The Next Warrior

Proving Grounds - Part 21

Romero woke to the sensation of daggers piercing his nasal cavity. The sudden chemical jolt was of such a shock to his subconscious that he was propelled back to the realm of the living.

As his vision returned, Nathaniel could see sunlight shining high above him. The light was darkened as silhouettes of men loomed above and all around his limp frame. Terrified, and confused, he began to flail about wildly, punching and kicking at the air and towards the dark figures that surrounded him. He desperately groped around for his weapon, but it wasn't there.

The shadowy figures descended upon him and held him down at the shoulders while another held down his legs.

"Easy there, Devildog. We gotcha'. The exercise is over, so let's just tone down the bravado there. Good to go?" It was a familiar voice, but he was completely unprepared to be hearing it here. He was unprepared to hear anything at all. He was sure that he was dead.

"Romero, chill the hell out. It's over. It's over." He knew this voice, too. He knew it well. It was Corporal Williams, his fire team leader.

He looked around and saw everyone from his fire team. His fire team leader had his legs, while the other two members of his team, Suicide and Kaiser were holding down his shoulders and arms. Doc Schubert was leaning over him holding the ammonia pack and a bottle of water in the other hand. The doc looked at Romero as he began to calm.

With a disconcerting grin, "Yeah, there you go. Now you're coming back to us."

Nathaniel scanned his surroundings, still overcome with bewilderment. The wrecked plane was gone. The debris was gone and the fires were gone. All the enemy soldiers were gone. No, that wasn't true. Someone in one of their uniforms, a blonde haired man with a military high regulation haircut and about the same age as Romero was screaming at another Marine. The soldier was upset, but didn't look like what Romero ever thought a prisoner of war was supposed to look like. Romero wanted to know where his handcuffs were, why he was standing and why wasn't anyone detaining him? Romero realized the soldier still had his weapon. Why did he still have his weapon? Nathaniel began to get excited again when he realized this. Doc Shubert again interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, that guy's pissed." said Doc unconcerned. "You gave those FOF-TICK boys a real scare, especially your little friend over there. You can shoot holographic simrounds at projected images all day and everybody gets back up no problem like, 'Hey Honey. Tough day at work. What's for dinner?' but if you had butt stroked that dude in the face like you almost did, he'd a been done for, for real."Romero just stared, dazed and confused.

The Doc saw the distant, still trembling look in his eyes. "Right..." he said. He wasn't quite satisfied of the cognitive state of his patient. "Look PFC, I need you to take off your flak. I need to check to make sure that your impactor simulator vest isn't going to deliver any more of those shocks you seem to love so much. I also need to check a few other things. Make sure you aren't going to die or crack up on me." He paused, unsure of the shaken warrior's mental faculties. "You understand what I'm saying? You got me?"

Romero said nothing. He just stared around with a flighty, distant look in his eyes, frantically darting from person to person all around him. Little did they know, he was still in search of the downed plane that wasn't there, which was never there, and all the Marines aboard.

"Ok. We're going to take that flak off, you understand?"

As the Navy Corpsman's hands drifted toward the clips on Romero's flak jacket, panic suddenly overcame the young Marine again. He began breathing heavily, then gasped to the point of hyperventilation. He started kicking and punching again, restrained only by the aid of his fire team. All of the mental barriers holding back his animal strengths and impulses had been unbound. He was just a feral beast, cornered and panicking. Rabid. The four of them, his fire team and the corpsman, had fought with all of their collective wills, just to repress him and prevent him from doing further harm to himself or to one of them.