Chapter 7: The Stigmatists
"Where exactly?" Cloud asked as he repositioned himself in the uncomfortable coach seat.
Claire rubbed her eyes and cleared her throat while tilting her head to get a better look out the window. "It's a ten minute walk just outside the city," She replied as she pointed just north of the approaching city of Junon. "It's not much of a house, but I was comfortable living there."
"If we get any time off, I guess the first thing you'll be doing is going to visit." Cloud said as she nodded. Claire sat back in her seat and leaned her head against headrest, soon all this calm would end abruptly. The past month had been relatively easy and she enjoyed all of the PT they had been doing to get ready for battleschool, a routine of PT first thing in the morning, after lunch, and then after dinner. She could say with confidence that she was in the best shape of her life and knew she would have no trouble with the physical portion of battleschool...she was hoping.
As the bus pulled into Junon and began navigating the streets, Cloud took notice that many people had stopped to watch the bus. The coach was easily distinguishable as a Shinra vehicle and the looks they were getting weren't the nicest. He ignored them until they reached compound and the coach stopped outside a barrack block. There were several Guardsmen standing outside of the building and the second the bus pulled up, they raced over and up on.
"Here we go..." Pete whispered gravely.
The first man that ran onto the bus stopped at the front and paused for a moment as he looked down the rows of PATs. His sergeant stripes were easily noticeable and Cloud knew he had to be one of their instructors. The sergeant looked at his watch quickly before back at the PATs. "Five minutes, off the bus, formed up with all of your shit...let's fucking go!" He bellowed, causing everyone to snap up.
"Not this again..." Claire complained quietly with a depressed sigh as everyone began to panic and scramble off the bus. The screaming and swearing continued while the PATs hurried to unload their kit bags from underneath the coach. By the time they were completely formed up, they had missed the five minute timing by two minutes.
"Great fucking start people..." One of the three instructors growled sarcastically as he paced in front of the formation. "Each minute you are late for a timing on this course, you'll owe me 15 pushups. So get on your fucking faces..."
Cloud rolled his eyes as he got down into the pushup position. He wasn't looking forward to being treated like an idiot for the next five months. After pumping off 30 pushups, they were back on their feet waiting for the next wave of abuse. Quickly designating a course senior at random, the instructors handed him a stack of papers which he began to hand out. "These sheets are the disposition matrixs, not all of the instructors are here so look to see who your section commanders are and make note of that. Those will be your sections for the entire course. It also says what room you will be staying in, after everyone has a sheet, we'll head inside so you can all stow your shit."
"Hey," Cloud whispered to Pete with a smile, "Sergeant Gallagher is instructing on the course..." He said as he read his old section commander from basics name. "...and you, me, and Claire are with him." He informed happily as Pete looked at the matrix to confirm it.
"Hey, you're right-" Pete whispered back before one of the instructors barked at them to stop talking.
…
Lieutenant Sterling entered the lecture theater, his course awaiting his official address. The lecture theater resembled a large college classroom with rows of desks that sloped toward the ground level. The room was only half full, the 40 candidates only filling the first few rows.
"Good morning guys," He began rather lazily, "You all know me, and I know most of you...I'll make this quick. This isn't PAT platoon, you're no longer PATs, you're infanteers in training. I've done my best to get you all in shape the past month in preparation for this course but I can say without a doubt, battleschool is going to be the most physically demanding thing you'll have ever done. If you thought basic was hard...you probably shouldn't be here. I can ensure you that the course staff are going to drive you into the ground day after day."
Claire's eyes wandered around the lecture theater, looking at the pictures and paintings on the wall. She wasn't too interested in what Sterling had to say. He had been saying it all for the past month back in PAT.
"...Starting today, you have 20 weeks until you graduate. Six weeks of that is straight field time and three weeks is at the Killhouse and urban operations village...so we're definitely going to be having some fun on this course. This isn't basic, we're not going to treat you guys like you're complete idiots, there won't be ridiculous punishments if you forget to polish your boots or if you have a piece of lint on your uniform. That is not to say that if it turns out that you all are a bunch of clueless fucktards we won't punish you, it just means that we're giving you a certain amount of leeway."
