The River (Clemerva)

Chapter Four: Training Day

Sleep wasn't something Clementine got much of. For the last few years, she had been on the road alone with AJ. This meant that she always had to keep watch if they were staying somewhere that wasn't completely safe, which covered just about everywhere they stayed.
If she ignored the fact that they were being held against their will, she would have chalked up the last night as her best in years.
The beds they were assigned were comfortable, clean and warm.
The intense satisfaction she felt in being able to kick off her boots and go to sleep without worrying about being eaten alive or killed in the night was unlike anything she had felt.
It was so pleasant that she didn't even care that they were woken up at the crack of dawn, yelled at and ordered to get dressed.
AJ followed Clementine's lead, sticking close to her side the entire time.
Violet scowled at the drill instructor as she trudged out of her bed and into line.
Brody looked paler than usual whenever she was yelled at. She evidently had trouble dealing with stress.
Louis was putting on a brave face, but he kept his jokes to a minimum after Lily had struck him across the face yesterday.
Marlon said nothing, he just silently floated from place to place. His friends hadn't been interacting with him much. Even Louis, who was the only one currently talking to him, did so with an air of crestfallen disappointment.
After being berated some more, they were all marched out of the barracks and out into the cold morning air.
The instructor took them across the base, which was much larger than Clementine initially guessed, and over to a large plot of land that contained some kind of training course.
The drill instructor lined them up in front of a row of tyres and addressed the group.

"We're gonna be testing your agility and endurance today. In the next few months you're going to get real familiar with this course. On my go, you'll all run it at the same time."

Before they had any real chance to assess the course ahead of them, the instructor was already barking at them to get moving.
Clementine ran alongside AJ. They stepped through the arrangement of tyres, AJ nearly tripped but Clem caught him just in time.
The next obstacle was a mess of netting and barbed wire with a space underneath that wasn't much higher than forty centimetres.
The drill instructor screamed at them to crawl, so they did, baring in mind that he was armed.
Clementine shuffled as fast as she could on her stomach under the netting. The front of her shirt became slick with mud and she felt a rock scrape along her stomach.
The next obstacle was a vertical wall with a series of ropes dangling from the top. The wall stood at least ten meters tall.
Violet was the first up, gripping the rope and using it for leverage to walk up the wall.
She was about halfway up when her feet slipped, leaving a muddy trail down the wall. The blonde regained her balance, holding onto the rope for dear life.

"Think you can do this?" Clementine asked AJ, who was staring up the wall at the other kids who were attempting their climb.
After a moment of consideration, he nodded determinedly.

Clementine held tightly onto the rope, constantly looking over at AJ who was copying her moves.
She started inching up the wall, she had made high climbs like this before, so the wall wasn't as daunting to her as it was for AJ.
To Clem's surprise, he was actually doing well. AJ clutched the rope with his small hands, grunting with exertion as he pulled himself up the wall.
He got nearly three meters up the wall before his grip failed and he fell to the ground on his back.
Clementine's eyes widened and she slid down her rope and back to the ground, paying no mind to the stinging of her hands after doing so.

"AJ! Are you okay?" She asked, rushing to his side.

AJ coughed and let out a strained groan. There was panic in his eyes, he didn't understand why he couldn't breathe.

"... Clem I- I can't-" he wheezed.

"AJ, calm down. You just had the wind knocked out of you, breathe through your nose slowly."

After a minute of following her advice, he was able to breathe again. The boy sat up, looking relieved. His face suddenly fell and he pointed over Clem's shoulder.

"Did I tell you to stop?" The drill instructor barked.

Clementine got to her feet and met his eyes.

"I was helping him, he fell off the wall."

"I don't give a shit. If he falls, that's his problem. Worry about yourself."

"I wasn't gonna just leave him there, asshole." Clem retorted.

She soon regretted having the last word. Fuming, the drill instructor sent a punch into her stomach.
Clementine doubled over, coughing and sputtering. She clutched her stomach, feeling sick. The instructor hadn't gone easy on her.

"Don't hit her!" AJ yelled, running towards the instructor.

Clementine put herself between AJ and the man. She knew the boy fully intended to try and fight him. What AJ lacked in size or common sense, he made up for in enthusiasm.

"You, back to the wall. Now." The instructor ordered, jabbing his finger at Clementine.

She complied, returning to the wooden monolith. The instructor followed closely behind. Clem hazarded a glance behind her to see him glaring daggers into her.

"You are going to take that rope, climb back to where you were before, and you're gonna hang there until you learn some respect. If you let go before I say, you'll be up there longer."

The sneer on his face said it all; this was someone who thoroughly enjoyed doling out cruel and unusual punishments.
There was nothing Clem could do though, fighting would make it much worse. So she climbed back to the point of the wall she was on earlier and held onto the rope.
After five minutes, she was starting to feel fatigued. Her knuckles were white and her palms felt raw from holding onto the coarse rope for so long.
Clem had drawn a crowd. AJ, Louis, Violet, Marlon and Brody were gathered beneath the wall, watching her hang there.

By the ten minute mark, Clem's entire body was shaking. Her arms burned all the way from her wrists to her shoulders. Her hands were now covered in tiny scrapes and cuts. She was dripping with sweat, but the drill instructor showed no sign of backing down.
Clementine didn't know if she could keep it up any longer.
A brief wave of encouragement from everyone below was swiftly put to rest by the instructor.
She could feel her grip loosening involuntarily.
Clem held on as best she could with her numb fingers.
She slipped down the rope quickly, letting out a pained yelp. Her palms burned and she could see smears of blood on the rope where she had slid down.
It got to the point where she could no longer bear it, she had to let go. Every muscle above her waist was screaming at her, begging for some respite.
Clementine fell down the remainder of the wall, landing on her back in the mud. Not even bothering to try and stand, she lay there staring up at the clouds.
The drill instructor's face came into view, smirking down at her.

"You better have learned your lesson. If you give me attitude again, I'm sure I can think of much worse punishments."

Clementine had absolutely no energy left, she just stared vacantly past him.
The instructor scoffed and left her side.

"All of you; drink some water, then it's back to it!" He shouted at the group, pointing over to a pump in the ground.

Brody, Violet, Louis and AJ crowded around her. They all looked at her with worried expressions on their faces.

"Are you okay?" Brody asked.

"... Not really." Clem groaned.

Violet and Louis helped her to her feet. Her muscles felt rubbery and she could barely lift her arms.
Clem was guided over to the water pump where Louis worked it for her.
She dropped onto her knees and began ravenously drinking from the tap. Clementine had never been more happy to have a drink of water than now.

"Whoa. don't drown yourself there, Clem." Louis joked.

"Shush." Clem gasped in between drinks.

"Alright, break's over. Get back here, now!" The instructor barked.

Clementine trudged back over to the training course with her friends, wondering how much more of this shit she would have to endure today.