War To Come

Chapter 5- No Man Left Behind

As more boats arrive we help the other trainees into the larger boat. The last few groups were worn out and were practically dragging themselves onto the boat.

One member of another team collapsed once he stepped foot onto the boat. The medics that were standing by rushed to him and tended to his needs. He had gotten hypothermia from the cold water.

Once all the teams had finished we stood waiting for instructions. Beyer emerged from the group of graduates with a grimace on his face.

"You call that good?!" He screams.

Some candidates flinch.

"These are the worst times this facility has ever had, besides the first six teams! Which were remarkably over average." The second part he says with an emotion I can't figure out.

Beyer continues to scream and yell at the trainees. He then begins to tell us our next mission. We would be swimming again, back to the beach, and running on the beach until we saw our marker. He was very vague with specifics and we had no idea how long we would be running. We would be timed again.

We stand on the edge of the boat in the order we finished, but flipped. That means the last team that finished was first off the boat and the first team to finish was the last off the boat. A little irritating, as well as hard, sense we were fourth to last, but not impossible.

"We need to keep our pace. No need to go one hundred percent off the boat. Let the other teams do that. We'll pass them when they start to get tired." Langston says.

We nod our heads in understanding.

When it's our turn to jump off the boat we dive into the water. Again, the cold water pierces my skin. I can feel the pins and needles of the cold. I ignore them, pushing the idea of the cold water to the back of my mind. I focus on the task at hand. Swim to shore then run.

Halfway through the swim I can see Goss getting tired. As long as he finished the swimming portion we would be fine. Then, I'd need be, would could carry him on land. He just needed to finish the swimming portion by himself.

We pass multiple teams in the water. I believe we were in eleventh or tenth at this point. We needed to pass a few more teams to make up for what we'll have to do on land.

As we swim I turn around and see Goss is missing.

"Mavericks, where's Goss!?" I scream.

Mavericks turns around quickly, "I don't know."

"We need to go back!"

Everyone follows me. We swim opposite of the others. Everyone looks at us crazy. This would put us far behind, but no man left behind right. I swim and see a floating figure. I grab him turning his face towards the sky.

I start swimming backwards. Once we got closer to the waves that would help in giving us a little more help making it to shore. We trade off with Goss as we get closer to shore. We finally make it.

We do CPR none of us moving until our man is good. Goss coughs up water and takes a deep breath.

"Grab him. We'll rotate as we run." Turner says.

Rucker is the first to carry him. The order goes, Rucker, Langston, Mavericks, Turner, Cole, Me, Samuel, Myers, and Storm.

We pass a few groups, but I know we're still further than tenth place. We pass the marker line and stop for a breath. Cole holds Goss over his shoulders and my team and I go together to the medics. We didn't wait for our time or our place, all we were worried about was that our teammate was okay.

He was just overworked. The medics told us they would handle the rest and we go to stand with the rest of the group. It was now light out, probably eight or nine o'clock in the morning.

My group stands in the front ready for the yelling from Beyer.

Beyer steps up looking at my team, especially me. "You finished in fourth place the first time, but finished seventeenth this time, why?"

"Our teammate Goss needed help, sir. We tracked back to get him, sir." Says Storm.

Beyer nods. He gives me a quick look before turning to the large group of men again. "Everyone drop and give me a hundred." We do as he says.

He counts. We count with him. When we hit fifty my arms start to burn, but I don't let them see. I'm halfway done I need to finish. I get to seventy-five and my arms are noodles. They shake, but I keep doing them. I hear quiet, but encouraging words from my teammates.  That pushes me to do more. We hit one hundred and all get up.

"You will run back to the facility where you will get some food. Everyone ready by 1100 hours." Beyer yells.

**

We all get in line for food. My stomach was growling so much the guys were laughing. I gave them a playful warning look before grabbing a bowl for the breakfast. In line there was oatmeal, biscuits, and fruit. I fill my bowl, possibly overflowing it a little bit. 

My team and I sit together. Before making any small talk I shove all my food in my mouth. I look up seeing the guys stare at me.

"Slow down girl, you might choke." Says Mavericks.

"Haha." I say with food in my mouth.

"What a lady." Comments Rucker laughing.

"I'm starving okay." I say laughing with him.

"We can see that." Says Storm.

I glare at them receiving more laughs.

We continue to talk about small things, like how Storm was from New York, and how Rucker was from Louisiana. I told them how I'm from Texas. Turner tells us about his family and how he has an older brother who was a navy seal, he was out on a mission though so that's why we didn't see him. Mavericks said he was born of the sea and that's why his last name was Mavericks. We all laughed at that one.

Langston told us how when he was eighteen he went to the Olympic's for swimming, no wonder he was such a good swimmer. Cole was quiet, but he told us about his nine brothers and sisters, he was the second oldest. Myers was very into soccer and we bonded over that. Samuel was an orphan, but he said he was adopted by a wonderful family.

It was great getting to know my teammates. Just then Goss enters the cafeteria. He spots us, then walks towards us. He sits down next to me. I give him a hug.

"I've decided to leave." Goss states.

"Why?" Asks Samuel.

Goss scoffs. "Why? Because if I can't handle the first few missions I'm going to struggle the whole way."

"That's what this is though. The navy seals are meant to make you struggle. They break you down and test not only our physical abilities, but also mental. We've all struggled. During the push ups, the only way I did all of them was because the guys were encouraging me the entire time." I state. "It's only the first day of Hell week. Don't quit now."

Goss nods.

"We'll do extra workouts with you bro." Turner states.

We continue our meal, this time with Goss. I look at the time and see it's I've passed ten. We finish up, through our garbage away, and meet at the next place we'll be training.