Chapter 3: The Tryout (Part 2)
September 10, 2010
Charlotte, North Carolina
Friday had finally arrived, Eryn got out of his bed and did his usual routine of getting ready for school. Since the second tryout wasn't in the morning, Eryn had a lot more time on his hands. After getting ready for school, he headed downstairs to have breakfast. His mom was already downstairs cooking scrambled eggs and bacon, she turned and saw Eryn.
"Good morning sleepyhead!" Eryn's mom teased.
"Morning, mom." Eryn replied. "What's for breakfast?"
"Scrambled eggs plus some bacon, can you set up the table please?"
Eryn got some placemats and laid them out on the table, then he grabbed three plates with utensils and distributed those around as well. His mom put the two pans containing the food on the table. The two then sat down and started to enjoy their meals, the scrambled eggs were light and fluffy while the bacon provided a crispy contrast to the eggs; a simple yet effective breakfast.
"Mom, where's dad?" Eryn asked.
"He had to leave again." Eryn's mom explained. "I also have to leave for work soon."
"Oh, I see." Eryn said, disappointed.
Eryn's mom noticed this, she got up from her seat and kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry, we'll be back sooner this time."
"Alright," Eryn replied, he checked his phone and looked at the time. It was 7:30. "Mom, I'm gonna head out for school now!"
"Okay, bye Eryn." Eryn's mom waved.
Eryn hugged his mom before going to the front door, he slipped on his shoes and exited the front door.
The sun was already out, which made the walk to school much more peaceful than when he had to run because he thought he was late. Eryn was happy he didn't bring that part up with his parents, he wouldn't hear the end of it. With the walk being more peaceful, Eryn himself felt more at ease. The gentle wind blew against his skin as he walked towards the school.
After a couple more minutes of walking, Eryn arrived at the school. He entered through the front door and scanned the foyer, many students were walking to their classes with their friends and talking each other. Eryn didn't recognize anyone in the area, so he walked to his first class. Unbeknownst to Eryn, Jonathan had seen him and was creeping up on him, Eryn was unsuspecting to what was about to happen.
Jonathan jumped on top of Eryn, which caused him to go tumbling toward the ground. However, Eryn managed to regain his composure and balanced himself. Jonathan had barely managed to get over Eryn, but he couldn't make his landing and fell onto the floor. Eryn looked down at Jonathan, and started laughing.
"You suck at that!" Eryn taunted.
"Oh shut up, I'll get you one day." Jonathan rebutted.
"More like never."
"We'll see."
The two giggled and walked together towards the end of the hallway, their first class of the day was English. Eryn entered the class and saw that Kay, Lillie and Tomas were all sitting down talking with each other. Kay saw the two and called out to them.
"Yo, come over here we gotta talk about something." Kay said.
"Aight." Eryn and Jonathan replied. They both walked towards the group and sat down.
"What is it?" Eryn wondered.
"It's about todays Tankery tryout." Lillie answered. "I know what's gonna happen."
"Oh crap, what's happening?" Jonathan said.
"Lots and lots of physical stuff." Kay answered sheepishly.
"Yikes," Eryn responded.
Eryn took one glance at the group and could immediately see what they were feeling; they were all anxious. Eryn wondered to himself if it was about it being a tryout or what they were supposedly doing in the tryout.
"Are you guys okay?" Eryn asked. There was silence for about 30 seconds.
"Yeah, it's just-" Kay paused.
"Physical testing in Tankery is apparently like military training." Jonathan explained.
Eryn's heart sank, he now understood the reason to why everyone was down. His thought immediately went towards the tryout, all he could think about was how gruesome it could be. What if they made them all do thousands of exercises non stop? What if they- Eryn smacked him self on the forehead.
"I need to stop overthinking." Eryn thought to himself.
The rest of the morning leading up to lunch was filled with anxiety and fear, as the bell rang to signify the lunch period, that feeling was still in place. Eryn could only hear people talking about todays tryout as he was getting his food. After getting their food, the group sat at their table in silence. Eryn got tired of the silence and spoke up.
"Guys, I really don't think it'll be that bad." Eryn reassured.
"Hopefully." Tomas responded.
"Yeah." Kay said with a monotone voice.
Eryn sighed to himself, there was no way they were going to make the team if everyone was acting like this. He was also suspicious about how they found out about the tryout.
"How did you guys even find about what was going to happen anyway?"
"Lillie said she overheard Mr. Moran and the staff talking about the tryout." Kay said.
"Care to go in depth, Lillie?" Jonathan asked.
"Sure" Lillie responded.
(A few hours ago)
Lillie walked down the hallway towards her art class, she had made arrangements with her teacher that allowed her to come over to school early to finish her project, which was due today. The art room was all the way at the end of the hallway, meaning that there were a lot of rooms that came before it; one of these rooms happened to be Mr. Moran's room.
As Lillie passed by Mr. Moran's room, she heard Mr. Moran and a few others talking about todays tryout. Immediately, she hid beside the door and eavesdropped the conversation.
"Hmm," Mr. Moran droned. "We're going to test the students physical ability in todays tryout, correct?"
Sounds of agreement rang throughout the room. After a couple of seconds, the sound died down. Mr. Moran started to speak again.
"That concludes todays meeting, meeting adjourned!"
Lillie quickly sped to her art class in hopes of not getting caught overhearing. However, Mr. Moran exited the classroom first and saw Lillie walking down the hallway. He looked at Lillie suspiciously, and then called at her.
"Hey, you!" Mr. Moran called.
Lillie stopped in her tracks and gasped. She turned and saw Mr. Moran looking at her, he was clearly suspicious as to why she was at school so early.
"Hi, Mr. Moran." Lillie stuttered.
"Hello," Mr. Moran responded. "Lillie, correct?"
"Yea, thats me." Lillie said.
"Why are you at school so early, Lillie?" Mr. Moran asked.
"I'm here to finish my art project, Mrs. Jackson allowed me to come in early."
"I see, can I see your project?"
Lillie unraveled the rolled up poster. Mr. Moran looked at it for a while, he saw what the project was; it was a tank.
"Ooo-" Mr. Moran said. "A Churchill tank."
"Mhm!" Lillie responded proudly. "Still haven't colored it yet though."
