Lost

Chapter 6

Day 31, 2034: Extremely pissed off, tired, and for once not hungry.
"Rise and shine cadets, it's training time." Our Captain wakes us up. I sigh, and quickly get ready. Somehow Will beats me, then again he's probably been doing this for years. "Your slow" he says to me "I'm sorry I didn't realize it was a race." "All I'm telling you is that you do not want to be last." Did he just give me advice?

Wow. Today we are training in hand to hand combat. There is no mercy in the war world so girls verse guys that are way bigger than them. This puts me against this one guy, Sam, tall, built, three or four years older than me, and experienced. Will thinks I'm screwed, his lack of confidence in me just drives me to prove him wrong. Sam might be bigger than me but I'm faster.

I can out play him. Our Captain tells us to start. Sam teases me, he pretends to throw a punch, and jumps around me, taunting me. He thinks I'm weak, I throw a punch and hit him in the eye. He winces and puts his hand to his eye. He's angry now, he throws a punch I doge it. I jab him in the stomach as I duck. He stumbles back. Will straightens his stance, he's impressed. Sam throws another punch, I get hit on the shoulder because I tried to doge it and was slightly off. It doesn't affect me much though, I used to practice with my brother, he's punched me way harder many times.

I kick Sam in the stomach, he bends over, I use my leg to nock him off balance, he stumbles and I push him down. That gets some of the guys to stir. I get on top of him and punch him repetitively. "Stop" I hear. I freeze. "Sir, I'm sorry but I believe cadet Altan here wasn't done" I hear Will say. "Well she won, and thats all we need, thank you cadet Altan" still a cadet??? Even after that??? This place is tough. "Lets continue, Sergeant Tuner, will you please take cadet Altan to be evaluated for weapon handling" "Yes sir."

Will motions me to follow him, I do. "I'm impressed, your a good fighter, but I bet you can't beat Captain Iparing." "I wouldn't even try," I say. We enter a room, where guns are being fired, knives are being thrown. Mock grenades are going off. It is a mess of noise. All around me are girls and guys but way older than me, Will tells me that they are all Corporals or Sergeants.

"Do you want to start with a gun or knives," "Knives because I'm more experienced with them" I say, just to be intimidating. I go over to the knives and pick one up. "You know I could beat your ass in knife throwing" I say, "Yeah right" I throw two knives, they hit the center. "Wow, nice shot" "I could also beat you in hand to hand combat" "That I believe" I throw more knives and they all hit the center. "Your really good," "I know, that's why I said I could beat you," "Yeah ok. Let's see how good you are with guns." I pick up an H34 similar to the gun I used during the fight.

I start shooting, the bullets rush out in milliseconds from each other, and they all land in the center of the target. "Wow it looks like I'm pretty good at this too," I say, then I put the gun down and start to walk out. "Wait cadet Altan, there's something you should do." Will says, and cadet? Still?

"What?" "Grenade training" "I know, once the pin is pulled you have five seconds before it explodes, and if it lands on your side you have three seconds to pick it up and throw it back," "That's correct, ok. I'll report back to Captain Wren." We exit, Will whispers to Captain Wren, and Wren nods. "Cadet Altan, or should I say Corporal Altan, you shall no longer continue your training with me." I smile, finally.

"You realize that means training will get harder and you'll be training with some of those people you saw in the training area, right?" "Yeah yeah, I already proved I'm better than you."