Fort Nelson Academy High School, 28th of September 2015, 0920 hours:
Everything was quiet except for the rain as it continued hitting against the window and the sound of tapping as a half-grey and dark-haired woman wearing a blouse and a dark sweater with a shin-length skirt and a flat shoe wrote on the board with a marker. The room temperature was cold, but not too cold to make people shiver in the cold. Many inside the room were wearing extra warm clothes or add-ons like jackets, scarves, or thick sweaters brought from home for comfort.
The students were struggling to keep their eyes open or even keep their attention on the board as the teacher was teaching. The many scribes of numbers, alphabets, and symbols that would make students' heads combust from being overwhelmed by it.
"Now, to solve the next problem, 2x^2 minus 3x minus 2 equals 0. We must first identify the coefficients; 'a' equals 2x, 'b' equals minus 3x, and 'c' equals minus 2." The teacher continued to explain, her hands on the board while her eyes looked back and forth at the students.
Lily was sitting at her desk, using one of her arms as a support pillar to keep her head up. She was wearing a thick pink sweater. Her eyes were fluttering up and down, her arms shaking from holding her head up, her eyes watery and furrowed.
"... What kind of language is she speaking in?" Lily muttered before she wiped her eyes. She covered her mouth and yawned, accidentally releasing a yawn that could be heard across the classroom.
The woman turned back, instinctively causing everyone to sit up tight, appearing more straight and less relaxed. Those who were laying their heads on their hands also immediately sat back straight, causing quite a sound as the sound of furniture moving slightly could be heard.
The teacher eyed the students, her eyes staring at the students like a hawk; aside from having to find those who slacked off and slept, and of course the one who yawned, she eventually landed her eye on a random unfortunate student. "Mr. Emile Moreau, get over here now."
The student gulped. He stood up from his desk and walked towards the board, passing the second and first rows of desks before stopping in front of her, his eyes avoiding her gaze.
"Now, can you solve this problem? We've already gone over 6 of the exact same questions already, so you should know how to solve it already." Asked the teacher in an authoritative tone, eyes furrowed at him, her hand holding the marker reaching towards him.
"Uh.." The student took the marker and stared at the board, looking at the previously answered questions and trying to reference off it to answer. Just as he was just about to scribe on the board, the teacher released a heavy sigh, frowning, and snatched the marker out of his hand and turned towards the rest of the classmates.
"You see this? You won't get anything if you keep on falling asleep." She slammed the marker against the front desk, causing everyone in the room to flinch or wake up once more as adrenaline streamed through their bodies and fear crept into them.
"So unless you can understand and master it, then you can act like a snob." The teacher huffed and looked back at the student, who was standing quietly, his hair going up and his eyes avoiding contact with her. "Go back to your seat."
The student gulped and nodded, obliging her order, and began making his way back to his desk. The teacher began eyeing the students once more, like a tiger, looking for prey to feast upon. Her eyes eventually landed on the dark, straight-haired young girl that was Miyuki, who she really never met before and who had been keeping her eye on her lesson.
"You over there, Ms. Miyuki Anderson." She called her out. "Get over here."
Miyuki nodded with a slight smile on her face, stood up from her desk and began making her way towards the board and stopped right in front of the teacher.
"What is this, an amusement park? Why are you smiling?" The teacher asked in a cold tone.
"Eh?" Miyuki's eyes blinked, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
The teacher continued staring at her for a moment before eventually handing her over a marker. "Solve the problem."
"O-Oh…" Miyuki nodded and took the marker from her hand. She took a step towards the board and began scribing on the board at a fast pace; her eyes focused on the empty plot on the board, writing the answers, first inserting in the formula before writing in the numbers, and after a few seconds, she finished, ending it by putting two stripes below the final answer. "Done!"
The teacher looked at the board; her eyes looked at the answer Miyuki just wrote in detail, looking at it sharply as a razor. The board was almost filled as Miyuki's answer spanned almost a third of the bottom part of the board, which was also due to her letters being bigger than the teacher's. After a moment, she nodded. "I like how you add in the formula first before answering; most of the time students just write in the answer without explaining why and how. You may go back to your seat."