"Well, it looks great. You should probably head to your art class now."
"I will, bye Mr. Moran!"
(Flashback ends)
"And that was that." Lillie finished.
"Hmm, alright." Eryn said. He was satisfied with Lillie's story.
The lunch bell rang, the group started to finish up what was left of their meals and headed to their next classes. As the day went on, Eryn could only stare at the clock in each class room, he kept reminding himself of how much time until the tryout happens. The dismissal bell finally rang, and all the students poured out to head home, or in Eryn's case; headed to the garage. Eryn got up and walked out of the classroom, he got out his phone and started texting in the group chat.
Eryn S: yo we should all meet up and then go to the garage
Kay D: thinking same thing
Lillie S: Okay.
Tomas M: aight
Jonathan H: where tho
Eryn S: foyer?
Kay D: sure
Jonathan was the first one at the foyer, he found an empty table and sat himself down. He waited patiently for the others to come, he looked down at his feet and thought to himself.
"Can I do this?" He thought. Jonathan's thoughts were washed away as a certain blonde head was currently waving at him.
"Earth to Jonathan?" Kay bugged.
"Oh, hi Kay." Jonathan replied.
"You good? We gotta go."
"What about Eryn and everyone else?"
"They changed their mind," Kay said, she pulled Jonathan up. "Let's go!"
"Alright, alright." Jonathan replied,
The two walked towards the main garage, where the tryout would take place. As they got closer and closer, Jonathan became more anxious about the tryout. To hide it, he slumped his head down and walked faster. Kay had noticed this, and became increasingly worried, she grabbed his shoulder and rested her hand on it.
"Hey, is something wrong Jonathan?" Kay questioned.
Jonathan looked back up and stared at Kay, she looked puzzled.
"Do you remember our promise?" Jonathan started.
Kay gasped and finally realized what was troubling Jonathan, her mind went back into the past.
(7 years ago)
July 4, 2003
Los Angeles, California
Independence Day; a holiday that celebrates the birth of the United States. Many were having their festivities long into the night, whether it'd be lighting up fire crackers on the streets, or some good old partying. For two particular blonde heads, it was the latter option, both of their families along with some others were really close with each other. Partying during Independence Day had become a tradition for them now. The families would meet up on the fourth, and party like there was no tomorrow. The adults would crash the couch and living room to watch some football while the kids would all go to the backyard.
As soon as his family arrived, Jonathan dashed towards the backyard. He wanted to see all of his friends. He flung open the back door, all of his friends were present and were playing like there was no tomorrow. One of them noticed Jonathan, and bolted towards him. Jonathan was scanning the group of kids before he got blindsided by a blonde missile, the two tumbled towards the ground.
"Ugh, my head." Jonathan groaned. He peered to his sides to find out who tackled him, he found nobody.
"Get up Jonathan!" A voice cheerfully called out. Jonathan looked up and saw who it was; it was Kay, she raised her hand to help him up.
"Kay, I should've known it was you." Jonathan said. He reached for Kay's hand and was pulled up. The two blondies walked towards the group of kids that were playing and joined in too.
"Kay!" A girl with brown hair tied into two pigtails shouted. "We're gonna play tag!"
"Okay, Jonathan let's go!"
Kay yanked Jonathan's arm and dragged him towards the army of kids that were participating in tag. After doing a "mutual" consensus of whoever should be it, the army of kids spread out through the cul-de-sac.
"This isn't fair!" A girl named Alisa whined.
"Sucks to suck!" Another girl named Naomi rebutted.
After a couple hours of playing, the kids were called to the house to eat. The backyard was filled with a meat like smell as hotdogs and hamburgers were grilled. Kay and Jonathan raced towards the grill to get their servings first. After getting their food, the two entered the house where their parents were, they looked to their left and saw that the T.V was being crowded by nearly all of the adults, including their parents.
"What do you think they're watching?" Kay asked.
"Probably another rerun of Top Gun." Jonathan replied.
The two squeezed through the crowd of adults and saw what was on the T.V. Kay and Jonathan watched in amazement as two tanks were dueling it out at what looked like a desert, one bore a black cross while the other bore a white star. The tanks were so close to each other where the crew would might as well knife fight, shells exploded everywhere, with them either ricocheting or failing to penetrate the oppositions armor. Jonathan looked at his Dad to ask him about the T.V.
"What is this Dad?" Jonathan said.
"Tankery, a sport played using military vehicles." His dad responded.
"Wow." Jonathan remarked in awe, he looked to his left and saw that Kay had the same expression as he did.
The tanks were still dueling each other, a dance of fire and steel. The tension was at an all time high when suddenly, a third tank had appeared. It took aim at one of them, with the black cross, and fired. The latter tank jolted backwards, and a white flag popped out with a thud. Immediately, the living room erupted in a round of cheers and applause, Kay and Jonathan looked at each other confused, but then also started cheering as well. After the excitement died down, Kay went towards her dad and asked about Tankery.
"Dad, can I do Tankery?" Kay asked. Her dad looked at her in surprise, and then a face of pride appeared on his face. He crouched down to Kay and hugged her.
"Of course you can Kay!" Her dad said.
Kay's face beamed with glee, she reciprocated the hug for a couple more seconds before letting go.
"I'm gonna ask Jonathan if he wants to do it too!"
"Okay honey!"
Kay walked towards Jonathan, she saw that he was also asking his parents about it as well. She waited until he stopped talking to approach him. Kay got closer, and tapped Jonathan on the shoulder, he turned around and faced her.
"Are you doing Tankery too?" Jonathan asked.
"Mhm!" Kay responded.
"Yes!" Jonathan said, He raised his pinky finger up to Kay. "Kay, let's become stars, alright?"
She raised her pinky as well, and they made the promise.
(Flashback ends)
Kay looked at Jonathan once more and rubbed his shoulder. "We got this, we're together in this."
"What if we don't make it?"
"We WILL, Jonathan."
The two made it outside the main building, and headed towards the garage. There, they saw that Eryn, Tomas and Lillie were waiting for them a bit farther than the entrance, they were separated from the main group of students that were waiting to enter the garage. Kay observed that nearly half of the students from the first tryout didn't make it.
"What took you guys so long?" Eryn asked.
"Sidetracked." Jonathan said.
