That Others May Live

by CptBrony

SERE

SERE

With immense pleasure, Duke looked over the grounds he had to work with; Sauri’s boys certainly hadn’t failed him.

The previous night, before going to bed, he had tasked some of the guards with getting brush and other natural cover for the room. He had told them that they were to raise all of the walls in the training room and to set up the cover in a variety of places, and to make it seem as much like the Saddle Arabian landscape as possible. They had brought in small bushes, rocks, ranging from small to large, and even dug up the ground in a few areas to simulate the countryside. It was pretty impressive for one night.

He had also requested a large array of gear, the kind that he wanted his stallions to be carrying into combat. They had swords, daggers, metal plate armor, helmets, first aid kits, food, water, zoom optics, and loads of other gear. All in all, their kits each weighed somewhere around fifty pounds.

The stallions were going to arrive shortly. In an effort to maximize the realism of the training, Duke and Frost walked around to try to get to know the landscape as well as possible. Their enemies would most likely know the areas they were hiding in like the tips of their talons, so the stallions needed to be put at a disadvantage.

“Alright, Frost, we have ten minutes, so move quick and try to take in everything,” Duke ordered.

“Yes sir.” Frost ran off to the right, while Duke opted to go left.

Before going in, Duke turned to Amel, who was sitting by the door. “If we aren’t back when they return, have them give you their names. Note them and tell us each one when we get back, and after you do that, make them recount the details of the door breach.”

Amel nodded, though was unsure. “I do not know the details, though.”

“I know. Just pretend like you do, and whenever they say something, act unimpressed. I want them to be absolutely certain of their training.” He turned around to enter the maze. “Oh, and if they seem tired at all, feel free to make them warm up with some calisthenics.” Amel smiled and replied in the affirmative, and Duke ran into the maze.

Frost ran about, taking quick notes of everything that seemed like it would be important. He noted the locations of rocks, bushes, dugouts and trenches, and the condition of the ground beneath him. He made certain that he knew the areas around all of the really big rocks and bushes, noting any decent hiding places in and around them, just in case the stallions decided to get clever. He did so with everything as he went through the maze.

He began to make his way back to the front of the maze when Duke keyed the mic. “Frost, what do you think of us carrying our weapons?” he asked.

“I think that they might slow us down. This training is for them, not us.” Duke grunted on the other side of the line. “We should carry some of that rope you brought down, though. We can tie them up with it.” Duke had brought down all kinds of supplies that they could use for this.

“Ha, that sounds like a good idea. We’ll figure out more once we get back to the start area.”

“Roger that.” Frost replied. They turned off their mics and both men returned to the beginning of the maze.

A short time later, both men were back at the front of the maze, searching for their charge of stallions. They spotted them by the wall, with their hind hooves up against it and doing pushups at a steep angle. Amel snickered at their pain from a ways off.

“Amel.” Frost said as the men approached, closing the distance quickly. She whipped around, letting out a startled yelp.

“Yes, Frost?” she asked, gasping for breath from the surprise.

He chuckled. “What are you having them do?” he asked.

Amel smiled. “I have them doing fifty warm-up push-ups. Get their legs ready to run.”

“Good.” Duke said, walking past her and Frost. He waited for all of the stallions to finish. Once they did, he spoke to them.

“Listen up!” he shouted, the stallions’ attention snapping to him. “Today, we’re going to- Amel?” She just realized she needed to translate, and ran over with a sheepish smile. “Today, we’re going to do Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape. I’ve had the maze set up with all manner of natural cover for you to use while we hunt you down and try to capture you.” He smiled mischievously as the stallions swallowed hard once they understood.

“Frost and I will be looking for you in the maze. Your job is to not get caught. If we catch you, we take you to a special room where you will be our prisoner. There, we will simulate interrogation and give you a taste of what it’s like to be a POW.” Amel looked up at him, confused at the acronym. “Prisoner of War.” She “ahh’d” at his explanation, and continued.

Frost piped in. “There really isn’t anything as good as getting a taste of being a POW to help you realize just how much you hope that it never happens to you or your buddies.” The men paused to wait.

“Quite.” Duke agreed. “Frost and I will be carrying various pieces of gear to capture you and to mess with you. You guys, though, will be carrying your typical payload of gear that you would have on a normal mission. But you can’t use any of it.”

A moment later, he heard muffled groans escape the stallions’ mouths. “If we capture you, we will hold you for one hour. After that, we will simply do as we please with you. Now don your gear, you’ll be off soon.”

