There was rain beating down. It was the dead of night and the only light was the sporadic lightning striking in the distance. Lighting always seemed to strike in the distance. The thunder made a deafening sound. As the storm got closer, the thunder turned deafening. “Fall in!!” It was the commander. Aleck looked around wildly, but couldn’t seem to find any of his troop. Any of his friends.
A bolt of lightning hit and light the ground up on front of him. He strained his eyes, looking at a spot in the woods. He swore he saw a group of soldiers running, screaming toward him. Another flash of lightning, showed a spilled waving a gun at him. Aleck took a step back. He shouted. “The soldiers are here!!” But he wasn’t sure if any one had heard him or was even there. Aleck looked down a the rifle in his hands. Everything seemed to slow down.
He looked towards the soldier with the gun. This was his enemy he thought. But, he couldn’t make himself shot.
Aleck felt a stab of pain in his shoulder. He looked down and saw blood. The soldier was taking aim again but this time Aleck was quicker. The time slowed even more, it seemed as if he could see the bullet flying, see it hit the man, a fellow human being, see it rip into his body, see the blood squirt out of the wound, see the life drain from his eyes.
“Aleck!” A short, stout man yelled at him. Aleck looked down and saw his hands shaking. He couldn’t get the image of that soldier out of his head. “Aleck!” The man was closer now and seemed greatly upset. Veins in his forehead were popping and his face was scarlet. “Aleck!” He yelled for the third time. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re supposed to be sweeping back here. But what are you doing? Daydreaming?” He seemed furious.
Aleck looked down at the broom in his hands. “Sorry sir.” He replied. “It’s just been a ruff day, Castor.” Castor’s face had decreased in its scarlet quality, but was still extremely red. “Do I look like I care?” Castor yelled. Schooling his features he said, “Look. The health inspector is coming soon and we need this place spotless. So...” Castor looked down at the broom. “Get back to work.”
Aleck was new to the troop. New to the Army. He didn’t know why he signed up, just that he wanted to help his country. “Hey, kid!” Someone called out it him. Aleck has been walking around trying to find the troop. He turned around on the tarmac and saw a young man about 25 with brown hair in an army uniform running at him. Aleck himself was just 18.
“Did I do something wrong?” Aleck asked when the man finally caught up to him, Aleck had paused and waited. The man looked confused. “Wrong. No. Someone pointed you out to me as a newbie and in my troop.” After running the entire way, the man didn’t seem the least bit winded.
“Your troop?” Aleck asked surprised. He had figured who ever the commander of his troop was, would be some cranky old man, who would yell at him a lot.
The man smiled at him. “Yeah. My troop. Best in the Army. If I do say so myself.” Aleck laughed in response. The man smacked his head and Aleck cringed away the the sudden noise. “I’m such an idiot.” The man said to himself. “I forgot to introduce myself.” The man stuck out his hand. “Names Frank. What’s yours?”
Aleck shook the man's hand. He had a firm grip and shook Aleck’s hand vigorously. “My name is Aleck. You have a good handshake.” Frank looked down at his hand and the let loose a hoot. Aleck took a step back and wondered if this man was mentally sane.
“You’ll learn to have a good handshake soon enough. By the way,” Frank said pointing backwards. “You we’re headed the wrong way if you’re going to the troop ground. It’s that way. I’ll walk you there.” Aleck looked superciliously at him. “You sure? If it’s to much trouble I can problem find it myself.” Frank looked at him. “I’ll walk you. It’s not a problem. Any way, this way I can introduce you to the troop.”
The floor was spotless, Aleck had just finished sweeping the floor and moping it. Per request from Castor. The others working at the restaurant had avoided him the entire time, they tended to stay away when Castor yelled at him. Aleck had just put the mop back in the janitor’s closet and leaned against the door. The closet had three ceiling level shelves and they were filled with various cleaning supplies. But, the shelves were mostly bear.
There came a knock on the door. “Who is it?” Aleck shouted. All he wanted was to be alone with his thought, his shaky hands, and his memories. “It’s Camille.” A soft feminine voice said. Aleck racked his brain for any thought of Camille. He just couldn’t think of one. “Who?” Aleck snapped. He know he sounded rude, but he just wanted to be left alone. “I’m new here and Castor told me to show myself around. I tried to open the door, but it was locked.” She paused. Aleck could here her breath through the door. “At least I thought it was.”
Aleck looked down at his hands, they were only quivering slightly. He pushed himself off of the door and immediately got smacked by something hard. “Owww.” Aleck whipped around and saw it was the door that had hit him. Apparently, Camille had keep trying to open the door even though he was talking to her. Aleck peeked around the door, to find a mousy, short girl with shoulder length brown hair. She had a rounded face and dark blue eyes. She was wearing the restaurant uniform and red shirt tucked in black pants. And she was currently blushing something fierce.
“I’m so, so, sorry.” Camille flung the door wide open and looked at Aleck. Aleck looked her up and down slowly. Then he burst out laughing. “I’ve survived worse than that.” Aleck said, smiling down at her. “What do you mean?” Camille asked. Aleck took a closer look at her, she didn’t look like she knew. Aleck was surprised that no one had told her about him. “I went through war.”
Camille took a step back and looked like she was going to run. “I heard about you.” She said in a small voice. Aleck knew it, and took a step back. He grabbed the door and was about to slam it in her face, when, instead, he looked her in the eye and said, “What did you hear about me?”
“I heard that you had gone through war and that you are very violent. And that your prone to spasms that might hurt others. Also you have a bad temper.” Aleck recognized the look in her eyes. It was fear. Aleck grew angry. He didn’t like that people spread rumors about him. “I’m not violent and I don’t have spasms.” Aleck started to shake and grow angrier. “I also don’t have a bad temper!” Aleck yelled at her. He looked at her face she had grown really scared and looked close to running. Aleck took the door in his hand and slammed the oak door shut. Aleck sunk to the floor shaking.
Frank was walking Aleck across the pitted tarmack. It used to be black, or so Aleck thought, but had long been bleached by the sun. Aleck let his mind wander to how he would react to his first battle, how it would be. Then, he tripped in a pot hole.
Halfway to the ground, Aleck felt his shirt jurk backward and he was staring at the pitted, gray tarmack. “Whoa.” Aleck held his breath sure he was about to fall into the ground. “You need to watch your step there, skipper.” Said a gruff voice from behind him, and it wasn’t Frank’s.
Aleck felt himself being thrown upwards and had a sense of weightlessness. The ground came like a shock under his feet. It left his teeth clicking together. He wiped his head behind him, in an effort to see the man who saved him from face planting. Instead, spot danced across Aleck’s vision and he almost fell backwards. In a flash of clothing, Frank ran in front of Aleck and steady him.
“Whoa there sport.” Frank said and looked behind Aleck. “Max?” Aleck tried to turn around again, with the same result. The rough voice rumbled behind him. “Would you stop trying to turn around? You’re going to give yourself whiplash.”
Aleck tried to turn around again. “Son, I swear that I’m going to stop your neck from moving if you don’t do it yourself.”
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