Miyuki nodded and walked to her desk, and while doing so, she received some stares from the students, which made her feel awkward. But she just shook her head and ignored it. She then looked at Lily, who she had observed a bit previously, almost losing her balance and falling from her seat to being rigid in posture, eyes forward.
She then turned her attention to Alisia, whose eyes were staring forward and whose arms were crossed and placed on the table, her body posture rigid. She looked like she was paying attention, but there was just something wrong about it. The eyes, which looked somewhat dead and empty, also had a slight hint of red. Miyuki wanted to see closer but decided not to, as it was not really the appropriate thing to do when the teacher she had been with was a strict teacher with a temper and she wouldn't appreciate her checking out on Alisia, so she went back to her seat.
Half an hour went by and the clock hit the tenth hour of the day. The bell rang, signalling that the class was over and that break time had arrived.
"Right, that will be all for today. The rest will be homework and the due date will be tomorrow," said the teacher as she placed the markers back in the cup holder on the desk and took her belongings in a small leather bag. "Good day."
The students waited until the teacher went out, and as she did, they released a sigh of relief and began dispersing out of the classroom. Miyuki, meanwhile, could be seen approaching Alisia, who was still in a tight and rigid body posture, eyes forward to the board. She crept up from behind the short girl before tapping on her shoulder.
"Hey—" Miyuki called her out, but was later met with a surprise reaction as Alisia flinched and immediately looked back towards her, eye to eye, her eyes furrowed. Miyuki felt very uncomfortable from the stare to the eye Alisia was giving and tried breaking it by opening a conversation.
"Hey… you good?" Miyuki asked, giving her a smile, trying to ease the situation.
Alisia remained quiet for a moment and looked around her, noticing that the teacher had left. She then looked back towards Miyuki. "Where is Mrs. Luna?"
"Huh? Uhh, the class is already over," said Miyuki.
"What do you mean over?" Alisia looked towards the clock that was hanging ontop of the board; the time was 1005. Her eyes blinked; her mind was empty for a moment before she shook her head, trying to snap herself back to reality.
"You... weren't paying attention... Were you?" Asked Miyuki.
Alisia remained silent, not answering Miyuki's question and just looked to her side at Lily, who was in a rigid and tight body posture; her eyes were blank and her head was shivering slightly.
Miyuki looked at the direction Alisia was facing, wondering what she was looking at before landing at Lily, who was exactly in the same state as Alisia was before, just more nervous by how she was shivering. She then looked back towards Alisia. "Hey, wanna go to the cafetaria together?"
Alisia turned her head towards Miyuki and gave her a nod before turning back to Lily. "Lily, wanna go to the cafeteria?"
Lily did not respond at all to Alisia's call, prompting Alisia to stand up from her desk and approach Lily, stopping beside her before calling her once again. "Oi, do you hear me or not?"
Lily reacted upon hearing a voice calling her at a close distance and looked to her side at Alisia. "O-Oh... Sure."
"Jeez, what took you so long? Also, you're usually sleepy during morning classes; what happened?" Asked Alisia.
Lily shook her head immediately upon the question and tried shifting the topic. "Let's just go."
And so they went out of the classroom and began making their way through the hallway and towards the cafeteria. Like a highway, the hallway was streaming with students coming in and out from the classroom, while some could be seen talking to each other, socialising, and interacting with one another.
Everyone was wearing extra warm clothes or add-ons like jackets, scarves, or thick sweaters brought from home. Though there were already heaters present, installed throughout the school, the extra fabric made those who wore it feel more comfortable.
Alisia was seen trailing behind Lily, who was walking beside Miyuki. Lily was walking at a much faster leg pace, contrary to the usual slow and lazy walk.
"She sure changed a bit…" Alisia thought to herself.
