“Day Thirty,” Carla muttered to herself as she shouldered her rucksack. “Oh joy.”
She made sure the ends of her hair weren’t pinned under the straps and headed to roll call. Last day of Delta Selection. Though this day was starting at straight-up midnight, it was still the last day.
She’d survived seven days of Assessment: the burn-out series of exercises and hikes. She’d survived the one-week cut and the shooting assessment. And now the twenty-two days of Stress Phase.
“Last day.” She grunted forty-nine pounds of ruck off her shoulders once she reached the assembly point. She dropped the pack in the dirt and offered it an admonitory kick, over a third her body weight. Forty-four pounds—twenty kilos—was the required minimum for this hike. She added the extra two kilos to make sure she w
