3. A Proper Man I Will Be
Katherine could barely recognize her own reflection anymore as she barely caught a look at her reflection in the dirty brown water as she and a dozen other soldiers paced around somewhere in Missipppi. Her curly brown hair was cut short around her ears, her dark brown eyes looked scared, and her usually pink lips were chapped from the cold. She still looked feminine, Katherine couldn't help but think. Even after the awful haircut. She had stolen her father's uniform, but it was still too big on her small frame.
She had bound her breasts using the cloth made from her old corsets and she had made sure that she didn't have any jewelry on, not even a small pendant that her mother had given her for her thirteenth birthday. She honestly was surprise when no one had called her out on the fact that she looked girlish, they had barely looked at her paper or that she was over ten years younger that she was supposed to be.
They must have been desperate for soldiers otherwise they would have surely been more careful. After Katherine had styled her hair in that awful way and had stolen her father's uniform she had departed for the train. The train had carried many other young men towards their destination, the dreaded camps where they would receive military training.
As the train departed from her little town, Katherine could feel her heart sinking. Suppose that this was a bad idea, suppose that someone found out that she was a girl? Or worse that she died. Katherine curled her hands into fists. No, this was not the time to be a coward.
Katherine and thirty other young men had left the train station and were now headed towards their Camp-Camp George Michael where they would begin their first day of training in a two-week session. After that they would go off to war to fight the Yankee's and then that would be that. Katherine would be lying if she said that she didn't have some urge to spill some Yankee blood.
"I'm Matt Donovan." Katherine turned around and saw a cute, blond boy with an eager puppy like looking face. In all honesty he kind of seemed like the boys that often got killed first. But he was nice and cute and Katherine needed some nice and cute guys in her life after all the dead ones that she had been experiencing so far. "I'm from Louisiana, where are you from?"
"Virginia I'm from Virginia from a small town called Mystic Falls," Katherine said trying her best to use her "manly" voice, but it was hard and her voice still sounded a bit squeaky. "I'm K-John, but my friends call me Kat."
"Kat?" Matt asked amused. "Why is that?"
"Just an old childhood game," Katherine said coolly. "Are you in camp George Michael as well?" Katherine desperately wanted to shower, she felt sweaty from her long journey, but she doubted that she would find maid servants once she reached camp.
Matt nodded, he looked miserable and like he would rather be anywhere else than here. "You too, as well? Well at least it will be nice to have some company."
Katherine bit her lip. She doubted that she would find much company in a place where most of the boys died for sport. "Here we are." Matt said. Katherine looked up and saw a camp. It wasn't exactly welcoming and it look downright depressing to Katherine. There were a few sad looking tents, a handmade sigh with George Michael Training Camp, and a small handmade chapel with a small cross. The air stunk that was the first thing that Katherine noticed once they arrived at camp. It smelled like rotten food, blood, and to put it bluntly death.
She felt a chill go down her spine. Maybe this had been a stupid mistake, well it was too late to back out now. She and the rest of the young men went forward to the camp, a stout middle age man greeted them at the entrance. He raised an eyebrow clearly not impressed with the lot that he had been given. "I'm General Julian Marquette. I will be your supervisor and these are the men that will be training you. This in Enzo Williams and Jimmy Pollack. They deserve your respect and they will get it. Now wait until I call your names and you will be assigned to your instructors. Matthew Donovan you will be assigned to Enzo Williams. Clark Crawley you will be assigned to Jimmy Pollack. John Pierce." Katherine stepped forward and Julian stared at Katherine for a few seconds before he said. "You're with Agent Williams."
Katherine's arms and legs ached so bad that she was sure that she was going to burst into tears. She blinked wearily into the handmade calendar that she had made herself before she had left home. She had left home seven days ago, which might as well be seven years.
Katherine felt like she hadn't slept in a while and all Katherine wanted to do was crawl into bed after preferably taking a long bath. The training so far had been brutal and Katherine could hardly feel her limbs. They had done all kind of training possible from pushups to sit ups, to practicing punches, and how to use firearms.
Though Katherine felt like she was severely lacking in what they were expecting from her. Her arms and legs were thinner than most of the men and she was shorter than them too. No doubt that she was the thorn in Enzo's spine. She was currently sitting in a tent and watching some of the men play card games while making horrible jokes, which Katherine had to admit made her giggle.
She saw that Matt had a pen and a piece of paper, she tried deepening her voice to make it sound more manly. "Who are your writing too?"
"My mother," Matt gave her a soft smile. "She must miss me and my sister too. I know that we haven't gone to war yet, but it would be nice for them to have something from me. Do you have anyone special that you could write too," his cheeks flushed. "I'm sorry that was too personal- "
"No it's fine," Katherine said. "I only have my parents though, but I won't write to them, I don't want to worry them."
"Men," Julian barked as all the men turned to face them. "We are going to war tomorrow. Our battle will take place a few feet away from here, the battle of Willow Creek."
"But we've only had one week of training," Katherine tried to keep herself from trembling.
Julian glared at her. "For god's sakes Gilbert you aren't applying to colleges this is a war and the only thing that matters is that you kill as many damn Yankees as you can!"
Katherine felt sick, but she wasn't sure if it was because of the lack of sleep, the nervousness, the lack of hunger or all three. She could tell that the men around her felt the same way, because they all looked sick to their stomachs.
The confederate soldiers were standing to one side and Katherine could see the navy blue coats of the Yankees. Someone raised a flag and then she heard a gun go off. Katherine started panicking as her eyesight was quickly disheveled because of the heavy smoke. She raised her gun and fired not sure that she had even fired at anyone. She turned around and saw Matt standing a few feet away from her. She screamed when she saw his head blow off right in front of her. Blood gushed everywhere, hitting Katherine in the face.
She felt someone grasp the back of her coat and a sharp pain in the back of her head.
-End of Chapter Three-
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