Pirate Assassin

Page 28

"There are real blasted gits here," Corby told him over his tray of what he swore were Yessran vine worms. It looked like a plate of white noodles and Zack grimaced at it. "I wanna get damn good promotions and become one of the High Commanders to change the shit here, so that we can stop being such racist phonies and deal out some REAL justice." Zack frowned at that statement, "What do you mean REAL justice?" Corby looked at Zack with a peculiar look, "There's a lot of messed up stuff going on in the Gov. Like how they twist stuff and.... Sorry man, but you won't understand till you see it yourself. That's just how I think you are." Zack didn't have to say anything.

Zack awoke the next day to a very loud and persistant clang of a bell. He cursed and rolled out of bed with a groan. Corby was busy tidying up his bed. "Hurry up! Its inspection time." Right, army..... Dammit! Zack thought fiercely as he quickly straightened up his bed and dumped the clothes he had unpacked the night before. "Bloody novas, this is the best we can do. Get your uniform and stand on the right side of the door!" Corby said as he walked hurriedly outside. Zack put on his uniform, swearing a bit as he did, and stood at attentiin on the right hand side of the door. Out of habit he swung the door shut. "Open the door!" Corby hissed at the side of hus mouth but it was too late as Portyer walked in front of them. He tsked dramatically, "What's this?," he asked with mock horror, "Closing the door for your inspecting officer? This won't do at all!" He looked over his shoulder to his aide, "Dock ten," Corby widened his eyes in disbelief," Portyer went closer to Zack and sniffed. "Ugh!" he exclaimed, "Haven't you washed that dirty mouth of yours? Wait a minute... You haven't!" Zack wanted to punch that happy face so bad, "I guess that means tardiness as well!" Looking back again, he shouted gleefully, "Dock another ten! Now let's see to that room of yours shall we?" Zack and Corby could only stand there cursing and swearing inwardly as Portyer went in and docking points for every little thing.

"Here's your troop," Corby said gloomily. Zack hesitated at the door. "Sorry about..." he began but Corby silenced with a careless wave of his hand. "Doesn't matter. Portyer's just like that. I'm not much in his good books so it would've happened eventually. See ya around," and he jogged off. Zack shrugged and went into the room. There was a mixed reaction to his arrival. Some glanced curiously at him, some with shock and a little bit of fear, others were snickering or pointing their noses upwards as if he were a horrible stench. Zack ignored them and walked to the back of the classroom and sat at the furthest corner. He was gazing outside at the field when he heard a voice hissing at him. "Psst! Hey!" it whispered. Zack turned and was met with a familiar nervous gaze. "Carvin?" he whispered in reply, "You sure you want to be seen near me?" Carvin grinned nervously, "Well, I thought about it and, well," he cleared his throat, "um, I'm already bullied all the time and stuff so, I guess, well, it's not gonna be much different and.... yea," he ended lamely." Zack was roving his eyes sharply around the room for any of Bradsfort's kind of crowd. "What about Portyer?" Carvin shrugged again, but Zack could tell he was putting on a bravery he didn't personally feel. "He's never cared anyway so I don't suppose it doesn't matter if he doesn't like me." Zack fixed his eyes on him, "Believe me, Carvin, it does matter. A great deal," and all conversation ceased as the officer entered, bellowing for them to stand at attention.

"I am Sergeant Troffs and I am your Commanding Officer from this day forth. Do you understand?" There was a chorus of "Sir yes sir!" Sgt Troffs smiled. "Admirable, gentlemen. Now off to the training field. Hop to it!" he bellowed. They all sprang into a quick but orderly jog down. As they reached it, they all witnessed a huge jumble of paraphernalia littered on the field. "Obstacle course. Get to it, NOW!" he roared. Zack heard a few frightened whimpers and mutters: "Hell's hole already!" " Oh god, I'm gonna die." and the worst, to him personally was, "Hope Danielle's watching..." Zack blanched. The thought of someone joining just to impress girls while probably thousands of outsiders and orphans were turned away seemed plain stupid. I actually have a mission to do here, he thought as he pictured a mocking Tucker at the end of the obstacle course. Laughing at his feeble attempts to catch him. With a loud snarl he ran........only to trip on a tyre and fall into the mud. He heard the bursts of laughter and when he shook the mud out of his face, it became clear to him. He had been the first to touch the course while all the others stood back to see what idiot would dare to attempt it. Some were laughing so hard, they were rolling on the floor and clutching their sides. Even the sergeant had a grin on his face. Zack was furious. I'll show THEM, he thought and he turned and continued to run through the tyres. He charged towards the climbing wall and clung onto the rope. He heaved himself up with great effort, using his anger to give him the strength. It was only when he was near the top when the rest began to stop laughing and realise that he was actually DOING it. He reached the top and grabbed the monkey bars and climbed down. There was total silence as he crawled through the mud under the barbed wire, leaped over all the hurdles, swing over platforms with rope, climb up a fake rock wall, shimmy on a ledge, climb down two split halves of a ladder with randomly retracting rungs and finally waddle through the last stretch of tyres back to the starting point. He took a deep breath and exhaled before looking at all the other cadets, boys and girls, who had their mouths gaping open and Sgt Troffs and saying almost non-comitally, "So, one more round?"

"I," Carvin gasped, "Don't know. How. You do it!!!" Zack was waiting calmly for him at the top of the rope climbing wall. Zack shrugged. "Its pretty easy actually. Just have two dozen people laughing at how stupid you were to start an obstacle course alone and use your anger to fuel yourself." Carvin was gasping, still on the rope wall while all the others had already reached the barbed wire. Both of them could hear the combined cursing coming from the area. "Shouldn't. You. Move on??" At the last two words, he literally just exhaled out the words. Zack shook his head slowly. "What for? I did one round already. If anything, they should hurry up and catch up to me!" Carvin tried to laugh with the little energy he had left. A big mistake. He didn't have time even to register the fact that he had let go of the rope before he began to fall. He felt his arm jerk taut as he awoke to his predicament. With his other hand, he grabbed the edge of the wall and scrambled up, with Zack firmly clasping his other hand. He lay on top of the wall panting heavily. "Thanks," he said in between breaths but Zack just looked ahead at the field, "Don't thank me yet. You only just finished the second obstacle. C'mon." and he descended the monkey bars again while Carvin grasped the first bar with a groan.

Carvin shot up as he felt cold mud splash onto his face and his scalp subsequently had a nasty encounter with barbed wire. He opened his eyes after rubbing hus head to see an emotionless Zack Ying staring at him, with another hand leisurely holding a mud ball. "That's the second time you've almost fallen asleep. Get your head in it, man! You can sleep after this damn thing is over. Come on!" he said, a tad bit impatiently. While turning, he paused. "On secomd thoughts," he said as he turned back, "you go first." Carvin moaned as he crawled to the front. He continued crawling without pause, afraid of Zack's presence behind him. As he crawled, he thought he was doing quite well; the end seemed much nearer than it had a while back. His smile was dispelled when he heard Zack drawl behind him, "I'm pretty sure this is positively WONDERFUL for my skin, but can we please hurry it up? Or would madame request for a time extension?" Carvin almost shot through the remainder of the wire. He lay there for a while, breathing deeply when, yet again, cold mud woke him up with a start. "You'd better do your best to finish before the entire troop gets punished," Zack told him plainly, "and they'll blame it on you," pointing his finger at Carvin. "Let's get a move-on; someone's about to finish,"