Military Academy

Training.

"Where did- who are you?" Maddox asks as I close the door behind me.

"I'm Ace, your room mate, remember... the one you snitched on..." I say walking over to my bed and reaching down to pick up my clothes from the floor. I glance at him as he continues to stare at me.

"Do you actually not remember?" I ask.

"I remember, the police station. I thought I was rooming with someone else" he says scratching his head in confusion.

"And I thought I had this room to myself, hurry up and change we have training" I say.
Grabbing my uniform and going to the bathroom.

I pull on the gray jump suit and black boots for training before walking back into the room. Maddox walks past me into the bathroom. I sit down and do up my laces.
Waiting for Maddox patiently on the bed.
A knock on the door brings me out of my haze.
I open it to see Don.

"Hi Don" I smile
"Hi Ace, I brought you some medicine for the head ache" he says holding out a little sachet of medicine.
I smile and shake my head.
"It's okay, keep it for when you need it. I'm fine" I reassure him.
"Oh okay, shall we go down to the training grounds?" He asks.
"You guys go. I'm waiting on Maddox" I say jabbing my thumb in the direction of the bathroom.
"Who are you talking to?" Maddox asks walking out. He sees me at the door.
"He's almost done anyways won't take long" I say waving him away.

"If you needed medicine then you shouldn't have drank so much" Maddox says while I wait for him leaning against the wall.
"Maybe, but I can hold my drink. I didn't even take the meds anyways" I say casting a glance at my watch for the millionth time.
"Okay. Let's go" he says.

We join the group formed outside and wait for the instructor to appear.

"Attention!" the instructor calls we all stand straight and turn to salute him.

"At ease. today you will run round the track 20 times then follow the path round to the back of the building to the assault course which you will have to complete 5 times before running to the rif;e course and assembling your rifle, once you have done that you will pass it to an instructor and once it is check you will disassemble it and run back to the track and complete 15 laps. do you understand?" he asks.

"yes sir!" we shout in unison.

He sends us off row by row so that we don't compete with anyone but ourselves. I pace myself to a speed that kept me in the middle of the pack knowing that it only gets worse from here on out. I think over Ajax's words of regret and start to think that I should've taken them more seriously.

"what lap are you on?" Caden asks catching up to me.

"16" I pant a little wiping the sweat from my forehead.

"Thank god someone is on the same lap as me" he breathes.

"How? where's Donovan?" I ask.

"I don't know, he's ahead of me though, bastard made us have his drinks just so he could show off today. what a smart plan" Caden grunts.

"As long as we don't fall behind we're all good, bitch can be top of the class as long as im not failing it" I nod.

"Lap!?" an instructor shouts.

"17!" Caden and I reply in unison.

"Come on run faster!" the instructor shouts.

"Yes sir!" we shout continuing to run.

Soon we complete out first set of laps and follow the path round to the assault course round the back of the building. as I focus my gaze on it I feel all of my energy drain out of me.