UNSC New Recruits

Chapter 6

I yawned, walking to the soccer oval with my bag on my back and my hoodie keeping me warm on this icy fog morning. I had woken up at, in marine term, 0600 and sluggishly got ready for the day. I had arrived at school at 0715 and it looked like I was the first to arrive. I told my parents the day before nothing about the early morning at school, it was the marines that had stayed with us. And when my parents were notified, they were persistent that I went. And so I reluctantly did what I was told.

With my hood up and my hands in the warm pockets of my hoodie, the two marines and I marched down the stairs leading to the soccer oval. I kept my head down, feeling too cold to look up, and watched as I saw my breath when I breathed out. I was focused on staying warm that I didn't think about anything while walking to the obstacle course. Worst thing was that I knew I had to take my hoodie off when we started the Year group punishment. 'How the hell do they do this? I know they're used to it but still...'

Walking across the small bridge above the muddy ground, I finally looked up, the cold stinging my cheeks. My foggy breath met the fog outside in a swirling action as I, unsurprisingly, noticed that I was indeed the first student to arrive.

"Well, well, well. Little ninja is here," Sergeant Johnson noticed, walking towards me.

I stood at attention, despite my still waking muscles protesting. Sergeant Johnson studied me for a moment, like as if he was picking a recruit. I wished that the rest were here so that I didn't have all the attention and suffer alone at the moment. I bit the inside of my lip a little, waiting for his orders.

As if reading my mind, the sergeant ordered "Take your bag off, take your hoodie off and start doing laps until the rest have arrived."

I sighed silently as I started carrying out his orders. 'At least it isn't a tour. That'll be damn annoying.' I started jogging around the oval, which had two main soccer fields, a half soccer field and two volleyball courts. Going towards the half soccer field and the fence, there was a shallow ditch just before a small, slightly deep hill. It was a little difficult getting up that short hill, but it still took less than a minute to get up.

Two laps in ten minutes later and no one showed up like they were supposed to. Captain Keyes allowed me to stop doing laps and I sighed. 'Looks like I'm suffering this alone.' I grabbed my drink bottle from my bag and took a sip, looking around at the marines that were surrounding the area. I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen today. A very bad feeling. One that meant even more punishment to all Year 10s.