I just wanted you guys to know. One, No Skipper is not in love with Sara. They are more of long lost friends if you will. And also, Unit nine does not whip, puncture, or beat its soldiers. I know it might've seemed that way but any type of major pain like that will usually come from an enemy. Or Reniku. But Reniku prefers to use his hand made weapons to punish his men. That it why they are obedient. Like Skipper said, Georges punishments will make your body want to fall apart. Oh and to paint a better picture of Colonel George for you guys. He actually isn't always a sour puss. You'll see, don't worry.
"Now what did I tell you boys'?" The Colonel asked strictly.
The four of them were lined up, expecting to be screamed at. But so far. The Colonel was just speaking with a strict tone of voice. That was something right?
No one answered him.
"I do believe I told you strictly, not to leave the unit. Am I correct?" He asked calmly.
They remained silent. Not wanting to get him angrier than he already was. But Skipper knew that anything they did would make him scream at them. He didn't feel like talking. He couldn't get over the look on Marlene's face when they told her they had to leave again. How sad she looked. It was burned into the back of his eyelids reminding him of what this place had ripped him away from.
Kowalski tried to keep his eyes open for the same reason. He felt terrible for having to do that to Marlene. As did Private and Rico.
"Am I correct?" The Colonel repeated, angrier.
"Yes, sir." Skipper replied, knowing that if he didn't no one would.
"And did I not say, and I quote, you will stay here, with out struggling, without any ideas of going back. Am I correct?"
"Yes sir." Skipper replied.
"And I strictly warned you, major, that any of you funny business would not be tolerated. Am I correct?"
Skipper sighed. "Yes, sir." He answered.
"But did you obey me?" George asked.
"No' sir." Skipper replied. He knew that was coming.
"NO!" The Colonel shouted, making all but Skipper jump. "You left anyway! You pulled one of you silly stunts anyway!"
"We were going to come back, sir." Skipper said, trying to save them some cruelty. Trying to save them from some exertion.
"Did I give you permission to speak Major!" The Colonel shouted angrily.
Skippers attempt at reasoning with George failed. "No, sir." He replied.
"Then why are you talking!" He shouted, standing not two feet from Skipper beak.
Skipper was trying not to look the Colonel in the eye. But he could still feel the two fiery eyes burning into him.
"I think you know what comes next Major. Drop and give 3!" He commanded.
"Three.." Kowalski asked. Three wasn't a punishment at all.
"Hundred." The Colonel replied.
"Oh." Kowalski said. Skipper was right. He didn't have to start to know what Skipper was talking about. And he was dreading every minute of this punishment. Colonel George basically made you punish yourself.
"GO!" The Colonel Shouted.
And so they started.
After fifty of them Skipper saw the Colonel walk up to him out of the corner of his eye.
The Colonel bent down, "When you finish, they can be finished as well." And he stepped back.
Skipper knew he would be the only one who could successfully finish everything. If it meant letting Kowalski, Rico, and Private do less, than he had to.
He tried to ignore the burning in his arms. He tried to keep going. But his arms eventually gave out. He made it to 283 though. Only 17 left. But he needed a ten second break. He could do all 300. Just, not all at once. When he was younger, he would have to deal with Colonel Georges screaming for thirty seconds before he could finish. But now, ten seconds would be enough.
"Why'd you stop Major!" The Colonel shouted. "Keep going!"
Skipper got back up and kept going, fighting off every urge to collapse. And he was successful. He made it to 300…then he collapsed.
"Stop." The Colonel ordered. "Now flip and give me 200."He commanded.
Two hundred sit ups. Kowalski, Private, and Rico fell back before they hit 100. But the Colonel didn't seem to care about that. He was waiting for Skipper to stop. Because he wanted to see how much stringer the Major had gotten. How much more he could do before he needed a strictly short break. Now lasting only ten seconds. He knew he should be screaming at the lieutenants. But he was watching the Major. So he knew how hard he could push the major now.