The amount of anxiousness in the stallions’ eyes was considerable as they prepared themselves for their next excursion into pain. One of them asked a question as he got his packs on. “He wants to know what exactly you think you would do with them.” Amel said.

Duke looked to Frost, and both men turned to face the stallions with massive grins. “Well, I guess that it’ll just be a surprise for them.” Duke raised his hand. “You’ll get a ten minute head start. But first, we want your names.” Duke looked to Amel, who ran over to the men’s gear pile and yanked out a pen and piece of paper.

Amel went by the line, ordering the stallions from tallest to shortest. “They are Abd-al-Aziz, Abd-al-Hamid, Abd-al-Malik, and Abd-al-Rashid.”

Duke nodded. “Alright. We’ll call you Aziz, Hamid, Malik, and Rashid for short.” He looked at each one individually, taking note of who was who.

“RUN LIKE BITCHES!” he shouted, pointing into the maze. Amel couldn’t even translate before they were gone inside.

Frost snickered. “You see that boss? They separated.”

Duke shook his head. “This’ll be too easy.” He kept an eye on his watch as they waited. After ten minutes, he looked to his partner. “Ready?”

“Whenever you are,” Frost replied.

They started into the maze. “Oh, we’ll want you to wait in the room, Amel. We might have a use for you...” Amel nodded excitedly and ran in after the humans, all of them eager to see just how badly this first run would go for the stallions.

**********************************************************************************

Malik had run the fastest away from the start area, going immediately left with Hamid while Rashid and Aziz ran right. None of them had any idea where they were even going, so they didn’t really care about which direction they went.

He had run for ten minutes straight, and then ran for another three. Hamid, however, had thought it better to hide somewhere than to keep running away. Malik had to disagree. He thought that running would be better because if push came to shove, he could outrun the humans and then hide, so he still had the option. If the humans found Hamid, he would surely be doomed. At that point, running wouldn’t work, and they weren’t permitted to fight back. What a ridiculous rule...

Malik hadn’t even considered stopping his movement at any point. Every time he came to a turn or intersection in the maze, he just went whichever direction he went three times before. He had lost track, eventually, though, and so chose at random. He was totally lost. But that was okay.

Now, he was well on the other side of the room, at the wall, trying to figure out if there could be a way for him to get up. He still didn’t stop, though. No, that would be foolish. If he was caught off guard and unprepared, the humans would have him. And they were probably going to do... things to him.

He tried not to think about it; it would distract him too much as he tried to stay on the move. He tried to focus on what was directly in front of him and the ground under his hooves. Thu-thu-thud. Thu-thu-thud. Thu-thu-thud. The monotonous drone of his hooves against the dirt felt familiar and comforting.

As he ran, he did look a bit at his surroundings. He noticed all the rocks and bushes, a lot like the landscape of his country. Duke hadn’t been lying; it was pretty good. Of course, he hadn’t been the one to do it. He had other guards do it for him, just like he was having him do this crazy stuff.

“AAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Malik stopped dead in his tracks. That sounded a lot like Rashid! The humans must have gotten him. Even from this distance and in these many walls, he could hear the terrified yell of his comrade. Oh, the poor guy. Malik tried not to think about what would happen to his friend as he ran along.

A minute later, he figured that he should try to avoid running in the direction of the yell. Unfortunately, he hadn’t done it before, when he actually knew what direction it came from, so he had no idea where he was going now. He could be going right into the jaws of the beast, as it were.

He was growing tired after running with all this stuff, so he slowed his pace to catch his breath. But he couldn’t even keep that up; his body wanted rest. So he gave it to it. He stopped and leaned against one of the walls, positioning himself behind a rock so that he might remain hidden. It was then that he noticed that there were a lot of natural sounds from around him. The most annoyingly noticeable was the infamous Tartarus Cricket, a bizarre species of cricket native to Saddle Arabia and nowhere else. It was worse than aphids and locusts with crops.

How had they managed to catch those? It baffled him. Maybe someone had a problem with them in their home or farm, and they volunteered to give them away. Or maybe they were just in the royal garden, and Duke wanted to use them rather than have them burned alive. Or they could have come in with the brush and rocks.

He listened for them; no sounds came. What? Where had they gone? Darn it, he should have paid more attention. He might have been able to squash them if he had found them, the annoying little bastards. The only thing worse was fleas.

He got off the wall and looked around the corner, his breathing finally calming down enough for him to calmly look around. Nothing; nothing at all. Malik sighed in relief and continued on with his evasion of the humans.

