She

19| Meet the squad

M A L A C H A I D E A V Y

"Today's lesson: Fighting for yourself." The older guard from before called out as all the boys sat on the ash ground glaring up at him. "Meaning simply that you mustn't care for anyone else but yourself, the phrase 'No man left behind,' is a myth. Never will I ever want to see any of you act differently." He orders.

"Now, we will be starting off with a quick warm-up and then we will be splitting off into our duties." He calls and we all stand and line up, spaced out, in our rows.

The warm-up session begins as the whistle goes off, all of us synchronising as we start off with star jumps.

The next minute, the whistle goes off once more and it is time to go in with push-ups, something both me and Colton struggled with a lot.

My palms digging into the small stones of ash beneath me, almost piercing through my thin layer of skin. Sweat already building up on my forehead and my breathing becomes clearly inconsistent, speeding up by the second.

"DO YOU CALL THIS A PUSH-UP YOUNG MAN?!" A sudden rush of pain is forced onto my back, only for me to realise it is actually the pain of a belt which was just lashed across my back a second prior. The man was yelling down at me which made me stop and look up at him.

"DID I SAY YOU COULD STOP?!" Another lash. "No sir." I respond quickly, "DO BETTER" He yells, this time spit flying everywhere as I continued to barely make a push down.

The whistle goes off a few more times as we switch between multiple warmups.

A pattern of three quick whistle blows becomes known and it is time to split into our separate groups and get on with the day.

"Group C, today we will be going through a mud course which I will explain furtherly once we get there." Our group leader explains as we all march across the massive area outside the main building, heading towards the training woods.

"God, i'm so fucking exhausted." I hear Colton groan over to me, making me chuckle under my breath. "SILENCE BACK THERE!" The soldier yells from up front, making us drop our smiles and continue marching.

After a few minutes of marching, we are finally met with the woods. In front of us is a massive track of mud which you can't see the end of; many obstacles within the track.

"Today is test day, we will be putting your abilities to the test, checking if your senses, flexibility and all of those sorts are of higher level than when you first started, at the beginning of this month." The soldier explains as he flicks through a booklet.

I give Colton the look and he returns it straight away, knowing that both me and him haven't been doing so well this past month.

"It is up to you whether or not you have the determination to complete it within the time limit. That being- 2 and a half hours. If you fail to complete the test there will be punishment." He continues, "Remember to follow today's lesson- 'Fighting for yourself'. That reminds me, there are no rules when it comes to being first during this test. Pushing, shoving, fighting to win is all allowed. Now, may the best win and the worst lose, good luck sirs."