When Alexander finished eating Corporal Elden indicated for him to grab his rifle and kit and follow him. They made their way out of the mess hall.
"Seeing as you came from the officers barrack we can skip that part of the tour. Now, the interesting places to note would be the armoury, hospital and the different company barracks. I assume that you were told by the lieutenant that two of the squads from our platoon is currently on patrol. Which means we only share the platoon quarters in our barrack with Corporal Keinan, or Lars if he lets you. Both my squad and his is currently fresh, so we should be up to strength by Saturday."
Corporal Elden kept on showing the different barracks, indicating where they would be having exercises when not on patrol. He got to see the firing range and inside the armoury, where he met the staff sergeant in charge of keeping track of the battalions armoury. They then continued on to the hospital, it wasn't too busy at this time since they were still at peace. From the hospital they made their way to the company barracks, where he was lead to the platoons quarters and got to choose which bunk he wanted.
After he put away his gear in the barracks Corporal Elden told Alexander that he was free for the rest of the day. For that matter there wouldn't be much to do until Saturday, when the deadline for the furlough was over. So he was told to just find something to do, but be available if any superior officer in his chain of command asked for him. He nodded at this and thanked the corporal for the tour.
Having parted ways with Corporal Elden, who did have other things needing to be done, Alexander decided to do some exploring of his own at the fort. The fort itself was laid out quite neatly, it was easy to get from one place to another. Around the walls of the fort the were built platforms so that soldiers could look over the top and fire rifles at any approaching enemies.
Seeing the platforms behind the walls he decided to head up to one of them and have a look from the fort itself. When he had arrived earlier he had been quite hungry so he didn't pay much attention to what surrounded the fort. Finding his way to the top of one of the platforms he managed to get a look at the surroundings. He first looked back towards Elmden in the direction he had come, in the distance he thought he could make out parts of the city. Other than that it was mostly just trees and a bit of farmland.
Turning the other way he was somewhat taken aback. Almost immediately from the fort two massive mountains rose to either side, creating a long valley that opened in the middle before closing up again further away. By looking at the geography of the area he was certain the Principality had a fort on their end of the valley.
This entire valley was probably some form of no man land for the two countries. From one end to the other there was only small patches of trees. Most of the area was just flat ground. There was some large rocks scattered about the valley, indicating occurrences of mountain landslides in the past.
For a few hundred meters in front of the fort there was dug trenches and other defensive emplacements. The only thing Alexander felt missing from making it look like what he imagined the western front of world war 1 was barbed wire, bunkers and machine guns.
Imagining what it would be like if war broke out, he shuddered. He had never been part of any kind of violence in his previous life. Well, sure, he had done some fighting, tried some martial arts, but killing. Killing, that scared him. He felt like it might just have been better to have stayed in Tiramdal. Just stayed at the inn, helping out. Perhaps in a few years he could have gotten an apprenticeship.
He could just run now. It would be desertion though, and from the description from Major Terkand in Elghus about what happened to the deserter during the field exercise. Alexander really didn't feel like taking the chance. After all it would be too easy for him the be caught, he had no money and basically no other clothes but what he had gotten issued in the army. The moment he stepped into Elmden the police would probably arrest him.
Shaking his head at all these thoughts and at how scary it was going to get if war really happened. He started to make his way down from the walls and walked towards the mess hall again. It was starting to get dark so he must have stayed on the walls being scared for quite some time. He thought he had even heard the mess bell having been rung, so they were likely to have started serving food again.
When he got to the mess hall there was indeed food to be had. Quickly grabbing some food and finding an empty seat he started eating. He didn't really pay much attention to anyone else at this moment, still somewhat lost from his earlier thoughts. He finished quickly and made his way back to the platoon quarters and laid down on his bunk.
Having laid down he realised it might not have been the best idea. Now all his earlier thoughts came flooding forth. The only positive thing was how tired he was, making he fall asleep even as the thoughts came.
That night he dreamt of war and death. Describing the scenes he saw, it was a mixture from all the movies he had seen in his previous life mashed together. Somehow things from his current life was mixed in with the movies.
Waking up the next morning Alexander was sweating what he felt was buckets. The dream, no nightmare, he had was awful. What he could remember was heads exploding and blood flying everywhere. He thought some of the things he had dreamt must have been from movies, but it was so long ago he had seen a movie that he wasn't sure.
Luckily the day itself turned out to keep him occupied. It wasn't anything like Corporal Elden had thought. Alexander was made to run one errand after another. From one lieutenant to another. One errand even brought him in front of the Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Westwards. Most of these errands was just brining some documents from one of the lieutenants to the other.
The rest of the week passed much in the same way, loads of errands and loads of carrying. When he started to get heavier errands to carry out more privates had also started arriving so he got some help.
By Saturday all of the new privates and other transfers had arrived at Fort Exor. The entire brigade was told to assemble at the stage that had been set up in the middle of the fort. When all of them were assembled, minus scouts, there was upwards of 2000 soldiers there. Some were support staff, but most were actual fighting men.
"Welcome to the new arrivals here at Fort Exor. I am Colonel Aber and I am the commanding officer of Fort Exor and the Exor Brigade stationed here. As most of you are aware we are one of the garrisons at the border to our neighbour the Principality of Miran. At the very least, those of you who are new know that they seem to be preparing for a war with us. Now I really do hope that a war doesn't happen. But! That does not mean we can relax, I want everyone to be prepared. For all we know they are currently marching out into the valley preparing. I do also hope that they have the decency to send a declaration before attacking us, but you never know. Tomorrow I want all companies to resume their normal duties as all of you should be up to strength. Dismissed!"
After the speech from Colonel Aber many of the new privates, especially those in the same squads, started talking about what he had said. There wasn't anything new really, but some were worried about the chance the Principality might attack without any warnings. The corporals quickly tried to divert the conversations in their squads to other matters, if the enemy did attack it wouldn't help that the privates had scared themselves. It wasn't long after the speech that most headed to bed.
On Sunday morning Alexander woke to the sound of many bells being rung around the fort. Hurrying into his uniform he joined everyone else in running towards the area they had listened to Colonel Abers speech yesterday. Once it seemed like everyone had assembled again Colonel Aber stepped forward on the stage.
"I was hoping that it wouldn't be the day after I welcomed all the new transfers. But as of 5 O'clock this morning the Kingdom of Verenden and the Principality of Miran is at war!"