New Chapter
I Dashed under the barb wire as quickly as I could. Upon doing this a pile of mud flew into my open mouth. I spit it out in disgust. "Freakin' disgusting!" I exclaimed. I heard explosions coming from my left and another from my right. I began to crawl for my life, avoiding the grenades that were being tossed at me. With each grenade being tossed I began to crawl faster. My head was facing the ground as I crawled through. Just in case a grenade exploded near me I didn't want to get any mud or debris in my eyes however sooner I would have to look up to see where I was going. Suddenly, I heard someone scream. I looked up.
"GET THE HELL DOWN!" One of the recruits yelled.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING!" Another recruit yelled.
"What the hell is going o-" I stopped mid-sentence.
Just a few feet away from me one of the recruits was up on his knees. I looked in terror as he was covered head to toe in his own blood. The barb wire had completely cut him up something fierce. "I can't take this shit anymore! I'm out of this..FUUUUU *BOOM*!" The bloody recruit was interrupted by a grenade going off in front of him. He was blown completely to bits.
"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled.
"Oh lord...what the hell!?" A recruit next to me yelled.
I felt a light jab at my left shoulder. I look to the side to see the same recruit from earlier, the one who helped me get through the three mile run. "Come on dude keep moving or your dead." He instructed. I nodded and continued my crawl.
"What the hell man..that dude just got killed back there." I said.
"That's military life for ya' buddy. This shit happens everyday. It's actually...normal." The recruit replied.
"Normal...what the hell are you talking about?"
Before I knew it...everything was calm now. I looked in front of me to see that..I had reached the end. It was all over. I began coughing like crazy. My breathing grew heavy again. I knelt over as my stomach began to hurt like a bitch. "Ahh motherfu- what the hell is up with me?" I thought. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back. It was the mystery recruit again.
"You doin' okay?" He asked.
"No I feel like hell. My stomach hurts like a bitch, I keep coughing like crazy and I feel like I can bearly breath." I explained.
"Uh-oh looks like we got a problem." expressed the the mystery recruit.
"What...kind of problem?" I asked nervously.
The mystery recruit held up to fingers and poked my chest hard enough for me to let out a low grunt of pain. The mystery recruit scratched his chin. "Definitely a problem. With someone of your build that poke shouldn't have hurt you a bit." He explained.
"So am I- *SCREEEEEEEEEEEE*!"
I was interrupted by a whistle blown in my ear. "GOOD JOB MAGGOT YOU MADE IT CROSS THE COURSE!" The drill sargeant yelled. The mystery recruit walked up to him and gave him a salute.
"Sir I think we have a problem here sir!" The recruit said.
"Well then spit it out maggot! What is it!?" The drill sergeant yelled.
The mystery recruit came over and dragged me over towards the drill sergeant. "Sir! My friend here needs medicle attention. The soldier complains of a stomach pains, heavy breathing and heavy coughing sir!" He stated. The sargeant scanned me carefully before turning to the mystery recruit.
"I DON'T SEE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE MAN! HE'S PERFECTLY FINE MAGGOT!" The drill sergeant yelled.
"Um..sir I don't think that-"
I interrupted the recruit by placing an arm on his shoulder. "S-sir! I'm fine sir!" I replied firmly.
"Well good then. We wouldn't want to disappoint the iron maiden now...would we?" The drill sergeant growled.
"Speaking of iron maiden..you two maggots take your place at section I-E with the rest of the recruits. it's time for you boys to meet the lady herself."
I gulped at the mentions of "Iron Maiden". She sounds really scary. I walked over to the giant 100 foot mechanism tower known as the iron maiden. I was joined by the rest of the hundreds of recruits. The drill sergeant walked in front of us. "Ladies! This...is the Iron Maiden tower of hell. Through out your twelve weeks here you all will trek through the bowls of this magnifisent beast! Maybe you all can beat my brother record. You all probably don't know him but he goes by the name Panzerf-" The Sergeant was cut off by a loud scream followed by the sound of sirens. Two paramedics were escorting a recruit out of Iron Maiden via stretcher. The Sergeant laughed and pointed in the direction of the the injured recruit. "And THAT is what happens when ya' decide to underestimate the iron miss. YOU MAGGOTS GOT THAT!?" Every recruit nodded. The Sergeant blew his whistle.
"Okay Boys listen up. I'm gonna' start you all on level one of the iron lady today. Your goal is to make your way up to the second story part of the course and grab the blue flag positioned in the middle of the room. Im sending you each in as a squad of six. First up! Private Gunner's squad!" The Drill Sergeant called.
As soon as I heard my name I stepped up from the small army of recruits. Five other recruits joined me. One of them was the mystery recruit. I felt a little easy knowing he was on my team. However, what made me uneasy was what awaited my squad in the Iron Maiden. "As Soon as I blow the whitsle you may begin. Oh and I almost forgot. There someone veeeeery special comin' today. It be ashame to be the fuck ups so hehehe..don't fuck up UNDERSTOOD!?" The Sergeant roared. Each of us saluted.
"Sir yes sir!" We all yelled.
"Good. *SCREEEEEEEEEE*"
The whistle was blown and me along side my squad took off into the Iron Maiden. The inside of the room was a sight from hell. Mini turrents were mounted along side the walls. Barbwire stretched across the room. The barbwire was at the height to our our waist so unfortunately for us we would have to crawl under it. "I see what this. It's just like the barbwire crawl we did earlier. Except now..we gotta' deal with guns." I stated. I heard a chuckle from my left side. I looked over to see the mystery recruit. He patted me on my back.
"I'm sure we can get through this. If you have one of your..episodes again there's a..technique I know. I'll use just in case." He replied.