"Well, you guys aren't late, so I guess thats good." Lillie added.
The garage started to open, and the group quickly made their way to the main garage door. A little while later, Mr. Moran and two assistants came out, Like last time, he pulled out a megaphone to speak in.
"Welcome, to the second and final tryout for the Tankery team." Mr. Moran announced.
"Firstly, I'd like to congratulate all of you for making it to the second tryout, out of the 187 students that participated, only 90 of you remain."
Eryn looked behind him, there was in fact way less people than in the first tryout. He started to over think about this tryout, but he managed to stop himself in an attempt to avoid what had happened during the first tryout, he looked back towards Mr. Moran and kept listening.
"Today, we're going to test your physicality and push you to your limit, so be ready."
Once again, Eryn looked behind him. Most of the students had expressions of either fear or uncertainty, he couldn't lie about being fine when he himself was also scared. After a couple more minutes of briefing the tryout, Mr. Moran finished his speech, he walked in between the crowd and gestured them to follow him.
The crowd obliged, and followed him. They were led to the front of the school, Mr. Moran pointed towards a path that trailed along side the school perimeter and intertwined between some residential buildings and neighborhoods; the path is 3 miles long.
"I want all of you to run this path!" Mr. Moran commanded.
The crowd of students looked at each other in confusion, and whispers were heard around the area. Eryn tried to find his friends, but couldn't find them in the hoard. Eryn was then yanked by the arm and dragged down the path, he turned around and saw that it was Jonathan.
"C'mon!" Jonathan said. Eryn stabilized himself and ran at a jogging pace along with Jonathan.
"Where's everyone else?" Eryn asked, he and Jonathan were about 100 yards from the starting point.
"I don't know," Jonathan replied, he looked behind him and saw that Tomas was closing in on them. "Actually, Tomas is right there."
Eryn looked behind them and saw that Tomas in fact was behind them.
"Yo," Eryn greeted.
"Hey." Tomas panted. "Kay and Lillie aren't too far from us."
The three were now at the front, leading the hoard of students down the path. After the 1/4 point, Eryn, Jonathan and Tomas all slowed down to a light jog, and by the half way point, they were extremely tired and on the verge of collapse. Fortunately for them, they were still leading the group.
"Guys, we need to stop." Tomas groaned, he was barely raising his feet as he walked.
"No," Jonathan replied desperately. "We gotta keep moving."
"Jonathan, we're literally about to die." Eryn said.
"Fuck, we should." Jonathan said as he collapsed onto the ground, panting for air. Eryn and Tomas also crumbled down and they both looked behind them, there was nobody in sight.
"We're probably at least a mile away." Eryn noted as he looked back at the path, his eyes widened, as he saw two figures jogging towards them. Eryn notified Tomas and Jonathan, the three watched as the figures got closer and closer, to their upmost surprise; it was Kay and Lillie.
Kay and Lillie reached them and crumbled onto the ground. The two of them were desperately gasping for air. After a couple of minutes, they sat themselves up and looked at the three of them.
"So-" Lillie said. "We're the ones in front, us five I mean."
"Mhm." Everyone replied.
"Where's everyone else?" Jonathan asked.
"Ohmygod you should have seen it!" Kay started. "Lillie and I were in the middle of the convoy, as soon as we hit the 1/4 point, people started dropping like flies."
"How did you two get here before everyone then?" Tomas questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"We took a short cut." Kay responded nonchalantly.
"Aight, well we gotta get going now, just one more mile guys." Eryn encouraged, Lillie and Kay groaned at this.
The group then started jogging down the path, this time at a slower pace. Eryn led the group, he wanted to keep a moderate pace so that if he had extra fuel, he would blast it towards the finish. After a couple more miles of jogging though, this thought was immediately relinquished, as he was starting to run out of steam. The others were also starting to wind down.
"C'mon guys," Jonathan groaned. "We're almost there."
"I can't feel my legs." Lillie whined.
After what seemed like an eternal suffering, the group had finally spotted the school, they all breathed sighs of relief and sped up.
"Oh my god, it's there!" Jonathan said.
"Jesus Christ-" Kay gasped, she started slowing down.
Lillie noticed this, and grabbed her hand to pull her along, she herself started to lose steam. Tomas, Eryn and Jonathan all looked back and knew what to do, they all held hands, with Tomas' hand latching onto Lillie's. They all started pulling each other like a train and their pace had increased to running.
The group let out a roar before full on blitzing it towards towards the line. Mr. Moran watched them with pride, as they got closer and closer. After a grueling sprint towards the line, they all made it to the starting point. Jonathan tripped, which caused a chain reaction, all of them lost their balance and collapsed on top of each other.
"Guys," Eryn said. "We fuckin did it."
"Hooray." Kay responded with a monotone voice, before passing out.
"Can all of you get off of me?!" Jonathan shouted.
They all rolled off of Jonathan's limp body and spread out through the cement. Mr. Moran looked at the five of them and chuckled.
"Well, congratulations!" Mr. Moran congratulated. "The run should've take you guys about an hour or more, but you did it in 45 minutes!"
The response Mr. Moran got should have been expected, except he didn't. The students didn't reply at all to their feat, they were all gasping for air or passed out.
"Yikes," He said. "Mrs. Jackson, can you get some water for these folks?"
After a couple of minutes, Eryn had got up from the floor. Mr. Moran was waiting for him at the door, he gestured him to come inside.
"Get some water inside." He said.
Eryn obliged, and walked inside the main building. He saw that all his friends were sitting down at a table in the foyer, drinking what seemed to be inhumane amounts of water. Surprised, Eryn crept to the table and sat himself down. Tomas and Jonathan were squirting water into their mouths while Kay and Lillie seemed to have a drinking competition. He grabbed a glass and poured some water.
More and more students had finally started appearing. They looked extremely tired and dehydrated, but were fine. After the last batch of students entered, Mr. Moran scanned the crowd, the students were all getting some much needed rest and hydration, he gave them a couple more minutes of relaxation before moving on to the next and final part of the tryout.
"Alright, rest time is over." Mr. Moran announced. "Everyone follow me to the garage."
