Five days, five chapters! Who else could you say could get chapters out so fast?
Why don'tcha give this a follow, see where the story takes ya? ;)
Tracy huffed and puffed as they ran around 2fort. It was a blistering hot day, and she was suddenly aware of how thankful she was that they slept far under where the heat couldn't scorch them. They were outside the base, at least a few yards out in order to avoid complications from the enemy team becoming involved. The area had been prepped with a small outhouse and shade, with a few benches here and there and what looked like an area for more stationary exercises with blue mats on cement floor.
Doing laps wasn't too bad. Tracy could be pretty fast when she wanted to, but the fact was that she had very little stamina and tired out quickly. She was pleasantly surprised she was just behind Medic, who was the second fastest only to Scout who basically ran circles around everyone else. The slowest was the Heavy and the Soldier, who crawled behind everyone.
But as they ran, the Soldier ordered them all to move faster. At some point Tracy went from running to just barely jogging, and was about at the same pace as the Heavy. Unluckily for her, the Soldier was much more aggressive than he had been earlier. Screaming and hollering, he zeroed in on Tracy the most. Hazing she assumed, since she was the newest member.
"What are you, a PANSY?" He screeched, falling back just slightly to be in step with her. She cringed away, trying her best to run faster. She felt a stitch in her side, the breath escaping her lungs as she held the offending area and tried to push on.
"Yo, I haven't even broken a sweat yet!" The Scout yelled from the front of the pack, a goofy smile on his face. Tracy rolled her eyes and wiped the sweat off her brow.
She took deep, long breaths, trying to keep from collapsing. Her legs were tired and she felt like a headache was coming on.
They moved on from running laps. They began stretches and cardio, which Tracy tried her best to keep up at. She was glad to see she wasn't the only one struggling. A few others such as the Spy and the Medic weren't as physically strong as the others, or incredibly fit. The Spy was taking short and fast breaths, probably due to his habit of smoking every five minutes. He even had one hanging from his mouth as they exercised, but at some point it became extinguished.
The Medic wasn't as worse for wear, but she could see the sweat dripping off his brow as he grimaced.
Thankfully Tracy was allowed a small break for the firing range. She had fired a gun before, although not very often. But she was surprisingly not a bad shot. Of course, it took her awhile to be sure she was aiming correctly, unfamiliar with the pistol in her hands. She was nowhere near the level of expertise as the Sniper however, who barely had to glance through his scope to blast the head off the wooden cut out they were taking turns shooting at.
"Not a bad shot." He commented, but Tracy had a feeling he was being sarcastic. Nevertheless, she thanked him and continued to work on her aim.
While they had the opportunity, someone had snuck off to grab some water. Everyone desperately grabbed at it, and Tracy barely got the bottle when it was just about empty. She took a small sip, handing it to the Medic who nodded gratefully.
"BACK TO IT." The veteran commanded, and they obeyed. Push ups, sit ups, pull ups and the like. She took turns with the Scout holding down each other's feet while doing sit ups. Tracy offered the most to hold people, but felt the judgmental eyes of the Soldier on her back.
Onto pull ups, Tracy was the worst at. She could manage at least twenty push ups and sit ups each, but pull ups were beyond her. She could hang from the bar they had set up, but she couldn't find the strength in her to raise herself any higher than an inch.
The Soldier noticed this and stood beside her, growling and hissing each time she failed to get her chin above the bar. He never got physically rough, but he got pretty close to spitting in her face a couple times. Sweat raced down her face and neck, stinging her eyes. Just as she was about to give up hope, she surged forward in one last ditch effort and even surprised herself when she managed to get above the bar.
The surprise didn't last very long when she unintentionally let go, falling back and just missing the Soldier by an inch.
Tracy groaned, feeling her muscles cry out in protest. She wanted to just lay there, but the man in the helmet didn't accept her defeat.
"If you can't handle a damn bar, how in the EVER LOVING HELL are you gonna survive out there?!" He pointed to the battlefield, and she had to agree with him. She was not fit at all, and it scared her to think about it. If she wasn't fit enough, she would die over and over.
