Chapter 2: Day One

The ol' Church bell was pealing for joy for the final bell of the day has finally rung. I witnessed my classmates scurry and shove each other through the door and immediately scatter out of the classroom. I envied their sense of passion, for I have nothing but a room to hide into. Honestly, I wish I could just walk back to my dorm and call it a day. Unfortunately, the team commander, Delilah Clark, said she'll be waiting for me at my office. It's bad enough that I have to wear a special uniform and carry a sword everywhere I go, but now I have to make sure I report directly to the tankery team after school every day. I should have just joined the literature club when my sister suggested it. At least I'd be allowed to take a nap and no one would bother me.

Adjusting my spectacles, I got up from my desk since all the students aren't crowding the exit anymore and began my march to the west wing of the building. Each footstep made a click compared to everyone else's pitter patter. These boots still haven't fully broken in yet. Hopefully I can get used to them. With every click and clack from my trek through the hallway I pass by some schoolgirls staring at me. My green eyes are met by brown, blue, and even hazel. I might look handsomer if I didn't have to wear these glasses in order to see five feet in front of me.

A few more minutes of walking go by and I am face to face with the door to my wonderful office. I brushed my hand against the dark wood and push the door open. Inside, I see a girl wearing a uniform very similar to mine, only with a long grey skirt for her to wear instead of trousers. She wore the same boots as me but hers look like they've been through a lot. Looking up, I see her cavalry coat, clearly high ranking as she has golden buttons as well as a golden line that runs down the seam. She's even wearing her external belt on her upper waist, emphasizing her hourglass figure. I now met her face, her black hair contrasts with her pale skin and for the first time, my green eyes are met by the same color.

No doubt about this, I'm in the same room as Delilah Clark. Figures it would take something like this for us to even have a conversation together.

"Major Jefferson, I presume," she said as she held out a hand.

I shook her hand. "That's me."

I look across my office. To the west hall is a filing cabinet as well as a glass cabinet that has a black bottle in the top shelf and a sack in the middle shelf labelled, "BACCY." Beside the sack is some kind of black pipe. In between both cabinets is the Bonnie Blue flag, reminding me of the nation that stood up over 150 years ago. On the opposite wall, the Blood Stained banner is seen, reminding me of what happened to that nation in the end. On the southern wall has three portraits of the finest men in the south. On top is Jeff Davis, on the left is Stonewall Jackson, and on the right is Ol' Marse Robert.

I turned around and saw that on the north wall is a statue of Jesus Christ. Following His gaze, I see that He is positioned so He is staring down whoever's in the center of the room, where a mahogany desk stands with a stack of papers as tall as me.

"I have to take care of all that?" I ask, pointing at the pile of paper that somehow makes a height of 5'10.

"Not just that," Delilah said, smirking at me as she pulls out a few books. "You'll also need to catch up on these."

Tank mechanics, tank engineering, and battlefield first aid. Just my luck, more incessant reading.

I look up to her. "How long until practice starts?"

Delilah looks to the clock on top of the doorway. "We have about ten minutes."

I take a total of eight steps and collapse onto the chair behind my desk. This is going to be too much. I took my spectacles off and wiped them with my collar.

The team commander gives me that smirk again. "Let's get moving!" She took me by the wrist. "Come on!"

I grumbled as I got dragged out of my office. I wasn't allowed five minutes to rest before everything. This is not the life I wished for. I want my freedom back. But right now, I'm stuck in the solid dance routine of being pulled from my feet and thrown into the tankery field. I have to wonder how does this girl have so much strength, she's able to pull me effortlessly even when I'm sandbagging her and dragging my feet. If I piss her off, I might lose a few teeth in the process. Let's just hope it doesn't ever come to that in the future. I already have enough problems to worry about.

"Come on, we're the leaders of our team! We should set an example for the rest of the teams!" She cheered as she grabbed my wrist with both hands and pulled me with such force my feet were sliding from the floor.

"Alright! FINE!" I yelled as I finally got my arms freed from her grip. "You don't have to drag me." I take a moment to adjust my hardee hat. "Just, let me breath for a moment."

Delilah tilted her head. "Are you okay?"

I looked down. For once, I am grateful to being required to wear this hat in the school, it does a good enough job of hiding my face when I need to keep it hidden. The hardee hat shield Delilah from my glare and I had to make sure my clenched right hand was hidden behind my back.

"I'm fine." I made no effort hiding the venom of wrath in my voice. "You really couldn't find anyone else for this kind of position?"

Maybe that was a little too much too soon. Delilah flinched to that question. She turned away and put her hands on her hips. "Yeah. We've had managers quick tankery within the span of a week. No one wants to stay and fix the problems. They just want to leave it for someone else to take care of."

"I'm guessing I'm not allowed to be the next."

"That's right." Her demeanor changed instantly, back to being chipper and smiling at me. "Come on, we've got to get to the field."

