The bus jumped a bit as it drove onto the three-mile bridge separating the mainland from the island of Croatoan, North Carolina. The Island was about 14 miles long and 4 to 9 miles wide. Emily knew those facts because she looked them up prior to enlisting in the Army. Wiping her hands on her uniform pants nervously she looked at the woman beside her. The woman was dressed in an Air Force uniform and was looking out across the sound through the window. She looked so much calmer than Emily did.
“Need to calm down. Breath in Emily. Hold. Hold. Release. Master Forque taught you better.” Emily thought to herself as she closed her eyes and started in on her breathing techniques. The jitters slowly faded and Emily opened her eyes. She silently thanked Master Forque, a Tang Soo Do Grandmaster, for teaching her. She smiled at the memory of her time at the dojo. She had started when she was five in an afternoon childcare class because her parents work late into the afternoon. She had quit when she was seventeen because she had made the varsity cross country track team. She had made Master rank, third-degree black belt or rather midnight blue belt before she stopped going. Tang Soo Do does not have black belts.
Looking around at all the people in the old white school bus Emily counted all the people in different uniforms. Everyone on the bus was dressed in their version of BDU’s, Battle Dress Uniform. The Navy sailors stood out because their BDU’s were blue. They were seated towards the middle of the bus. The Marines had their sleeves of their dark green and black BDU’s rolled up and were sitting in the back of the bus while the Air Force in their tan BDU ’s were sitting in the front of the bus. Her fellow Army soldiers in their green and brown BDU’s were scattered around the bus.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the bus slowed down at the end of the bridge and stopped in front of the only entrance of Fort Rida the home to the United States Arm Forces Super Soldier training program. The only place in America and one of the few places on earth that it was possible to awaken on purpose. The odds were really low but if it was possible for a normal person to awaken then this was the place to do it. She took another calming breath to ease her nerves. They made movies about this place.
The bus eased through the gate and then turned left at the intersection. They drove down the road for a few minutes and then passed a sign for the Fort Rida Hospital. The hospital was the most famous hospital in the world. Not only did the President come here for his hospital visits, but the hospital was also the foremost hospital for all sort of medical treatments for the awakened. This was where injured supers came to heal. It was even more famous than Fort Rida because if Hollywood made a superhero movie then at least one of the characters would end up in the hospital. It was so bad that it had turned into a running joke.
The bus kept going past the hospital until it arrived at another gate. The gate had a tall chain linked fence with razor wire on top that ran off into the distance on either side of it. The gate was manned with men with M4 assault rifles. Emily noticed that the while the M4’s had their ammo clips missing the soldiers did have them on their vests with enough ammo to take out everyone on the bus. The old white bus kept moving past the security guards and down the road until it came up to a bunch of buildings. In front of the buildings were a few white busses identical to the one Emily was riding in.
Emily could see people getting off their busses and grabbing their duffel bags then running off to a large open courtyard that looked like one the quads in boot camp. The bus slowed to stop behind the parked bus in front of them. The door opened at the front of the bus. A thin man with a wide brim hat climbed onto the bus.
“You will exit the bus in an orderly fashion. You will collect your duffel bag and place it in front of the grinder in a NEAT pile. You will then muster on the grinder and fall out for inspection.” The man with the wide brim hat said emphasizing the word neat loud and slowly. “What are you people waiting on. Get off my bus!”
Emily rushed to stand up but then had to wait as people bottlenecked in the aisle whey they all tried to rush out of the bus. Emily waited until the pressure in the aisle eased enough for her to step out and follow her fellow classmates off the bus. The school bus had an extra space under it for their bags. The bus driver had opened the doors and people where rushing to get their duffel bags. When they boarded the bus they had carefully stacked their bags so that the bottom of their bags was facing outward so they could easily see their names that were sewed on the bottom. Emily found hers and slung it over her shoulder before running to where the others were making a pile of their duffel bags.
Emily dropped her duffel bag in the pile of duffel bags and rushed out onto the grinder with the others. Once she found her spot she checked to make sure she was arm's length from each person on either side of her. With a last check on her BDU's to make sure they were inspection ready she came to attention. She was nervous but ready to start. She had been at Fort McCain intake for two whole weeks before almost everyone else. It was her fault though she acknowledged she should have taken the leave that was offered to her when she graduated from Basic Training but she had no elsewhere to go.
