Side By Side

12

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

We went back to our barracks after the intense day and had dinner. Everyone who skipped their other food quickly ate this because they were really hungry and I leaned back on the grass in front of our barrack. People were just talking a bit and I sat with a group who smiled shortly, but seemed pretty annoyed that I was here now.

I felt unwanted and scooted away again, sitting alone while I ate the rest of my dinner. Why did no one ever like me? They didn't know I was gay, why would they be annoyed when I came near them? Because I was better than them?

I sighed softly and ate my dinner, putting the plate down as the sergeant came up to the group. He immediately glanced at me, seeing me sit alone. He didn't make any comment about it and looked away.

'Stand up!'

I immediately jumped up and stood straight up as others took way longer. They slowly lifted themselves up and kept talking while I waited like the sergeant wanted us to do.

'NOW, PLEASE!' he screamed, which made everyone realise they had to listen. Everyone stood next to me in line as the sergeant pointed behind us to the barrack.

'You're going to sleep very soon from now on! I don't want anyone talking in the barrack because there's people who need their sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an early day filled with a lot of classes and activities so you need to get all the sleep you can get!'

'Yes, sergeant,' we yelled as I immediately went into the barrack, putting my sleeping bag down. I laid down on it while everyone slowly went inside too, setting up their stuff. I was genuinely exhausted so I fell asleep very quickly.

~ A Few Weeks Later ~

The last weeks were really intense but very fun to me. I had first aid training which was also known as CLS, Combat Life Saver. We were taught how to deal with wounds from bullet shots, other kinds of wounds and treating other medical things. We were also taught how to deal with dehydration, heat strokes and malnutrition.

Next to our first aid training, learning how to perform CPR and all those things, we walked for hours a day and had multiple training. We learnt more about how to use a weapon, but the bullets were fake.

We had to do the Victory Tower a few more times, learnt how to set up barracks and defences and they woke us up at the most random times for random combat trainings or a long march through the forest next to a teamwork training where we needed to do an parkour and discuss together how to do it the most efficient way.

People were taught how to read the map and a few people were sent away too. One of the men didn't listen to the sergeant and threw his weapon away to eat. He immediately got sent away since that was unacceptable. Another one was too weak and kept failing all the strength tests so he was sent away too.

After one week, we went to the last week of phase one. We started to train our combat with "pugil sticks" which were tall combat weapons made from foam. We learnt how to fight with them and how to escape from certain grasps during a fight.

After that we started learning carrying methods in case someone was injured and couldn't walk anymore. I found it pretty easy and learnt it quickly. We had more classes about physical problem-solving which interested me a lot.

The hardest training was the "gas chamber" training. We had to wear a protective mask when we went inside but right before we left the room, we needed to take off our mask so we got exposed to the gas. They asked me questions so I was forced to open my mouth.

I luckily answered everything quickly and correctly and quickly left the gas room while walking around as I "flapped" my arms to get the gas from my uniform while coughing really loudly since strong gas was actually the worst thing to experience.

A few days ago I had more classes about weapons and I was explained how they worked and what I had to do with them. They showed all of them to us and we could hold them and see how they would work, how they needed to be cleaned and or quickly get disassembled or the opposite, reassembling it.

After I passed the first three weeks, I was ready to move to phase two and I had never been more excited than today. I had so much happiness in my body and I was full of willpower and the excitement to learn more about everything.

I was so excited that I didn't really focus on the other recruits in my platoon. They didn't seem to like me that much unfortunately, mostly because I beat them in everything and I already knew a lot because I did multiple training before I entered the camp.

I ignored the negative thoughts because I was way too happy for phase two. I was going to learn how to shoot with weapons and we would get aim practice. The sergeant told us we would get a rank for the amount of targets we shot and I really wanted to get a higher rank because I loved this so much.

I had so much adrenaline in my body while sitting in the bus on my way to shooting practice today. Even though I was woken up in the middle of the night, I had more energy than ever.

'Teach me how to be this awake in the middle of the night,' the man next to me scoffed with a slight laugh.

I grinned. 'I'm just really excited for the training.'

'Well, the training won't be in hours. We firstly have to walk for a long time most likely,' he sighed.

'I don't mind, I like most of the classes and the training. I mean... I absolutely despised the gas chamber.'

He chuckled. 'Same, that was the absolute worst. I hope we never have to do that again.'

'Same, but it's fine if we do. I just want to become a soldier so I'll do it ten times if I need to,' I smiled with an excited tone in my voice.

I never expected to get this far as the gay boy who wasn't even allowed in the army and it made me so proud and happy at the same time.

1107 words