Tent City

Chapter 15 - Kelsie

I was excited to start my military training under the supervision of Andy. I was so excited that I woke around 4 am. The training didn't commence until 9 am. So for 5 hours, I laid in bed and stared at the inky ceiling, turned towards Ben, and checked on him. He was asleep, I could hear his soft snoring and breathing.

I couldn't believe that in just 6 weeks, Ben would turn 5. I planned on throwing him a birthday party. The bunker cooks were more than willing to cook and decorate a cake for his special day. I had plans to invite Ben's favourite people to his party, including Andy. But all I had to do was ask for Andy's approval, and she seemed really stressed and distracted lately. I couldn't seem to find the right time to ask, but I still had a few weeks left.

I said goodbye to Ben and colin and made my way towards the training room and arrived at about 8:45. The doors opened when I rested my finger on the scanner. The computerised voice echoed through the room as I entered.

"Welcome to the training room, trainee officer Kelsie Mcdonough.

It seemed I had arrived before Andy. I took the chance to look around the room. It was huge. The walls were grey and textured. Some swords and sticks were fixed to holders on the wall, and the floor was sectioned with markings on the floor. One section of the floor was cushioned with a tough carpet, and mats were placed neatly on top. The other section of floors were a mixture of concrete and a wooden type floor, which was rare in itself. To my right was a double door, with a picture of a gun painted on the glass. There was a combined fingerprint scanner and swipe key terminal to the left of the door. I was curious and placed my finger on the scanner. The scanner beeped angrily at me, and the computerised voice echoed around me once again.

"Access denied! Trainee officer Kelsie Mcdonough, you do not have the proper rank and security clearance to enter."

I quickly stepped back and removed my finger from the scanner. It's not very often I get scolded by a computer, I giggled to myself.

There were two more doors that I had clearance to enter, the toilet and a room that had four desks and office chairs inside. I ran my hand across the wall, feeling the roughness against my palm.

The computerised voice interrupted my exploration of the room and nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Welcome to the training room, Temporary commander, Andrea Woolex. Trainee officer Kelsie Macdonough is also present."

Andy smiled as she spotted me, we both waved to each other excitedly, and then we made our way to the middle of the vast concrete room.

She led me to the section of the floor that had mats on it.

I soon learned that I would be learning basic self-defence using only my hands and body. I failed so badly, even with 5 hours of training, I couldn't manage to grasp or understand the sequence of moves, plus I was extremely uncoordinated and clumsy, so if I even managed to get the moves right I was too slow to execute them.

At the end of my first training session, I was exhausted and frustrated with myself. I truly felt hopeless. I sensed that Andy also shared that opinion.

I decided as I made my way back home that I'd try to practice outside of my sessions with Andy, I couldn't bear to disappoint her again.

On my way, I stopped off at the library and borrowed a couple of books on self-defense for beginners. When I got home, I asked the computer to make a playlist of instruction videos on self-defense. My aim was to learn as much as I could as fast as I could. Sometimes, when Ben was home, he'd join in with my training, much to my delight. It was amusing watching him punch the air and lift his stubby little legs, trying to kick. His giggles and clumsiness made me laugh. I wondered if Andy perceived me exactly the same, but instead of laughter, I brought her annoyance and frustration.

To my surprise, two weeks later, I had improved, and I even impressed Andy, which made me even happier.

I had been training for about 4 weeks with Andy. It was Friday, and our training session was interrupted by a person from communications saying that Andy needed to take a call. Andy left in a rush as she turned and said,

"Keep training, I'll return soon."

"Yes, sir!" I answered. I had to address Andy formally when in the presence of others, but when we were by ourselves, Andy said I could just call her by her name and Ben had permission to call her Andy in the presence of anybody.

I once asked Andy why she was addressed as Sir by the computer and other soldiers more than she was addressed as Ma'am. I asked her what she preferred. She said, she didn't really mind either way and that I could address her any way I wanted.  I decided that Sir just fitted her better addressed her as Sir.

It seemed quite a while before Andy returned to the training room. When she finally returned, I knew something was wrong. Her face was pale, and her dark blue eyes were distant. I approached her, concerned. She glimpsed at me,

"Uhh, sorry Kelsie, I've got to finish our training session early. So you're more than welcome to remain and continue training without me, or you can leave now if you want. I'll see you at the same time tomorrow, okay?" She said, her voice seemed robotic and void of emotion, but her face told me the opposite.

"Okay, Andy. I think I'll prefer to stay and finish my session. Is everything okay?"

Andy ignored my question,

"Bye, Kelsie." Was all she whispered as the door slid open and banged shut as she left.

"Bye, Andy," I whispered to the empty room.

As promised, I finished my training. However, my moves were out of sync, and I performed  the sequence half-heartedly, as my thoughts were all about Andy. What had made her so sad all of a sudden? It had to be the call she took from Commander Lee. I hoped he was okay.