The students complied, and followed Mr. Moran. After a short walk in the main courtyard, they were back at the garage, Mr. Moran tapped on the main garage door. A few seconds passed, and the door creaked open. The students finally got a peek of what contents were in it, mouths drooled, jaws dropped, eyes widened; Tanks upon tanks were lined up it neat rows of five spread across four columns. Each tank was covered in an fantastically well done olive drab or metallic grey paint job, all of them polished and ready for action.
Eryn looked at the tanks in utter awe, he never knew that the school was this loaded on armored vehicles. He turned to his friends and unsurprisingly, they were also gawking at the tanks.
"Chaffee, Sherman, Matilda, Stuart, Panzer IV, T-34- Oh man I'm so pumped!" Kay mumbled.
"It's the home stretch, we got this." Jonathan said.
Mr. Moran gave the students some more time to look at the tanks, he knew that they were all astonished by them, this also gave him some time to do some head counting. He counted 80 students, this meant that there were going to be around 16-20 tanks, depending on which tanks were used. Mr. Moran again, reached for his microphone and called out to the students.
"Attention!" Mr. Moran announced. The students stopped whatever they were doing and looked at him.
"Now, there are 80 of you left, meaning that 10 students had withdrawn, or died."
The students looked at him in surprise and shock. Mr. Moran started giggling to himself.
"I'm just joking," He reassured. "Now, get into groups of 4 or 5, once you have a group, sit down."
The crowd immediately started reorganizing themselves to accommodate Mr. Moran's request. Eryn turned towards his friends, and gathered them all into a group huddle.
"Us 5?" Eryn said.
"Mhm," They all agreed, the group sat themselves down and waited for the next instructions.
Now that there were groups of 4 or 5 that were organized with each other, Mr. Moran and his staff handed each group a card that read: DO NOT OPEN (yet). After each group got a card, Mr. Moran allowed everyone to open it, the group's card read a string of numbers, instructions and five positions. These positions were: Loader, Gunner, Commander, Driver and Assistant driver.
"What do the instructions say?" Jonathan asked.
"It says-" Lillie said. "Put each name of your group into the boxes that correspond with each role, the serial number at the top of the page correlates to your assigned tank, after finding out your roles, you may proceed to it and wait for further instruction."
"Alright!" Kay exclaimed. "Role time!"
"I call driver!" Tomas said.
"Gunner for me!" Kay added.
"I'll uh-" Jonathan said. "I guess I'll take loader."
"I'll just take assistant driver." Lillie confirmed.
"That means I'm commander." Eryn realized, he took the letter from Lillie. "Let's see what our tank is."
The group walked around the garage looking for their tank, the number was 13. They walked past other groups already on their tank, chatting away in excitement for what was to come. After walking around in the columns, they found their tank; it was an M24 Chaffee. They all took a moment to look at it in all of its glory, the most noticeable thing that was present was the large dozer blade on the front. There were mounting points that held it in place, meaning that the front had been modified to accommodate it.
Eryn walked to the side of the tank and looked at the tracks, they were tightened and provided a good climbing point. He took advantage of this and climbed onto the tank, and then onto the turret. Eryn looked around the garage and saw everyone still finding out their tanks, the top of the turret provided a good viewing point of the garage. Everyone else had also climbed on top to see what was happening.
All of the students had finally managed to get themselves sorted with their designated crews and tanks. Mr. Moran and his staff all lined up in a row, with Mr. Moran getting out his trusty megaphone.
"Alright, drivers and radio operators, head over to Mr. Poole on my right."
The staff member with a beret raised his hand and gestured with his hand to follow him. Tomas and Lillie got off the turret and followed the crowd of students that trailed behind Mr. Poole.
"Now, loaders and gunners go over to Mr. Fletcher and Ms. Jackson to my left."
Kay and Jonathan dropped down from the turret and jogged towards the two teachers, leaving Eryn alone on the turret.
"And finally, commanders with me." Mr. Moran said.
Excited, Eryn got off the turret and swung down towards the ground using the Chaffee's barrel, he followed the crowd of students, squeezing through the students to eventually get to the front of the crowd. Mr. Moran led the students to his personal classroom, which was connected to the main garage via a hallway, he gestured the students to take a seat and to wait. He went over to his desk and grabbed some papers and binoculars, he then went to each student and handed them a paper and binoculars before going back to his desk and sitting down.
"Today, we're going to learn the basics to being a commander, such as basic commands, how to estimate range and how to make well informed decisions." Mr. Moran said, putting an emphasis on "well informed".
The students listened carefully, as Mr. Moran started to explain the basics of what a commander does, and how they contribute to the operating of the tank.
"The commander is essentially the brain of the tank, they tell what the tank should do through their crew, like how the brain commands your body movements." Mr. Moran explained.
"To achieve success with your crew, you have to be one with them and your tank. So build some chemistry with your crew, be friends with them!"
The students all nodded and replied with yes. Mr. Moran walked up to his white board and grabbed a marker, he started making two lines, one that was horizontal and one vertical. He then added some marks that stretched across each line. Eryn watched in curiosity as what Mr. Moran started drawing started to resemble a reticle of some sort.
"This is a binocular sight." Mr. Moran said. "And we're going to learn how to estimate range using binoculars, so get your binoculars out and follow my steps."
Eryn picked up his binoculars, he peered into it and saw many different ticks, lines and numbers. He looked out of them and saw that everyone else was fidgeting with the binoculars or doing the same thing he was. Mr. Moran let everyone get some time with them before grabbing their attention and explaining how to properly use them, he walked over to his desk and grabbed his own pair before walking back to the white board.
"Firstly, there are two lines that go from top to bottom and side to side. These are your horizontal and vertical references, the small and large lines are called milliradians, or mils." Mr. Moran explained.
"The smaller mils represent 0.5 of a normal mil, while the larger one represent a normal one."
The lecture was as boring as it could get for an average teenager, as most of the upcoming commanders had dozed off or fell asleep aside from a select few, which included Eryn. After a couple more minutes of binoculars 101, Mr. Moran erased the board and put 5 questions on the board, this grabbed the attention of all of the students as they looked towards the board to scan the questions.
"These are practice questions that involve using the range formula, put the answers on your paper and I will check it in- 10 minutes." Mr. Moran said.
