Emily felt like she was in a haze as she ran with in formation. She felt like she was autopilot. Her body ran with the platoon while her mind floated above and behind her head. It was like a stranger was in control of her body. Her vision was strange like she had tunnel vision but she could see out of the corner of her eye. Her emotions felt numb like some switch had flipped and now they were turned off.
The Platoon stopped running for lunch. Just like Basic they lined up and rushed into the chow hall in a hurry. Everything was in a rush. The food attendants just plopped down their food without asking. At the end of the line was a cook to who pointed to a table and told them not to sit until the last person was served. Emily found herself standing at attention by her seat waiting on the last few people to get their food. The command “Sit” was called out by someone and everyone sat down and ate. Emily ate her food but it had no taste. No that was not true it had a taste but it was like her taste buds were far away from the rest of her body. The food tasted fine but the flavor felt like it was distant or faded somewhat.
Emily’s Platoon was told to stop eating after what felt like seconds after the last person sat down. Petty Officer St. Lewis was waiting on them outside when the cooks forced them to throw away what was left of their lunch. The Petty Officer marched the Platoon back to the grinder where the entire company assembled. The Air Force First Sergeant was waiting on them. She dropped the entire company. For three miserable hours the entire company did push up, Sit-ups, flutter kicks, and so many different excessive that Emily lost count. The monitors were there but no one was shot. Air Force First Sergeant lady was a tyrant. She always was there when someone half-assed it or failed to complete their reps. She loved to add to whatever exercise they were doing whenever she spotted someone not doing it right.
After the three hours were up trucks pulled up with sandbags. The company separated into Platoons again and lined up next to one of the trucks to pass sandbags from one person another down the line to the last person who was told to make a nice neat pile. Once the pile was completed they had to run to the other side of the sandbag pile and start another pile further down the grinder. That turned into another pile and another as the rest of the day slowly passed. Emily kept dropping the sandbags because her arms hurt but she wasn't the only one to do it. By the end of the day, she could barely hold the sandbag long enough to pass it down the line.
When the last sandbag was loaded back onto the truck the Air Force First Sergeant called the company to attention. “People, today was easy. This program will get worse. A hell of a lot worse. If you feel like today was too much then you need to quit. Just walk to the command building where you first reported in before twenty-two hundred hours tonight or tell your platoon sergeants that you want to leave. It's that simple. After tonight you will not be able to leave. We will force you to complete this program.”
She paused and looked out at the company. “To pass this Program all we ask is for you not to quit. To keep going even when you feel you can't. Even when your body screams at you to stop we ask you to keep going. Take that one more step. Do another push-up. We ask this because the next step could be the point you awaken. You don't have to be the strongest or the fastest. You just have the ability to keep going. That's it, keep going. That's all you need to pass this program and maybe awaken. If you feel like you can't then leave now because tomorrow it gets worse. Platoon Sergeants take charge of your platoons.”
Emily's was surprised when a small number left right then and there. She watched them leave before turning around and lining up with the rest of her platoon. She was now the shortest person in the platoon. Her Platoon went straight to the chow hall and ate dinner. After another too short dinner, the platoon went to their barracks. They had new uniforms waiting for one them on their bunks with their names on them. It was the same generic BDU’s that the instruct were using except there were no rank tabs to pin on their collars. The Petty Officer St. Lewis warned them that tomorrow there will be an inspection of both their bunks and uniforms and they had better be prepared.
Emily spent the rest of the time before she was required to go to bed watching the clock while she shined her shoes and ironed her shirt for the next day. At ten pm or twenty two hundred lights out was called. Emily hesitated briefly before heading off to bed. There were only five woman left in the platoon when she closed her eyes that night.
It only seem to Emily that she was asleep for a couple of minutes when a loud blaring alarm went off in the barracks. “Attention in the barracks you have two minutes to be in uniform and muster outside.” A voice thundered from loud speakers set in the corners of the barracks which Emily hadn’t notice until then.
Emily grabbed her inspection uniform and quickly got dressed. She was still putting her hair in a bun when she ran out to the muster room. She pause by the door to put her cover on then ran outside. “What time is it?” asked herself looking up at stars.
Sergeant Coleman was waiting on them outside and once they were lined up she led them down the street with a shout “Double time march.”