Before he knew it, the crickets were back and as annoying as they typically were. He was at an intersection, four way, that had a big rock in the middle with a bush on top. It was like a cake with a cherry; he had seen them in books. He always liked the pictures.

Movement.

Malik froze as he stared ahead. He would swear that he just saw movement in the corridor up ahead. It wasn’t terribly unlikely; the maze was big, but not exactly HUGE. He could go either left or right, but there was the distinct possibility that the were coordinated, and one was taking another way. No, his best bet was to turn around and go back the way he came. He turned around and went to sprint.

“BOOGABOOGA!”

“AAAHHHHHH!”

************************************************************************************

Rashid sat indignantly in the middle of the room, starting at the ground in an effort not to look at the mare Amel. She was sitting off to the side of the room, watching, trying to get Rashid to crack and give up where Aziz was. But he wouldn’t crack. No, she could never get to him. Never.

Rashid flinched as three knocks sounded out from the door. “Amel, it’s Frost. Open up.” Rashid watched as the mare Amel went over to the door and opened it for the human. “Got another toy for you.” Frost tossed in a stallion onto the ground. Was that Malik?

After tossing Malik inside, Frost grabbed the rope from the corner and tied him up, then dropped him down next to Rashid. The human and mare began to have a conversation, one that neither stallion was particularly interested in hearing. They were probably discussing the terrible torture that awaited the stallions.

“They were both so damn noisy, was the problem. It was easy to find them just by listening. And be sure to tell them all of this.” The mare nodded to him, and soon after, Frost exited the room and continued his search for the rest of the team.

Rashid used his tail to indicate to Malik that he should just stare at the floor and do nothing. He got it quickly, and without a word, he did as Rashid did. Neither felt in a mood to talk anyway.

Rashid could hear the mare walking around them. “هذا يمكن أن يكون أسهل، كما تعلمون. You could just tell us where they are.”

“No. We won’t do that to them.” It was nice to be able to have a conversation in his own language after all this time, even if under these circumstances. “We will never give them up.”

Right in front of him, the mare dropped and sat on the ground. “Come now, it won’t be any worse than what you’re getting now.” She used her forehoof to raise Rashid’s chin so that he was looking at her. “And you know, we could make a deal.”

Rashid’s attention was grasped by the balls. “What kind of deal?” he asked cautiously.

Amel chuckled in the back of her throat and stood up. “I don’t know. I bet we could work out...” She swished her tail in his face. “... Something.”

Rashid could feel his face redden. “I- no, I will not.”

“Come on. Wouldn’t you like to help out one poor little mare?” She walked up to him and nuzzled under his chin.

“Calm down.” Rashid told himself. Her feminine wiles would never be able to defeat him!

He wished that was true. He just had to hold out until someone else got bagged. “Please? I promise you won’t experience any pain. Maybe we can work together?” She pushed herself onto the stallion, getting her chest up against his. “After you’ve helped me to find your friends?”

Rashid was sweating bullets; he was about to break. Amel just needed to give him one more push.

“I bet you’re still a عذراء.” she tantalized.

Rashid had broken. He had never been trained for this, never expected anything like it to become possible. This entire situation was alien to him, even more so than the humans. He simply didn’t know how he could fight it.

“Aziz is behind the rock by the fourth corridor, two lefts, one right, and another left from the main entrance.”

Amel smiled. “Good colt. But no treat for you.” Rashid blinked. “You misbehaved by giving away your teammate. No treat for you. Bad, bad colt.” Leaving behind a depressed and ashamed stallion in Rashid, Amel went over to the window and leaned out. “Check the rock by the fourth corridor, two lefts, one right, and another left from the main entrance!”

“HOOAH!” she heard back from two locations.

Amel went back inside and walked over to Malik. “I guess I can’t get you the same way, can I?” she stated. She received no response. “Would you disrespect me by ignoring me? I can have Frost cause you quite a bit of pain.” Still nothing.

She was about to continue when the door burst open, and in waltzed two humans, carrying two stallions over their shoulders. “Sorry to crash the party, but the last guests have arrived.” Frost stated happily. The men dropped the two stallions, Aziz and Hamid, to the floor.

Duke went back and leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “I have to say that I’m disappointed. I thought that you guys had the idea of teamwork down.” The stallions took a moment, then looked down at the ground once Amel told them. “You should have stuck together, kept power in numbers. That’s why we have small teams in the first place.”