Then, after turning into a corner in an intersection, the one facing to the left leading to the entrance, the one forward to the other parts of the school filled with classrooms similar to the section of the hallway they're in, and the one to the right leading to the teacher's room, the headmaster's room, the clinic or the sick room, and eventually at the end of the hallway, the cafetaria.
Just as Alisia was about to step onto the cafetaria section, the headmaster's office door to her left opened, revealing Jack coming out of it, his hands clenched and fisted. He then closed the door behind him and was just about to walk towards the cafetaria when he saw the familiar short girl in front of her.
His eyes furrowed down at her with a pissed look. Alisia just stared up at him with a flat look, frozen in place, her head turned up towards him. Both of them exchanged glances and just stared at each other with confusion. Then, Jack wiped his eyes, broke off from the stare and walked off towards the cafetaria.
Alisia remained in place and just looked at him as he walked off, confused about what just happened earlier. She then shook her head and began making her way again towards the cafetaria.
1310 hours:
The wind blew from the north, shaking the leaves and causing droplets of water from the rain earlier to drip down to the earth. Not much activity in the school aside from club activities, and the sound of students panting as some of them in their PT uniform of predominantly dark blue long training pants and short-sleeved shirts, along with the same shoes they usually wear at school.
"One more lap!" One man in CADPATs yelled while running alongside the students.
Some were out of breath, their sweat dripping down their skin, absorbed by the fabric, which then went cold within just a few minutes due to the cold temperature, turning their clothing from what was supposed to be protecting them from the elements into a foe.
Jack was yet out of breath; this kind of jog was nothing to him since he's already used to running and walking around the forest while carrying a 6.57 kg weight rifle for hours along with several other pieces of equipment and necessities. Except that he was wearing thick clothing and not wearing school PT's out in not-so-friendly weather.
He looked to his surroundings, at the students who were walking back home, staring at them. They were probably feeling jealous at how they were being trained by real people from the armed services, or maybe the opposite, being pity due to having to run while being blown by Mother Nature's cold breath. Maybe feeling lucky that they picked the right club and not having to endure such trials.
Still running through the field, legs splashing the puddle beneath their shoes at their exposed legs, dirtying their shoes. Well, at least dark-black shoes are mandatory in the school so that no one has to make the mistake and endure the pain of having to clean white or bright-coloured shoes if they have one.
"Alright, keep up the pace, everyone! We're moving up now to the obstacles." Said the man as he instructed the students, guiding them along the path that was marked using boards placed on improvised stands like chairs, trees, or branches that can hold an object in place.
Walking deeper into a greener and tree-rich environment, on quite a wide path, Jack could see a wide 4-feet-tall wall made of wood with gaps and ropes attached at the top and sandbags placed just below on each opposite end, probably to minimise injury from falling. He was confused as to what the strange man who introduced himself as Master Corporal Alfred McKnowes, who just barged in with a Hi-Power into the garage where their club's centred, and started firing what he assumed to be blanks up into the air due to the amount of fire and noise coming out of the barrel and how many times he was cocking the slide, and that no bullet holes were visible at where the gun was pointed at.
"Alright, obstacle course. Move up!" The man in CADPATs shouted.
"Oh, come on.." Said one student in disbelief, looking at the tall obstacle.
"This is getting a bit too harsh," Jack thought.
Climbing up the ropes he went, Jack was the one leading, being once a leader during middle school in the guns and hunting club, trying to set an example to the rest of the group for them to follow. He was soon followed by the rest, who began attempting to climb up the ropes, but some fell to the sandbags placed below; at least their injuries are not that severe.
Eventually reaching the top, sitting on the wall on his crotch, he dragged his leg up, moving it to the other side while trying not to drop himself to the ground by sliding off the wall. He climbed down in between the gaps on the wooden wall, his hands gripped on the rope so that he didn't fall off and as he was about to reach the ground, he let go of the grip and let himself drop to the ground and on the sandbags, falling right on both legs. He felt his bones aching from the drop, but it was nothing and he continued on with the course.
