Good Evening friends,
Tonight I have sought to focus more on Luz, the last few were primarily on Manny, or Manuel as my version prefers to be called. When I was a young Corpsman my favorite thing to do was run, and I did for years until my knees started to give out on me. EDS is a bitch. But moving on, we get a bit of insight into some OCs I am keen to feature.
Anyways, enjoy.
Manuel Noceda awoke from a dreamless sleep, thank God. Noceda preferred when there he had no dreams, felt more fitful, more peaceful. It told him that he had things in control, that his brain didn't need to communicate some secret to him. It also told him his soul was at peace, that the demons that lurked in his past had abated for the time being. Maybe this time they had surrendered. Or maybe they are regrouping, he thought. He shuddered. No need to think of that.
He sat up in bed and swung his legs over the edge. He wore nothing but a loose pair of boxers. He stood and walked to the bathroom. After relieving himself he paused to briefly admire himself in the mirror. He looked good for almost fifty, damn good. He had fought hard to keep the paunch of middle age at bay, with many long hours in the gym and many bland meals of lean meat and steamed veggies. But time took its toll on everyone, and he noticed the slight bulge of his belly starting to protrude. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair; still full, but speckled with gray. He was lucky most other senior members of the Corps he knew at his age were fully bald by now or already going white. He was getting old. Military life had a way of prematurely aging those in its snare, and he had avoided it for the most part. He stretched and felt his back pop, starting at the base and working its way up each disk. He sighed again.
He grabbed the robe off the back of the bathroom door and wrapped it around himself. He walked out into the main hallway of the small one story base housing, and stopped at Luz's door. He saw no light from under it. It was about 6am, he turned the nob slowly and peered in. The room was still immaculate, everything in its right place, nice and clean. The bed was immaculate too, the covers pulled taught, the pillows adjusted and folded tightly. Just like Noceda had taught Luz.
He entered, feeling slightly guilty for invading her privacy. He walked to her rather tall bookshelf, and read the spines: Starship Troopers, Horus Rising, Thrawn, The Blade Itself, Victoria. He was mildly perturbed, teenage girls probably shouldn't normally be into these kinds of books. He looked over to the little "Reading Nook" she had made for herself near her window. There was worn book on the chair there: Azura. It was probably the most age appropriate book she owned and Manuel did not really understand the point of the book. He knew it was some kind of fantasy, a little to verbose for his liking. But she had clung onto it after Camilla died.
He looked around, military posters adorned the walls, familiar phrases like "Be all that you can be," "Do you have what it takes?" and the old reliable, "Semper Fi." He looked down at his forearm and pushed the sleeve of the robe back, revealing the large gothic print that ran up most of the exterior of his arm, "Semper Fidelis." Always faithful. He smiled slightly at the memory. He had gotten it about two days after bootcamp graduation, soon after he had enlisted.
Marines called these Motto Tats, short for Motivation Tattoos, and they were primarily attributed to boots. Boots are young marines who have yet to deploy, and they are normally filled with the confidence only your drill instuctors can instill in you. You are a conqueror. A warrior. Hell, Noceda had thought he was fucking immortal after bootcamp. Nothing and no one could touch him or break him.
The smile faded.
Of course, combat shatters any notions you have about mortality. The first time you ever see a man get a hole blown in him, or blow a hole through someone else, you learn just how fragile life is.
He grimaced. It is so fragile, life is. One minute someone is here, and the next they aren't, never to return. "They can't come to you, all you can do is go to them. And we all do in the end," Father Hidalgo had told him that at Camilla's wake. It wasn't much comfort then, but he appreciated it now.
He turned and left Luz's room, being sure to shut the door behind him. Like I was never here, he thought. He walked to the kitchen, and found a plate sitting on the wooden table there. It was covered in a paper towel with a sticky note next to it. Noceda picked up the note and read it,
"Dad,
Woke up early, couldn't go back to sleep. Already ate, here's yours. Going for run, will be back soon.