There were not allowed to wear watches and she had forgot to look at the clock in barracks so Emily had no idea what time it was but it felt really early. The street lights were on and no one was out. They ran in formation to a large building in the back of the base. Instead of going into the front door the went right to the side metal staircase.
“Good thing I am not afraid of heights.” Emily thought to herself as she started to climb up the stairs. “Why are we running up the stairs. Why aren't we going in the front door. It's like we are sneaking in.”
The building was four stories tall and they ran two side by side up to the top. “Being the shortest really sucks now.” She thought to herself as she ran on the outside of the stairs.
“He's really not a gentleman because if he was he would let me have the inside track.” She thought giving the guy to her right a mental glare.
“Dammit, I just polished these boots.” Emily thought after she stumbled on a the stairs scuffing her boots. “I wonder if they lied about the inspection just to mess with us.”
The door at the top of the stairs was open and Petty Officer Lewis was waiting. “One person per red square.” He yelled as they passed him. He had one of those metals clickers that counted things. She wondered why he was counting them as they ran into the building.
The first thing Emily though as she ran past the Petty Officer was that the building smelled like a public pool. The chlorine smell was overpowering and her eyes started to sting. Inside the building was a long room with the mini spotlights shining up from the floor. Running down the center of the room was a gray cement looking path. On either side of the path was a black floor with red rectangles. The rectangles were about six feet long and about three feet wide. The Navy First Sergeant was standing in the center with his hand behind his back. He said nothing as Emily's platoon found their spots.
“Push up position.” He called out his voice echoing strangely. Emily and her platoon dropped the ground and got ready to start doing pushups.
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“The most common Super is what the western world likes to call the Brutes. DOWN!” The Navy First Sergeant said. Emily lowered herself down held herself there. No one was dumb enough to rest on the floor.
“Brutes are supers awakened with super strength and some form of immunity to striking projectiles. UP!” Emily's platoon rose back to the push up starting position and held themselves there. “Brutes are classified by their strength and sub classified by their immunity to striking projectiles. Down.” The platoon drop down again.
“Class four Brutes can lift up to a ton. UP! Class three Brutes can lift from one ton to ten tons. DOWN! Class two Brutes can lift from ten tons to twenty tons. UP! Class one Brutes can lift over twenty tons. Down! The Brute sub classification uses letters with C being the lowest sub classification. UP! Class C Brutes are able to withstand low velocity and low caliber ammunition. DOWN! That class of Brutes use full body armor when in combat. UP! Class B Brutes can withstand medium velocity and medium caliber ammunition. DOWN! This class of brutes uses medium armor. UP! Class A Brutes can withstand high velocity and high caliber ammunition. DOWN! These Class of Brutes wears light to no armor. UP! The final classification in the Brute sub category is AA Class. This class is immune to all striking projectiles and will wear armor only as a form of camouflage. ON YOUR FEET!” The Navy First Sergeant bellowed.
Emily jumped to her feet and stood at attention waiting. The Navy First Sergeant slowly walked to the far side of the room away from the door Emily entered. “The Brute class super is the most common super taking up seventy-eight percent of all supers on the planet. Healers are the second common taking up eleven percent of all supers on the planet. That is all.”
“What the hell. They wake us up in the middle of the night to spout off crap everyone on the planet already knows. What kind of crap is that!” Emily thought angrily as she stood staring straight ahead but watching the Navy First Sergeant walk away from the corner or her eye. She saw as he raised his hand then dropped it. She was still staring ahead when she started to fall into the blackness below her.
Instinctively she reach out to stop her fall but there was nothing to grab onto. The floor she was standing on was gone. There was no lights and nothing but the screams of her platoon mates as they all fell. She lost her cover as her hat flew off her head. She reached for it but it was gone.
“Chlorine means pool.” She thought as she fell endless in the dark. She grabbed her elbows and crossed her feet as she was trained to do in Basic. “Keep your head straight and take a deep breath.” She told herself remembering her instructor telling her what to do when falling from great heights into water.”
She held that position for what seemed like a really long time hoping she was right about the pool before she hit the water and sank like a stone. In Boot Camp, while qualifying for Super School they wore swimsuits to the pool. Here she was fully clothed in her BDU's with her boots tied tightly on her feet.