He ran to the next obstacle before looking at a glimpse of his other mates. Some were too afraid to climb, probably from fear of heights. Then there's the short girl, obviously none other than Alisia, whom he hated for being chosen by a pencil of all things. While the others were trying to climb, she was still on the ground, just staring at the wall. Probably too scared to climb or too weak to grip on the ropes, or some other factors.
Continuing on with the course, there were then the three tall logs with different heights. Well, there sure are plenty of obstacles involving height, though some obstacles like the monkey bars—two sets of them in fact. Reaching that part of the obstacle, he jumped and gripped onto it and was stuck on it, unable to jump onto the next bar.
"What's wrong, Mr. McCain? Can't get into the next bar? You need some motivation for it? Huh?" The Master Corporal approached him, gripping a Hi-Power on his right hand, fingers off the trigger and near the slide. Without a warning, he raised the gun to the air and pulled the trigger.
The gun released off a loud bang, echoing through the forest, which was heard by the rest of the students who were busy on their own course, still trying to get over it. The gunfire caused the still-hanging Jack to freeze in place. Even with blank shots, it was still frightening for him.
"What? Why did you stop? Come on, keep moving." Said the Master Corporal, pointing the barrel at the next obstacles.
Watching from afar from a tall outpost, stood several figures, some in CADPATs and some in warm civilian clothing. Master Corporal Thomas Doria watched as his fellow instructor acted savagely, giving no quarter to the poor kids below who had to endure the cold temperature in minimal clothing.
"Say." Cathleen called him out. "Were you blokes tought like this in basic?"
Thomas turned towards her, shaking his head. "Nah, our basic doesn't involve getting threatened by a gun. Though maybe those folks from America do. This is the first time I see him acting like this. Anyways, uhh, you're from overseas, right?"
"Why, yes, I am. Let me guess, you got some good contract offer, don't you?" Cathleen asked back.
"Well, the contract's too good for me and others to refuse; I got some extra 30.000 dollars into our pockets from accepting that contract. Was a bit surprised when we got picked; I mean, why were we even? Stuff like this is supposed to be tought with people like you and some other crazy bunch, or reservists." Said Thomas.
"A bit too harsh on calling us crazy; how's that?" Cathleen asked once more.
"I mean…" Thomas looked back to the chaos that his colleague was doing below. "We weren't tought to jump 15 feet up in the air, drift or do some crazy mind-blowing stuff in a 60-tonne tank. Could've hired only you or some other 'crazy' folks to do this job. We're not meant for this, really."
"Huh… fair." Cathleen nodded while still staring at the training that was happening below. Some more shots were fired. She doubted that even the yanks' were training to this extreme to what the Master Corporal suggests.
1430 hours:
The calm idle sound of the Bedford 12 cylinder engine filled the metal case that was the Churchill III. Within, the crew that operated it was led by none other than Jack McCain himself. Sitting on his commander seat, just beside his gunner, William Turner.
His hands were stroking each other to produce heat due to the cold air around him. The scarf around his neck, less colourful and decorative than his crew's scarves. It was worsened by him and others trying not to touch the surface of the tank that was made cold by mother nature.
"Again with this?" Daniel complained. "I thought we already went over this crewmanship thingy last week."
"Maybe you should consider changing to indoor clubs; there's heaters and warm water refills where you can be all cosy and act like mama's boy." Said Finlay as he chugged in water from his canteen.
"Oh, screw you." Daniel replied.
"So I heard we're going to be split into teams. There's like 8 tanks, so maybe divided into two or three teams. But there's only one heavy tank and it's going to be pretty unfair for whoever's on the opposing side." Said Bennett.
"It's either a 3 versus 3 versus 2, or a 4 versus 4, then." Said Daniel.
Just everyone doing their own thing, whining and complaining. Jack was surprised by the sudden change of pace from all calm to total panic and chaos when the Master Corporal intruded in and blasted his gun. At least Lieutenant Dionne wasn't all that harsh, was he? He asked himself.