- Luz
PS: Yes, I took a glowbelt."
He sighed. Of course she did. He sat down and began to quickly devour the food, in true Marine fashion.
TURN UP THE VOLUME, Luz's headphones yelled at her.
"Turn up the volume," Luz echoed, under her breathe.
JUST LIKE A RADIO
"Just like a radio."
TURN UP THE VOLUME
"Turn up the volume."
SEMPER FI
"Semper fi."
DO OR DIE
"Do or die."
Running was one of Luz's favorite things to do. It was so easy to get lost in, just one foot in front of the other. She knew that some people struggled to run, or at least run properly. It is kind of an artform. You had to know what pace best fits you. You had to know the stride that would carry you the farthest at your pace. You needed the coordination to pump your arms in such a way that it countered the swing of your legs. You needed that oh so subtle bounce in your step that let took the brunt of force off your ankles and knees.
Luz found that a cadence, or something with a good beat at least could help with all these things. She had over a dozen of her favorite running cadences saved onto a playlist on her phone.
She wore her purple and white sleeveless hoodie, a sports bra, a pair of shorts, running shoes, and a yellow PT glowbelt to help her show up to drivers on the road. Luz had to be careful though, it was easy to just zone out and forget where you were or where you were going. To just let your mind wander and enjoy the rush of the wind in your face, the subtle rocking movement that came from a good steady run. Once Luz had zoned out and found herself at the beach on base, over 7 miles from home. Dad had not been happy that she had disappeared like that. Camp Lejeune was a pretty small base, all things considered, not many buildings and institutions, Luz had been to bigger and busier, but it was spread out so wide. That came with being one of the hubs for training Marine Corps infantrymen, armored calvary and the secretive Raiders.
The Raiders. Luz grinned. Her dad had been a Raider. Well, not exactly, he had been Force Recon back when the Raiders were still called Marine Special Operations Command, or MARSOC for short. But he had been moved out of MARSOC years before he had a true command of his own, he was just one of the many bureaucrats that facilitated the Infantry School these days. Not that any of that negated who or what he was. He was still just as dangerous now as he had been fifteen years ago.
Dad never talked about his time in the Raiders, not much at least. Every now and then some funny story would come out, some exercise gone awry, some prank that was pulled. But never anything about his time in Iraq, or Afghanistan. She figured he hadn't had a good time there, like most of her "uncles" that came around. They weren't really her uncles, but they were family none the less. And each of them was gifted in their own unique way, and none of them were vocal about things they had done during their time.
Except for Uncle Shortman, that wasn't his real name, but everyone called him that, who was very keen to teach Luz the secrets of MACMAP and other combat forms he had learned. He had even taught her the basics of knife fighting, and dad wasn't happy when he found them dancing around each other with plastic knives one Memorial Day barbeque. Luz thought for a minute, she might actually be taller than Uncle Shortman these days. She chuckled at the thought. Maybe her superior reach would allow her to actually land a real hit on him next time she saw him.
Luz turned a corner on the path she ran on, she was jogging around the Medical Center now. It used to be just a hospital but now it was a major hub of medical care for the Fleet. She jogged past the garden in the back of it, or what used to be a garden. Some former Naval Captain had tried to organize a garden for the sailor's at the hospital to take care of, probably some attempt to keep the young people in the barracks sane, but it had been abandoned some time ago. When he passed the modular buildings in the back is when it hit her.
She felt it like she always did. It started in his belly, then the warmth spread up into her chest, out to her limbs and culminated in her head.
It was pure ecstacy, the best feeling in the world: A Runner's High.
Luz turned up her pace, moving faster and faster until she was nearly sprinting down the path, moving so fast it felt like she was damn near flying. She felt like she could run forever and ever.
She finished the lap around the hospital and continued to speed down the path back towards the housing complex her and her dad stayed in. Luz passed actual Marines on her way, and most recognized her. Pretty much everyone who ran this route or path knew about the crazy dependent daughter that ran like a lunatic every day. She came up on a skinny young lad jogging raggedly down the same path. He looked like he was in pain, which he probably was, his technique was for shit.
