The River (Clemerva)

Chapter Twelve: More Questions Than Answers

"You're lucky you get to miss out, honestly." Louis said as he pulled his boots on. "Not that you're lucky to be hurt, I just meant that like-"

"It's cool, I get it." Clem chuckled.

Everybody was already up and dressed. They had begun waking up earlier so that by the time the drill instructor or supervisors came to collect them, they were ready. It saved a lot of hassle being yelled at in the morning and it did seem to make the Delta staff happy.
That being said, it didn't stop the harsher officers from taking their frustrations out on them.

"AJ." Clem said, getting the boy's attention.

She waved him over and he climbed up onto the foot of her bed.

"Be careful on that training course, okay? Louis, Violet and Brody will watch out for you, if you need anything you ask them."

"I will, don't worry. Make sure you get lots of rest."

"Of course, buddy."

"And get better soon." AJ added.

"Don't worry about me, I've survived worse." She chuckled.

The barracks door suddenly swung open and a soldier stepped in.

"Good, everyone's up. Get yourselves organised and follow me." He announced to the room.

Clem turned to AJ and gave him a hug.

"Good luck. Love you, goofball."

"Love you too, Clem."

He reluctantly left her side and fell in line with the rest of the group behind the soldier, who swiftly carted everyone off to go suffer at the hands of Anderson.
Clementine scowled at the thought of Anderson targeting AJ because of what she had done.
She had to hope that Louis and Violet would keep him out of trouble.
In the meantime, Minnie had told her to wait until she came down to meet her at the barracks.
She got out of bed and checked the mirror on the pillar once again. Clem found herself tidying her appearance up, fixing her hair, scrubbing off patches of muck from her shirt.

I was gonna do this anyway. It's not like I'm doing it for Minnie.

Clem stared back into her reflected eyes and sighed.

Is this what denial feels like?

***

Violet kept her arms at her sides while Anderson shouted at them. Under normal circumstances she would be more comfortable with her arms crossed or in her pockets, but the last time she had unconsciously done that, she had gotten a slap across the face and a lecture about 'respect'.
Violet hated Anderson with every fibre of her being. He was a pathetic coward who only picked fights with people who couldn't fight back.
She was confident that in a fair fight, she could probably take him down. Or at least hurt him badly before she lost the upper hand.
In any case, that was wishful thinking. The armed guards made sure they couldn't try to escape or attack their instructor.
Once Anderson's introductory rant was finished, it was back to their routine:

Through the tyres.
Underneath the nets and barbed wire.
Up the climbing wall.

Violet checked on AJ and made sure he was up on his rope before she began climbing. She figured if she was below him and he fell, she'd have a better chance of catching him.
Despite Anderson's screams from the sidelines, Violet maintained a slow pace to keep up with AJ.
When the boy reached the top, Violet waited to make sure he got over safely.
AJ was doing quite well, he had gotten much better at climbing the wall.
Climbing felt like second mature to Violet. Even before she ended up at Ericson's, she would climb trees, walls, anything she could. Being high up always helped her distance herself from her problems.
When she was twenty feet off the ground, all the things that troubled her felt irrelevant.