"I'm sorry sir." She groaned and rolled over onto her knees, grunting as the muscles in her legs protested.
"Sorry isn't good enough, MAGGOT. Do you think the enemy will be kind enough to stand by while you stumble to your feet?" He took a step closer, kneeling down to her level. "Because they aren't as nice as I am. NOW MOVE!"
He pulled Tracy by the hem of her turtleneck, hauling her to her feet and shoving her back towards the bar. "Get yer ass back on that bar. You ain't going nowhere until you can do fifty of those damn pull-ups."
Tracy's eyes widened, "Are you crazy?! I could barely do one!"
He stepped forward dangerously, interpreting her response as a challenge. "When I'm done with you, you'll be able to float up the damn thing. I'll stand here until the sun fucking rises, NOW GET TO IT!"
At some point it all became a blur. Perhaps it was dehydration from being forced to withstand the heat for the whole day, with just barely any hydration. Or maybe it was the mind-numbing yelling from the Soldier, and to his word stood right there with her as she struggled to find any sort of stamina left in her.
She hadn't seen who it was, but Tracy hypothesized that someone took pity on her and dropped off some bottled water. But Soldier could be a mean son of a bitch, drinking the water right where she could see him while he said she'd only get a drink if she could get to twenty-five.
When that mark came, she collapsed to a heap and struggled to get air while her lungs burned. She could feel something dripping onto her cheek, and she just barely turned her head to see the Soldier pouring water on her face. Despite how incredibly embarrassing the situation was, Tracy opened her mouth and welcomed it. It cooled her burning skin and her tongue was no longer as dry as the desert she lied on.
Her uniform was now nearly soaked from the waist up, but at least her hands weren't slippery. Soldier hadn't given up on her quite just yet, but allowed her two minutes to recouperate while he went to take a piss around the corner.
Getting up, she struggled to walk towards a wooden bench. Each and every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire, her body screaming for relief. She had nearly fallen asleep when the Soldier came back, slapping her on the shoulder to her dismay.
"C'mon son. If you can manage just fifteen more, I'll give ya mercy." He seemed to have calmed down at some point, having finally realized she was in incredible pain.
Tracy nodded dumbly, hardly comprehending what he said but only recognized the words "fifteen" and "mercy." She went back to it, struggling to lift herself. At this point it was incredibly unlikely she could walk back to the base from here.
She had been drifting off into her own thoughts when the Soldier grabbed her shoulder. She couldn't see his face from under the helmet, but she could see his frown.
"Son, are you alright?" There was genuine concern, which he seemingly tried to hide. She shook her head, the whole earth spinning before her.
Stumbling, she fell towards him and he caught her easily. "I think..." She trailed off, almost dozing, "I think I got... heatstroke?"
"I don't know what that is, but it sounds bad." He remarked. He took the Thief's arm over his shoulder, which she hissed in protest at, while he half dragged and half carried her back to base. Half-way there, he gave up on dragging and picked her up. At that she didn't respond to, leaning her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.
She couldn't remember him walking through the intelligence room before she felt the coolness of the underground. Her head was muddled, everything blurry as someone forced a bottle of water in her hands. In slow motion, she opened it and gulped the whole thing down in one go, dropping it almost immediately.
Tracy could hear people talking, but she couldn't identify who. And she didn't really care either. In some point of time, she had been put down on a couch which she assumed was the one in the living area. Latex gloves prodded and poked at her face, forcefully opening one eye as a light was shown in her face.
"Ugh." She groaned, flinching away from the light and burrowing her face into the couch. The simple movement caused even more pain, and more moans of agony.
"Ach, I cannot get him to lie still." The Medic, from his accent and tone.
"He said heatstroke. Is that bad?" A scratchy voice asked with surprising naivety. The Soldier could be a hard ass, but he was adorably clueless as well. He wasn't exactly dumb, though.
Tracy could hear the Medic carefully explaining the concept to the military man, as if he were conversing with a child. The Soldier grunted in understanding twice and oohed.
"Ah, shit." He grumbled to himself.