He must've heard her footsteps fast approaching, because he did turn to look at the noise, and he did recognize her, but before he could even utter the first syllable for "Morning, Luz," Luz had blown past him with a very motivated, "On your left."
Luz managed to maintain her pace until she was on the road her house sat on. It was probably about 300 yards down from her and Luz turned on the gas, her arms pumping relentlessly, her legs pistoning up and down as she accelerated towards her house. She didn't even slow down when she passed it, she slowed down two houses later and gradually turned into a walk. Luz slowed down, breathing heavily, her chest heaving as she fought for her breathe. She took a few deep gulps of air through her mouth before stopping.
She straightened her posture, raised her hands and put them on top of her head, and breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, willing her heart to slow down. She walked, calmly and deliberately, with an even pace, from the house she stopped at to two past her own on the other side, and back again. She did this ten times until she felt she had calmed down. She walked up onto her house's lawn and collapsed onto the grass. She laid there spread eagle for a moment before beginning her stretching exercises.
She stood up after finishing and entered the house. Dad was at the table, garbed in his khaki and olive service uniform, drinking a cup of coffee, his tablet in front of him as he scrolled through some news article or another.
"Morning," Luz less said and more exhaled forcefully as she marched to the refrigerator and pulled out a large bottle of water. Luz uncapped it, tipped it over and drained the whole in one go.
"Morning," Manuel echoed. He continued to scroll. Luz pulled the bottle from her lips and inhaled. She was nervous slightly, she had been kicked out of school the day before. And she had brutalized four bullies. She expected Dad to be upset.
"Anything interesting in the news?" Luz asked in a rather desperate fashion to start some kind of dialogue.
"Same idiocy our superiors always demonstrate. The last administration was an embarrassment, but this new one is somehow dumber then the last," Manuel said passively before taking another sip of coffee.
"Well, that's what happens when the socialists take over," Luz said jokingly.
Manuel looked up at her disapprovingly, "You know I don't like you talking like that. Are you listening to those MewTubers again?"
Luz chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her sweaty head, "Ugh no. And yeah. Yeah, I know dad. Sorry."
There was an awkward pause.
"Dad, I'm really sor-"
"Stow it," Manuel said, standing up, "I made a list of things for you to do today, since you aren't going to school today. I expect them all to be done by dinner. 1800, young lady. Everything on the list, done." He walked over to the counter and pulled a scrap of legal pad paper off of it and handed it to Luz.
"Yes sir," Luz said and took the paper. At a glance it had just normal chore stuff on it.
"And tomorrow we are going to the range," Manuel said authoritatively.
Luz immediately brightened up. "The range?! For how long?"
Manuel shrugged and smiled smugly, "As long as you want. It's been a rough week for both of us. I figured we could both do with letting off some steam." He glanced at his watch, "Shit, I gotta go." He leaned down and kissed Luz's salty forehead. "I love you, Luz. I hope you know that."
Luz felt her heart swell just a bit, "I know dad. And don't you worry, I'll knock all these chores out." She paused, "Uh, maybe that was poor phrasing, all things considered."
Manuel laughed loud and hard, "Maybe Luz, maybe. But I trust you. I know you will accomplish your mission." He turned to head for the garage. Before exiting he stopped and turned, "And no computer, tv or video games. If you finish early, choose a book from my library, something practical: leadership, discipline, something like that."
Luz's mind locked in on a biography of Chesty Puller in her mind. "You got it Dad, I'll take care of it."
"Good. Have a good day, Luz." And with that he was gone.
Luz turned to the house, put her hands on her hips, steeled her gaze and said to the empty house, "Chores, I am about to make you my bitch."
Ah, I enjoyed writing this much more lighthearted chapter. No fights, no real drama, no one dying a violent death. How chill. The next chapter will be here at sometime in the future I am almost certain of it.
Thanks for reading.
