Sergeant Dodger looked up at the clock that was hanging at the back of the hangar. It was just after nine in the morning. She looked down at the ninety-nine girls standing at attention. She walked through them and casually sat down on Suzuki's back. She started counting quietly. She would have left Suzuki to keep doing pushups all morning, but the next exercise needed an even number. The other ninety-nine stood at attention and waited, unable to do anything else.
Suzuki was clearly exhausted, but Dodger could tell she was strong for a girl pulled straight out of high school. The added weight wasn't helping her at all, but she managed to pull through in the end. Dodger patted her rear. "You're done. Time for the next drill."
Suzuki collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath. Her sweat mixed with the sandy dust on the ground, and a lot of it ended up stuck to her face. As the Sergeant walked away, Suzuki slowly pushed herself back onto her feet. Hoshino reached over and patted her on the arm.
"You gonna be okay?"
Suzuki nodded and answered, out of breath. "Once… I get… something to eat."
"It's three hours to lunch. I'll keep an eye on you, though. You'll be fine."
Suzuki let out a long sigh at the realization that she'd missed breakfast, but she straightened out her back and stood at attention, waiting to find out what they were doing next. She didn't have to wait long, as the Sergeant stood in front of the formation. She held up her megaphone and spoke so that they could all hear her.
"Front row, third row, fifth, seventh, and ninth rows, I want you to lie down on the ground." She waited until they had all followed that order before issuing the next. "Everyone still standing, you are to pick up whoever is in front of you and carry them to the marker." She pointed out in front of them, beyond where they could see. "When you reach the marker, you switch places and come back. Now get a move on! Last pair back loses their lunch! And I don't want to see you carrying them wrong! Over your shoulders! Move it!"
Yukari didn't need much help from her partner, which was Oryou. Yukari has a decent amount of upper body strength to begin with, and Oryou wasn't very heavy anyway. She stood up with Oryou draped across her shoulders and started stepping around the other girls. Most of them hadn't managed to lift their partners yet. Dodger was coming down hard on anyone who attempted to have their partner climb on top of them. Yukari understood why. This exercise was to carry a wounded comrade, and wounded comrades can't necessarily climb onto your back.
Breaking from the formation, Yukari saw only a few others had made it out ahead of her. As could be expected, Nonna was out in front, carrying Katyusha. Many of the stronger girls from Ooarai, who she would have expected to be ahead, were still waiting for their partners to pick them up. Most of the girls whose partners were having trouble lifting them were shouting about missing out on lunch. The loudest shouting was coming from the Anzio girls.
It was pretty clear that no one was going to catch Nonna, but all they had to do was keep out of last. Yukari had run almost a hundred yards when she saw Nonna scaling a hill up ahead. The others ahead of her had difficulty following, and she saw both Darjeeling and Naomi stumble back. Darjeeling almost dropped the Koala Forest girl she was carrying before catching her balance.
Seeing that everyone was slowing down to try and keep steady footing as they ascended the hill, Yukari pushed herself to go faster. They didn't have the momentum to get up while carrying someone. She charged right past the two older girls, storming up the hill and reaching the top. She had to stop there and regain her balance so she wouldn't just fall forward down the other side. Standing on top of the hill, she saw that the downward slope on the other side was steeper and led to a patch of ground that consisted of thick mud. Nonna was down below, stomping through the mud that was up to her knees.
It was Kinuyo, carrying Mako, who made it up the hill next. She stopped short when she saw the path ahead. "…I'm going to jump down, okay?"
Mako grunted. It didn't sound like she was very fond of the drill.
Kinuyo launched herself off the top of the hill and landed in the mud, instantly sinking in up to her waist and falling face first into it. She slowly pushed herself up, Mako still across her shoulders, and pulled herself out of the mud. Yukari just watched as she crawled across the muddy ground on her knees.
Taking a deep breath, Yukari looked ahead. She could see a flag post in the distance. That had to be the marker. She just had to get to it. She shook her head, reminding herself that the army was not a clean life, and jumped into the mud. By the time she had crawled up out of the mud, she could see Katyusha running back, carrying Nonna over her shoulders. She had a hard time believing how easily the tiny Pravda girl carried her famously tall friend.
Oryou poked Yukari's face. "You had to run up the hill. It's steeper on this side, and I'm going be carrying you through this mud. It'll take us long enough without you wasting time."
"I get it." She pushed herself up onto her feet and started the long run the rest of the way. It was shaping up to be a very long day.
As it turned out, Sergeant Dodger wasn't actually allowed to deny any meals more than once a day. This was great news for Nozomi, who had been part of the last team to return from the drill. After doing pushups for the rest of the morning, as apparently the ones they had done earlier were not scheduled, the girls were finally allowed to use the showers before lunch.
The showers were single-person stalls with only a curtain to pull closed behind you. In the change room next to the showers, Yukari sat down and started untying the laces on her boots. Mako sat down on one side of her, doing the same. Saori sat down on her other side, but instead of mirroring their moves she just leaned on Yukari's shoulder.