"Indeed." Medic replied, exasperation in his voice. "You should count your blessings that you did not kill him. You were out there for what, four hours? You're lucky that Sniper went out there and dropped off a few bottles of water."
"So, he's gonna be alright?"
"Needs rest, at least until the day after tomorrow. No training at all, you understand dummkopf?"
"Yeah, yeah." There was shame in his voice perhaps? Or embarrassment?
Tracy didn't really have time to consider it before she was slipping back into the dark and enticing blanket of sleep.
The Thief awoke in her bed, disoriented to her surroundings. It was dark, but she had just enough light to see to make her way to the light switch. Her muscles felt bruised and battered, especially her arms. It hurt just to articulate her fingers, and her wrists felt like someone had broken each little bone with a hydraulic compress.
She found her door to have been unlocked, her keys having been set on her dresser. She was still in the sweaty and dusty clothes she had worn the previous day, but most appeared to have been dusted off. There was only a little sand in her bed, which she dusted off.
The shower was glorious, the hot water relaxing her muscles and burning away the accumulated sweat from the previous days work. When she was finally done steaming the bathroom up, she struggled to pull on casual clothing as each body part protested the movement.
As she padded barefoot down the hall, she was hit with an uncontrollable hunger. Her mouth watered as she walked as fast as she could without irritating her already agonized body.
Hamburgers had been prepared, and she nearly completely disregarded every other thing other than food when someone grabbed her arm. She yelped in pain, and the hand immediately released. Turning, Tracy was surprised to see the Soldier. She was nearly afraid of him insulting her for not completing the fifty, but she could see he wasn't angry. In fact, she was almost certain he looked... guilty?
"Go lay down on the couch, private. Don't need you walking around anymore than necessary." His voice was startling soft as he escorted the Thief over. The Scout was already present, but scooted over just enough for her to lay down comfortably. The Soldier offered to get her a burger and a drink, and Tracy was quite sure he was trying to make up for the treatment he gave her yesterday.
Tracy nudged the Scout's leg with her foot, "You know, he's pretty nice when he doesn't have a stick up his ass."
"You mean the handle of his shovel." Scout snorted in response, and the both of them laughed.
The two sat in comfortable silence until the Soldier returned with a big burger with literally all the toppings he could find in the kitchen (was that pineapple in there?) and a glass of iced tea. Tracy thanked him, setting the tea on an end table while she dug into the burger. It wasn't bad, but she wasn't really focusing on the flavor. In comparison to eating very little the day before, it tasted like the finest ambrosia.
The Soldier lurked around awhile longer, just to make sure she didn't need anything else before retreating back to his room. Tracy almost felt bad for the man before she remembered he was the one who got her into this, but even still the feeling remained. He didn't intend for her to get to such a state, he just wanted her to be strong enough to withstand the battlefield.
Tracy and Scout spent the rest of the day dicking around, watching television and talking. The Heavy joined in for a little while, since he had already polished his gun named "Sasha." Tracy was surprised at how talkative the Heavy could be once you opened him up a little bit.
"So I was like BONK! See ya!" The Scout had stood from his seat, miming out swinging a baseball bat. He was describing how he had decapitated a Heavy with his bat in battle, which the Heavy laughed at uproariously.
"Little man, you cannot do that to Heavy. Heavy too strong." He slapped his knee.
"Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it." Tracy rolled her eyes, resting her head on her hand as it was propped up on the arm of the couch.
"Well, you will! We have a match scheduled for tomorrow, and since the Doc only gave you one day of rest..." Scout grinned boyishly, but frowned when he saw all the color drain out of her face. "Uh... you okay? Should I get the Medic?"
Tracy didn't respond right away, shivering at the thought of going out on the field so soon. "No... I'm fine. I... just g-got a chill is all."
"A chill?!" A shout from the kitchen. The Soldier immediately charge in with a blanket, throwing it on her before charging away once again. The ridiculousness of the action released all the tension in the room, and the group laughed at the action.
If she was gonna go on the battlefield, at least she had her team behind her.
TBC!