"Oi, Jack." William called him.
Jack turned to his right at William, "What?"
William opened his lips as he was about to speak but halted before he could even muttered a word. His mouth was left open and in the end he just shook his head. "Nah, nothing."
"What? Is it because of this?" Jack pointed at his scarf. "My father bought it from that one store in the town's centre. What about it?"
"Nah, nothing; just ignore it." William turned away, his eyes staring away from him.
Jack stared at him, confused by what just happened. He blinked his eyes before eventually realising and furrowed his eyes at him with a pissed-off look. "You have dementia or something?"
"Took you long enough to realise," said William in a joking tone.
"You're demented.."
In the midst of their banter, the radio crackled to life and a voice emerged from the speaker. The new voice, aside from the thunderous, aggressive voice, was instead calmer yet still has some semblance of authority.
"Right, everyone. What we're about to do is yet another combat training, but this time in teams. However, due to the lack of numbers and the lack of sufficient firepower for each team, one team will be assigned with only two tanks, being a Churchill and a Ram. Your tank commanders have been briefed regarding the team's composition and other details, so ask them if you have any questions, that is, if they had written down or remembered what was said earlier. All of you are to work as a team. Use anything to your advantage, but try not to kill yourself or your friends. Now, onto your staging points."
"Right, time to put them helmets on, then." Said Daniel as he grabbed an AFV helmet from below and wore it, followed by the rest of the crew.
Jack also put on his own helmet; good thing that they aren't wearing the silly thin hats anymore, as it was not suitable for an enclosed space such as a tank. Immediately after wearing his helmet, he looked towards the radio shelf and picked up a small foldable map wrapped in plastic along with a note attached to it with a clip where a four-digit coordinate was written down and a black marker. Looking back and forth at the map and the note, using his current location as a reference to get into the waypoint he was briefed with earlier.
Upon getting the exact spot, he scribbled on the plastic surface using the black marker, creating lines connecting the dot of his current location through the known roads on the map before then reaching the exact aforementioned area.
"Right, driver. Move forward." Jack ordered before grabbing the radio.
"Alright." Finlay acknowledged before pulling the lever on the transmission shifter down and stepping on both pedals, moving the heavy tank forward.
The engine woke up from the state of idly growl into that of a beastly growl as the engine did its job upon reaction from the pedal stepped on. The tank lurched forward, tracks traversing across the wet soil, sending dirt up in the air as it went full throttle. Everyone inside was pushed back upon the sudden force but did not slam their heads against the metal wall.
Opening the hatch, Jack appeared out of it holding with him a push-to-talk radio in his hand. He stared out at one of the many Rams lined up; some were departing off except for a few.
"Samuel, check in on Fraser and tell him to tail us from behind." He leaned the mic to his mouth as he ordered to his radioman.
"Right." Samuel acknowledged his orders through the radio before proceeding to grab the PTT and talk through it through the different channel. "Fraser, you there?"
"I hear you, so do we follow you?" A voice crackled to life through the channel.
"Yeah, just stay on our back. We're heading to the starting point." Said Samuel.
"Right, we'll follow from behind."
The forest filled with the sound of engines growling as tanks began making their way traversing to their starting points, split into teams and each with their own leaders. Jack kept his heads up at the cupola, placing his map on the roof of the turret while keeping his PTT close to his mouth as he continued guiding his driver through the road while keeping an eye at the Ram behind him.
Minutes went by and the team of two tanks was alone, with only the sound of their engines growling and roaring through the forest, which filled the emptiness of the forest. The dirt road itself, marked by the tracks of both the Churchill and the Ram. From afar though, there stood a tall observation tower recently renovated, as shown by the new bright paint it has, with a few figures being none other than the military attaches from both the CTF and the Canadian Army.