"You know, I thought for sure by now we would have met at least a few handsome soldiers. Isn't the army supposed to be full of young men?"
Yukari leaned back so that they were supporting each other while she answered. "The camp is probably just for training Tankery girls. I doubt there are very many men stationed here. Military Police, maybe. Officers."
Mako took off her boots and set them in one of the lockers. She made a distasteful observation as she leaned down to pull off her socks. "There's always Corporal Dex, but he looks a bit too old for you."
Saori sat up straight, as if considering it for a moment. "I mean… and older boyfriend who is a well-established military man. He is an officer, so…"
"Saori? Corporals and sergeants are non-commissioned officers." Yukari shook her head. "It's not the same as a lieutenant or a captain."
"Damn it. You think there would be any of those here?"
Yukari was starting to get the sense that Saori knew next to nothing about how anything in the military worked. She took a deep breath, trying to decide where to start. "There's probably a colonel in charge of the base, but it might not even be a man. If it is a man, he's probably already married. Not to mention most of the armed forces in the world have rules against fraternization between people in the same command."
Mako added, "Plus, he'd probably be fifty. You're technically still only seventeen."
"Ugh…" Saori sat down, defeated in her efforts before they even began. "I don't know what to do with myself."
Mako pulled off her dirty shirt. "I'm taking a shower."
"Yeah." Yukari let out a long sigh, then pulled her shirt off as well. "Shower. I hope there are a few still available."
Just as she said that, Rosehip ran past them into the showers. "Gotta be faster than that if you want to-" As she disappeared through the door, she was cut off by something they couldn't see, followed by several voices shouting over the sound of the running water.
"You idiot! You stepped on Katyusha's soap!"
"Is she okay?"
"Is she alive?"
"Quick! Hide her in one of the stalls! They'll think she just had a heart attack."
"I don't think she's dead."
Yukari stepped into the showers, skirting around Rosehip's motionless form, and ducked into the nearest empty shower stall, pulling the curtain closed behind her. She knew she didn't have to be worried for the girl. She was eighty percent certain Rosehip was fine. …sixty percent.
She stood there with her hand ready to turn on the shower, her mind going somewhere else entirely. Her body was already exhausted, and the day was only half over. There was no telling what was in store for the second half of the day. She had to be prepared for it, but more importantly she had to make sure the others held it together. Saori and Mako seemed like they were handling it all remarkably well, but she didn't know what kind of a facade they had put up. They weren't acting terribly different from what she was used to.
She was worried about Hana. She had started out as optimistic as ever, but that attitude had vanished as soon as her hair was cut. She and Saori had gone through the same haircut under Sergeant Dodger's orders, but Saori didn't seem to be affected by it.
Of course, she was most worried for Maho. She'd gotten to know Miho's sister a little better from the time they worked together against Selection University. She knew the older girl wasn't actually as standoffish as she had acted during the tournament and was acting again now. There was a reason she was acting like that, and it bothered Yukari to not know what that reason was.
She turned on the water, her mind blanking out as she went through the motions of showering. Everything about this place was unfamiliar, and there were all sorts of regulations about how to do just about everything. No one could tell her how to shower, though. It was odd how that was what made the adjustment just a little easier on her. She finished up quickly, wanting to be ready for whatever was next. The moment she pulled the curtain back, someone rushed past her and claimed the stall for themselves.
She got dressed and headed back to the barracks. In the barracks where she had been assigned a bunk, she found mostly girls she didn't know. Maho was there, resting on her bed at the other end from Yukari's. It was going to be hard to talk to her here. The only other person she recognized was Pepperoni, who was in the bed next to hers. The Anzio girl was staring at the wall clock, waiting for the lunch bell.
Yukari decided to talk to her. "I hope lunch is better than breakfast."
Pepperoni sighed. "Funny thing, I enjoyed the taste of one of those things we had for breakfast, but I forget which one. It's been so long, I can't remember what any of them looked like."
"Wow." It occurred to Yukari that she couldn't remember exactly what breakfast looked like either. "I guess it's true that the first day is the hardest."
Erika walked into the barracks and stopped beside them. "The first day is not the hardest. Think of how sore you are right now. Add another half a day to that, and then think about how much it will hurt tomorrow evening when you haven't had the time to properly rest from today."
Pepperoni looked down from the clock. "So which day is the hardest?"
"Probably some day when we're out in the field and we're cornered by gunfire and out of food." Erika cracked a small grin when she saw Pepperoni's eyes widen at the thought of running out of food. "That's where we're headed, you know."
Yukari frowned. "And then someone will say 'at least it's not raining' and it will start raining, but it could easily be worse than that." They both looked at her like they had no idea what she was getting at. She just shrugged. "We're in the army now. There's no guarantee we won't die."
Erika quickly turned away. "You're not wrong, but… but rain is great for lowering visibility. It could easily improve the situation."
"But you can't eat rain."
The lunch bell went off before Erika could respond to Pepperoni's strange observation. She was out the door before a single sound could come out of Erika's mouth. Yukari was up and out the door right behind her. Erika grumbled and followed them, already thinking that the hard part was going to be putting up with them.