Looking forward Emily noticed four men and one woman standing in front of the people that were getting them settled into a company formation. Unlike everyone else Emily had seen so far they were wearing the generic BDU's that were plain green with no camouflage. Emily could make out their ranks on their collars and since the ranks were all different from each she could guess at the different branches of service.
Emily recognized two ranks of the five people standing in front of her as Army First Sergeants. There were two more that look similar enough to the Army’s ranks that she could guess at their ranks. One looked like a Marine and the other looked like Air Force ranks. The last one had a bird in his rank. She guessed he was Navy First Sergeant or whatever they called themselves.
The Five stood in front of the company watching as the last of the stragglers rushed out onto the grinder. Once the last person was ready the company stood ready. Emily's nervousness turned to puzzlement when the five did nothing but watch the company. Time seemed to crawl as Emily and her company stood at attention waiting on the five to do something. The sun which just rose less than an hour ago now beat down on the people on the grinder. Emily squinted as the sun rose above the trees behind the five to shine into her eyes. Emily slightly bent her knees as she was trained to do in boot camp because she was worried that she might pass out if she stood too long at attention. Still, the five did nothing.
As she stood there she checked out the five. The first guy to the right had the funny looking rank that she guessed to be the Navy First Sergeant. He was the tallest of the five and the only African American. Unlike the rest of the five, he was not standing at attention or at ease either. He stood relaxed his eyes roaming over the company. Next to the Navy guy was the Air Force lady. While the Navy guy expression was hard to read the Air Force lady looked bored. Her head slowly moved as she inspected each person on the grinder.
After the Air Force lady was the first Army First Sergeant. He looked like he was in late thirties and he had a sandy blond mustache that desperately needs to be trimmed back or completely shaved off. “Hey First Sergeant the seventies called they want their mustache back.” Emily thought to herself snickering.
Standing next to him and the only one who looked like he was standing at attention was the Marine guy. He was the shortest of the five and looked like he was built out of stone with a lot of hard edges. He looked grumpy. Last of the five the other Army First Sergeant. He had tan skin and wore sunglasses. Emily wondered if he was an American Indian. She was horrible at guessing peoples genealogy.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
After what seemed like forever the Marine guy turned to his right and started to walk away. Emily felt a sting of surprise and anxiety which only increase as the Air Force lady stepped around the Navy guy and left in the opposite direction as the Marine. The American Indian looking First Sergeant was the next to leave. He followed in the same direction that the Marine guy had used to leave. The Navy guy turned to his left and followed the Air Force lady. The last one left was the mustache First Sergeant. He stood looking over at the people standing on the grinder for a few seconds and then putting his hands into his pockets he turned and followed the Navy guy. The company stood frozen at attention until the last of the five disappeared out of sight.
“At ease.” Someone from the company said. The company shifted into at ease as the guy stepped out of the formation. “Does anyone know what we are supposed to do?” The guy was wearing Air Force BDU’s said. Emily wondered if this guy was an officer. She knew that there is no rank in Super School but he acted like an officer.
“I do.” Annoyed voice with a southern accent said from the woods in front of the company. Everyone froze as the mustache Army First sergeant stepped out of the pine trees. “Why are you out of formation?” he asked the guy who acted like an officer. “And why are you giving my company orders?”
“Sorry Sir!” the guy who screwed up said and stepped back into formation.
“Dumbass. Can I call you Dumbass?” The Mustache First Sergeant said like he was giving the guy a choice. “You are now a Platoon Lead and if you give my company another order again without permission I will drop you so fast from my program that your head will spin.” The First Sergeants said his voice was ice cold.
He slowly walked towards the front of the company only stopping about three feet from the center of the formation. He paused to look at everyone then spoke again “This is the United States Arm Forces Super Soldier training program. Affectionately called Super School. Our goal to Awaken you. For most of you, that means four months of hell with nothing to show for it except a neat looking patch on your sleeve. On average we awaken about two to four soldiers a class.”
Mustache First Sergeant paused to look around at the company. “Maybe once a year we get a class two super soldier and once every few years we get a class one. People, we are not due for one of those since we just had one awaken in the last class. So if you're looking to be the next Ultimate go home.”
He paused and looked around at us. “Notice how I said, Super Soldiers. Remember that. We are not in the business of creating Superheroes. There are one hundred and twenty-seven of you here today. I am required to give you this a chance to quit with honor right now. Once we begin you will be given one more chance to quit. That will be tonight. Afterward, you will be unable to drop unless a program instructor drops you. We will push you beyond anything you can imagine to try to awaken you.”