"We're giving you an inch...don't take a mile." The course warrant warned as the lieutenant nodded.
"That's right...this course revolves mainly around fieldcraft. Everything you learned in basic, anything combat related, will be taught much more in-depth and you will be improving and developing these skills until you can do them in your sleep. Alright...that's all I have for you now..." Sterling finished before exiting the room.
The course warrant stepped forward as Sterling walked out of the room. "Okay, everyone out in the hall, we'll team you up with your section commanders and then go from there."
Once out in the hall, Cloud looked for and immediately spotted sergeant Gallagher who he hurried over to. Once the entire section had gathered around him he looked at his previous students and gave a small grin. "How you three doing?" He asked in a friendly tone.
"Not bad sergeant," Pete replied, "Was it just a coincidence that we're with you?"
Gallagher huffed and shook his head. "Sure wasn't, I saw your names on the course list and told the warrant right then and there that I wanted you guys."
"What about Ingram?" Pete inquired, wondering why Johnny was in a different section.
"Pfft, I could give a shit about that guy." He snorted, making Cloud smile quite smugly. "Okay guys," Gallagher began as he looked at the ten people in his section, "I'm not going to lie, this isn't going to be easy. I hope you're all physically fit because I can tell you now, this course is going to be somewhat challenging for me, let alone you and I'm only instructing." The bald man told them. "For those of you who don't know me, I don't believe in screaming and swearing for no reason. If you make a mistake, I'll let you know but I won't get in your face and punish you. Ask Strife, Crawford, or Farron and they'll tell you that I'll go out of my way to make sure you guys get the best training you can and I'll stick up for you if you find yourself having problems with other instructors or whatever. But you'll find out about all of that as the course progresses." Gallagher told them all as they listened intently. "You guys have your first class in about 20 minutes, I'm pretty sure it's on the LMG and GPMG. So go now, take a smoke break or use the bathroom, and be back here at the lecture theater in 10 minutes."
After the short break, the course made their way back into the theater, most anticipating the class on the new weapon systems. A couple instructors walked into the room once the course had taken their seats. With them, they each carried three machine guns, two different kinds. They placed one of each at the front of the room onto tables so they could be easily seen by everyone as well as for demonstrative purposes. The other four weapons they placed with each section, giving strict instruction for the students not to touch the weapons.
"Welcome to the first class of the course," The master corporal running the class began as he took his spot at the podium, " Obviously it is on the light machine gun and the general purpose machine gun. Throughout the rest of the day, you will learn all the aspects of the weapon system; how to dismantle and assemble them, how to clean them, as well as a little bit of how to handle them but that will be covered during later classes." Cloud looked at the machine gun that sat propped up on its bipod in front of him on his desk. As cool as he thought it looked, he knew it had to have weighed a least several times his rifle and that it was going to be a pain to carry around. "As we learn each new weapon system on this course, everyone will end up carrying them. For the first week, until you have passed the handling tests on the LMG and the GPMG, you will carrying one or the other along with your personal weapon. Once you're qualified on the weapons, we take them all back and then re-issue two LMGs per section and one GPMG. After that we will learn the sustained firing kits for the GPMG...which you will also be carrying around. Following the SF kits, we'll learn the grenade launcher for your personal weapons, the CRYC anti-armor rocket launcher, and finally the heavy mounted anti-material MG. So needless to say, you guys will be carrying a ton of equipment." The master corporal smirked as many of the students gave each other looks of concern. "Anyway, let's get started..."
…
Claire laid the LMG she was carrying down on one of the empty beds in her room before she removed her helmet and wiped sweat from her forehead. She then unslung her rifle that was dangling on her back and tossed it onto the bed as well, the large amount of weight on her shoulders slowly starting to lift as she stripped off her equipment. Webbing, fragmentation vest, small pack, and spare barrel lay in a pile surrounding her, leaving her with a compressed and sweat-soaked tunic. It was still only day one and she could feel her knees starting to buckle while they were marching back to the shacks after the full day of classes. Each day they were promised more kit to carry and at this rate, she would be having trouble in the coming days.
