Becoming Agent Rider

Jungle Phase

"Good," his unit leader nodded in approval. Then, he instructed for Alex's benefit, "Get the wristband tracker from your rucksacks and put it on. If there is an emergency, rip off the cover on the side and press the button. A helicopter will come to retrieve you."

Alex and the soldiers quickly followed Wolf's instructions. When the trackers were secured around their wrists, Tiger gave him a calculative look and asked, "What do you think we should do first, Cub?"

Recognizing it as a test, Alex examined their surroundings and answered, "We're in unfamiliar territory so I'd say we explore. But it's still dark out and we're not in a rush so we should set up camp first. We can use these three hours until sunrise to get some more sleep."

"Not bad," Hawk reluctantly approved and fired the next question at him. "But where should we set up camp?"

"Over there," Alex immediately pointed to the top of a slope on the edge of the clearing, a wall of sturdy trees standing tall. "It's close enough to a viable water source but not so close that we run the risk of having animals congregate around us. The height and the surrounding trees makes the spot as defensible of a position as we can get in this environment."

The soldiers were silent, nodding slowly as they ran through possible scenarios in their minds. Eventually, Snake said appraisingly, "Good job, Cub. Looks like we can save some time and skip the lessons on choosing a good camp location. I don't think any of us here can think of a better place to set up camp."

Everyone nodded their agreement and they began splitting up tasks. J-Unit erected the six small tents for all of them, B-Unit gathered a supply of wood for a fire, and K-Unit worked on rationing their food and setting up a watch schedule. After Alex finished radioing in so that base camp was aware of their position and plans for the night, he helped J-Unit with the tents. Then, he put a tarp over their shelter to protect them from the inevitable rain and a mosquito net around them to reduce the chances of getting malaria from pesky bites. They completed everything within ten minutes and, other than B-Unit being on watch duty first, the soldiers were soon fast asleep in their tents. With the exception of Treat having a tent to herself, there were two people in each shelter. Alex had been assigned to share a tent with Wolf. Although he didn't mind the soldier, Alex wished he had been assigned to a heavier sleeper. If Yassen's theory held true, then the new jungle environment would make his nightmares start up again. And the last thing he wanted was to make the soldiers scrutinize him further. So instead of sleeping, Alex used the next hour and half to do his meditations and combat breathing exercises, hoping it would help keep him somewhat rested for the day and reduce the nightmares for tomorrow night.

The sound of their tent flap opening signaled the end of his session and he opened his eyes to see Squirrel peering in, about to wake them for K-Unit's guard duty shift. Giving each other curt nods, Squirrel backed out while Alex carefully shook Wolf's shoulder. Like a lot of soldiers, the man could sometimes react badly to being startled awake. They were out in less than a minute to switch places with B-Unit and joined the rest of K-Unit in taking up watch positions, rifle in hand. Even though the calls of the jungle's inhabitants could be chilling at times, the next hour and a half was, thankfully, uneventful. The most exciting thing that happened was Eagle and a bird startling each other with their quiet humming so they were quite bored by the time they went to wake up the rest of the soldiers as dawn broke at the end of their shift. Once everyone was up, it took them a full hour to eat breakfast and pack up. Normally, it would only take twenty minutes but J-Unit, the ones who were the most alert since they didn't have guard duty last night, were teaching Alex how to erase all evidence that they had ever been there. When they were done, Alex had a good understanding of how to hide his tracks, giving him some insight into how to track others as well.