[I am back! Did ya miss me?]
(Alpha Pov)
"...And that's it for today trainees! Report back to your dorms to wash up and go to sleep. Tomorrow will be harder than today, you can be sure of that," covered in mud I listened silently to Mendez's closing words. Once he was done talking I and the other 74 candidates shivered our way back to the barracks where I was first into the showers.
As I cranked the hot water over to near scalding hot I thought back to the day of training.
After the morning rush, the day went surprisingly normal ending with a half-mile mud crawl. The entire day we did buddy exercises though and while it was laughably easy for me with Daisy's light weight, the same could not be said for her.
She struggled the entire day with my broader and taller stature as well as the fact I was easily 60 pounds. She didn't quit though and continually pushed out giving 110% of her effort, and didn't once complain nor ask for help. Though I was pissed she was dragging us behind in the races and that she lacked my capabilities, I still had to respect her determination.
Eventually, the day seemed to begin to wear her down and I could see cracks forming in her tough expression. I refused to be one of the pairs who broke down on the first day so I may or may not have mouthed off to an instructor. Leading to me being singled out and reprimanded while she got a break from the pressure and out of the crosshairs of the instructors, 'Strangely she would do the same and give me a smug look sometimes. I wonder if she noticed the goal of my actions.' I wondered.
Some punishments later and by the end of the day me and Daisy had been first place in every event. John and Linda were right behind me and behind them were [043] and [141]. John swore that he would beat me in the next event to which I responded that the only thing he would beat me in is who would be getting a Purple Heart first. That shut him up pretty quickly and the rest of the time was solo exercise. Besides that the food today was… passable and I made sure to sit and eat alone.
*drip*
*drip*
*drip*
The leftover water dripped into the drain in the floor after turning off the water faucet. I grabbed the hanging towel and dried off. Once done patting myself down I threw on my sleepwear which just so happened to be tomorrow's training uniform. As I got done with that I made sure to get in bed and cover up so no one saw the outlier apparel.
Once bedtime came around everyone was in bed and the lights were out, it was my time to strike. I waited maybe thirty minutes before I got up and scanned the room. Seeing no one awake or at least watching, I pulled off my covers and slowly crept down placing my feet flat evenly on the cold hard floor. Immediately I snapped my head around double checking that no one was awake and that no one was watching my actions.
Seeing no one awake in my general vicinity I began to slowly crawl towards the door. Doing my best to make the least amount of sound possible I dragged myself along the cold floor, 'I probably look like a big and weird-looking snake,' I began to think to myself as I moved alongside a cot, 'I bet if someone saw me doing this in the dead of night I would give them a heart atta-'
"Alpha…what are you doing?" a voice whispered to my left as it touched my unprotected back.
The voice was the only thing I did not want to hear while I had diverted my attention. The touch of whoever it was didn't help my paranoia and anxiety.
Suffice it to say that whoever the owner of the voice was, ended up scaring the shit out of me. I quite literally jumped up from my prone position into a cot that swayed slightly from the force released by my body. I fell onto the floor but caught myself by extending my arms into the floor dampening the sound released.
I cursed myself mentally for not paying attention to my surroundings and would berate myself later for my carelessness, but first I had with the witness I had just inadvertently created. I popped up and immediately snatched them off their cot as they began to stir from their slumber.
One hand covering their mouth and the other restraining their torso I pulled my victi-witness into my lap. They were thrashing about and releasing muffled yells and screams into my hand. At about that time, I realized who it was that I had subdued based on the size of the person's body combined with the slight hair color I could see from the barrack's night lights. I did release a slight sigh of relief upon recognizing that it was ironically Daisy who I had snatched out of her sleep. Nevertheless, I was still annoyed that my cover was practically blown.
She continued struggling and looked to her side where my face was positioned with shock and fear in her eyes. I continued to have one hand over her mouth while I made a 'shushing' motion with my free hand.
Once she realized that it was just me her movements slowly began to ramp down and she eventually stopped altogether. Seeing that she had fully calmed down I removed my hand from her mouth and she whispered in a low tone, "Alpha what are you doing!?" she asked in a quiet exasperation.
"None of your business," I short-spoke before looking away from Daisy back to the culprit who startled me. Only to find- "John what the fuck why did you scare me?" I whispered to the cot about a meter away.
John who had been watching the entire event take place gained a dumbfounded look at my accusation, "Alpha why are you up?" he countered while stabbing his finger in the air in my direction.