“If you guys had stuck together, you might have stood some sort of a chance against us.” Frost added. “But by going off on your own, you became easy targets. It became four cases of two on one instead of four on two.”

“Not only that, but two of you had no stealth at all. Rashid and Malik, you just stomped all around the place, announcing your location to anyone within fifty meters. That’s a quick way to get killed.” Duke brought his thumb across his throat for emphasis.

“And Hamid and Aziz, you stayed in one location for too long. If you remain in one spot, then we’ll definitely find you eventually because eventually, it would come down to just that spot.” Frost explained. “One half of you had one half of the right idea, the other half had the other half of the right idea.” That phrase took some time for Amel to translate.

Duke and Frost waited for a response. What they got was just about what they expected.

“They want to try again. This time, they say they can do it,” translated Amel.

Duke snickered. “Well, this time, the goal is changing.” Amel blinked, and when she told the stallions, they just blinked as well. “This time, you’re doing the escape portion of the training. After this, we can go back to evasion and resistance. Survival can be a lecture, so we’ll do that later.”

He looked straight as Rashid. “And this time, don’t let your plans out to the enemy. If anyone does it twice, they’re out of the training. You need to be as tough as can be to be in this job.” Rashid shrunk as much as possible. “Mental toughness is key, and no matter what is offered to you, remember that it isn’t going to happen. The enemy will not spare your teammates or loved ones. They will not free you, or give you special treatment. They will not be nice, and they most definitely, unarguably, WILL NOT have sex with you. Don’t let yourselves think that being a POW can possibly go well on any scale; it’ll all be torture.” Rashid further shrunk under the scrutiny.

Frost nodded. “Stockholm syndrome kills.” Amel didn’t translate Stockholm Syndrome. “You can’t succumb to it, no matter how much we try to make you.”

The stallions were silent for a moment, then all nodded, indicating their preparedness for the next round. Now, they had a feeling of how they were going to want to go about this.

“Alright. Now, you’ll be allowed to put up some resistance, like throwing us or pushing us away. But not to Amel; you have to find a way to sneak past her.” The stallions all looked to the mare, who just smiled a big, toothy smile. “She’ll be patrolling the perimeter of this room. We’ll be patrolling the rest of the maze. Your job is to get back to the beginning area, as a group.” Duke emphasized that last point. “If you can do it, you won’t have to do it again.”

Frost gave them more new rules. “You all have to sneak by Amel.” he explained, letting Amel get her words in before continuing. “If she catches you, the one who was caught has to come back. The others have to go back in and quietly rescue him. Without being caught. If you’re all caught, you’re just back at square one.” Amel translated, but gave Frost a look that asked Please stop with the strange phrases. “Start over. And it’ll keep going until you can get it right.”

After a minute, the stallions seemed to have a full comprehension of the op. “Any questions?” Duke asked, glancing over the group. “No? Well, then. Let’s begin.” He, Frost, and Amel all left the small room to take up their positions for the next round. Now that they would have it as four on two, or even four on one, Duke wondered who would end up being the bulls, and who would end up being the runners.

No matter; he had a feeling that they would do it right this time.

Comments

[Ogatasensei123]

First off the bat: sorry it took me so long to get around to reading this and commenting, but I just have to be in the mood to read a story. I'm sure you know how it is. Either way, this chapter was great as usual, if a little dry. One point of advice/critique; if you plan on further using Amel as a sort of plot device, or even if not, I for one would very much like to see some development of her character, or at least some form of explanation as to why she's so calm all the time. Because to the best of my knowledge, people don't usually just jump from being an abused fuck toy, to some sort of elite interrogator. But either way, great story, great characters, and I'm still super glad you used my advice and fixed your wall 'o text. Best of luck and keep up the good work.

[Bronzer]

2695553

Meh, everybody spies on everybody else. It's just accepted and not really seen as anything more than a "I found your guy, give me X or I'll embarrass you by flaunting it in-front of everyone". Political embarrassment is more potent than most people think. It's basically a form of reputation assassination. Then the targeted government becomes "lame ducks", incapable of getting it's own subordinates to obey it. After all, the subordinates would see their leaders as being full of hot-air and idiocy. If they think the people giving orders are fools and morons, they'll try to do things their own way (because that's better than a way that would shoot the country in the foot). This leads to lack of preparedness and co-ordination necessary to ensure political, economic, etc. strength. This then leads to the targeted country being little more than meat on a stick surrounded by wolves.

[jedi501]

Well, very good writing on this one. And if I may ask: Has anyone offered or made fan-art of Amel?