.
Nice guy, Bear, really nice guy. My inspiration.
Next, instead of going to the Jungle or Coliseum, we made our way towards the ocean. There was a boathouse with a very long deck that sat in the middle of the very long beach, and that’s where we headed. When we got there Bear knocked on the boathouse door. There was a few minutes of quiet, and then a man poked his head out hesitantly and warily. “Yes? Oh Bear, it’s you. Is it time for class already?”
“Yes, Dr. Phillips, it’s time for class. We don’t mean to bother you, but we need the swimsuits.” Bear said almost nicely, which thoroughly surprised me. I’d never taken him for the soft and tender type.
“Oh, yes.” said Dr. Phillips, opening the door more and stepping aside for us to come in. “The bathrooms are upstairs children, boys on the left, girls on the right, and the suits are already in there for you.” He was a portly man, wore a lab coat, was bald with nerdy bottle cap glasses on, had a chubby face and either talked funny because he had a lisp or because his cheeks were bulging so much, but I was betting on the latter because it kept sounding like he had something in his mouth.
When he said this, I stopped and turned back to face him. “What if they don’t fit?” I asked.
“They will.” he said, leaning forward a bit for a minute. “They’re made of a special material designed to conform to the body, no matter what size or shape.”
Mickey grabbed my arm and we headed up the stairs and into the bathroom, which had several stalls already starting to fill up. “I’d be a little careful of that guy, if I were you.” she said when she shut the door.
“Why?” I asked, both of us leaning on the wall to wait our turn for a stall.
“He’s creepy.” she said. “Let’s just say that he’s kind of out there, touched in the head, if you know what I mean.” She pointed to her head and twirling her finger. “He’s the one who created the ocean here on campus in the first place, and he takes care of it.”
Back at the beach with the others, Bear standing before us with him and his coaches wearing the suits too. I had been extremely surprised when I’d put on a suit that started out as three sizes too big, that then shrank before my eyes to fit snugly against my skin. I didn’t think I’d ever stop thinking that this place was amazing.
“Okay,” he said, looking over us, “Today we’ll be swimming in a variation of stroke styles out to the buoys and back again. Now, is there anyone here who doesn’t know how to swim at all?” Everyone was silent, either because everyone knew how to swim, which I doubted, or they were scared to say so because they might have to train with him or suffer humiliation by the rest of us. I personally couldn’t swim all that good, only doing it on occasion during the summer at pool parties, though the pools never got that deep. I’d only been to the ocean once too, though I wasn’t sure if that made any difference. But I could still tread water and float, I could swim a little, so I figured I was good enough.
Bear surveyed us with knowing eyes and then said, “Okay then, let’s begin.” We then walked into the water until it was up to our chests, Bear going out a little farther so everyone could see him properly, and began to show us the basic swim strokes. Then after he finished doing the breast stroke he said, “Okay, now I want you to do the breast stroke first out to the buoys and back, then the back stroke, and then the forward stroke. Everyone understand?” Everyone nodded and he swam to the pier before growling, “Let’s go!”
Everyone started towards the buoys doing the breast stroke, some only attempting the breast stroke, and as I’d thought, there were kids who’d lied about not being able to swim. One kid started drowning almost as soon as we passed the drop off and Bear had to dive in and save him while the other coaches saved two others when one grabbed onto the other because he couldn’t swim, only to find out that the kid he’d grabbed couldn’t swim either. Then Bear asked everyone again if there was anyone else who couldn’t swim and this time actually got some hands raised.
After that, we had a fairly nice class, actually. Being in the water while we did the exercises was a welcome retreat from the sweltering heat. We continued to do the different stroke styles, and after he thought we had them down pretty good he made us increase our speed, and then when we all thought the class was over early because he was calling us out of the water, we were sorely mistaken because he just wanted us to put our shoes back on and run laps from one end of the beach to the other until he ‘got tired of watching us’.
“Pick up the pace girls, I don’t have all day. What are you gonna do when you have only a few minutes to run down an enemy who’s escaping in a car and all you have are your two feet? I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do, you’re gonna fail! Because if your sorry butts can’t run this measly three hundred feet at a good speed then you’re not worth being entrusted with your country’s life.” He blew the whistle around his neck and we sped up as much as we could.
He made us run a little bit longer and then let us change back into our uniforms. The need to run didn’t stop there though, because we still had to beat the clock to our next class. Everyone dispersing when entering our tunnel, Mickey, the guys, and I all continued towards the pillar that would take us to the tower, and then this time down the steps.
It was a good sized room, with two long white tables surrounded with chairs. On the wall opposite the door was a long and large dry-erase board, which would’ve blended in perfectly with the sterile white theme of the room if it hadn’t had ‘Fundamentals of Espionage’ and below that ‘Mr. Daniel Black’ in green marker.