On Our Own (gxg)

Chapter 8 - Routine

I am right awake and sit up in my bed as the alarm goes off.

"Turn alarm off!"

Muños comands and the holo-alarm stops. I wait a moment for someone to move.

"Finley, you're newbie, it's your turn to get up first. Your uniform is in the changing room. Your closet is the one on the left side", Malone murmurs still half asleep. I nod to myself and and advise the central holo to put the room into a dim light. I climb down the bunk and get into the changing room. There are six closets, I take a look in the left one as Malone told me. I find a suit. It is similar to the regular suit and the one I wore for the holo-test, I mean, it's made out of one piece. But it's not as tight as the holo suit and not a wide as the normal one. It's of dark grey colour, on the right shoulder there is the logo of the Alatis Army - two capital As cupped by a strong pair of wings similar to the ones every soldier has inked on his hands. The name tag on the right upper chest reads"FINLEY". So that's settled. I take it and use the door that connects the changing room and the bathroom. I take a warm shower and get ready, tying a pony tail like Malone wore it yesterday. The uniform is very compfortable and only when wearing it I notice a few other features. It has more consolidated parts without narrowing my agility. It seems to be protecting, a bit like an actual armour. I also notice more parts sticking out with the purpose of allowing different devices and add-ons to connect with my suit. Like the sticking out parts of the regular suits where for example the Bubbles' seats conntect to secure the passenger. Just wore of those connection parts. Still they don't affect my agility. I straighten my shoulders watching myself in the mirror. Pride. That feeling is very new to me, still I know to label it. I have not often been proud, so even this small hint of the feeling I sense right now is like it's completely taking me in. I breathe in and out and for a moment, and just as I feel ready to leave the bathroom I hear a timid knock at the door.

"Hey Finley, it's Malone. Umm, I know it's still your bathroom time but, uhm, well, would you mind letting me in? I just really need to pee."

I chuckle inside me and get out of the bathroom.

"I was about to leave, anyway."

She looks released as she rushes in. The guys are all awake. More or less. They don't say much - mornings do not seem to be their favourite time. For me it could never be early enough, I did anything to leave the quarter before my father would wake up. Mornings have been my freedom. Except for that one time when you woke him accidently.

I decide to settle at the table waiting. The schedule on the holo-screen next to the door predicts a tough day - well, more accurately a tough week and I presume it's going to be a tough time to come. And I can't wait for it.

After everyone has finished getting ready for the day we all look kind of the same with the uniforms. For the first time maybe in my whole life I feel like I am an equal part of something. We leave the dorm at 7 a.m. and head to a hall. I assume it's the cafeteria. There are rows of long tables and there are other recruit groups there - but no one speaks so I don't dare. I am not even an extrovert,  only my father made me be one against my will. So we just consume our food rations. They are simple and do their job of giving our bodies the energy and vitamins and so on that they need, they do not have to taste good. Three high ranked soldiers, I presume they are generals, are supervising us.

We are told to clean up after ourselves and then we buil a queue of two people in a row. I stand next to Malone, stiff, insecure, but she gives me a reassuring smile and I manage to relax a little. We march and that march turns into a short run, a warm-up I presume. Running after eating is cruel. I bet I will have to get used to it. I sigh but then concentrate on my breathing rythm again. I praise my former self for keeping herself in shape. I spent hours on the treadmil or in some sporty ArEns to get my mind off everything. It didn't work but I still did not give up trying to keep my body busy in order to free my mind.

We finish our run in a square fitness room. It's 10 a.m. and I am already starting to get tired. We are about to continue conditional training. The room was similar to the room the test ArEn took place in but it's way bigger. So what we do is deviding into two groups doing a relay. Obstacles appeared in the room and they moved and varied in a pace that I was hard for my eyes to even follow. When it'smy turn I am full of adrenaline. I sprint forward diving through the first obstacle. I run upwards, the ground is moving, I am almost hit by another obstacle. I manage to run relatively fast, but I almost fail to jump across the huge gap being my last obstacle. For a moment I am in danger of falling but I crawl up and high-five the next runner. I don't even know his name. But we still do not talk. I guess it's just training our discipline. I would give a whole lot right now to recover from the extreme parcour run lying on the floor but we are not allowed to. I fight my way up to occupy my place in the queue.

We won. I am so glad we did because by now I am almost exhausted and the generals maje the loosing team do 25 push-ups and 20 sit-ups.

We return to the cafeteria for another silent meal at 1.30 p.m. The atmosphere is clearly different. In the morning it was light, ypu could feel that everybody would have chatted if it hadn't been prohibited. Now the silence was caused by the simple absence of enery or motivation to waste energy on small talk.

With a full stomach I felt more awake than before - but still not ready to continue. The afternoon brings fighting lessons of any kind - martial arts, melee, knive fighting or shooting. There are also some theoretical lessons in the afternoon, at least at some days says the schedule in the dorm. Not today.

I fall into my bed after the day without even thinking of doing anything else after dinner. I close my eyes already drifting off.

The next 2 weeks flow by me in no time - I have no private life left at all, only slowly my body adjusts to the strong use and I understand the build of Malone.