From 8:00 until 12:00 was designated study period every night, the only time the course was able to relax and recuperate. Claire was very thankful for it, remembering how they had only one hour to themselves every night in basic. Changing into her PT strip, she removed her pony-tail, letting her hair fall loosely around her shoulders before grabbing her notes from the day and taking a seat on her bed. With the LMG at her feet, she began to disassemble it and go over what every component was and how it worked. After a few minutes of peaceful studying, a knock came at her open door.
"Hey Claire," Pete greeted as he poked his head in, "The master corporal on duty tonight is taking each section down to the smoke pit and going over handling drills with the MG's. We're first up, so if you want to grab your LMG, we're just meeting downstairs." He told her in a bored tone.
"Awesome.." She said sarcastically as she began to reassemble. Outside at the smoke pit, she found the rest of her section lining up with their MG's, getting ready to practice handling drills. "Whose idea was this?" Claire asked in an annoyed and hushed tone to Cloud as she stopped beside him. He shrugged as he knelt down beside his GPMG which was lying on the ground.
"Lets get this done quickly.." The master corporal in charge began as he walked out of the shacks. "Everyone take up a prone position behind your weapons." He then began to issue words of command that would be common to hear on a machine gun range. The section began doing their drills on the weapons as he shouted them. They went over readying the weapon, firing, stoppage drills, loading, unloading, making safe, runaway gun, cook-off, and changing hot barrels. "Change barrel!" The instructor barked to the students. Cloud immediately went through his drills, putting the weapon on safe, removing the barrel, placing it on the spare barrel bag, putting the spare barrel onto the GPMG, and finally, notionally firing the weapon. When he pulled the trigger and fired the empty action of the weapon, the barrel popped off the weapon and flew three feet in front of him, the muzzle sticking in the moist ground. Claire looked over at him and raised an eyebrow as he frowned and tried to figure out what he did wrong. "You," The instructor said as he pointed at Cloud. "What's your name?"
"Strife."
"Why did your barrel fly off, private Strife?" He quizzed with a stern look.
"I guess I didn't put it on right?" He replied with some doubt.
"No shit. When you slide the barrel on the weapon, you listen for four clicks. That means that it has been seated properly. If not, it obviously means that it is not seated properly and if you try to fire it, the barrel will fly off." He explained, "If the weapon had actually been loaded, that barrel would have gone another ten feet." Cloud nodded in understanding. "Now go pick up your barrel." Cloud quickly did, wincing as he pulled the muzzle out of the dirt, knowing he would have to do some cleaning later that night. "You have three minutes, go get changed into combats and your fightin' an' dyin' gear." The master corporal said looking at his watch.
"Wha-what?" Cloud stuttered quietly, dreading what his punishment was going to be.
"Three minutes! Move!" The man screamed at him. Cloud didn't wait around to be yelled at anymore, grabbing his weapon he charged inside, swearing under his breath the whole time. Pete looked at Claire and tried to muffle a laugh but the instructor ended up hearing him anyway. "You want to join him?" He asked dangerously.
Pete cleared his throat and wiped the smirk off his face, "No master corporal."
"Then shut the fuck up."
Claire turned her head to avoid being seen by the man and flashed Pete a grin at his expense as he swallowed hard and nodded. The instructor stood looking at his watch the entire time they waited for Cloud to return, counting down the seconds as they ticked by.
"Two fucking minutes late." The instructor informed Cloud as he came charging out of the shacks, adorned in his fighting order. "You know what that means..."
"Shit.." Cloud swore as he laid his GPMG down beside himself before getting into the pushup position.
