Side By Side

9

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

After the combat training, we were allowed to eat some weird substance. Some people looked at it with an annoyed face and they didn't want to eat it or delayed eating it as I immediately opened the package and took bites.

'Just eat!' I yelled at someone who pushed the package away. 'You'll need to eat way grosser shit if you're in battle and you need fuel so you won't pass out.'

I rolled my eyes out of annoyance and finished my meal pretty quickly, putting it in the bins they put there for us to clean our table. It took ages before the others finished eating too, some didn't eat everything and a few didn't even start as the sergeants walked in.

'I hope that everyone ate, because we are going to walk to the place we are going to stay the upcoming days. We won't tell you how long the walk will be and if you can't keep up with us, we will send you straight away!'

I saw someone quickly open his package with food as the sergeant walked up to him. 'YOU HAD TEN MINUTES TO EAT. CLAY EVEN TOLD YOU TO EAT BUT YOU DIDN'T! NO FOOD FOR YOU.'

He grabbed the package and put it away. His eyes scanned the room and he stood straight which made me realise I had to stand up. I stood up as the only one and looked at the sergeant with a straight posture.

'WHY IS CLAY THE ONLY ONE STANDING UP? DIDN'T I TEACH YOU? STAND UP NOW!'

Everyone, but one person, stood up. I looked at the man who didn't stand up, he had his eyes closed which caused the sergeant to get really mad. He walked up to the man and shook his body. 'WAKE UP, RIGHT NOW!'

The man was really startled and opened his eyes as he saw everyone standing up.

'STAND UP AND DO FIFTY PUSH-UPS!'

The man stood up and then did what the sergeant told him, taking ages to finish all of them. 'Stand up and immediately come with us!'

'Yes, sergeant,' he panted, wiping sweat from his forehead as we all started walking outside. We formed a row of people, all two by two. I was told to stand in the front and walk next to the man who just fell asleep which annoyed me, but I figured I had to help him.

We started walking pretty fast and the man next to me constantly tripped over his own feet. I didn't have any trouble and walked closer to him, grabbing his arm to pull him with me.

He was panting loudly and started walking slower and slower which caused me to pull him with me. It started to take me more effort because he just let me pull him with me as I looked at me.

'MOVE YOUR LEGS, IDIOT,' I yelled out. 'I CAN'T CARRY YOU.'

The sergeant, who walked in front of us, turned around to us and saw that the man just let me pull him with me.

'YOU'RE SLOWING THE WHOLE GROUP DOWN!' he screamed at the man next to me. 'EVERYONE IS WAITING FOR YOU TO WALK!'

He didn't answer because he was panting so loudly and just stopped walking which caused someone to bump into him. The people behind me fell down which caused me to fall down too. I immediately climbed up and helped the other recruits stand up again, lifting one of their bags up on their back again.

'DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU JUST DID?' the sergeant screamed as he grabbed the man's hand, pulling him away from the row. Another sergeant turned to us and pointed forwards.

'KEEP WALKING!'

'Yes, sergeant,' I yelled as one of the only ones. I noticed my knee was hurting because I fell on a stone because of the man who was taken away.

The sergeant was keeping an eye on me as I kept walking, limping a tiny bit. I had to push through the pain, I NEEDED TO.

'I can do it,' I whispered to myself. 'I'm not a pussy, I'm not weak. I CAN DO THIS.'

The sergeant seemed to listen to me but he didn't comment on it and kept walking in front of us.

I walked faster again and pushed through the pain as I turned around to see another recruit fall down. I immediately helped him up and pulled him to the front to walk with me since I noticed he couldn't carry his bag anymore.

I pulled off his bag and pushed him forwards while I carried his bag in my arms. 'Keep walking, you're getting your bag again in a second!'

He nodded slowly and started walking at my pace. He didn't have a bag anymore and still struggled to keep up with my pace while I had a painful knee and two bags.

I walked for at least ten minutes with his bag and then gave it back to him. More and more people seemed exhausted and obviously I was exhausted too, but I wasn't giving up.

'Keep walking, think of something that makes you mad. You can do this, YOU CAN DO IT,' I screamed at all the people who were walking behind me by a lot. 'YOU AREN'T HERE WITHOUT A REASON!'

I saw the sergeant nod softly in front of me as we kept walking. After a long time, which felt like at least one and a half hours, he stood still and pointed to things on the floor.

'It's easy, you're taking all these things with you and I'm leaving for now. You'll need to read this map! Anyone who has no idea how this works?'

Most people stuck their hands in the air which caused me to sigh.

'Clay, why are you sighing?'

'I'm sorry, sergeant. I sighed because I find it dumb that people didn't learn how to read a map before joining the army, sergeant.'

'So you can read it?' he asked as he walked closer to me.

'Yes, sergeant. I had a few classes about it to prepare myself.'

'Okay. You'll get the map, but you better not make any mistakes!'

'I won't, sergeant!' I yelled as I grabbed the map, looking down on it. 'Everyone, grab the stuff for the barrack we need to set up. I'll help carry that heavy thing. We need to go to the left through this forest and then follow the river!'

Everyone did what I told them to do and I couldn't stop smiling anymore. I felt so worthy, people listened to me now instead of laughing at me for being gay.

1116 words