War To Come

Chapter 8- Treated Differently

The alarm clock on my side table rang with life waking me from my amazing slumber. I quickly hit snooze. I close my eyes ready for more sleep, but I knew we had to meet in the weight room for training.

I look to my right to see a sleeping Mavericks. He must have come in sometime while I was sleeping. I go over to him and shake him awake.

"Come one Mavericks. We don't wanna be late." I state.

He groans and slowly gets off the bed. His eyes are bloodshot and he looks miserable. I decide not to ask questions about his night.

We meet up with our team and make our way to the weight room. The weight room was huge fitting all trainees and graduates. There were bench and squat machines, along with treadmills and other weightlifting things. On the far wall mirrors covered the white paint from top to bottom.

I look at the white board at the opposite wall. This had our workout written on it:

Squats- 4x10
Lunges- 2x50 (each leg)
Deadlift- 4x10
Leg Press- 4x10
Calf raises- 4x10

Today was leg day apparently. My team and I split up starting wherever we wanted in the workout. I started on squats. I did my normal squats like I'd do at home, adding a little bit more weight than usual. Then I went to lunges. I took the thirty-five pound weights and do my lung workout. I see one leg press machine open and take it. I finish and let Rucker go after me. I do calf raises next getting on a platform so I can hang off the edge. I finish those and wait for the members in my team to finish.

Once every team is done Beyer comes through the door. "Okay, today we will be doing combat training."

Everyone smiles. We hadn't worked on that at all. This is why everyone, or at least some people, were here. To get their frustrations out in combat.

"Get a partner from another team, claim a mat in the combat room, and start." We follow Beyer out of the weight room into the hall. We go through the winding hall and go into another door.

In the room is a big spacious open area. All of the floor is covered in a soft material, like in gymnastics. There are squares drawn out on the floor.

"Want to be partners?" I hear a voice behind me says.

I turn around and see a tall man. He was in his twenties and towered over me, something I've gotten used to while here. He had a buzz cut, like all of the boys. His facial hair was coming in, which needed to be shaved soon. He had dark brown eyes and a sharp jawline.

"Yeah." I say walking to one of the white squares on the mat.

I get into my sparring stance and wait for him to make the first move.

We circle each other. Once he realized I wouldn't be making the first move he lunges. I side step him. He may be bigger than me, but I had my speed. He goes to hit my again. He barely makes contact with my left shoulder as I lean right and hit him in the side.

He groans. As he takes that split second to put his guard down I take advantage. I punch him in the face. His nose immediately gushes with blood. But it's not over yet. Now he's mad, really mad.

When he goes to punch me again I duck, but he anticipated that and punches me in the face with his left hand. I stumble, but don't let my guard down. My face is in pain. I had sparred with my dad before, but he had always held back. Now I was sparring with a grown man who was angry and would stop at nothing to take me down.

I lung going for his face, but miss as he's the one to side step me. He sticks his leg out making me trip. I roll quickly onto my back know he's coming. As I flip he comes down. He misses me by an inch. I get on top laying everything I got into him.

He yanks me off him throwing me across the mat. I get up and so does he. We're about to go at it again when a voice stops us.

"Y'all have had enough." Beyer says with an angry expression.

I look around. I didn't know we had drawn an audience. My team watches with proud expressions, I smile back at them knowing I must look like a mess.

"Jenkins, with me." Beyer angrily says.

I follow him out the door. I don't miss the look on the guys face as I leave. A face of pure anger and a promise of revenge.

**

Beyer takes me to the hospital in the facility. I reluctantly get on the paper covered chair in one of the rooms.

"I don't need to be here." I state angrily.

"Have you seen yourself?" He asks.

I shake my head. I didn't want to look at the damage he caused.

Beyer holds up a mirror. I reluctantly look into it. The side of my face is already black and blue. It had started to swell and there's a cut on my cheek.

"Kyle, would've don't worse had I not stopped it." Beyer Says putting the mirror down.

"I didn't want you to stop the fight. I would've beat him if I had literally five more seconds." At this point I didn't care that I was arguing with my superior. He had gotten into the middle of something that wasn't his to handle.

"I know." He says.

"Then why did you stop it?!" I scream.

"I couldn't watch it anymore."

What did that mean? Regardless I lean my head back and take a deep breath. I open my eyes and see Beyer rub the back of his neck. A habit it looks like, caused by frustration. While he's not looking I can't help but stare. I remember the day I caught him in the showers and since then the image of his perfect body hadn't left my head.

Stop, I tell myself. He is your superior. You can't be having thoughts like that.

I shake my head. "When will the doctor be here?"

"She'll be in here in a minute. She had to deal with another issue with one of our graduates." Beyer comments keeping it vague.

I don't push him. A few minutes later she walks in. She asks me questions which I answer. She puts a small butterfly bandaid on me, gives me some drugs, and sends me on my way.

I walk by Beyer not wanting to deal with him. I slam the door behind me, going to find my team.