"Sling that..." The instructor ordered as he pointed at the machine gun. Cloud paused a moment before sighing and throwing the heavy machine gun onto his back. "Count them off.." The 30 pushups seemed like 50 while wearing all of his kit. Claire watched as he struggled with the exercise, finding it odd how they weren't all being punished for his mistake. Cloud got to his feet when he was finished, breathing a little hard. "Now you can run to the gate and back three times." The instructor growled. Cloud cursed under his breath again. The main gate was only a few hundred meters away but with all the kit he was carrying, it would take quite an effort. "With your weapon above your head..." The man added before Cloud could take off. He gritted his teeth and unslung his rifle, shaking his head in disbelief. "No not with that. With that." The instructor pointed to his GPMG that was lying at it his feet.
"It weighs like 40 pounds." Cloud argued hopelessly.
"I know how much it fucking weighs." The man snapped as he got right in Cloud's face.
Picking up the machine gun, he hoisted it above his head, feeling the strain of the heavy weapon. He squinted his eyes and stared hard at the instructor before taking a deep breath. "Can I start?" Cloud asked, not hiding the attitude in his voice.
"By all means..."
They all stood watching as Cloud labored back and forth from the main gate, the GPMG bouncing off his helmet as he ran. "Get that fucking pig above your head!" The instructor shouted at Cloud, referring to the MG when it dropped below his chin. Several more times the master corporal had to scream at him to get the weapon above his head, as with each few dozen meters Cloud was unable to hold up the weight. When he finally finished, the machine gun was balancing on his shoulders behind his head, his wasted arms no longer able to support the weapon at all. Pete relieved him of the weapon as Cloud rolled his aching shoulders. The master corporal looked at Cloud as he his chest heaved up and down for a few moments before he turned back to the section. "Alright, lets go through the drills once more."
After they were finished, they headed back into the shacks, Pete carrying Cloud's GPMG for him. "Send the next section down. Oh and feel free to get changed back into PT strip, private Strife." The instructor said after them.
"Asshole.." Cloud muttered to Claire who shook her head and laughed.
"That looked like it sucked." She smirked to which he huffed.
"Really? What gave it away?"
…
Claire rubbed dirt off the side of one of her rifle magazines while she sat in the staging area, listening to the gunfire and yelling going on in the next large room over. Once the dirt had smeared off, she picked up a few of the red-tipped bullets in her lap and began loading up the magazine.
"Damn, these are fragile.." Cloud complained as one of the red bullet's tip snapped off as he attempted to load it. Claire picked up another round and purposely broke the tip off, proving Cloud's point that they were very delicate.
"I'm sure they hurt though." Pete said as he put his loaded magazines into his mag pouches.
"Is there gunpowder in these?" Claire asked to no one in-particular.
"Yes," Sergeant Gallagher confirmed as he walked up to his section, having overheard her question. "The only difference between these and a real round, is the bullet has been replaced with a plastic shell that has a tiny bit of paint in it. You guys are going to love getting hit with these..." He grinned as more gunfire erupted from the other room.
"Yeah I can't wait..." Pete said sarcastically.
"As soon as the other section gets back, you'll be going in...don't let me down." Gallagher warned as he took a seat on the table full of ammunition.
The course had entered their close quarters battle phase, and had begun day two of eight days at the killhouse. The killhouse was a large open building with another building inside of it. Rooms, stairwells, windows, doors, trapdoors, attics, basements, and towers were all inside the building inside the killhouse. The ranges that people would be engaging each other from varied from 20 meters to 1 meter. The killhouse represented an environment leading up to and inside of a building occupied by an enemy force. Each section that went into the killhouse was tasked with locating and killing all enemy soldiers, rescuing any hostages, locating booby traps, and doing all of this as quickly as possible with as little friendly casualties. To give a heightened sense of realism, the forces used special rounds called less then lethal or LTL rounds that were paint bullets.
