His Marine - Michael Clifford

9. I Ask For A Fighter

One week into training and it wasn't too bad.

It hurt like hell, I was tired as though I hadn't slept in years, it was cold and I missed home but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle and I woke up with a smile on my face every morning ready to face the new day ahead of me. "Everybody up it's oh-six-thirty." Our instructor shouted and we all jumped out of our beds to pull on our clothes. We weren't the hard way to jump out of the beds as quickly as humanly possible as they started to flip people out of the bottom bunks and pick them up out of the top bunks only to then drop them onto the bottom bunk and flip them out of bed. Now we just got out before they had a chance to even think about it.

We carried our sleepy selves over to the mess hall for breakfast. I sat at my usual table beside Jason with four others. We were halfway through our plate of breakfast when one of the instructors jumped up onto one of the tables causing everyone to go silent. "Next week we will be taking a small road trip. It'll be a chance for you to go and see your families and what not. There is an infantry boxing championship going on and we need a contestant. This contestant will not be able to see their family but everybody else seeing their family rests on this person. No contestant, no road trip. Any volunteers?"

Nobody volunteered. Nobody dared to move a muscle in case they were mistaken for a volunteer. They were all too worried about getting to see their own family that they seemed to forget about everyone else in the room who also wanted the exact same thing. Well I've got nobody to visit so I guess I've got nothing to lose. "I'll do it." I volunteered and all eyes fell to me in the centre of the room. "I'll volunteer."

"Okay well you stay here for instructor Walker, everybody else get to the grind." They all left so I was left by myself in the big room. It was nice to have a little bit of quiet until somebody else walked into the room.

"Jesus fucking Christ. I ask for a fighter they give me you." He mumbled. "This is an all male competition women are not allowed to enter."

"May I speak sir?"

"Why not?" He sighed nodding his head.

"This competition is open to all within the infantry. Women are not allowed in the infantry which is why they have never been allowed to contest but there is nothing in the rules about gender. I am part of the infantry so I am allowed to enter."

"These are going to be fully grown adult men who are a lot bigger and a hell of a lot more built up than you. I don't know if I can enter you." If he doesn't enter me then the boys don't get to go home.

"I'm small so I'm fast, I don't weigh as much as other marines so I'm lighter on my feet." I could see he still wasn't convinced and I had to think of something else fast. I had to do it for the boys. "I'm a southpaw so I have the upper hand." That caught his attention and he smirked at me.

"You're right handed Hemmings." How the hell does he know that. They seem to know every tiny detail about every single one of us.

"My uncle taught me how to box and he was a southpaw as well. I just picked it up from him." Now he was a little more interested in putting me into the competition.

"You don't understand how difficult this is going to be until you have fought a marine but if your up for it then I don't see why not."

"I fought my uncle, I know how tough this is going to be."

"Okay. Get your ass over to surf immersion." I couldn't believe it had been an hour already. It must have been if he was sending me over to surf immersion because we were scheduled to do an hour at the grind this morning.

.................................

"Right boys ten minutes until we arrive. Lets win this thing."