My eye twitches when I see the new company, I’ll be honest it’s small. This is where Malone transferred me too? When we arrived everyone is standing in a straight line waiting for Anick, and this place is worse than hell. I stood by the entrance as Anick starts walking and inspecting everyone as they stand in a perfectly straight line. I cross my arms in annoyance as Malone doesn’t do this. Well, I guess he does but in a different way. Anick makes it to the end before turning around facing me, and I just gave him an annoyed glare. 

"Burks!" Anick yells suddenly. 

Someone steps up from the line and yells back yes sir, and I squint my eyes at them as their voice sounds weird. Anick tells them to show me around and that they are in charge of me in the meantime. I mumble incoherent words under my breath as everyone else has been dismissed. Everyone left but Burks and I and to be honest I don’t even want to be here. Burks stands in front of me in a gray t-shirt and navy blue slacks. He’s wearing a black cap that’s covering most of his face but I don’t really care, he’s probably ugly like Erick. 

"Stand tall soldier!" Burks barks at me. 

"What’s wrong with your voice? Why is it so high and don’t order me around." I tell him bitterly. 

"You have a problem with how we do things around here? You’re in General Anick’s company now soldier! Things aren’t going to be the same here." He snarled at me. 

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" I growled.

"I’m the one who was put in charge of you Mr. Lazy Grumpy Pants!" He snarled again. 

I grit my teeth together as I ripped off his cap and my eyes widen when I realized that he isn’t a he at all but she? What? Well, that explains the high voice now. I realized feeling dumb. I step away from her as I dropped the cap realizing I’ll be taking orders from a girl. A small slender petite girl with a pixie cut black hair and blue-green eyes. It explains why I first thought she was a guy, her hair is short and she covered it up by her cap. I have no idea why but it’s stupid and her cap is stupid. 

"Do you feel better throwing my cap on the ground?" Burks asks picking her cap from the ground. 

"No actually. I feel insulted knowing you’re a girl and supposedly in charge of me." I say snippily.

"What’s that supposed to mean? What’s me being a girl has to do with anything?" Burks asks insulted. 

"It’s bad enough I’ve been transferred and now Anick expects me to take orders from tiny tot?" I ask bitterly. 

"Excuse me? I happen to be 5’5 inches tall and I’m the best rescuer here! It’s why General Anick picked me to be in charge of you! You’re just a screw up who doesn’t care about anybody but himself!" Burks yells defending herself. 

"Well excuse me, and what kind of name is Burks for a girl anyway?" I ask annoyed. 

"Burks so happens to be my last name, you dumb idiot!" She hisses at me. 

"I’m not a dumb idiot. I happen to be very smart, but I just hate being a fucking rescuer." I straight out said. 

"Yeah huh sure. Now follow me before I strangle you." Burks says turning on her heel. 

"Whatever." I mumble. 

The sooner I get out of here the better. I follow Burks annoyed as I try to think of ways to make Anick fire me. It’s better if I’m not a rescuer anyways because even if I did try I wouldn’t be good at it. I look around the base and notice that there aren’t that many cabins around. There’s a lot of tents around though, and people training to save people from danger. I roll my eyes as I look down at my feet, and notice one of my ties are slowly coming undone. I shrug as I look away and back up to see that Burks pointed towards a longer cabin. Burks tells me that’s where we eat our meals every morning and night, and that breakfast is at 5:30 in the morning. 

"5:30 in the morning? Why is it early here and not 6 am like back at Malone’s base?" I ask annoyed at the time difference. 

"The time has nothing to do with me, it was General Malone and General Anick who chose those times. So, you better be up and ready by 5:30 and in the meal hall on time. If your even a minute late, you’re going to get in trouble by General Anick." Burks tells me seriously. 

"That’s stupid and why do you keep calling him General? He’s not higher up like Malone, he’s only a Lieutenant." I tell her a matter of fact.

"Correction. General Anick is a General Lieutenant, there’s a difference." Burks tells me as she stops in her tracks.