A loud bang followed by an eruption of gunfire drew Claire's attention as she looked to the other room that housed the building they would soon be clearing. She wasn't quite confident in her room clearing skills that she learned the previous day and she wasn't eager to get shot with the painful rounds. The first section was still going through and the entire course was becoming anxious to find out how it went. They were told beforehand that CQB was one of the hardest skills to learn let alone master and that it relied entirely on speed, reflexes, and communication. As an added test, the section commanders would not be present, the students would be leading each other through the corridor of pain.
Shuffling of footsteps and quiet moaning came from the large open doorway. The entire course looked to see one of their own being carried quickly by two of his section members as he held a hand over his eyes and crotch while he groaned quietly.
"What the...?" Cloud said aloud as they watched the young man in agony.
"What happened to him?" Gallagher asked with a frown as he followed after them, heading for the exit.
"He got shot in the balls, there's a good amount of blood..." One of the boys carrying his injured friend informed out of breath as they burst outside to the ambulance that was waiting on standby for just such an incident. Cloud looked at the floor and noticed a few drops of blood trailing behind them. The looks on the faces of the rest of the course were much the same; sympathetic and full of dread. Soon after, the section that had gone through the killhouse returned. Their protective masks had been raised and they sported wincing and uncomfortable looks. As they passed by their course-mates, they offered a few comments and tips.
"Goddamn that shit hurts.."
"...watch when you search them, at least one will be booby-trapped..."
"..trapdoor on the first floor."
"That wasn't very fun."
Claire noticed that many of them had wet spots of blood on their arms and legs, likely where they had been hit with the LTL rounds.
"Next section up." The urban ops master called to the course as he entered the room. "We're ready when you are."
"Please god don't let me get hit down low..." Pete prayed quietly as they lined up, ready to enter the room with the killhouse. Cloud pulled the protective mask over his face and wished he had a jock and cup, after seeing the poor boy who had been hit down low, he was feeling somewhat sick.
"Ready your weapons.." Sergeant Gallagher ordered as he walked up to them. "Everyone have a DD grenade?" The 10 of them nodded as they felt the pocket they put the flash bang in. "Remember, shoot first. Who cares if you shoot a hostage, this shit hurts." He said very seriously. "Deep breaths, I can see you guys shaking." Cloud had to admit his heart was pounding even though it was merely training. "Throw the DD's before you enter every room, don't try and save them, they won't help you once you're dead. I'll be watching, do me proud." He gave Cloud a slight nod to get on with it.
"Let's do this..." Cloud said weakly to the section as they began moving into the next room. They moved heel to heel in two teams called stacks. Cloud led the first stack while Pete led the other, Claire was the breacher in Cloud's stack at the very rear of the team. As they turned a corner and the killhouse came into view, gunfire erupted from the top floor the building, LTL rounds spraying around them.
"Third floor window!" Cloud shouted as he raised his weapon and fired back. They charged at the building, shooting the entire time until they reached it and slammed into the wall.
"I got hit.." One of the members in Cloud's stack said before swearing.
"Me too.."
"So did I."
"Shit," Cloud swore, having just lost three people before they entered the building. "Lay down, you're dead." The three of them laid down, pretending to be dead while Cloud and Pete did a quick re-shuffle of the stacks. There was 4 people in Cloud's and three in Pete's now. "Let's move." Cloud led them along the side of the building, hugging the walls as he ran until he came to a closed door. He stopped a meter away from it before calling for Claire. "Breacher up!" He whispered loudly back. Claire hurried to the door and quickly examined it for booby-traps before looking at Cloud who had a flash bang in hand. He gave her a small nod and she kicked in the door as hard as she could, as she did, Cloud tossed the flash bang in. The second the grenade hit the ground it went off, and Cloud stormed in right after it, his heart pounding and vision tunneling. The room was large and open with a long hall that extended out from it, and at the end of that hall stood a person with a weapon. Cloud immediately raised his weapon and pulled the trigger...but nothing happened. It was at that moment that he realized that he had forgotten to take his weapon off safe. He looked up to see the person at the end of the hall fire a long burst at him. The first round hit him in the calf; the second in the thigh, the third in the hip, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth in the arm. He involuntarily collapsed to the ground as his whole right side stabbed with pain. Claire was immediately behind him and she was able to fire three rounds at the enemy and drop him before he could shoot her as well. Cloud squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth as he tried to suck up the pain. It stung ferociously and he felt more angry at his own stupidity then anything else.
