Random inspiration. No other words needed.

Battle of the Cadets

Written By: a Sea Cadet

"I'm going out for drill mom!" I shouted from the doorframe.

"Alright honey! Come back safe!" My mom yelled back.

"Don't worry I will!" and I closed the door and head to my truck. It was a sexy Ford 2011 F-150, metallic grey with a sea-green trident on the front. For some reason, I always had a connection Greeks, I don't know if it's cause I'm named after Perseus, or if I'm just a odd, but since I love the ocean, Poseidon became a quick favorite of mine.

I drove down to the USCG base, where my division met up. "The Warrior Song" was blaring through my speakers, and this song always managed to get me pumped up. I pulled of the freeway as the song changed to "The Longest Day" by Iron Maiden. Little did I know that song would become my future in a little over 4 hours.

I pulled into the parking lot and got out, saluting my Commanding Officer. I waited around, and talked to my friends in the Cadets, Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Grover Underwood, Jason Grace, and Horace Ghost. We all met in the Cadets, but became pretty good friends, basically chatting on Facebook, or going to a small party.

Horace was a major Center for my school, was one of the best. Annabeth was on the Soccer team along with Thalia, who kicked ass there as well. Nico was a WR on the team as well as Jason. Grover was a regular kid who hated meat, but also my best friend. And last but not least, I was the quarterback.

We got orders to get in ranks, and we immediately complied, knowing we need to be focused for the rest of the eight hours, Military Standards obviously. We had inspection on our Utilities, then dressed down for PT. After about an hour and a half of constant pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks, running, sprinting, Indian Runs, Baking Beetles, Sizzling Roaches, pull ups, and Sky Reaches, we finally got to get back in our Utilities.

We had a 15 minute head and water break before we went to classrooms. After about another hour of learning the uses of Naval weapons, we got another head and water break, for about 10 minutes before we learned about Special Ops. Halfway through the session, alarm bells started blaring. Soldiers rushed in with full battle gear, yelling to get down to the armory. We had no clue where that was, so we followed him trying not to appear afraid.

We heard many shouts of, "What's going on" and, "What the Hell!" I started hearing gunfire and explosions. Men screaming as bullets hit them, crying out in pain, praying that they live. We reached the armory and were all given battle gear, some given M-16s, others MP5s, MP9s, and all a M9 Handgun. The Leaguers, or Cadets ages 11-13, were sent to a safe room while the Cadets helped fight of the Terrorists attacking the USCG base. Me and my little group you heard of before were initiated into a squad, and sent to the classroom. Our codenames were our last names.

Chase, the strategic one, positioned us. "Jackson, take left window; Di Angelo, take right; Ghost, get middle; Underwood, get main entrance door, Both Graces, support on windows, I'll take Side entrance. Get there, Get there!" Annabeth rang out the commands as if she had been training her whole life to do that. I took my position as ordered and aimed down the sights of my M16. I saw a target and asked permission to fire, Annabeth asked Command who relayed a Roger, and I pulled the trigger.

The bullet when slow motion somehow as if time slowed down. I saw it hit the target and he slowly cried out in pain. Images flashed across my mind, a happy family eating dinner around a table, the father giving a toast. The same man cowering of a man dressed in a black suit, and then of this man being shot in the abdomen. When time sped back up, I gasped as if I was holding my breath. I couldn't believe it. I just killed a man. A human being, dead, because a man pressured him into coming here.

I felt slightly dizzy, but I aimed back down my sights and downed another. I had to keep going for my friends, for my family. I heard Nico and Horace relay that they downed some targets. Same thing with the Graces.

I ducked back into cover, panting for a bit, then leaned out and shot a few rounds. I sensed the cluster shot way before I heard it and I yelled, "Duck!" My squad complied, and in turn, saved their lives. I then yelled, "Fire in the Hole!" and threw my Frag Grenade at a cluster of people rushing towards a door. I downed about 4 of them and picked off the last 3. Everything was going well for us, until I heard Grover and Annabeth yell, "Enemies approaching!"

I thought for a second and gave a command, "Thalia cover Annabeth and Jason cover Grover!" and then went back to my window. "Oh! And after that wave is clear, Ghost has claymores!"

I heard a chorus of "Roger that!"s and "Affirmative!"s. We repeated the pattern of aim, shoot, duck for about 10 minutes before the hallways were clear. We thought we could last this one out when Nico cursed and said, "Damn it! I'm out of am- Ah!" and was interrupted by being shot in the shoulder. I was scared now, Nico was injured, but Grover told Jason to take his spot and went over to Nico.

Grover got out a first aid and started helping Nico, and then Horace and I were beginning to run out of ammo. Grover also stated, "Need more medical supplies! This wound is worse than I thought! It hit an artery!" We didn't have much time, so we had to figure something out, and fast.

So we decided to move as a squad to get to the medical bay. We got out of the classroom and turned right to go down the stairs. Me and Jason led the way, I took point and Jason covered. As I headed down, Jason pointed his gun over the edge and shot down two terrorists that were heading down the hallway to the stairs.

We had to go across the big open C-130 hanger, which was currently empty of C-130s. There were too many targets there to make it across in time to not be seen. "Hey guys," I started, "I'm gonna go get the supplies. You guys secure the classroom and hold out, it's the only way. And if one of you guys comes with me, you won't have enough people to hold out."