District 71: Battle Earth

Chapter 6 - The Tactics of Simon Martinez

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DISTRICT 71
BATTLE EARTH

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Chapter 6: The Tactics of Simon Martinez

The next day, the bell rang at 0500. It’s time for the morning exercises. Ana’s platoon was already waiting at their formation ground. It was Simon who was leading them when Ana came.

“Good morning Captain.”

Simon greeted Ana with a smile.

“Good morning Lieutenant.”

She was checking the formation and the attendance of her men while she was relaying the exercises to be done on that day.

“Where is Jimenez?”

She asked when she realized that her first lieutenant was not around. No one answered. A few seconds later, Jonas apppeared.

“Permission to join the formation, Captain!”

“You are late First Lieutenant Jimenez.”

“My apologies, Captain!”

“Do fifty counts Lieutenant Jimenez.”

“Yes, Captain!”

Jonas finished the fifty counts of push-ups and joined the formation.

“I’ll give everyone 5 minutes break to accompany Lieutenant Jimenez to breathe.”

And everyone calmed down.

The weather was hot and seeing one person does 50 counts of push-ups was a very tense thing to start the day. If there was one thing that Ana’s men must looked after was her tenacity in giving sanctions and commands, but if there was also one thing that made them loyal to her, was her care for her comrades. She never leaves any of her men behind. She made that promise after being unable to retrieve the body of their previous captain, Captain Megara.

Despite being known as the platoon having the most difficult exercises in the whole district, Platoon Six was also known as the most carefree, lovable and happiest platoon in the district. They act as a group, they have fun as a group and they fight as a group. That’s why they were always the best platoon.

After the five-minute break, the heat was felt again in the formation as Simon gave the first whistle for the 30-minute routine jog. The whole platoon jog around the district field including Ana and the two lieutenants followed by a 10-minute break.

At exactly 0600, the alarm for breakfast was heard. Everyone took their seats at the canteen that was located at the ground floor of their dormitory.

At 0700, the obstacle course exercises were scheduled for Platoon Six.

“We will not do the usual training for today.”

That was Simon.

“There will be no groupings for this exercise. You will have to finish the course and the last man who will finish will take grave punishment.”

He said.

“Normally, this is a 2-hour course, but as commanded by our captain, everyone WILL and SHOULD finish the course. Nobody is exempted. That means Captain Torres will also join. You are allowed to rest but you have to finish the exercise –even if it will take you one whole day to finish it. Just remember, the last one to finish will take the punishment.”

After the briefing, the whole platoon headed towards the starting course, which is the mud-crawl. Major Megara and a few officials were there to greet them.

“Are they going to do it again?”

Asked one of the officials to Major Megara. With a smile, the major nodded.

The normal platoon exercise usually takes only a few hours and is limited to the army field only. However, with the best tactician in the whole district and as part of Platoon Six, Simon Martinez can create a military exercise course that will best fit their team –a course that runs almost within the entire district. And the only team who can do this kind of exercises is Ana’s platoon.

A shot was fired in the air as a sign that the exercise has started. No arms or any thing was allowed during the whole exercise. If you need to fight, you will fight barehanded. It was an exercise of stamina and strength.

Everybody crawled in the muddy field where spikes are waiting just a few inches above them. After the muddy field, they have to climb the 90 degrees wall with a height of 15 meters. Once you have successfully climb the wall, you will have to go down using the ropes.

There were already three men who successfully climbed the wall and headed towards the next obstacle. Ana who just arrived at the bottom of the wall saw her crowded men trying their best to reach the top. She also saw Jonas who was already at the middle of climbing up the wall. She saw an opportunity to climb by grabbing the shoulder of one of her officials and stepped at them.

Since she is a woman, her body is small and light. She could climb easily. She even met Jonas and smiled at him when she was halfway towards the top. Upon successfully climbing up, she saw Jonas having difficulty when rocks above him came to a dead-end, the nearest rock where he could hold on to was two meters away from him.

“I believe you need a help there lieutenant!”

Ana called out to Jonas and while holding a rope on her right hand, she held her left hand over to Jonas.

“You’re being soft Captain.”

Jonas said to Ana and reached her left hand. As soon as he was able to hold the top-most part of the barrier, she proceeded in going down to the other side of the wall and left her lieutenant at the top.

The next course was going back to the dormitory where they have an option of changing their clothes in their gym locker room or continue to the rooftop and go down again –using the ropes which were hanging at the side wall of their dormitory. Since they could not go around messing the whole district with mud, the members chose to change with another set of clean shirts.

Ana came towards the locker room and saw six to eight of her men changing their outfit. She opened her locker and changed her shirt in front of her locker. Although she can sense eyes gazing at her, she didn’t mind. She didn’t give any malice, because to her –all of them are her brothers. When she was finished, she closed her locker and headed towards the door when Jonas appeared.

“You changed here!?”

Ana was surprised when Jonas asked her in almost a shout. But she also felt concern in his voice.

“Captain, there were men in here!”

Jonas said in a loud voice while pointing at the platoon members who were also there to change.

Ana gave a short laugh.

“You’re being soft Lieutenant.”

She tapped Jonas’ shoulder and headed outside the locker room.

“All of you here! Give me fifty counts!”

She heard Jonas commanding the men inside to do fifty counts. She met Simon on her way to the rooftop.

“Are you alright Martinez?”

She asked Simon.

“Yes, and what’s with the commotion?”

He asked Ana while pointing at the locker room.

Ana just smiled and left her lieutenant.