Eryn looked at the whiteboard and did the range calculations. He finished 4 out of the 5 questions easily, perhaps due to his calculator, Eryn was about to finish the last question when Mr. Moran appeared in front of him. Mr. Moran looked at Eryn, and then his calculator.
"Uhhh-" Eryn droned. "Was this supposed to be mental math?"
"Nope, but you ain't gonna have one of these in battle." Mr. Moran responded before taking his calculator. Regardless of having a calculator or not, Eryn still solved the last question with ease.
Mr. Moran took the sheets off each student's desk and graded them. He was impressed to see that most of them had 80% or higher, it didn't really matter if anyone got below that since they will enhance this skill over time, if they do make the team that is. After all this, Eryn started to wonder what everyone else was doing.
Outside in the training field
"Fire!" A voice rang out.
Dozens of field guns went off, as the rounds impacted multiple targets, from hills to targeting boards. Shells were immediately ejected from the field guns, clanging to the ground as a pile was gradually built up from previous firing orders. Kay was operating one of these guns with a significant amount of difficulty. She had managed to hit the target sometimes, but most of her shots had fell short. Jonathan however, was having an easy time. All he had to do was identify which shells to use and load them into the gun. Since the gun was a 37mm, this made the action especially easy. The twos actions were directed by Mr. Fletcher, who told them which shell to use and which targets to fire at on the range.
"Load an armor piercing shell and to prepare to fire once more." Mr. Fletcher ordered.
Jonathan looked to his side where all of the ammunition was stored, it was stored in a crate where the ammo was separated into individual holders. He looked for a shell that had a red marking on it that signified that it was an armor piercing shell, he then got it out of the casing before aligning it with the breech. Jonathan made a fist with his hand before ramming the shell into the gun, he then pulled the breech lever which then sealed it.
"Loaded!" Jonathan shouted. Kay took aim by using the sights. She estimated the range, turning the elevation knob and waited for the order to fire.
"Fire!" Mr. Fletcher ordered.
Kay slammed the button to fire the gun. It recoiled backwards as the shot sped towards the target, it slammed into the middle of the target and exited through, signifying a clean hit.
"Bullseye!" Kay exclaimed.
"Nice!" Jonathan congratulated, the two high fived each other.
"Alright, thats enough for today." Mr. Fletcher said.
Kay and Jonathan turned around and saw that Mr. Moran and his batch of students was approaching Mr. Fletcher. The two instructors started talking as the students from Mr. Moran dispersed over to their designated crews.
"Yo!" A voice called out, Kay and Jonathan looked to see who it was: it was Eryn.
"Eryn!" The two exclaimed.
"How's target practice?" Eryn asked.
"Going good." Kay responded. "How's commander 101?"
"Ehhhh-" Eryn droned. "Kinda boring."
"Well, did you learn anything?" Jonathan said.
Eryn was about to respond but was cut off as the ground started to slowly rumble. Anticipation rose as the students looked around to see what it was. Grins started to appear as the students saw what it was. A hoard of tanks trekked towards them, the sea of steel got closer and closer as they all watched with awe. Finally, the tanks had come to a stop except for a T-34, which stopped a meter closer to the students.
Kay, Jonathan and Eryn saw that the Chaffee was right in front of them. The two front hatches opened and revealed Lillie and Tomas. The two hopped down from the tank to meet them.
"So, looks like the crew is assembled." Eryn said.
"What do you think is happening?" Kay asked.
"We'll find out, hopefully." Lillie responded.
A couple minutes later, all of the instructors had made their way in front of all of the students. Mr. Moran then stepped forward to explain the next part of the tryout.
"Alright, now that you have learned the fundamentals of how to operate a tank, let's test if you are worthy of operating one." Mr. Moran said. "This is the last part of the tryout."
Eryn immediately felt a lump in his throat, he was now just one step away from his dream. Two main emotions were filled in his body: anxiety and excitement. Anxiety was the dominant of the two emotions, as it was fueling Eryn's train of thought.
"What if I can't make it?" Eryn thought to himself.
"Eryn!" A voice snapped, Eryn looked up and saw that it was Jonathan.
"Yeah?" Eryn stuttered.
"You good?" Jonathan checked. "You kinda zoned out there for a sec."
"Yeah, I'm fine." Eryn lied.
"Aight, well we gotta go onto our tank now." Jonathan said.
Eryn nodded and the two climbed onto the Tank and entered through the turret hatch. As the two situated themselves into their designated seats, they put on their headsets while Eryn started setting up the radio. Kay was busy fumbling with the gun sights as Jonathan was checking the ammunition. Eryn listened in on Mr. Moran's final instructions.
"You are to follow me and the instructors situated in the lead tank." The radio blared.
Eryn peeked his head through the commander optics and saw the instructor's tank; the tank in question was an M46 Patton. The Patton started to roll down a dirt path which lead to the outskirts of the city, some tanks had started to follow the Patton as they trekked down the road.
"Tomas, drive forward and merge with the convoy." Eryn ordered.
"Aight Eryn- I mean commander!" Tomas said.
Tomas grabbed a hold of the steering levers and deliberately stepped on the gas pedal, the tank lurched forward as Tomas steered it to align it with the dirt road and the column of tanks. The convoy had maintained a steady speed for the first 5 or so minutes of the drive; but after that, tanks had started to bump into each other or slow down parts of the convoy. One T-34 in particular had started to lag behind as the convoy started to gain distance from it. The commander of the T-34: Cara, had started to grow impatient with her driver Brett.
"Brett, step on it!" Cara ordered.
"I'm trying, but this gear lever is stiff as hell!" Brett said. He then saw a sledgehammer beside the tanks assistant driver Jacob, a plan had come into Brett's mind.
"Jacob, can you hammer this thing into third?" Brett asked.
"Sure thing!" Jacob replied with a smirk.
Brett kept his leg on the clutch as Jacob hammered the gear lever; soon enough, the tank had started to gain speed again and rejoined the convoy.
"Woohoo!" Brett shouted.
After about 20 minutes of driving, the instructor's tank had come to a stop at a field with a range that was wider than the one at the school. Not long after, the student tanks had rolled in. The ever troublesome T-34 attempted to stop, but ran into the Chaffee, Eryn popped his head out of the hatch and looked at Cara.
"Yo, watch it!" Eryn shouted.