I nearly crash into her as I almost trip from the sudden stop. I glare at her back as I regain my composure before stepping away from her. I fix my bag on my back before moving to stand next to her and notice her staring at something in front of her. I move my vision to where she’s looking and see a tent sitting there, and I glance over at her with furrow eyebrows. If she thinks I’m sleeping in a tent then she’s dead wrong. I thought already getting angry. I don’t sleep in tents and why are there tents instead of cabins anyway? Malone has cabins so why doesn’t Anick have freaking cabins? I step away from Burks giving her a cold glare as she turns towards me giving me a bored look. 

"Do you expect me to sleep in a tent?" I ask bitterly. 

"Yes and do you have anything else to complain about?" Burks asks bored. 

"Oh I have plenty to complain about. Where’s Anick and I’ll complain to him. You aren’t worth my time." I growl. 

"Not worth your time? That’s a shame because you’re stuck with me until General Anick says otherwise. I don’t care if you hate it here. I don’t care if you hate me, because I’m not going to let you chase me away from my duty. If you have a problem then go ahead and complain to General Anick. I can guarantee he’s not going to help you with this stupid situation that you have. So suck it up buttercup." Burks tells me firmly before turning on her heel. 

I growl after her as I clench my fists to my sides. I can’t believe she had the nerve to say that to me, and what’s with buttercup? I turn away from her as I walk inside the tent, and I notice four cots inside. They aren’t as high as the ones back at Malone’s, they are more lowered to the ground and there aren’t eight cots like back at Malone’s base. I went over to the empty cot grumpily as I set my bag down on it, and I look around the tent to also notice that there aren’t any trunks to put our stuff in. This place sucks. I then hear laughing behind me and I glance behind me to see three guys coming in laughing with each other.

"Oh! You must be the guy from General Malone’s base. Hi, I’m Jeff Edwards and these guys are my two buddies Rick Perry and Aaron Rodgers." The guy with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes introduced themselves.

"Yeah hi. I’m Lewis Decker." I say not really caring. 

"So you got Lily showing you the ropes huh? How is she?" The guy named Aaron asks. 

"Lily?" I ask confused. 

"Yeah, you know Burks?" Jeff asks smiling at me. 

"You mean that tiny tot Burks is named Lily?" I ask slightly shock. 

"Yeah. She might be small but she’s a tough soldier, she’s the top-ranking soldier at this base. Well, besides General Anick." The guy named Rick explains. 

"I didn’t think someone like her will be named after a flower." I say bored. 

"If I was you, Lewis, I wouldn’t get on her bad side. She can be pretty scary when she wants to be." Jeff tells me as he sits on a cot across from me. 

"Yeah huh sure." I say still bored. 

                                         ----------

A loud bell rings off and I ask the guys what’s that, and they explain to me that it’s time for dinner. I roll my eyes as we stand up and head towards the meal cabin, and I notice a lot of people are already heading there. I ask Jeff what we’re having for supper and he told me that we’re having turkey and salad tonight. I gave him a confused look because that doesn’t sound a lot to eat. When I question him on that, he just laughs and tells me that General Anick wants us to stay in shape. So it’s easier to rescue people. I groan in frustration as Anick does that as well. I’m never gonna have a full meal again, the last time I had one was the night before I had to leave for Malone’s base. That was a long long time ago, and I miss being able to just pig out. When we walk inside I see people sitting down and eating or waiting in line to get food. The guys walk up to the line and I followed them quietly as I just want to eat and go to bed. The line moved pretty quickly which is something that I am grateful for. Once I grabbed my tray of food I instantly turned to figure out where to sit. Every table is taken up, but there’s one that’s completely empty. I start to head over there when I hear Jeff calling me. 

"Come sit with us, Lewis!" 

I look at him and shrugged as they aren’t bad guys, so followed them to their table. The table we went to sit has two other people already sitting there, and they’re both girls. One girl has blonde hair in a braid and blue eyes, and the other has light brown hair that’s in a bob cut with brown eyes. Jeff and the two sat down with the two girls, and I notice Jeff and Aaron getting cozy with the two girls. I smirk as I sat next to Rick and giving them a knowing look. 

"So, are you guys dating?" I blurt out simply. 

"Yup! This is my girlfriend Jessica Thompson." Jeff introduced his girlfriend.

