Taking Sides

Chapter 4: Preprations

-Chapter  4: Preparations-

As per our normal routine, we all got up at half past five in the morning. As usual, I was woken up on the dot when one of my bunkmates switched on the lights. Rolling around in bed for a while, I noted that Samuel was still sound asleep. Of course, I had to wake him up, and I did what I usually did: throw my pillow at him, and shout at him to get up.

Groaning, he dragged himself out of bed, while I did the same. I grabbed my mug and toothbrush and went off to the toilet to freshen up. Once done, we all went downstairs to fall in, and the duty sergeant marched us off to have breakfast.

The first thing I noted about this camp was its sheer size. The place housed several units, and it was just our luck that our bit of the camp was ridiculously far from the cookhouse.

On top of that, the sergeant got lost, and we ended up marching all over the blasted place like a bunch of idiots. On the other hand, though, we single handedly managed to announce our presence to the entire camp compound…

However, what was important was that we did end up at the cookhouse at the end of the whole saga, when a random helpful officer pointed us in the right direction… Seemingly as a small mercy, the breakfast was good, consisting of a potato pie and some sausages. That was one of the better menus as far as army food went anyway…

Of course, the meal was accompanied with a few jokes directed the way of the sergeant who was rather sporting about it all, especially since it was his fault that a five minute march became a thirty minute march… After eating, he allowed us to walk back in file instead.

The first thing that I noticed when we set foot back into the new parade square was the sudden appearance  of a whole lot of equipment, which more or less covered the entire parade square itself. I spied soft and hard plates, which were body armour, vacuum packed blocks that looked like new protective suits, and a seemingly never ending sea of combat rations.

We were told to go back to our bunks first, for the logistics personnel were still in the midst of laying things out, and that we would be called down later.

There wasn’t much conversation going round as we went up and returned to the bunk, save for a few who were comparing the new and undoubtedly better bunks to the older ones. However, the whole atmosphere of the place threw a blanket onto the whole discussion, as the constant tension in the air wormed its way into our psyche. In the camp, it was painfully obvious that they were expecting an attack of sorts, especially since the patrolling guards had doubled, and from what I had seen of the magazines they carried, they were fully loaded… On top of that, I had heard some rumours muttered in the cookhouse that a tank was being sent down to defend the camp itself.

Of course, with everyone strung tight, or starting to be strung tight, no one could sleep, which meant that everyone just sat around in a somewhat sullen silence, some using their phones, while others settling for lying quietly on their beds, or whispering softly amongst their cliques.

However, the peace, or rather, the illusion of peace in the bunk was shattered by the rumbling of a truck engine, along with a whole lot of shouting.

Of course, this provided a welcome respite, and everyone went out to see what the fuss was about.

In the parade square, a truck had pulled in, and it was pulling a trailer which held an anti-aircraft gun… However, the driver of the truck, along with someone in an air force uniform that was presumably his passenger were presently in a heated and very animated argument with the company quartermaster.

It was quite obvious what the issue was. The air force guy wanted to set up the gun somewhere in the parade square, but the parade square was in use by the logistics folks, who were still sorting through the boxes upon boxes of rations and equipment. The armoury people had also joined in at some point, and they had laid out the weapons in a small corner, and were presently checking each and every one of them for serviceability. It actually looked a little like a parade, but without the people…