"Sorry!" Cara replied, she dropped down into the tank and looked at Brett. "Is it possible to even stop this thing?"
"Nope." Brett replied sarcastically.
A little while later, Mr. Moran's voice was heard on the radio. "Alright, commanders out of your vehicles and meet with me."
Eryn opened the hatch and climbed out of the Chaffee, he dropped down and looked around for Mr. Moran. He spotted him near the front of the jumble of tanks, Eryn started walking towards him along with all of the other commanders. As they arrived, they all saw Mr. Moran fumbling with his megaphone. Mr. Moran noticed all of them and put it away and started to address why they were called.
"Alright!" Mr. Moran said enthusiastically. "For the final part of the tryout, we will run a time attack course."
"You will command your vehicle through a series of tests, such as driving and shooting. You must do these tasks in a set amount of time; if you don't, you and your crew will be eliminated. Now, lets get into the details shall we?" Mr. Moran said. The students gathered around him as he pulled up a map to explain the course.
"Alright, you will have to navigate this dirt road to get to the first set of targets; Here, your gunner will shoot at the targets until all of them are taken out. After that, you will drive to this point where Mr. Fletcher will have his tank at the top of this hill . Finally, you will attempt to get past him as he shoots at you. You can get past him using any means necessary. If you make it past him, you succeed. All of you are now dismissed. "
Mr. Moran gave all of the students a map of the course, Eryn looked at the sheet one more time before he and the other students made their way back to their tanks. Eryn saw that Kay was peeking over the commanders hatch, she noticed Eryn and called out to him.
"What's happening?" Kay asked.
"I'll explain in the tank!" Eryn said, he approached the tank, climbed onto it and into the turret.
Eryn entered the tank, where he saw Kay still fumbling with the gun sights and Jonathan putting on some gloves. Kay and Jonathan noticed him, with both turning towards him.
"So," Kay said. "What's happening?"
"We're running a time attack course." Eryn replied, he pulled out a map of the area. "We're gonna navigate this set of valleys and head to this firing range. After, we will drive to this red marker and attempt to get across to the blue marker as Mr. Fletcher is firing at us from his tank."
Kay and Jonathan looked at the paper one more time before looking at Eryn, they both nodded at him and returned to their areas. Eryn grabbed his headset and put it on, he adjusted the microphone and readjusted the channel.
"Tomas, Lillie, do you hear me?" Eryn said.
"Loud and clear!" They replied.
"Alright, standby." Eryn ordered, all they had to do now was wait.
A while later, a static was heard on the radio. Eryn jolted from it, but started listening for a message. That message came to be, as Mr. Moran started speaking over the radio.
"First up, the T-34." Mr. Moran ordered. "Head towards the rally point and proceed once given the signal."
Eryn opened the commanders hatch and popped his head out, Jonathan did the same with the loaders hatch. They both looked around and saw the T-34 trekking down the dirt path to the starting point. Cara was outside of the hatch, helping navigate and observing her surroundings. She noticed that Eryn and Jonathan were looking at her, she flashed a wave with Eryn reciprocating it.
"Good luck!" Eryn shouted.
"Thanks!" Cara said back.
The T-34 drove onwards until Cara saw a red marking on the road, she ordered Brett to stop and waited for Mr. Moran signal. Soon enough, Mr. Moran gave the go ahead and the T-34 lurched forward down the path. On top of the hill sat Mr. Fletcher and the M46 Patton, in one hand were a pair of binoculars; he watched the T-34 navigate the twists and turns that were laid before them. In another hand was a stopwatch, counting the time that the T-34 took. Mr. Fletcher started to feel bad for the crew due to the twisting corners.
Inside the T-34 was a nightmare, the sudden and abrupt turns made the crew sick as they were being jostled around after each turn. This couldn't be avoided, as the turns on the course would have any middle school level driver weaving around.
"BRETT!" Cara screamed. "SLOW DOWN!"
"I'M TRYING!" Brett shouted, himself and Jacob were trying their best to downshift to a lower gear.
After a relentless amount of swerving and weaving, the T-34 made it to the firing range. There were five targets, spread across a variety of ranges. Cara recomposed herself, and peeked her head out of the hatch. She then grabbed her binoculars and started to estimate the range to the target.
"Alright, 400 meters!" Cara said, she looked down into the hatch and towards her gunner: Arielle. "Load AP and fire when ready!"
"AP comin right up!" Arielle responded, she grabbed an AP round from one of the racks and rammed it into the gun breech. She then took aim using the gun sights and adjusted for the range.
"Firing!"
The T-34's gun went off, as the AP round sped towards it's intended target. Unfortunately, the round fell short with the impact causing bunches of dirt to fly upward. Cara zoomed in on the target and confirmed that it was a miss.
"Again!" She shouted, with Arielle repeating the same actions as before. This time however, the shot managed to hit it's mark.
"Nice!" Cara complimented, she then went on to estimate the range for the second target. "600 meters!"
The T-34 took aim and fired once more.
Back at the camp, the students watch the T-34 progress through the course. Most of them thought that the T-34 crew would be cut due to their performance early on, but these doubts were extinguished, as the T-34 made some considerable ground at the firing range. Now, they had to get past Mr. Fletcher and the Patton. Jonathan looked at the Patton in interest, he wondered how the T-34 would make it past. He then turned towards Eryn to discuss the topic.
"How do you think they're gonna get past Mr. Fletcher?" Jonathan questioned.
"Hmm-" Eryn wondered. "Hopefully, they have some smoke shells and are smart enough to use the hilly terrain I guess."
"Yeah, but I heard Mr. Fletcher is a sharpshooter." Jonathan rebutted. "Mr. Moran and him used to be in a crew together."
"Shoot, all we can do is pray that the T-34 crew knows about this." Eryn responded.
Eryn and Jonathan looked back at the hill where the Patton stood, waiting for its prey to appear. The T-34 found the starting point and lined up, Cara pulled up a map of the proceeding area and studied it. She saw that there were scattered hills that served as natural barriers between Mr. Fletcher and her; soon after, she had a plan.
Cara wiped the sweat off of her forehead and readjusted her hair before opening the hatch and scanning the area that was ahead of her. She tried to find where they were on the map, their position luckily had a hill in front of them that could serve as an easy place for cover.