Skipper did every one. All 200 sit ups without stopping. He surprised himself with that. He thought he would have to stop at least once. But he didn't.
The Colonel was surprised he made it. The Major never made it without stopping at least once. But he couldn't stop to think about it. "Stairs." He ordered. "200. Every time you hit the bottom is one."
He stood at the bottom watching them. This time he would yell at the lieutenants. But he was still watching the Major.
The stairs were continuous. It went straight, but its height was equal to five flights of human stairs. They were located along the side of the first training area. Forty feet away were bars of multiple sized and uses. And next to those were walls. Five walls standing next to each other. Each wall got harder. The first having multiple hand and foot grips and the last one having very few hand and foot grips. After those there were a lot of movable training equipment. Weight sleds, fire rings, tires that soldiers had to flip. They couldn't roll the tires. The tires had to be flipped. There were also obstacle courses. Most had things to climb over and craw under and things to jump across. Unit nine didn't retrieve a lot of help from the Army general or the Global General. They had to make everything themselves. The only thing they were supplied with was the guns. And only the General knew why.
Kowalski fell at the bottom stair on his 98th time down. He didn't want to get back up. He ached. His arms hurt. His stomach was killing him. His side hurt, and his legs wanted to fall off.
"Get back up soldier!" The Colonel shouted.
Grunting, Kowalski got back up and ran up the stairs again.
Private kept falling. But he got back up right away, or as fast as he could, to avoid being yelled at. The Colonels voice was louder than Skipper's ever was. It was scary.
Rico fell a few times. But he jumped back up. Also not wanting to be screamed at.
The only time Skipper fell was on his last time down. His 200th climb. As he was running back down his legs gave up. It was like they said 'nope, we're done' and stopped working. He was on the top too. Not even a quarter of the way down. But he tumbled all the way down. Grunting every time he hit another step. He tumbled down in a continuous forward flip. And he couldn't stop himself. He tumbled right passed Kowalski. Passed Rico, and nearly hit Private. But Private jumped out of the way.
They all stopped and watched him, tumbling down the stairs, in a continuous flip.
To add to the endless tumbling flip he was in, Skipper continued to go, like a cars weal, into the wall of the training area. He hit the cold, rock solid, cave wall face first and fell onto his back.
The Colonel just watched as the Major spun passed him. He didn't exactly know what to do about that. He never had a soldier do that before. But he slid over to Skipper.
Skipper moaned. That hurt. He didn't whack his head on a stair though. That was good. But he hit everything else. He squeezed his eyes shut in pain. Every part of his body hurt. His head still hurt from hitting the wall. He felt nauseous, from the continuous spinning. And when he opened his eyes everything had a twin. The Colonels face appeared. No, two of the Colonel face appeared upside-down. Skipper moaned again. "Does that count?" He asked with a pained voice.
The Colonel gave him a confused look. Skipper had just tumbled down five flights of stairs, face planted into that wall of the cave, and he was asking if that counted? It did count, But the Colonel was confused. Shouldn't he be, unconscious? "Does this happen a lot?" He asked.
Skipper picked himself up off the floor and looked at the Colonel. It was an honest question. But the Colonel should be angry. Not curious. "No. Hitting walls do though." Skipper replied.
The Colonel shook his head. "I-I don't want to know. Just get back over there Major. But yes that counts." The Colonel stated.
Skipper walked over to Kowalski, Rico, and Private. They all knew he was ok. If he wasn't ok then he wouldn't be standing there. But Kowalski couldn't help asking.
"Yes. I'm fine, Kowalski." Skipper replied.
"Bars!" The Colonel shouted as he walked back over.
Skipper sighed. This was never going to end.
They all went over to the bars and did pull-ups. They weren't given a number so they just did as many as they could. Then had to struggle to do more.
The Colonel was going to go over and give them a number. But he was interrupted.
"Colonel." General Sara said sternly walking into the room. They were far enough away that Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private couldn't hear them.
"General. What are you doing here?" The Colonel asked surprised. He didn't expect to see her at this hour.
