Bookworld Online: Marsh Man

It took almost half an hour for the new drill sergeant to tell me what I was doing wrong.

“Your feet aren't planting properly.” Nancy said and ordered me to stop. “You're causing too much impact on your legs with flopping your feet like that.”

“I'm missing two toes on each foot.” I reminded her. “Most of the boot is flopping around.”

“Then change the boots.” Nancy said. “If you worked for the maintenance department, you know you can cut sections of wood out and reattach it to make things fit.”

I looked down at my boot. “I can cut it apart?”

“Take out the empty section where your toes are missing and you should be fine... or, at least better than slapping your boots on the ground.” Nancy said.

I took both boots off and sat down to look at the shape of my foot where the missing toes were. I took out my knife and charged it up, then carefully cut out the shape of my missing toes from it. I slipped the boot back on and saw that my toes were still back too far. It took me three smaller cuts and then a cut of the first piece to use number ten potion on to seal it back up to cover the hole, and my 'new' boot was done.

I quickly did the other boot and only had to make one small adjustment before I sealed it. I now had two really weirdly shaped boots and she ordered me to do some basic exercises, then we took off running again. It only took me a few seconds to notice the difference. I was getting a lot more power as I pushed with my existing toes and there wasn't an unused part of a boot slowing my foot down.

“That's better, Private. Much better.” Nancy said. “I'll stop at this lap and I want you to run as fast as you can. I want to see how much better you are because of your training.”

“Yes, ma'am.” I said. When she stopped at the spot that the old drill sergeant would stop at to wait for everyone after the morning run, I ran as hard as I could. My feet dug thin furrows as the odd-shaped toes of the boots let me propel myself that much more. I looped everyone and a few of them groaned, Gillis included.

“Keep going!” Nancy said as I passed by her. “Show me what you got! Show me your sweat!”

I kept going and looped everyone again and again. After ten minutes, I started to slow down. My breathing was heavy and it was getting harder to maintain the pace as sweat poured off of me.

“A little more, Drake! Don't give up!” Nancy exclaimed. “Two more laps!”

I nodded and looped everyone again and then again. I slowed to a stop as I approached the drill sergeant and she gave me a toothy smile.

“Good work! Now I know your tolerance and your mean exercise level.” Nancy said. “Keep walking around in a circle and don't stop moving. You'll tense up and might lock a few muscles if you just collapse without winding down.”

I had that happen a few times and knew she was telling the truth, so I kept moving. I was tempted to take a sip of healing potion and decided against it. I still had a long time to go for this training deployment.

“All right, it's chow time!” Nancy called.

Since she had been stopping people for several minutes now, everyone that was left came to a stop. She had us continue to walk around in a circle for a few minutes more and then we all went to the mess hall. We ate a metal tray of something called scrambled eggs, which looked nothing like the eggs I cooked at home. There were a few other things and I couldn't tell what they were. I ate them anyway and wasn't surprised that I was still the only one to finish it all.

After that, we left there and went to the obstacle course. Someone I hadn't met before was there.

“Warrant Officer.” Nancy said and nodded to the older man. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, Ma'am.” He said and opened the bag. “Custom made cloth pockets with inserted armor plates.”

“Wonderful.” Nancy said. “Everyone except Private Drake, you can begin the obstacle course. As each person finishes one obstacle, the next will follow. There's no need to wait for each of you to finish the whole thing.”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant.” The others said and started to go through it.

“Private Drake, over here.” Nancy said and I went over to her. “Normally, I'd get you to change out of your uniform before doing something like this; but, I suspect you're going to be sweating a lot by the time we're done here.” She waved at the warrant officer. “Strap him up.”

I stood there and the man hung something like a poncho over my neck, only it was made of straps of leather and not solid. He attached a big pouch to my front and my back, then one on each of my forearms and on each of my thighs.

“I'm not going to ask you if those are heavy.” Nancy said with a smile. “Just take a walk over to that building and come back.”

I did and she nodded to the warrant officer. He strapped pockets to my upper arms and my calves.

“Take another walk.” Nancy said and smiled as I came back to her. “One more plate on his back should do it, I think.”

The warrant officer added another piece of thick metal to my back pocket and closed it.

“That's great. Thank you for the help, Warrant Officer.” Nancy said.

“It's one of the oddest armoring requests I've ever had, so you're welcome.” The man said and pat my shoulder as he passed by with the nearly empty bag. “Good luck.”

Nancy waited for him to leave before stopping the next person from starting the first obstacle. “Private Drake, you next.”

I nodded and reached for the pocket on my chest.

“No, leave all that on. That's going to be a part of your uniform from now on.” Nancy said and waved at the first obstacle. “Please proceed.”

I nodded and jogged over to it. When I reached up for the rope ladder to pull myself up, by using the support rope like I had every time before, I couldn't do it. A few people chuckled at me struggling.