"Dead?" Claire asked simply as she quickly stepped over him.
"It hurts..." He managed to squeak out as she chuckled. Claire took over the stack and they began to clear the rest of the bottom floor. Two more of them had succumbed to enemy fire before the bottom floor was secure, one of which fell through a trap door. Pete lead them up the stairs to the second level, each step deliberate and cautious as he moved slowly up each step. As he got to the last step, his foot tripped a wire and a small explosion went off at his feet, shooting flour directly at him. The force of the flour hitting him sent him back against the wall and onto his bottom. He sat for a moment covered in the white powder before an enemy bolted by him. If he wasn't dead enough already, the man fired a burst point blank at Pete, hitting once in the neck and once in the shoulder. The member behind Pete fired back at the man, dropping him.
"Asshole! I was already dead!" Pete coughed as he held his neck, furious that the op-for would shoot at him even though he had just been blown up. Claire and two others were all that remained now as they moved hesitantly onto the second floor.
Cloud breathed deep and kicked the wall in anger as he lay on the floor in pain. He could hear gunfire coming from upstairs and he hoped Claire was fairing better then him. He looked down the hall at the man who shot him and he raised his middle finger at him to which the man returned the gesture. The firing on the upper level ceased and Cloud heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Pete appeared, covered from head to toe in flour except for him neck which was bloody. Claire followed close behind and she held her left hand in her armpit.
"We're done." She told him as she walked by him. "We all died..."
"Super." Cloud said as he got to his feet and followed her out the door. They retrieved the three dead members outside the building before heading back to the staging area. Claire threw her weapon and mask down on the table before holding up her hand and removing the bloody glove. She gritted her teeth as she pulled it off her hand, revealing a bloody gash in her knuckle where a LTL round hit. Cloud looked down at himself to find his uniform bloodied from the inside out, his body stinging painfully. Pete held his neck as blood steamed from it while he regaled horror stories from the killhouse to the sections who hadn't gone in yet.
"That was a very realistic fall you took after getting shot." Claire smirked as she walked up to Cloud.
"That's because it was real. I got hit six times...you?"
"Four times I think." She said as she checked herself over. "Twice in the webbing, once in the knuckle," She said while she held up her bloody hand, "and once in the facemask."
"That's not too bad." Cloud shrugged.
"Not too bad?" Claire asked in disbelief as she held up her knuckle once again. "I'm missing a part of my hand.."
"Strife!" Sergeant Gallagher barked as he entered the room, having just came from the viewing area. "Gather our guys together...we're going to have a little talk about whatever the hell you people just attempted." He growled.
...
Cloud sat in the smoke pit of the killhouse with the rest of his section, wearing nothing but his combat pants and his gray undershirt. He had small band-aids over his various wounds, which had stopped bleeding. The LTL marks were about the size of a dime and the bullets had to be pulled out of the skin. He looked over at Claire whose hand had a bandage wrapped around the knuckles.
"How many times to we have to go back in?" Pete asked as he stared up at the sky and breathed deep.
"Three more times today. Twelve in the next four days." Claire told him as she took a seat between him and Cloud. "Should be fun.."
"Well we can't do any worse then we already did.." Cloud pointed out, "We know the layout, we know how many rooms there are, where one of the trap doors is..." He listed them off. As much as she hated the killhouse and getting shot, Claire would rather be doing that then what they had been doing for the past three weeks. So far they had been learning many new weapon systems but it was when they went to the small training area just outside of the city, did she begin to hate the course. Each day they were made to do countless section attacks, advance to contacts, and whatever else the instructors felt like making them sweat over, many times with their new heavy weaponry. At the end of the day she was always completely drained physically, but so was everyone else.