"I already said that's none of your business besides I asked you first," I said with a scowl marring my face
John sighed, "I didn't mean to scare you but I was very confused about why you were sneaking around in the dead of night," he explained gesturing with his hand whilst laying in his bed.
I nodded in response.
"So what are you doing at this hour, Alpha?" asked John in a serious tone.
"Yeah Alpha you should be in bed like the rest of us," said Daisy with narrowed eyes glaring at me while she still sat in my lap.
Looking at both of them I realized that my operation was over before it started. So I tried saying that I was going to bed only to have Daisy look at me threateningly, "Alpha if you don't tell me the reason you interrupted my sleep..." She didn't elaborate but I supposed she meant that she was going to harm me.
"Is that supposed to be a threat?" I said looking at her with a frown and a challenging glare.
Before Daisy and I could get into a fight John butted in, "Alpha if you don't tell me what you are up for. I will report you to the instructors," I threw him a dirty look the second the words left his mouth. I contemplated my possible actions before I eventually broke down and sighed.
Taking a final look around to find any other anomalies I then glanced at John and Daisy and motioned with my hand to come close. John looked a bit annoyed that I was forcing him to get out of his comfortable position in the bed but dropped down onto the floor nonetheless. Meanwhile, Daisy looked intrigued at my gesture and leaned closer to my face while still in my lap.
From there I began to give them a run down on my plan to ransack the kitchen for midnight snack supplies. I told them everything because I was curious about what they would do once I provided them with such a plan. Both John and Daisy listened with serious expressions as I explained it in about 5 minutes (we aren't robbing ONI HQ here). By the time I concluded Daisy had a malicious look in her eyes accompanied by a smirk and John grinned while nodding, "Let's do it," he whispered with enthusiasm.
Hearing John's confirmation I looked to Daisy for her verbal commitment, "There is no chance I am not getting in on this," she said.
I looked at them with a confused expression, "There is no way I am taking either of you. Neither of you has shown me any reason to really trust in your ability to get this done," I said harshly. To this Daisy simply looked annoyed while John gave me a knowing look.
Realizing that he would just tell the instructors if I didn't take them I sighed, "Alright both of you grab your boots," I said to which John crawled back to his bunk to grab his while Daisy just reached for hers since we were still pressed against her bed,"… but first Daisy could you get off of me. I don't know about you but I do not like having people on top of me," Daisy blushed in embarrassment at my statement and quickly stood up from my lap.
…
..
.
(3rd Pov)
In a dark metal hall illuminated by emergency flood lights, only silence filled its corridors. The hallway wrapped like a snake around the barracks housing the candidates before coiling in a straight line to a mess hall. Along the hall, there was only one camera that swiveled periodically to watch the bend between the mess hall and barracks.
*𝘴𝘴𝘴𝘵*
A clean-shaven head peaked out of the doorway of the barracks and slowly scanned both directions of the doors. The doorways in the hall were all embedded into inlets allowing protection from the immediate sight of the camera and any individual walking down the hallway, but there was still the question of if anyone was patrolling the hall at this time.
"Clear," the young female voiced inaudibly for the camera to pick up.
She then crouched down leaning into the wall of the doorway toward the camera. Meanwhile, her comrades, two boys one with black hair and the other with brown similarly shaved, took up positions beside her. The black-haired boy waited while listening to the faint sound of the whirring gears below the camera.
He held his hand up motioning for them to stay put as he continued to hear the clicking down the corridor. Seconds ticked by as the camera had come to a stop then the boy began to count in his head, ' 1-1-thousand, 2-1-thousand, 3-1-thousand…'. Until finally he began to hear it spring to life again and at that same moment, he restarted his count.
At the halfway point he had calculated time and time again in the prior couple of weeks he peeked around the corner just barely enough to have a full line of sight on the camera.
Only to find that he was unlucky and that on this turn the camera was swiveling towards them instead of away. Alarmed by the possibility of having their cover blown he threw his body hard back behind his concealment. Once back in place, he waited for the camera to complete its scanning along this side of the corridor and begin its journey back to the other direction.
Once the camera was halfway this time he made his move, "Alright follow me," he whispered. He then stepped out from around his cover and began to softly jog through the hall with both the boy and girl in tow.
They could all hear the slight excess sound given off by their feet hitting the floor as they continued down the hall. Each of them was on edge with anticipation and worry of being caught so close to their goal. The girl in the back stayed nervously scanning the rear and surroundings, watching each and every doorway and the end of the corridor. The brown-haired boy 2nd in line decided it was best to stay calm and keep going forward until-
"W-woaah. Alpha why did you stop!" John asked, after catching himself after nearly falling into Alpha after his abrupt stop. Daisy wasn't much better but John was able to catch her before she fell onto her face.