"I was just about to ask you the same Colonel. There is a strict rule of not training before five am. You are aware of this I hope." The General replied calmly, but with authority.
"I am well aware of that ma'am. But I am not training. It is punishment for their little trip home." The Colonel explained.
"Hmm. I see. When did they start?" The General asked calmly.
"They started at two hundred." The Colonel answered.
"Are you aware of the time Colonel?" The General asked. "It is three thirty. And they look exhausted. Running from here to New York City is a long way no?" She stated watching one of them fall off the bars. He didn't even attempt to get back up.
"It is a very long span of distance." The Colonel agreed respectfully.
Private was the one who fell off of the bars. He couldn't hold himself up anymore. His body was screaming at him. He ached everywhere. Every muscle was cursing at him with pain that seemed to thump with the rapid beat of his heart. He couldn't take this anymore. He wanted to go home. He wanted to be able to sleep and relax and see human friendly faces. He missed everything already.
The next to fall was Kowalski. His entire body wanted to fall apart. His legs were cursing him, his arms were screaming at him. Every muscle in his stomach was killing him. He didn't like this place. It had no science in it at all. It was just work work work, prepare for death, work out, sleep and repeat. He wanted to go home.
Rico fell after Kowalski. He didn't like this punishment. He liked Skippers punishment. He liked having to do things. He didn't like the workouts he didn't like the exertion. He didn't like how every part of his body felt like they were trying to kill him. He didn't like the loudness of Colonel George's voice. He didn't like not being able to go home. He didn't like the thought of war. Where they could die. He didn't like that thought at all. He just wanted his bunk back at the HQ. He wanted to be back at the zoo. He wanted to be back home.
Skipper didn't fall. Yet. But he shared the thoughts. He didn't want to go into a war where they could die. He didn't want to just train and work and sleep and repeat. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to be constantly screamed at by the Colonel. He wanted to be back at the Zoo. That's where they belonged. Not here. Not in this hole of hell.
"I think they can be dismissed now Colonel." The General stated as she watched the last man fall from the bars. "Even those who disobey must get some rest."
"Yes Ma'am." The Colonel replied. "Dismissed!" He shouted. He watched them all wearily get up and follow Skipper, or who he thought was Skipper, down a hallway.
"Find out why they really left Colonel. And Report it to me when you find out." She ordered.
"Will do General." The Colonel answered cautiously. The General never asked him to do things like that. Those things he just did. Those things he did because he had the need to know. And he was planning to find out. Because he did remember what the Major had said. They were going to come back. So they knew they would have to. But then why did they leave? Why didn't they just stay at the Unit? There was no reason to leave then.
He didn't know what they went back for. But he would find out. That, he was sure of.
When they got back to their room Skipper and Rico took the top bunks. They still had enough strength to get up there. Private was in too much pain to do anything but flop down onto the bed. It wasn't fluffy or anything. But it had a certain softness to it. Or maybe that was just his body being sick of the rocky ground of the cave. He couldn't really tell. He was just glad to be on a softer surface than the training area's floor. And his body seemed to like it too. Because it stopped thumping with the beat of his heart. He was asleep in seconds.
Kowalski didn't let his mind analyze anything. He just felt instant relief from the pain when he laid down on the bed. And he let that relief put him to sleep. He too was asleep in seconds.
Rico was too. He didn't care about anything else. His body agreed to leave him alone when he hit his head on the pillow. So he fell asleep while the pain took a short retreat.
Skipper laid on his back looking up at the ceiling. He had the past few hours playing like a movie in his mind. The chase, giving the news to Marlene, her reactions, the punishment, everything. But after a while he too fee asleep.
The running and the punishment had whipped them all out so much, that fell into a deep sleep. So deep that they didn't hear the morning alarm go off, telling them to go to the training area. They slept through it. Their bodies didn't want to wake up. Their bodies didn't want to go work out. And their bodies had convinced their brains to ignore the alarm. To let them sleep in. and so they did.