The November Order

💎 X : Zombie

"Get up you dogs!!" The drill sergeant's voice rang through their bones as he barked out orders. Three fourth of the troop had collapsed from the suicides they'd been doing for the last hour. And half of what remained were doing their best to complete the push up reps before the final sprint.

Zik pulled himself up from the dew wet mulch of the training field, he'd lost his balance after completing the last push up of the set. He inhaled a truckload of air and began his sprint to the other end of the field. He was running by shear will power, his breathing was a mess and he was pretty sure his muscles would lock up the moment he stopped moving again. He didn't want to have to go through it again, his morning had a lot more activities planned down. he got to the end of the field and crumbled to the floor in front of the water outlet used to irrigate the field. he crawled the remaining distance to the spout and opened it up a bit. He opened his mouth below the outlet and gulped the water greedily. He and five others were the only ones who completed the torture.

The drill sergeant finally whistled for the end of the morning drill when he noticed no one else was moving. He joined the rest of the sore cadets as the walked, limped or were pulled to the quarters. He sighed, he still had three months of this hell before he would become a fully enlisted agent.

He pulled off his clothes, folded them and placed them on the bed, he took some new ones from his wardrobe and walked to the wash house the quicker he got there, the quicker he got to the shooting range for the marksmanship instruction and the quicker he could get to the mess hall and put whatever he could into his stomach for breakfast.

The water washed of the mud and grime on his body and he felt clean though still very sore. He went back to the room and put on a new kit. He looked at his watch and began running to the shooting range.

Over the last three months, his life had become monotonous and stringent, he felt like he was slowly loosing himself, he wasn't even sure about his smile anymore when he looked at the mirror while brushing.

He walked into the building, calming his breathing down. No one was in the building's foyer except the official at the reception desk.

"Get over here cadet," he stopped in his tracks and looked at the agent at the desk staring at him impatiently.

He saluted, "sir!"

The agent passed him a sealed package with a red stamp, "take this to the divisional head's table. It's from the office of the armory," he passed him a tag, "that's enough explanation to any one who asks you for identification on the way, you're to deliver it in person, they can call to confirm your identity."

Zik pinned the tag to his breast pocket and began his journey to the divisional head's office at the centre of the base. He jogged at a moderate pace towards the office. He chuckled when he thought about how this detour was the most Interesting thing he had done in the last two months. He reasoned that what made it so boring for him was probably because he'd been previously trained.

The large mahogany door of the divisional heads office were as imposing as ever. He knocked and then pushed it open. The secretary offered him a warm smile. He smiled back at her, it was fake but it was courteous. She motioned for him to bring his package to the desk.

He placed the package on the her desk, "I'm to deliver this in person to the divisional head, from the office of the armory."

She picked up her phone and made a call, he couldn't make out the discussion from her end alone but he was sure it all boiled down to if he was sent or not. She smiled warmly and passed the package back to him, "the Divisional head is currently in a meeting but he'll be done in ten minutes, I'll tell you when to go in. You can sit down over there."