"Shhh! Do you hear that?" he said, signaling to listen to their surroundings. Both Daisy and John stop dead and their tracks only to hear the quiet echoing of what could only be heavy combat boots clomping on the metal floor.
"Quick hide over here!" Alpha whispered while grabbing both of them and dragging them toward the closest doorway.
"Alpha, you said he would be asleep by now!" Daisy complained angrily.
"Cool it Daisy he didn't know," John said, causing Daisy to grumble under her breath but ultimately halted her attacks. All the while the sounds of solid footsteps continued to grow louder and louder as they hauntingly reverberated through the halls.
As time passed and sweat dripped down Alpha's forehead as he tried to come up with a plan he began to spot a light, and to his horror eventually a hand holding the light inching from around the corner. Slowly the night watch instructor showed himself in the center of the hall standing with a suspicious glint in his eyes. He mumbled some things to himself as he slowly scanned every inch of the hall checking each doorway for intruders or candidates not where they were supposed to be.
"Fuck it," Alpha let out before turning to the other two, "When he gets to us I am going to try and knock him out or at least grab his attention. Meanwhile you two run back to the barracks and get in your bed ASAP just in case,"
"What! Are you stupid Alpha?!" Daisy asked in shock
"No way Alpha you heard it from Chief Mendez today, 'Never leave a man behind'. There is no shot we will just leave you here to cover while we run away with our tails between our legs," John said with unshakable determination into Alpha's eyes.
Alpha was momentarily put in a state of disbelief at their vehement refusal. He didn't argue but instead looked away for a moment as if lost in thought before turning back to the pair, "That still doesn't matter I don't have any other way out of this, and if all three of us get caught we are toast. Hell Mendez might torture the class as a whole for the hell of it because of us," he spoke while shaking his head.
Both John and Daisy stopped talking. While Daisy looked down John instead began to scan his surroundings. Until he noticed just which doorway they had been fortunate to duck into, "Actually… I got a plan," John said with a smirk before beginning to explain.
…
..
.
"Man those fucking chefs make the best burritos, but dear god do they go through me like a tank shell," spoke Jason as he made his way through the hall double checking no one was up before he had a meeting with the great white one.
"Almost there, I thought I heard something earlier but it was probably just the win-"
*𝘴𝘴𝘴𝘵*
Suddenly interrupting the instructor's out-loud thought was a cadet coming out of the bathroom," Cadet! What are you doing at this hour? You should have been in bed!" the instructor immediately began tearing into the boy in front of him.
The boy appeared nervous and snapped up straight into a salute before responding, "S-Sir I had to use the b-bathroom!" he spoke shakily
"You should have gone to the bathroom before bed!" The instructor angrily reprimanded while reaching for his stun baton.
The boy seeing his hand moving for the baton went wide-eyed, "B-but sir! T-The food they s-served r-really hurt my stomach!" he argued while shaking.
The instructor stopped and a look of sympathy as well as pity spread across his face, 'Poor thing I understand. When you gotta go you gotta go,' he thought to himself before releasing his grip on the baton.
"Just this time cadet will it be OK. Come with me and let's go back to your barracks candidate…117" he spoke before grabbing the boy by his shoulder and pulling back down the hallway.
After half a minute passed and the two retreated into the dorms, the door to the boys' bathroom opened and two heads peaked out. Both were looking in the direction where the previous boy and instructor had just been before.
"I can't believe that worked," Daisy spoke in disbelief looking at Alpha
"I can," Alpha snorted but strangely held a thoughtful expression about something. He shook his head before looking back at Daisy, " Now come on let's finish the mission and grab as much as we can carry,"
With that, the pair once again watched out for the pattern of the camera before concluding the mission. Once the pair returned to the barracks the now trio sat together and had a small meal of their spoils. Crackers, jerky, and other snacks were passed around and the trio conversed. Alpha sat silently while nodding every once and a while, but this time he conversed and spoke, breaking down the standoffish atmosphere he had built. The duo could now see him a bit better now, and today had passed in complete success for Sierra 017.
As for tomorrow….That would not be the case.
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So I am back. Sorry for the lack of uploads been really busy. I changed jobs, residence, university, and even got badly sick! I had my whole mini time-skip.
Anyway should be a upload again tomorrow. I don't have much to say so.....Leave any questions....
And I hope you have a blessed day and I will See You Star Side