"Brett!" Cara shouted.
"Yeah?" Brett replied.
"Make a beeline for that hill in front of us."
Brett smirked. "Your wish is my command!"
The T-34 lurched forward and made it towards the hill. Mr. Fletcher noticed the action and traversed the turret of the Patton towards the location of the T-34. Cara noticed that they were spotted and had to come up with a different plan.
"Ari, how much smoke shells do we have?" Cara asked, Arielle looked down at the ammunition storage. To her surprise, there was none.
"We don't have any!" Arielle responded.
"Shit," Cara muttered, she needed to think of another plan to get past Mr. Fletcher. After weighing her options, Cara finally had a plan. She looked down at Brett and Jacob and notified her about what they were about to do.
"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Jacob questioned with clear suspicion in his voice.
"You got any other plans?" Cara replied rhetorically.
"Nope." Jacob replied.
"Brett, do it when your ready." Cara commanded.
Brett took in a deep breath before adjusting his hands on the steering levers. "Fuck it!"
Brett revved the T-34 a couple times before slamming the accelerator. The T-34 ran forward as it dashed towards the first hill for cover. Mr. Fletcher was eyeing the area before he noticed the T-34 dashing out of its cover and into the open.
"Gotcha." Mr. Fletcher smirked. He adjusted for lead and fired, the shot sped towards the T-34.
"Brett, Jason, now!" Cara screamed.
In one simultaneous motion, Brett yanked one of the steering levers, making the tank swerve violently towards the right 180 degrees and let go of the accelerator. Then, Jacob hammered the tank into reverse as Brett took his foot off of the clutch and pressed the accelerator. The T-34 slid past the marker and made it's way back to the starting point.
Back at the starting point, the crews of the tanks were in awe at what they just saw, the maneuver that Brett pulled off was spectacular; albeit, there was a lot of luck that was needed. Eryn and his started discussing the T-34 crew's run.
"What did you guys think of that?" Eryn asked.
"Nothing but luck I'd say." Jonathan replied.
"Nah-" Tomas disagreed. "That maneuver was awesome! It was like the T-34 did a 180."
Eryn started to speak but the T-34 had just arrived from their run. "Speak of the devil!"
The T-34 rolled into the starting area and stopped. Whatever spectacular entrance the other students had in their minds was quickly squashed, as the crew T-34 stumbled out; with Brett and Arielle losing their balance and falling. Jason ran for the nearest bush and puked while Cara leaned against the side of the T-34 in clear pain, using her arm as a brace for her head and body. All of them were in clear discomfort.
"Yikes." Lillie watched in pity.
After the T-34 relieved themselves of their nausea, Eryn hopped off from the Chaffee and walked towards the crew, specifically Cara. Cara noticed Eryn, and quickly readjusted herself and faced him.
"Hi!" Cara greeted.
"Hi." Eryn said. "Firstly, congratulations on your run, it was really cool seeing the T-34 swerve around like that.
"Thanks! You should really be thanking Brett though." Cara responded.
"Yeah, he seems like a good driver." Eryn noted, he leaned in closer to Cara and whispered. "Mind if I ask for some tips?"
Cara tapped her finger on her chin for a couple seconds before looking back at Eryn. "Sure, I don't mind."
Cara then pulled out a map and showed Eryn. "This area right here has the most hill coverage from Mr. Fletcher's tank, so you should follow this path to the marker."
"Alright." Eryn said, he examined the areas that Cara was showing him. This time was cut short as Jonathan called out to Eryn.
"Eryn we gotta go!" Jonathan shouted.
"Coming" Eryn shouted back, he looked at Cara and thanked her before running back to the Chaffee. "Thanks!"
"Your welcome, good luck!" Cara replied.
Eryn climbed onto the Chaffee and dropped down the commanders hatch, he then put on his headset and told Tomas to proceed to the starting point. The Chaffee rolled down the dirt path until it saw the starting marker, it stopped and waited for Mr. Moran's signal.
"You may proceed." Mr. Moran announced.
"Tomas, forward!" Eryn ordered.
"Here we go!" Tomas said.
The Chaffee buckled forward and raced down the dirt path. Since it was a light tank, it skimmed across to the first corner very quickly, Tomas carefully pulled the steering levers back, with the right one further than the left; the Chaffee made a smooth first turn and quickly got back up to speed. The rest of the turns proved to be light work for Tomas and the Chaffee as it stopped at the targeting range.
"Load AP." Eryn commanded, Jonathan grabbed a round from floor and loaded it in the breech.
"Round loaded!" Jonathan said.
"Target to range-" Eryn said. "400 meters, fire when ready Kay!"
"Got it." Kay responded, she took aim using the sights and adjusted accordingly.
"Firing!" Kay shouted, the round exited the barrel and zoomed to its target. The round found its mark, and cut clean through the first target.
"Second target is 600 meters," Eryn calculated. "Fire once again!"
"Got it, opening fire!" Kay said. The round once again hit the target.
The Chaffee ran through the course with considerable ease, Tomas' driving skill along with Kay's gunnery were the primary reasons for this. Now, all there was between them and making the team was Mr. Fletcher. Mr. Fletcher, deciding that he had taken it too easy on the T-34 decided to up his game just by a little, by removing himself from the hill and lurked around in the Patton with Mr. Moran as his driver. Eryn and the Chaffee crew did not know this.
"Alright, this is the homestretch guys." Eryn said. "I don't see him anywhere so we might be fine for now. Tomas, drive to that hill in front of us."
The tank rolled forward and sprinted to the hill, Eryn kept a close eye on the hill where Cara said that Mr. Fletcher was on, the Patton still wasn't there. A sickening feeling in Eryn's stomach started to appear, but Eryn addressed it as nothing.
"Continue driving to the next hill." Eryn ordered, the Chaffee picked up speed as it drove to the next hill.
To Eryn's upmost surprise, the Patton appeared from behind the hill and took aim at the Chaffee.
"Oh shit!" Tomas screamed. The Patton fired, the shot hit the right side of the bulldozer blade, which sheared off part of the support arm.
"Tomas reverse, Tomas reverse!" Eryn shouted, he looked at Jonathan. "Activate our smoke launcher!"
"Got it!" Jonathan replied.
