The wicked will Parish | A Ben Parish FanFic |

Chapter 18 | May God Forgive

I never felt more out of shape till now, it's been two weeks since I'd done any physical activity because of my leg. In fact, I still had a slight limp. Although it was nothing that could slow me down, I was still out of shape.

Reznik had us run three laps around the whole base for conditioning, and whoever was last had to run another lap as punishment. Something I wish I was told sooner so I could've at least kept my stamina in those two weeks. So because I was so out of shape, I fell behind.

I wasn't the last one, because Zombie seemed to had taken that role so Teacup- I learned was the seven year old blonde- or Nugget-the youngest in our squad- didn't have to run the last lap.

As I figured, the skinny kid, who Reznik seemed to think was 'Pathetic', was in front, trailing behind was a kid with big ass ears, tank, and the quiet, fat kid. I know it's rude to call him fat but it's not something he could really hide, plus I didn't know his name.

I was out of breath- which I could always remember that I hated the feeling. I was a sprinter, and falling last was not what I was used to. I never placed under 3rd place and I wasn't going to let that change. Unfortunately, my stamina was broken, and I still had a slight limp, so I have that going for me.

    We were starting the third lap, and I was beginning to slow down.

    Zombie then kicked back to run next to me. I looked at him puzzled, what the hell does he want?

    "You're slowing down, private," He mocked. "And I noticed you have a limp, where you injured before they picked you up?"

    I nodded, not saying a single word. I wasn't sure if I should be offended or not, but I wasn't going to push it. I wonder why he was talking to me.

    "Thought so, I'm taking the last lap, stay ahead." He said, emotionless. Sometime his emotionlessness was annoying, ridiculous even, but it was also kind of hot.

Regardless, I didn't like it because so far he hasn't told me shit about this place, and Parker told me he was supposed to. I roll my eyes every time I think about it. I also, maybe, figured he'd be mad because I threatened his position as squad leader- not that I wanted it or anything, that'd be ridiculous- and the fact that Reznik was taunting him about it.

    "Private Ruck, I thought you were a runner." I heard the smirk in his voice. I'm guessing that means he's seen all of my file. "I'm surprised you fell behind." Now he was taunting me. This man child was beginning to get on my nerves.

    I wasn't in the mood to argue so I just continued running until we reached then end. Before Reznik could say anything to Zombie about being a slow poke, he began the fourth lap.

~

So apparently, a squad has to participate- everyday- in different activities. One of which included hand to hand combat training, things like conditioning at all that fun stuff.

    Oompa and Tank also filled me in on gun range shooting, capture the flag, P&D- yes, I was disgusted- and hand to hand combat training.

Unfortunately today was P&D. I puked in my mouth a little when I first entered the room. It smelled of dead, rotting corpses of days- maybe weeks- old bodies, and burning flesh. Almost reminded me of those stupid horror movies, Jeepers Creepers.

The smell was so disturbing, never had my eyes watered from How disgusting a smell was.

Anyways, I was put with Tank and Oompa to empty out all the pockets and remove any body jewelry. Also to separate the belonging into separate containers for each specific thing. Like for example, if someone had rings or a necklace or any piercing, we'd remove them and place them into a container filled with, rings, or necklaces, etc. Same for things like garbage, or food maybe, cellphones, all that weird stuff.

I was also forced to wear these ridiculous gloves, and body suit. But I wasn't complaining, as long as it meant to physical touch with a dead body.

I wondered: why they needed to dispose of all these bodies? Where'd did they even find these bodies? When did they find the time and resources to go look for all these dead bodies?

"Don't you guys wonder where these bodies came from?" I huffed to the boys in front of me.

"Yeah but we stopped asking questions a while ago." Oompa complained. Why he make it sound like that.

"Don't get me wrong, they saved us from the others, but it's literal hell here." Tank whined.

    Just then we began to pick the pockets of a woman with dark black hair. From the looks of it, she was rich and quite elegant. I reached into her sweater- unzipping the pockets. She carried, a stunning pocket wallet, a knife, and a picture of I can guess was her daughter.

    I kept wondering the same things every time we were given a need body: what about their families? Their loved ones? What about all the other countless lives the Others had taken? I didn't want our race to go extinct. Nor did I want them to win.

    I had to promise myself- no matter what, I will always do as best I can to be better than the Others. So I can kill every single one of them. I blame them for the death of my mother. I blame them for drowning my father, I blame them for making my best friend sick. But mostly I blamed them for killing my sisters. Neither one of them deserved the death they were given. I wasn't going to stop until I know that- no matter how much pain I go through, how many people I have to kill- every single one of those god forsaken bastards... are dead.