He paused again and started to pace back and forth in front of the company looking at us. “The United States has the best awaken program in the world but what we do is dangerous. We push you both mentally and physically. We will push so hard that there is a danger for permanent injury and death. We have to if we want to awaken you. While we strive for perfect safety compliance, but we are not perfect by any means. We generally have about six training accidents per class and some of those accidents result in the death.”
He stopped talking and leaned forward a little to pointing at us to get his point across. “Let that sink into your heads. That is: Six. Accidents. Per. Class. With one or more students getting injured or killed beyond what a healer can heal.”
He turned and started to pace again still watching the company as he spoke. “While we do everything in our power to keep you alive someone, sometimes several someones will screw up and people will get hurt. I am here to tell you that the odds of you awaken are less than the chance that you will either die or get significantly hurt. We are fair. You can leave now or tonight at twenty-two hundred tonight. If you go to bed tonight you're here to the end of the program or until we kick you out. If you get injured we have a healer on staff to heal you the best that they can.”
“Here at Fort Rida we awaken and train super soldiers. We do not awaken or train Super Heroes. What's the difference you may ask? Super Heroes wear colorful spandex and appear on reality TV shows. They capture weak second rate super criminals and make it look like an action movie. Superheroes put out wildfires and get Sally's cat down from the tree while the entire time filmed by news at ten.
Super soldiers wear the same uniform as everyone else in their branch of service and get no credit from what they do from the public. A super soldier is required by Military Law to be anonymous and any heroic action you do is credited to the branch of service and not to the individual. You may get a colorful piece of ribbon to put on your chest but you can't tell anyone about how you got it or why. We go where we are sent and kill the enemies of the United States. Super Heros are actors pretending to be cops with multi-million dollar endorsements. We are soldiers who happen to be supers. If you were expecting us to make you famous go home. The military has no place for Super Heros.”
As he talked several soldiers came out from behind us. They walked through the empty spaces between soldiers to line up in front of us and stood at ease behind the Mustache First Sergeant. “Here are the rules of the super soldier program. First no talking at all unless you have permission. That rule applies everywhere, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep. No talking means no talking. The only exception to that is rule number two. If you see a safety violation I want you to speak up say something. In fact, just start yelling and pointing. When someone starts yelling and pointing I want everyone to check their surroundings and look for safety violations. I don't care if they are not pointing at you. You are to check for your safety first then look around for your buddies safety. We are all soldiers here. No one can go at it alone no matter who they think they are.”
Emily listened to him talk about the rules. Most were common sense rules like no males in the female barracks or vice verses. There were a few strange rules but they were easily avoided. The Mustache First Sergeant then had Emily's company count off from one to six starting with the guy who he called Dumbass and split them into six different platoons. Emily was then handed over to her new platoon Sergeants. The first was an Army Sergeant First class named Coleman who was a woman and a Navy guy named St. Louis who wanted Emily’s platoon to call him Petty Officer First Class St Louis.
After everyone split into platoons each platoon took turns grabbed their stuff and headed towards one of the school's barracks. It was only after Emily marched halfway down the sidewalk towards the barracks that she realized that the Mustache First Sergeant never introduced himself or the other First Sergeants. Their Platoon Sergeants had introduced themselves right away. Emily wondered why.
The barracks looked like someone had cut a gigantic metal barrel in half then place it on its side. It reminded Emily of pictures and movies of old-style barracks. Emily followed her platoon into the middle of the open bay barracks. The barracks were split into three sections. The left half was the women side while the right was the men side with the middle being the muster room. Emily's platoon were ordered to put their duffel bags on the first empty bed they found closest to the door then fall out to the muster room again. Emily threw her duffel bag onto the top of the third bunk on the right-hand side. She rushed with the others to the muster room with the eight other women in her platoon.
"This is it." Emily thought to herself excitly. Sergeant Coleman lined Emily's Platoon up outside into three rows. She found herself in front in the second row. Not the smallest one here Emily thought to herself a little smugly until she realized that she was the second shortest person in her platoon.
“Double time. March!” Sergeant Coleman yelled.
Emily smiled as she began to jog. “Just like boot camp.”
“Halt. What the hell is wrong with you people. You're all over the place. I don't care where you went to boot camp but when you run in formation in my Platoon you run in step.” Sergeant Coleman yelled at Emily's platoon. “Let's try this again. Double time! MARCH!”