Jack had been wondering for most of his life in the school, wondering what the tower's presence was doing in the middle of school property. There were tales of a tankery team that once existed in the school way before he was born, which was later disbanded due to some reasons like financial. He had always thought that the tower was probably used as a fire station but why would such things even exist within school properties? Some other speculations within him, like it probably was an observation post for mere sight-seeing.
His speculations were then interrupted upon seeing two pathways. He checked his map, checking if they were taking the correct path. After taking a short look and confirming it. He then leaned the integrated microphone on the AFV helmet to his mouth. "Take the right path."
"Aye," said Finlay through the net.
Approaching the turn, Finlay leaned the steering wheel a bit to the right while keeping his eyes on the viewport, keeping the tank on the correct path. The sound of the engine itself was loud, almost to the point of them not being able to hear anything. Good thing they had the new helmets or else things would've been much more painful.
Finally reaching a flat open ground, there were a couple fresh tree stumps, judging by how bright the freshness of the tree's flat surface that was the flesh. Probably cut for the occasion of the tankery club activity.
"Halt," Jack ordered.
The tank came to a complete halt as Finlay pulled the lever up and let his legs off the pedals. The same was followed with the Ram but only stopped right beside the Churchill. Silence filled the environment once more, from the former filled with the sound of the engines roaring into the idly quiet sound.
"I don't remember there being an open space like this." said Finlay as he observed from the viewport.
"Huh, for real?" asked William as he then too looked out through the gunner's sight. "Yeah, those cuts look fresh."
Aside from the fresh cuts, Jack also smelt a distinct smell of wood fabrics—a sharp smell it was with a watery-like scent. Combined with the nature surrounding it, it felt just nature-like- Really? Nature like? Oh well… Jack though.
"Alright, all team leaders report in once you confirm that your team are ready." A voice crackled to life once more as the Master Jack's voice reappeared as he gave further instructions.
"Samuel, go and confirm our readiness." Jack ordered through the helmet's mic.
"This is team one, on standby." Samuel immediately executed the order without hesitation as he spoke through the radio, confirming their team's readiness.
"This is team two, on standby." A feminine voice crackled through the net, sourcing from Isabelle.
"Team three, on standby.." Another feminine voice appeared with a weaker tone, sourcing from Alisia.
Seconds went by with silence feeling the air, until all of a sudden, Jack heard a small explosion in the far distance and saw a shaped object leaving behind trails of smoke as it climbed up high into the sky before exploding mid-air and releasing a bright red glow along with a small parachute.
"That's the signal, I guess." Jack said to himself.
"So, what's our plan?" Asked William, his voice heard clear as crystal due to the engine releasing less sound in idle.
"Well.." Jack thought for a second. "I... don't really know. All my brain cells are gone after the exercise we had earlier."
"So, what's your order, Jack?" Fraser's voice was heard over the net with a question.
Jack was still thinking about what to do—maybe pulling off the same trick as last time with hiding in one spot and waiting for someone to go pass by? No, he doesn't have the patience to wait for someone to go by; he doesn't have that much of an attention span.
"Nah, nah.." He shook his head. Perhaps they should go for a more direct approach? Besides, the guns on the Ram and the Stuart would barely do much to a heavy tank like the Churchill anyway, could they?
"Alright, throttles forward." He ordered.
"Right, pushing down the pedals now." Finlay acknowledged before stepping on both pedals, making the engine go up roaring and growling once more.
The tank lurched forward, knocking everyone back slightly by the sudden force, including Jack, but he held onto the ring of the cupola, preventing himself from falling off to the rear. The same was said for the Ram at the rear as it hit the gas, following the Churchill from behind. A question then emerged over the net.
"Uhh, what's our plan?" Asked Fraser once more.
Jack went down the cupola and inside the turret before looking at the radio section compartment. "Tell him to tail right behind us. We'll just find anyone we see and try and take them out." He ordered Samuel through the helmet's mic.
"Right." Samuel acknowledged his orders before leaning the PTT to his mouth. "Fraser, just tail us from behind."
"Uhh, alright then."
And so the two tanks went on rolling again, as they were about to face against the two other teams.