"I knew it was going to hurt...but not this much." Cloud complained as he pulled back one of the band-aids on his arm and grimaced at the small but deep hole. "It's probably going to scar."
"It will..." Gallagher said to them all as he exhaled cigarette smoke. "You'll have plenty more too before this is all over." He said as he pulled up the sleeves on his shirt, revealing several tiny circular scars that dotted his arms. "Every infanteer has at least a couple...I guess you can say its sort of the mark of the infantryman...a small gift from battleschool."
Cloud blinked and raised his eyebrows in surprise as he stared at his own arm. "In that case, I guess it's not too bad..."
"Yeah," Pete said sarcastically as he reached across Claire and punched Cloud in the arm. "Just wait til you get shot again and you'll be bitching all over again." He grinned as he sat back down.
Claire looked at Cloud before shrugging and nodding in agreement. "He's right..."
"No I'm serious..." Cloud defended as he rubbed his arm where Pete punched him, "They're like little badges of honor.."
"Oh get over yourself." Claire mocked as she rolled her eyes. Cloud smirked and went back to looking at his tiny wounds. They could hear the faint sounds of gunfire coming from inside the building and they knew that they would be going in soon, having to face the onslaught of the painful less then lethal rounds. Claire cocked her head sideways and looked out the front gate of the compound several hundred meters away. The main road that ran at the front of the compound was busy with vehicles driving by and with people walking hurriedly down the walkways. "I hope we get a weekend off sometime.." She sighed as she looked at the road that she used to walk down as a young girl. "My family is a twenty minute walk from here..."
"Give them a call, tell them to come meet you one night once we're done for the day." Pete suggested.
"My house doesn't have a phone. And even so, I couldn't just sneak off, we're confined to barracks. I haven't got in any trouble yet this course and I plan on keeping it that way." She explained.
"They have to give us at least one day off...twenty weeks without a day off is pretty extreme." Cloud pointed out, though he wasn't quite sure. They hadn't gotten a single day off during basic and that was only five weeks shorter. "..and you know, at least you have a small glimmer of hope that you'll be able to go home. The rest of us...we have nothing to really look forward to."
"You can look forward to me being happier if we get a day off, how about that?" She joked with a grin.
"Oh, oh yeah, how could I forget about that?" Cloud replied sarcastically with a shake of his head. She gave him a small wink before resting her head against the wall and closing her eyes. The door to the smoke pit opened at that moment and the section that had just gone through the killhouse emerged, bloodied and heaving.
"How'd it go?" Pete asked Johnny who was the first one he recognized.
"Sucked..." He sniffed, his voice cracking.
Pete frowned as he watched Johnny pace around while he held the top of his hand. "You okay?"
"Yes." He responded quickly and quietly.
Pete squinted and managed to notice Johnny's watery eyes. "Are-are you crying, Ingram?" He laughed.
"No!" Johnny snapped, even though it was quite obvious he was.
"Hey, Ingram's crying." Pete said to Cloud and Claire as he pointed at Johnny.
"Shut up! I got shot in the hand you asshole!" Johnny yelled at him, sounding quite emotional.
"So did I..." Claire said with a frown as she held up her bandaged hand.
"Except she didn't start crying." Cloud snickered as they all poked fun at their course-mate.
"Who's crying?" Sergeant Gallagher asked with a scowl as he walked up to the group.
"Ingram is." Pete told him, unable to control his laughter.
"Ingram!" Gallagher shouted at the boy, "What the fuck is wrong with you? Why the hell are you crying?"
"I got shot in the hand sergeant..."
"Everybody's been shot! What the fuck!" The bald sergeant grew angry as he watched Johnny sniffle.
"Somehow I'm not surprised that out of everyone here...Johnny was the only one who broke down and started crying." Claire smirked as Pete's laughing grew louder. Cloud just smiled and listened to Gallagher yell at the boy from his hometown, finding immense amusement in him crying like a little girl.
Read and Review please. I leave tomorrow for a month so the next update will be in about a month and a half. Still lots to come, so keep reading and let me know what you think!