"Alright then." I answered her as we both began to speed walk out of the building and could finally see a green plain before us.

WHHHRRRHRR

We both looked to the rusted bronze sky and saw a group of biplanes fly across the horizon.

Delilah adjusted her cowgirl hat so the sun doesn't block out the scene of dancing airplanes. "You think you could've ever joined the aeronautics team?"

I watched as the aeronauts descended to the landing area. "You'd have to cut my legs off to convince me."

She chuckled. "Is that so? I'm glad we're just doing tankery!"

She patted me on the back and we resumed our walk down the field. About eight paces in, a structure came to view. It took me a moment to realize that was the tank garage. Well, let's see if I will be able to recognize any of these tanks. We finally make it into the garage and I see a good handful of tanks. Each one has it's own name.

Am obnoxiously big one has the name, "Stonewall." I ran my left hand across the steel of such a huge tank.

"The Tog II will always steal the spotlight in our team," Delilah said with a new sly smile on her face.

"You drive the Stonewall?"

"No," she paused as she points to a tank that possessed two main guns. "I'm in charge of the M3 Lee, labelled as such."

"I see."

Without a single split second to spare, all the garage doors open and a large group of schoolgirls begin making their way in.

"Looks like the gang's all here." Delilah announces as a few of the girls begin to notice me standing next to the team commander.

"You must be Jefferson, I'm Dixie," the tall blonde said as she took a hand out to shake which I obliged.

"Hello Dixie," I greeted. "You can just call me Johnny."

"Very well, hello Johnny."

"I'm Lola! Nice to meet ya!" The short red head yelled as she walked to me.

"And I'm 'Etta. How do you do?"

"Alright girls," Delilah started. "We'll have more than enough time to get to know our good manager. But for now, let's get started on practice."

"Yes ma'am!" All the girls yelled in unison as each and every one made their way to each tank.

Everyone was inside their own tank and closed the hatch. Everyone except Delilah. She tossed me a two way radio. "Here, this is in case I need you for any emergency on the field. Be sure and get in your GP just in case."

I turned to the left and saw a fairly old looking jeep beside the farthest exit.

"How long's practice going to be?"

"Two hours, now, let's get going!"

And with that, each and every tank began rolling out the garage and in the span of a minute and a half, the garage was bare except for me and the old jeep. I made my way to the vehicle and saw the key was hanging from a bulletin board. On it has clippings of tank victories from a very specific school.

Saunders

Above the bulletin was a sign that said, "WE WILL OVERCOME."

"It'll be a long time before that happens." I said to myself as I snatched the key and hopped in the jeep. Inside, I noticed that there was a first aid kit sitting on the passenger seat right next to me. It was a massive ammo crate, almost as big as that pile of papers in my office, that was painted white and had a big ol' red cross painted on top. I turned the engine on and felt the vibrations from the fifty year old V8 engine whirring. Taking the vehicle into clutch, I rolled out of the garage and laid witness to eight tanks rolling and firing at each other.

My radio clicked. "Ok team, we're going to be working shooting while driving."

The radio clicked again. "Stonewall's not gonna be that useful in this exercise."

"It won't be that hard. Just make sure you aim, shoot, and relocate. Simple as that," I heard Delilah's voice say.

Wasn't exactly the kind of spectacle I was expecting. Watching a bunch of old tanks try to find ways to outmaneuver the other all the while figuring out how to make the most accurate shots in the heat of the moment. I opened the glove compartment of the jeep and spotted a pair of binoculars. Looking through them, I noticed that the tank labelled, "Longstreet," was rolling downhill and chasing "Forrest" through some kind of entrance to a trench line. Those two continue their little chase out of sight so I turned attention to the twin cannoned "Lee" trying it's absolute damnedest to figure out a good angle to take down stonewall.

This kept going on between the two tanks until "Hood" came from the west where many trees stood and landed a shot on the right side of "Stonewall."

The radio clicked. "'Lilah! CEASE FIRE!"

"Report!" Delilah said through the radio.

"Dixie's down! CALL FOR THE CEASE FIRE!"

"All tanks, cease fire!"

And with that command, all sounds of cannon fire halted and each tank stood still.

"JOHNNY! GET OVER HERE! NOW!"

That's my cue, put the jeep into first gear and began driving into the battlefield. Hopefully it's not too serious.

A/N: This is the list of tanks in Johnston's Rebels Tankery Team

Tog II "Stonewall" Tank commander: Dixie Harrison

M3 Lee "Lee" Tank Commander: Delilah Clark

M6 Heavy "Hood" Tank Commander: Lola Jewel

M22 Locust "JEB" Tank Commander: Henrietta Smith

M10 Tank Destroyer "Longstreet" Tank Commander: Maribelle Williams

Mk3 Valentine "Beauregard" Tank Commander: Annamae Caldwell

MkVI Crusader "Forrest" Tank Commander: Daphne Boone

M26 Pershing "Mosby" Tank Commander: Ruby Abel