Jonathan pushed a button that discharged a smoke grenade out of the tank. The smoke grenade exploded, which provided visual cover from the Patton. Tomas reversed the tank as fast as he could, Eryn saw a bank where the Chaffee could hide and ordered Tomas to retreat into it. The smoke cleared up, and the Patton started its pursuit for the Chaffee. Mr. Moran and Mr. Fletcher attempted to locate it, but due to their positions in the tank; this was made very difficult.
Eryn and his crew watched the Patton roll past them, their breaths suspended by the immense amount of tension. Thankfully, the Patton's engine noise muffled out their own which made it harder to find them. A while later, the Patton's engine wasn't heard anymore.
"I think it's gone now." Lillie assured.
"Alright, let's get the hell out of here!" Eryn said.
The Chaffee rolled out of the bank, and drove towards the finish point. Eryn opened the commanders hatch and scouted for the Patton, which was nowhere to be found. Eryn looked once more to his right, and what he saw made him panic. The Patton was beside them, the only thing separating the two tanks were hills that made the Patton appear and disappear. Eryn looked ahead of him and saw that this string of hills was about to end, he then had an idea.
"Jonathan, load high explosive." Eryn commanded. "Kay, traverse right and prepare to fire."
"Eryn, I don't think this a good idea." Kay responded.
"I don't either." Eryn said.
The last hill was approaching fast, with tension becoming sky high by the second. Kay's hand started to sweat on the firing handle due to how hard she was gripping it, she took a breath in and waited for the Patton to appear. Soon enough, the Patton appeared to side and Kay fired. The high explosive shell hit the Patton's left track which snapped it and sent the Patton spiraling out of control. Eventually, it stopped and the Chaffee made it across the marker. Kay, Eryn and Jonathan looked at each other before screaming in bliss and happiness. Tomas and Lillie in the hull also celebrated with them. Back in the Patton, Mr. Moran and Mr. Fletcher both got out and started to laugh at each other.
"Man, these kids are talented!" Mr. Fletcher said. "Way better than us back in middle school."
"Well, we had to go easy on them, they're just kids. I bet they screamed when they saw us appear from the hill!" Mr. Moran cracked. "Now help me fix up this track."
The two jumped down the hull of the Patton and examined the damage, other than a thrown track, nothing was broken. The Chaffee rolled back to the starting area, and the crew disembarked from it. They all gathered at the front of the Chaffee to examine the damage to the bulldozer blade, the entire right support arm was destroyed with the left support arm being the only thing holding it up.
"Yeah- we might have to remove this." Lillie said.
"Sucks that we never got to use it." Jonathan grimaced.
"At least we'll be faster without it, we're a light tank after all." Tomas assured.
"Now we wait for everyone else to go." Eryn said.
An hour later
All of the tanks had finished their run, by now the sun was starting to set. The crews of each tank waited either dazed or impatiently for the results of who made the team. Mr. Moran finally made his to the tanks with a piece of paper in his hands, the crews looked at him in anticipation of the results.
"Alright. Firstly, the time limit was 15 minutes." Mr. Moran announced. "I will announce the results of each crew in the order that they proceeded, meaning that the T-34 is first.
Cara and her crew had expressions of worry as Mr. Moran looked at his sheet of paper to read out the results.
"The T-34 ran the course in 14 minutes and 59 seconds." Mr. Moran read out. Sighs of relief were heard from the T-34 crew.
"Oh my god talk about cutting it close!" Brett sighed.
"Next, the M24 Chaffee." Mr. Moran said.
Eryn's stomach immediately started to drop, as Mr. Moran read out the time. Time began to slow down, if Eryn didn't make it, it would be devastating to himself. He looked around and saw that his friends also had the same feeling deep within them. Mr. Moran then read out the results.
"The M24 Chaffee ran the course in 13 minutes and 12 seconds."
Eryn and his friends processed what Mr. Moran had said. Immediately after, they all screamed in joy and embraced each other in a group hug.
"Let's go!" Jonathan said.
"Guys I'm getting squished!" Lillie shouted, the group started let go of each other.
Mr. Moran read out the rest of the results from the run. In all, four tanks had either gotten shot down by Mr. Fletcher or had not made the 15 minute mark. The four tanks had to head back to the school, with Mr. Fletcher guiding them using the Patton. With that, the final team composed of 13 tanks, which included a Chaffee, T-34, 3 Panzer IVs, an M4A4 Sherman, an M10 Wolverine (with a closed off roof), A KV-1, A Churchill Mk 3, a Panzer III M, an M5 Stuart and 2 Matildas.
"Alright everyone, all of you are now part of the Queen City Middle School Tankery team!" Mr. Moran congratulated, the team gave a round of applause and cheers.
"All of you have done exceptionally well, and now lets have a bit of fun." Mr. Moran said. "Commanders, look on your maps and spread yourselves around the area. Make sure you are far away from other tanks, I will explain the rest later."
All of the students gave nods of approval and dropped into their tanks. Eryn and his crew got themselves situated in their positions, Eryn then pulled out a map and scouted where to go. He found a suitable spot in the forest and told Tomas to drive towards it. The Chaffee drove along with a group of other tanks, which soon split off and went towards their areas. The Chaffee arrived at the designated location and waited for Mr. Moran's explanation. Soon enough, Mr. Moran's voice started to broadcast on the radio.
"Alright, I'm going to be very brief with this, but we are going to do a battle royal." Mr. Moran explained, Eryn and his crew listened in interest. "You will fight each other until there is ONE winner. When I give the signal, you may start. You are also allowed to team with other tanks if you choose."
The Chaffee crews excitement started to build up, they are finally going to get a taste of what it feels like to do Tankery for the first time. Tomas revved the engine, as they waited for Mr. Moran's signal to begin, other tank's started to rev their engines in anticipation. Sweat started to build up in Eryn's palms as he looked out the commanders hatch, the sun had been setting since the end of the trial runs, which meant night was approaching fast; Eryn's and his friends first experience in Tankery will be at night.
"We got this guys." Eryn assured, after he said that, Mr. Moran began a count down.
"5."
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1."
"Panzer vor!" The radio blared.
"Tomas, forward!" Eryn commanded, the Chaffee rolled forward and into the night.