Eschaton

Chapter 7: Jack

"What the fuck?!" Jack shouted as his body met the floor with a loud thud. He threw off his blanket, looking through dreary eyes to see his now mentor, Hagen, forcefully removing him from his bed.

"Plenty of time to sleep when you're dead." Hagen said throwing the blanket back onto the bed. "Training starts today. Get your shit together in five minutes and meet me outside." With that Hagen stormed out the door. Jack's head was pounding. John had been giving him drinks on him all day yesterday, as a welcome to the rangers gift. Now Jack found himself wishing he hadn't and begun to feel like they did this on purpose as a joke.

Jack scoffed as he rose to his feet and begun getting dressed all the while cursing Hagen under his breath. He found himself confined in a bedroom under Hagen's roof as this town didn't have a ranger's outpost. Not yet anyway. It was a small room with just enough space for him to get dressed, with a small bed barley fitting in. Jack, not wanting to keep his mentor waiting, quickly threw on his extra set of clothes he had been given and rushed out the door. The house itself wasn't large at all. There was only one hallway with six doors; three small bedrooms, the master, one for the armory, which was really a closet full of different weapons, and one for general storage. The hallway itself led out into the kitchen that was adjacent to the dining room which in turn, was next to the general living area. All three of which were packed into a single space that no more than five or so people could squeeze in at a time.

Jack rounded the hall corner to see Hagen standing by the front door. Hagen pointed to a plate that rested on the table of to the side.

"You still have two minutes left." Hagen's pointed finger turned into two. "Let's go!"

Jack hurried forward towards the table. There, lay a plate, with a hunk of slightly burnt meat paired with a white paste. A glass of water towered over the plate and next to it a small pill. Jack picked up the piece of meat and scarfed it down fast. He then picked up the plate and licked all the paste off. He then threw the pill in his mouth and downed the glass of water. Hagen turned and walked out the door, with Jack swiftly following behind him. They walked through the threshold and stepped out into the sunlight. The sun's rays were creeping over the tops of all the buildings that lined the street. The smell of dew permeated the air.

"Out back now!" Hagen barked. Jack quickly ran out and around the small house. In the field behind Hagen's house, dummies were set up all over. Most of which was either shot up or torn apart entirely. Hagen pushed by Jack. "This is where you will be spending the majority of your time." Hagen boomed as he walked out amongst the first of the training dummies. "You will practice on every weekday until I deem otherwise." Hagen held out his hands gesturing at the first row of dummies. "You will get up at six each morning, get dressed, eat breakfast promptly." Hagen pointed down towards his feet. "You will then come out here, do one-hundred push-up's and one-hundred sit-up's for your warmup." He then drew a continuous circle in the air. "You will finish your warmup with two laps around the entire town. You will come back here and spend the next four hours running close combat drills and immediately after that spend the next hour in the range when we get to that point." He gestured towards the dummies that were off in the back all shot to pieces, along with some old targets that haven't been set up yet. "After you complete these you will have lunch. You will then either be taught a lesson or go back to drills. Do you understand?" Hagen asked now beaming at Jack.

"Y-yes sir." Jack stuttered.

Hagen pulled out a sheathed knife and tossed it to Jack, catching it. "This is the first tool of many that you can earn. You will treat all your tools better than you treat yourself. At the end of every day you will sharpen the blade and oil the sheathe."