A month after that incident, going through the treatments of being cut open to have muscle physically injected in me, and then a salve inserted. Then I’m told to go exercise at the gym. Different people are teaching me how to do it. My muscles are getting huge. Doing little things are very strange, using my hands to put food in my mouth, cleaning lamp shades; I’ve become so bulky everything is different. And Flynn has been nice enough to teach me, all the things I should know, by the time I’m an adult. Meanwhile, I’ve turned into a 22-year-old child with super-human strength. I’m told on today, at 1400, to be at a certain area, to go get my retraining. But it’s far enough away, where I need to take a glider to go there; it’s on the 3rd floor on the other side of this fortress.

I found one guy in a blue and black uniform, tall and intimidating. I shyly asked him for where to go. He demanded my "orders" a piece of paper that said I was going to. He guides me as I get my bag from under the glider. I’m put on a pad with a bunch of other guys, we were promptly shuffled onto a large bus, and we had a bus ride ahead of us. We arrived at 3600 and we played card games and chess to pass the time. 4300 was bed time.

Wake up was at 0500 and no one really knew what to do, but of course a drill sergeant came in and told us what to do, and how to do it. We were to be here until we did all medical tests, have all clothing assigned to us, and how fast we move onto our basic training, will depend on how fast we, as a group, finish the tests.

I made no friends there, but I did make a rival there. And we almost fought a few times in these days. We just didn’t get along. After all, tests were taken, they lined us up and gave us all the numbers; one, two or three. The drill sergeant caught us about to fight; he made sure to put us in the same group together. We both ended up being in group two.

All three groups separated and I met about 80 new guys. And we waited in our bunks as told, not told when we would be called. Not even knowing what we were waiting for. We went to bed at 3100 as instructed. And after breakfast the next day, we were lead back to our bunks for more waiting in awkward silence.

At noon we went to what we thought was lunch. We got in mock squads. And I was all the way in the front, I was not happy with that, I wanted to blend in, not be the center. And this man comes out and it seems like one at a time, and yet all at once, we realized what was going on as well, he yelled: "At Ease!"

"That was weak, let’s try that again, I mean what are you, mice or men?"

he went back in and promptly came back out and we yelled: "AT EASE!"

"That’s better; I am one of your new Drill Serpents, Drill Sergeant Hamilton"

We stood there, given no instruction, as he came by and pinned a number on us after telling squad four to become part of one two and three, realizing that we are not even 100 men (Very Small amount for a basic training). After that was done, he walked in and back out and we yelled "AT EASE" again.

"Ahhh" he smiled with relief "I love having power over civilians like this" I guess a few of the guys gave her the evil eye or something because his misdemeanor changes "That’s right, I called you all fucking civilians, you haven’t completed basic training, and you aren’t warriors."

I accepted that, better than a lot of the guys there, I could feel the resentment of our new Drill Sergeant. As he yells, "Get all your shit and get back out here"

We run inside and open our locks and get our military assigned duffle bags. And we run back out and we all set them down beside ourselves. And she waits for everyone to do the same thing before saying "What the hell, did I tell you to put them next to you? Hold them and bury your fucking faces in them!"

We pick them up and we suddenly have reverse tunnel vision, only being able to see from our peripheral vision. We’re still in confusion as she yells "Get on the bus." We start trying to head for the bus and it was a mass of confusion, as people were struggling to stay upright, in addition to, the mob mentality of no one knowing where the bus was, many people tackled the bus and I was one of the lucky ones to not tackle it and to get close to the door. I sat on the aisle seat, next to a guy named Chmura, I was lucky to sit down at all. Soon after me, I realized that people were standing crunched in as tight as they could go.

"If you are standing, we still have 13 people who need to get on the bus. Pass your bag to someone who is sitting, before I knew it, I was suddenly holding 2 bags, the 2nd one had the name Papineau, my rival/enemy had put his bag on me, and I don’t know if this was on purpose or not.

It was a very tension-filled and physically painful 20-minute bus ride. It felt like it was two hours long. Everyone felt uprooted and nervous. The bus made an abrupt stop, and the hydraulics released air, making a hissing sound, air being pushed in front of the bus to stop it. And I heard the door open quickly and the weight was lifted from my legs, and before I knew it, the line of standing people was gone. And starting from the back, headed up to the front, people left their seats and ran to the front, the bus shaking with every step.

It was my turn and I got out of that bus fast as I could and I was still being pushed. I went to the far right and got into a platoon like I had done before. I looked to my right and I only saw people with a one on their chest. I realized I was in the wrong place. I dipped down and used the continuing panic of everyone getting into squads, to get into mine.