"Heya." The girl with the bob cut says. 

"This is my girlfriend Francine Jones." Aaron introduced his girlfriend. 

"Hi!" The girl with the blonde hair in a braid says.

"Sup. I’m Lewis Decker." I say giving them a half-wave. 

"Yeah they are lucky and found their soulmates, and I’m still single." Rick says pouting a bit. 

"You will find that special someone someday Rick." Jessica says kindly. 

"I hope so." Rick sighs. 

We laugh at him and I felt somewhat at peace, but that’s because I’m hanging out with these lot and there’s not Erick Donson around. Jeff was telling a story about what happened when he first arrived here when someone sat down next to me. Everyone looks at the person next to me with there mouth open a jar and I have a bad feeling at who it is. I slowly turn to see if my feeling is right and of course it’s right. The person sitting next to me is no other than Burks. Lily Burks for that matter and she has that stupid cap on her head again which for some reason annoys me. I turn in my seat and glared at her as she turns at me with an innocent but knowing look. 

"Can I help you?" Burks asks me innocently.

"What are you doing here?" I hiss at her. 

"Hm. I guess I’m eating my supper, is that a problem?" Burks asks giving me a look. 

"Go eat your damn supper someplace else." I growled at her. 

"No." She says simply. 

"What?" I ask dumbfounded. 

"I said no. I can eat wherever I want and also I’m supposed to keep my eyes on you, so I’m eating here. I guess that’s something else you have to complain to General Anick." Burks says nonchalantly.

"I will complain and stop acting so fucking innocent! Your annoying me on purpose!" I growled at her. 

"I’m annoying you? Oh, poor mister soldier, what will you do? I guess you will just complain since that seems to be the only thing you know how to do." Burks teases.

"Why you! I don’t care what anyone else says, you are a nuisance and Anick made a mistake! He should have never brought me here and never have put you in charge of me! I don’t need anyone to watch over me!" I yell angrily. 

"Is that so?" 

I freeze as I hear his voice right behind me, and I slowly turn around to see Anick standing there with a cold glare plastered on his face. This guy really is an intimidating guy, and I really hate that. I know I’m in trouble and I blame Burks for this, she probably set this up just so I can get in trouble. I cross my arms waiting for him to yell and lecture me, but he just tells me to follow him. I roll my eyes as I follow him, but not before shooting Burks one last deadly glare. I followed him out of the meal cabin and outside. We didn’t stop there though, we continue across the field until we came upon another cabin, but not as long. We walk up the steps and walk inside where I notice that it’s an office. Smaller than Malone’s office. I noted. Anick stopped in front of his desk before letting out a sigh, and I stare at him hoping he will let me go and I’ll be free of this. 

"You really are a troubled soldier. I knew that before I took you in, but I didn’t think you will start fights with other members of this company." Anick says as he turns towards me. 

"I told you. I don’t want to be here." I simply put it. 

"Yeah I heard you. The whole base heard you, Mr. Decker but I’ve told you that you aren’t getting out that easily." Anick tells me giving me a cold stare. 

"Oh come on!" I yell.

"You come on! This is your duty as a rescuer and I expect you to behave! If you act up like this again then I’m punishing you to cleaning the bathrooms for a month!" Anick warns me. 

"What! You can’t do that!" I yell stun. 

"I’m the leader of this base and I can do whatever I please. Start behaving Mr. Decker or your time here will literally be like living in hell." Anick warns me strictly.

"But Anick-" I try to say, "Don’t but me and it’s General Anick to you, Mr. Decker. You better start giving me some respect or I’ll make your punishment move up to two months. Now go to your tent." Anick strictly orders me.

I’ll call you whatever I want and nobody punishes me. I’ll get him to fire me one way or another, and people wouldn’t kidding. He really is stricter than Malone. I wonder how that is? I wonder as I turn to leave his office. Isn’t it usually the highest rank job to be more strict? So why is it that Malone is more mellow than Anick? I honestly don’t care but I know one thing I’m not staying here. I don’t care what Anick says, he will fire me someday and when that day comes I’ll be skipping out of here with joy. Nobody will be able to handle me for long, and I bet Anick will fire within a week.