"Uh..okay?" I said in confusion.
"Cool. Everyone get down and let's move smoothly!"
Everyone including me followed the mystery recruits orders. We got down and moved under the barbwire. However, things went straight to shit as soon as we made the first move. The Light's went out, leaving us there in the pitch black dark. Next, the guns began to fire. The fire spitting out the ends of the guns were our only source of light. It was so loud I couldn't here What one of the recruits was saying. He looked at me and I looked at him. His face showed and mixture of fear and confusion. I could also tell he was crying. I motioned for him to keep moving but he shook his head. I motioned for him again to move. I got a different response. I yelled something at me but due to the guns firing off I couldn't hear a damn thing. The recruit then began to rise. My eyes widened in shock. As the recruit rose the barb wire began digging into his skin. To top off the carnage the bullet's from the mini guns ripped him to shreds. I watched as the man became nothing but a bloody mess. "Holy shit...holy shit." Was all I could whisper. Up ahead I saw the mystery recruit and three others with him. I increased my crawling speed. Suddenly, I felt my heart jump. I began to sweat and breath heavily. Ignoring the sensation, I crawled and crawled through the madness. This was truly the definition of baptism by fire. I had finally reached the end of the course. The mini guns had ceased their fire. I got up and stood tall with my team. The mystery recuit patted me on my back. I looked at him and smiled. Another recruit approached us. "Everyone okay?" he asked. I looked at him then looked out onto the course. I could still see the recruits bloodied corpse. I sighed.
"One guy didn't make it." I told the recruits.
"...damn." The recruit replied as he looked at the body.
"Come on...let's go we got one more room to go."
With that said, the five of us made our way up a flight of stairs leading to the second story room. As we made our way upstairs my vison was getting blurry. I felt a harsh burning sensation in my throat. This was new. I stopped dead in my tracks and began to cough. The other recruits stopped to look back at me. "What's wrong with you dude?" One of them asked in a slightly concerned tone. As I coughed I waved at him to assure nothing was wrong. The mystery recruit could see right through my lie. He walked over towards and rested an hand on my back.
"Nows the time to use the technique. It will hurt a little but it will help you get though the pain." He said.
I looked at him and nodded. "Do what you *cough* gotta' do." I replied. The mystery recuit replied. He lifted his hand and balled it into a fist. He then turned his fist sideways and squared it up againt's my chest. One...two..three. He thrusted his fist into my chest as hard as he could. I yelped in pain and cough up blood. The other recruits rushed to my side as I began to stagger. They helped me regain balance. I felt..completely fine now. The dudes technique actually worked. SWEET!
"Thanks man..I ow you big.I mean..REALLY owe you big" I stated.
"...you can buy dinner later sweet cheeks let's just get through this place so we can get some rest." The mystery recruite replied.
We made our way up the stairs and stopped at a door with a bullet symbol on it. I opened the door slowly. Inside was yet another room from hell. Mini guns had aligned the walls from ALL side. It there was one thing I noticed about them that made the situation even worse. "Aw shit! We gotta deal with fuckin' sentry's now!?" I complained. Before Anyone could answer my rhetorical question the mystery recruit had pushed me down to the ground. He looked at everyone else and shouted. "GET DOWN NOW!" Everyone was confused. Again the mystery recruit shouted the same thing. Suddenly, a barrage of bullets shat past the other recruits. Luckly they missed and the recruits were abel to take cover behind a plethora of sandbags. Me and the mystery recruit quickly made our way over to them.
"Those sentry come with motion scanning lazers. They scan the room for bodies. Then they make corpses." I said.
"Correct. We gotta use our minds to outsmart the machines." The mystery recruit replied.
"I feel like I've heard that line before."
I stuck my head out to observe the scene. The rest of the sentry's had now been activated. The sentry on the left and right side of the room scanned the room vertically while the sentry in front scanned the room in a horizontal sweep. I began to think of a way on how to outsmart our machine enemies. Suddenly, it hit me.
"Hey Mystery guy. what do you think would happen if those motion sentry's caught a glimpse of something that wasn't so human like?" I asked.
"You mean like a inanimate object?" The mystery recruit asked.
"yeah...exactly." I replied with a smile.
"...ooohhh"
The mystery recruit smiled back at me. I looked at the other recruits of my team. "Okay guys listen. I got a plan...watch." I instructed. I took off my glove and held it up for the recruits to see. I looked over the edge of the sandbags and threw the glove out into the open. Every single sentry in the room diverted their attention to the glove. Without warning or hesitation they opened fire on the glove. The scene was intense. The bullets so powerful enough that when fired left a small crater in the floor where the glove was. The guns ceased fire and returned to their regular scanning patterns. I looked back at the recruits. "Did you see that? Theres a way to get past them. Everyone take off your gloves. On the counte of three we're gonna throw them into the corner of the room. Once the sentry's began fire we're gonna run and get the flag. Everyone got that?" Everyone nodded. I nodded back at them in response.
"Good. Now on my count." I said.
I held up three fingers. Slowly I began counting down until one finger was up. "And...NOW!" I yelled. Everyone of us threw our gloves into the corner of the room. The sentry's turned there attention towards the gloves. Now was our time to run. "GOOOO!" I yelled. Everyone of us hopped over the sandbangs and began to run. However, luck wasn't on my side. As I ran the same problems I encountered before returned but this time instantly. My breathing grew heavy and my heart felt like it was gonna explode. My speed decreased and..I stopped in the middle of the room and feel to my knees. Everyoone else had made it across the room to the flag except me. Once those turrents were done making shredding those gloves..I would be next..
To be continued...