“When you have no idea what's up or down follow the bubbles.” She remember her instructor saying when they were in class just before they jumped off the high dive platform. She thought it was stupid advice back then because all you had to do was open your eyes and head look around. Tonight though couldn't see any bubbles, it was too dark, but she could feel them.
Swimming fully clothed with boots on sucked. It slowed Emily down as she swam towards the surface. She tried to take them off but she tied them tight. She stopped trying to untie them and swam for the surface. Her boots sucked as flippers so she stopped trying to kick with them and swam with just her arms. Her chest was starting to burn when she surprised herself by breaking the surface. She took a quick gasp of air before she fell back into the water. Her uniform dragging her down under the water again. It took her a couple of strokes to break the surface again. Once her head was out of the water she got a glimpse of a dim light to her right before she went under again. Her boots felt like cement blocks and kept pulling her down under the water as she swam for the dim lights.
She found the edge of the pool by hitting it with her forearm in mid stroke. Arms reached down and pulled her up out of the pool. “Why didn't you take your boots off!” Someone yelled at her. It took a few second for her to get her breath back and look up to see Petty Officer St. Lewis.
“Tied them too tight.” she gasped.
“That the last one?” The deep voice of the Navy First Sergeant asked.
“Twenty two.” Petty Officer St Lewis replied checking his metal clicker. “No Senior Chief there is one more still out there.”
“Oh Navy First Sergeants are called Senior Chiefs,” Emily thought as she stood up and walked over to where her platoon was standing her boots both squeaked and squashed with every step. “Great my socks are wet again.”
Emily looked over at her platoon most of who were almost completely naked. She was the only one who still had her uniform and boots on. “Way to go stupid.” She thought to herself.
“I wonder where the name Chief comes from. Did it come from the Europeans and they just called the American Indians leaders Chief or did the Europeans steal the name from the American Indians.” She asked herself feeling pretty good now that she wasn't in the pool. “That was fun but I wouldn't want to do that again.”
“Wait where is my cover?” She asked her self patting her head looking for her hat. She looked over at the instructors and wondered if she should asked them for a new hat.
She was just getting her courage to ask for a new hat when someone yelled: “Get a healer!”
“He's not breathing… Starting chest compressions… Someone get the AED!” Emily frozen listening to the instructors yell at each other.
“Stay here!” Senior Chief yelled at Emily's platoon and started to run towards the group.
Emily could see a pale naked chest of a downed soldier as one of the instructors did chest compressions. She watch in fear as they bounced up and down the guys chest. She watched in horror as they hooked the guy up to the shocker thing and zap him. She could see the guy on the ground jerk then lay still. They started to pump on his chest again their voices getting lower and more urgent.
A door banged open and a woman in Super School uniform came in with a bunch of other people carrying equipment.
“What do we got?” The Woman asked kneeling down beside the body. Her voice oddly loud as it echoed across the pool. She put her hands on the guys chest and stared down at the guy.
“...Face down in pool… not breathing….” Emily heard as a bunch of people replied at once.
“Damn. He's gone. I'm getting nothing” The Healer said removing her hand from the guys chest.
Emily stared at the guy on the ground horrified. She had never seen anyone die before. He was so pale and so still. She had seen dead bodies before but never outside of a funeral home. “That could be me.” She thought to herself unable to look away from the dead guy.
“Where were you people?” Yelled the Senior Chief storming towards Emily's platoon. “That is your shipmate or battle buddy or whatever! Why didn't you people check to see if there was anyone you could help!”
He stopped a few feet away from the platoon. “There were two of your fellows who were in trouble tonight. One got lucky and made to the side of the pool the other one now lies dead.” He said pointing at the dead guy. “What did they teach you in Basic. We help our own. If someone is in trouble we are all in trouble!”
He turned his back to the platoon to look at the dead guy. “Get them out of here. They disgust me.”
Petty Officer St. Lewis barked at Emily's platoon to form up. As she was forming up someone handed her a new cover. Petty Officer St. Lewis had them out of the building and back at the barracks in what to Emily seem like a few seconds. There were a couple of Soldiers who were taking stuff out of the barracks. It took Emily a few seconds to realize that the stuff belonged to the dead guy.
They waited outside for the guys to finish and then went inside. Petty Officer St. Lewis had them back in their bunks after a few minutes. She didn't sleep that much that night. She kept seeing people do CPR on the pale body. Her last thought before she fell asleep was that she didn’t know the name of the man who died.