I ended up, in the right place this time, only I was second to last in the 3rd squad, I knew not if that made a difference. A few drill serpents came out of the metal doors on the left. And a few people yelled, "AT EASE!"

Drill Serpent Hamilton went to the front of the group, "What the Fuck?! I didn’t leave! Or did you demote me? You know what, you five who yelled that, drop! Push Illinois into Missouri"

I kind of laughed and smiled, at this, knowing it’s physically impossible to do this, and the person to my right tapped my arm and I knew to get serious again. The drill sergeants separated and they started having us look for things in our bag without putting our bag down. It was very difficult to keep the arm up and when one person failed to keep it up at least one inch off the ground, we would all have to start over again.

I eventually felt my arm falling and I somehow thought to put my boot under my bag so it’s not on the ground anymore. Only removing my boot and holding it when the Drill Sergeant was near. My muscles were not completely settled and usable yet. Other people saw what I was doing and followed suit. The drill sergeant caught someone doing this, I don’t know who. And he went to the front "ok y’all wanna be lazy pieces of shit! Holding your duffle on your boot, ok, you can put it on the ground, after 50 laps around the barracks building!" We stood there like idiots, "put your bags on your back and give me five fucking laps! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! This is not the daycare, most of you came from. This is the fucking Illinois State Military and you will treat others with respect so that you can own it Civilians."

After we finished all of our 50 laps in which I finished top 20th in our group, the drill sergeant talked to us, as we were on the sidewalk. And just has us do level 10 pushups for a while, upside down, on our heads, staring at the ground kissing the ground with me each time going down pushing myself up and off the ground. And he then brings us back to our regular positions. And he goes "I have introduced myself to you, now I’m going to meet each and every one of you. See what jobs you want to do, see what to watch for while you’re here in this 100 weeks" He goes through the ranks dismissing everyone afterward to a room called the "War Room".

I go upstairs and to the War Room, I could tell because of the very high amount of people in the small room. I found a place to sit and it was back to back with another guy. A few more people came in. After what seemed like an hour, many others were falling asleep in the hot room with no air conditioning, sharing the tight room with 24 others semi-comfortably. The drill sergeant begins asking 1 simple question, "What is the range of distance of a paralytic grenade?" Everyone he is seeing is getting it wrong, everyone is doing different exercises. I just try and blend in I don’t want to be asked the question, I start exercising, doing side to side sit-ups with some of the guys. There is one man, who is the size of a boy in the middle, just standing there at attention. Right after Frailey and I walk in and start doing exercise Drill Sergeant Burger walks in. He throws a book at the man standing "Reaux, Frailey, I didn’t tell you to do shit! I missed hitting Healy, the only fucker standing, punch him in the temple for me for being too small, making me miss him with the book, the other one, hand him the book so he can look up the answer, then just stand by with him at attention."

I punch him in the temple and Healy hits the ground. As Frailey gave him the book softly, Healy opened the book and the page accidently hit him in the chest. Healy fainted. Drill Sergeant Burger just looked at me, "Damn, you hit him hard Reaux. I wasn’t expecting that".

I wake him up and he goes "Fuck dude, what the hell is wrong with you. I’m going to fuckin kick your ass."

The drill sergeant walks over to him and yells, "Dude! I gave him the order! If you’re going to fuck with him, for following my order, I might as well kick your ass now Healy! He didn’t earn the rank of dude, yeah he is 6 ranks ahead of you, but 7 ahead of you is Dude, I’m a fucking Dude! You want to keep disrespecting me? How about Hamilton? Stevens? How about the fucking prince that nearly knocked your ass out in one punch"

"No need drill sergeant, please don’t hurt me, dude."

"Firstly, you have not earned the right to call me Dude. You are a civilian, not yet a warrior rank. Good, now tell me; what is the average range that a grenade is thrown, look in the book, since no one knew."

Healy starts looking for pages, Frailey goes "I know drill sergeant."

"Oh really, what is it, Civilian Frailey"

"30-42 meters"

"Wrong, get against the wall and do level 5 pushups. Someone can get under you, to help keep your feet up, if they want to help you."

"Do you want a guess, Reaux?"

"Only if I don’t get smoked like everyone else drill sergeant."

"Done"

"I think it’s a trick question because it all depends on how far the individuals tested can throw Drill Sergeant."

"That is correct Reaux. Everyone can rest now."

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: Beginning Stages: Healy: Feb 06, 4996