A PUBG STORY: First Jump pt.2

"So where do you think we'll be jumping this season?"

Mike asked us as if we'd have an exact answer for him. Mike Fumail was a bright-eyed kid fresh out of the academy like Keshawn and me. I gotta admit that even though he asked us a ton of questions we didn't know the answers to, it was tough not to like the kid... What can I say, he grew on you.

"I hope they land us in Vietnam or Germany! Everywhere else is either too cold or too dang hot." Keshawn answered.

"Aren't there a lot of bugs in Vietnam?"

"Mike I'm pretty sure that there will be plenty of bullets flying past our heads to distract us from any bugs," I answered. "Besides based on Keshawns luck we're probably gonna be sent to jump in Russia or Iraq."

"All I know is wherever they send us you better believe we all coming back home with first-place medals, ain't that right Carter," Keshawn said looking at me with a wide grin.

"You're damn right!"

The two of us were laughing, slapping each other five and Mike just stared at us. I could tell he wasn't sure if the two of us were joking or if we were serious. We were definitely serious...

Hero Ranks

Our team leader Lawrence had finished getting his food from the mess hall and was making his way to our table to join us.

"Good afternoon gentlemen."

"Good afternoon si- I mean Lawrence," Mike answered back.

"You really have got to stop being so nervous around me kid, I told you, we're a team. When we're out in the battleground, we have to be comfortable with each other as equals and make decisions together so that we all come home."

"I know Lawrence, my bad..."

"After we eat we'll be doing some prep for the games and then we'll PT at night."

PT stood for physical training, it was one of the few terms from the military that passed over to us. Aside from that, being a hero in the games was about as far away from the military as you could imagine. Yeah, we had jump training in the academy but we wore no uniform, and our rank was replaced by how many games we survived. Hero Contenders are first-years who have yet to survive their first jump, Mike, Keshawn and I were HC's. Once you do come home from your first jump, you become a Bronze Hero, then Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and after your tenth jump you officially become known as a Legend. There are only three legends alive today and two of them are pretty much celebrities now. They can jump again if they want to but the government considers them retired. The third legend, Jason Block, actually stays here somewhere at HQ but he only competes in the solo match. We've yet to run into him but if we did I probably wouldn't be able to resist looking like a fanboy.

Jason Block earned legendary status by winning 7 out of 10 games before he turned 30. Only two of those were in the 4-man squad match, the rest were all Lone Wolf matches, in which HQ only chooses the best of heroes to compete.

"CARTER!"

Keshawn was yelling at me shaking my shoulder. I must've let my mind wander off without realizing it.

"What the hell are you thinking about so hard dude? You've barely touched your lunch, are you alright?"

"Yeah man, I'm fine, I was wondering where Jason Block stays on HQ."

Lawrence looked up at me and grinned. "So your daydreaming about legends huh?" He stood and picked up his tray, "Don't worry kid, as well as I know Jason I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of him around. Now the three of you should finish up what you're going to eat and meet me at the Prep House."

With that, he turned around and walked off.

"If he knew Jason..? You don't think we'll be training with Jason Block do you?" Mike asked.

"I don't know... but if there is one thing I do know, it's that anything can happen at the NHHQ."

Preparing For The Battle Ground

The Prep House was a set of 5 huge warehouses on the east side of HQ where every hero trained running simulated drills of what would happen in the real thing. Each warehouse was constructed with one of the 5 terrains that we could be landing in. Since we never know where we'll be jumping until the day of, each team runs drills in all 5 of them. Mike, Keshawn, and I made our way to warehouse 2 to meet Lawrence. As soon as we stepped foot inside the building we realized that it was supposed to be Russia.

Lawrence was already waiting for us and there were 4 other guys with him. I recognized one of them from the academy, he was the MPH of his class. I elbowed Keshawn to see if he'd notice. He just looked back at me and nodded, we both had a pretty good idea what was about to transpire.

"Welcome gentlemen, now that you're here we can begin today's training. This is Robert Stillman and his team, as you've probably already guessed, HQ will be choosing his team or our team for the games this year. Today the six of you will be competing against each other in a 3v3 simulation of the games."

From the corner of my eye, I could see the wide smile that spread across Keshawn's face. I knew exactly what was going through his head, game on... Lawrence motioned to Robert to explain the drill.

"You will be rappelling from ropes on opposite ends of the building. Upon touching down you will need to search for weapons to hunt down the opposition. These weapons fire simulation rounds, they're not going to seriously injure you but they'll definitely pack a punch that you're going to feel tomorrow morning. The team to eliminate the other one first will be the winner. Any questions?"

Nobody said anything, we all knew exactly what we needed to do.

"Alright then," Lawrence said, "each team take your position so we can begin."

Game Face On

Mike could feel the energy between Keshawn and me, we were locked in, there was no fucking way we were going to lose this thing. It appeared to be rubbing off on him because he didn't ask a single question, he quietly put on his gloves and was the first one up the ladder to the starting point. I looked across the warehouse at the other team and they seemed to be just as locked in as we were.

"Alright at the sound of the horn the drill will begin," Lawrence shouted up at us.

Looking down at the staged Russian terrain, there were two mock villages on either side and about 30 yards of hills covered in trees in the middle, snow was literally covering every inch of the place. An automated voice began counting down from ten and the three of us took our places at our ropes prepared to jump.

3, 2, 1..., and then a loud horn sounded and we began rappelling down to the ground. As soon as I touched down I began sprinting towards the first building in front of me. It was a shack with a single room inside and all I could find was a pistol with some 9mm ammo and a can of Red Bull. I cracked the can open and chugged half of the drink before tossing it aside. I kicked open the door to exit the shack and I ran right into Keshawn who was armed with an automatic shotgun.

"Keshawn where is Mike?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen him yet."

"We need to find him ASAP, we should do that before we continue to gear up."

"Well, he is definitely to our right somewhere so let's head in that direction."

The two of us began heading in the direction of where Mike touched down. Directly in our way was a two-story building and so we decided to enter it to see if he was inside. Upon entering we found a table with an SKS, some ammo, and a 2x scope on top of it. I quickly grabbed it all, attached the scope, and kept moving.

"Carter you should go up to the second floor and use that to see if you can spot him."

"Good idea!"

With that, I ran up the stairs and started looking out the windows for Mike. When I got to the third window I spotted him.

"Hey! I see him, he's two buildings over west of here."

I turned around to run back down the stairs but before I could I saw a helmet and a silencer for my SKS. I quickly picked them both up and equipped them. Then I joined Keshawn and we ran towards the building where Mike was. When we found him it was apparent that he had more luck gearing up than we did.

"Finally! There you guys are, I thought I'd never find you," he said in an excited tone, you could tell he was happy to see us. He was holding an M4 with a scope and a grip, the whole nine yards. On his back, he had a crossbow. He was also wearing a flack jacket and a helmet, "I don't know about you two but I'm ready to go."

Any worry that Keshawn or I had for the kid immediately faded. The two of us looked at each other and said it at the same time, "Then let's go."