All Rise

Chapter One

                                           Through the Beach, Onto the Battlefield

December 12

He was always told of the beauty of the California beaches, but he couldn't see it as his platoon trudged along the grey and overcast shoreline. Apparently this is how most beaches here were because of the proximity to the ocean, but an old friend of his told him long ago that it was because nature was grieving over the mess on the land. He could remember a time when it would be cold out in this season, but that was long ago before the world was on fire, both literally and figuratively.

"The only mess is the sand in my boots." Jefery sighed heavily, as if chastising a memory. "Besides, we have been marching for hours! How do you guys handle the sand so well?"

"We don't." Addie,grouched, "I just complain less." She was an interesting character, always wearing mismatched socks to go with her mismatched blue and brown eyes that were partially hidden by her dirty blonde bangs

"That is a lie." Sam rolled his eyes as he tugged on his backpack straps. He was a medic on the squad, so he didn't have to wear the same weight on his shoulders. Instead, heavy sedatives, gauze, and wraps, needles, and all of what a medic may need was what he carried between stops.

The twelve other medics held similar kits, with maybe one or two added items in the bag. He met Sam around two days ago, when he went to pick up his dog tags. Sam was well built, in his early twenties, and his dark skin tone helped enforce the muscle lines on his biceps and calves. Sam had the common decency to wear the army issued gray top and the cap given to all the recruits, unlike most of the shirtless boys here who were now picking up seashells and arguing over what kind of creature could have lived inside. (They were all oyster shells.) Up ahead, Mira was chattering loudly with her friends Kathy and J.D., going on about some trivial road trip games as they marched in lines.

"Why the long face?" Addie bumped his shoulder.

"Oh, nothing really, just better times with my friends before this mess." Jefery tried to pull up the corners of his mouth up for a smile.

"Whoa! You had friends?!" Helen, a sturdy woman in her thirties gasped in mock surprise from behind him. "I didn't think that was possible!"

"You shut your mouth."

"Or what? You'll tell Sammy?" She pouted, making Sam rolled his eyes towards the ocean that crashed against the rocks on the shore.

"I swear I will push both of you into the ocean." Sam huffed indigenously.

Lifeguard training was given to all of the trained medics, but Jefery's troop was made up of trainees on their way to secondary camp. They were going to be serving the front line in a matter of months, and if they failed the free world would have not much chance. Jefery's heavy black boots that he saved for weeks to buy felt more of a burden as he trudged across the uneven sand, feeling bad for the poor fellows who couldn't afford shoes and walked barefoot across the beach, which in weather like this felt like tiny daggers or shards of glass that pieced your soles without making a scratch. He shook his mind off of such things and continued forwards, the commander counting off as if the group was still trying to be in formation. Deep in his mind, he knew that war wasn't anything to mess with. But he had never been in combat outside of wrestling wars with his sister.

So now as he walked besides these men down the beach, Jefery's mind wandered again towards the stories Father Ritchson would tell about his service in World War Three, that the old man would tell whenever he gloated about becoming the best soldier the Aruban Army could find once he was drafted. Evelyn wanted to follow in their parents footsteps of supplying troops with medicine and shelter in America, where the bigger battle was currently going for full control of the country.