“Zip it!” Nancy barked at them and everyone fell silent. “Private Drake, you need to climb it like normal people do.”

I moved over and did it like she said and copied how everyone else did it. All the extra weight I was carrying really slowed me down. It slowed me down a lot, actually. In fact, it even threw off my balance a little. If I hadn't been using my vigilance technique, I might have fallen off when I reached the top. I carefully walked across the logs to the other side and then carefully climbed down.

I jogged to the next obstacle and the next. I was barely able to cross them efficiently. I had to slow down even more and it was frustrating. I was sweating a lot by the end of the fifth obstacle and my breathing was heavy. I slowed down even more and paced myself as I went through all of the other obstacles.

As slow as I was, I still didn't fall off of the spinning log or the thinner balance logs that crossed the mud. I might have carried a lot of extra weight; but, I wasn't stupid. I knew how to balance properly because of years working with a small boat. It took me longer to complete the obstacle course than Jenkins did for the first time he did the obstacle course.

When I crossed the bridge, Gillis was there with a huge smile on her tired face. “I can't believe you did it on your first try while carrying enough weight to equal me!”

“It would have been easier with just you on my back.” I said.

“What? How?” Gillis asked, shocked.

“His arms and legs would be free.” One of the men said. “Every time he moves, he's carrying part of the weight on every limb as well as on his front and back.”

I nodded and sat down to wait for the others.

“I think you can take that off now.” Gillis said.

“The drill sergeant said it's part of my uniform now.” I said and she gasped.

“She has got to be joking!” Gillis said loudly. “You can't wear that all the time! It's... it's... inhumane!”

“What's that mean?” I asked and she told me it was unfair treatment of a human being. “I'm a conscript.”

“That shouldn't matter.” Gillis said and stood up. “I think I'm going to go and have a talk with her.”

“I wouldn't if I were you.” One of the others said. “She's not someone that you want to question too much.”

“Why not?” Gillis asked.

“She's the drill sergeant.” Someone else responded. “Do you really want to piss off the woman that assigns the chores we have to do every day?”

“Ooo, I hope I get the barracks floors today. That's the easiest job on the whole base.” A guy said. “Nothing seems to stick to that floor.”

A few of them laughed softly and I stayed quiet. I wasn't going to tell them that it was me that did it, because I knew that they would want me to treat everything to get the same result.

We all sat there and waited for everyone to finish, which happened a lot sooner than normal, since we were only one obstacle away from each other. There weren't as many of us as there were obstacles, so we were technically all going through it at the same time. It was a lot more efficient than what the old drill sergeant had us do and it ensured that no one rushed through it, because we had to wait for the next person to finish the obstacle before we could use it.

To everyone's surprise, except for me, Nancy did the obstacle course as well. She did it almost as quickly as I did it the first time. Unlike me, she was sweating and breathing heavy when she was done.

“Good job, everyone.” Nancy said and swiped at her forehead. “Let's hit the baths and then we can talk for a bit before lunch.”

“Baths?” Gillis asked, confused.

Nancy looked at her with surprise on her face, then she cursed. “God help me, he was using a filth motivation technique.” She shook her head. “You're in the army, people. Cleanliness will keep you alive! When you have access to water and some spare time out in the field, you are expected to take advantage of it to clean yourself and your equipment.”

We all looked at each other and back at her.

“I am so glad I arrived this early in your training.” Nancy said. “All right! Everybody Atten-HUT!”

We all stood and sorted into two lines as we came to attention.

“Listen to me and listen well.” She said and paced in front of us. “Forget whatever your last drill sergeant taught you, assuming he taught you anything.” She said, almost in a growl. “From now on, after you complete the obstacle course, you are to proceed directly to the bath house and use the facilities.”

Nancy paced back and forth a few times more and then turned to face me.

“You have permission to remove the extra weights ONLY for bathing. All other activity, including your permanent KP duty, you need to wear your complete uniform.”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant.” I said and ignored the hiss from beside me.

“Do you object to something, Recruit Gillis?” Nancy asked her.

“No, Drill Sergeant!” Gillis responded. “I was just surprised he has the worst job on the base permanently, Ma'am.”

“Don't worry, when people screw up, they'll still get KP duty. It's a big kitchen.” Nancy said and glared at them. “Did you all get that?”

“Yes, Drill Sergeant!” We all said as one.

“Good. Meet me in the classroom when you're done bathing. You have twenty minutes.” Nancy said. “Dis-MISSED!”

We immediately vacated the waiting area and went towards the bath house set aside for us.

“I'm sorry about that.” Gillis said to me as we walked side by side. “I guess it would be bad to question her as to why you have to wear it.”

“I know why.” I said and we entered the bath house. The others scattered and went into their own rooms while Gillis followed me into mine.

“Why do you have to wear it?” Gillis helped me take off the cloth pouches and the straps off.

“She's making me wear it to make everything harder for me.” I said and she widened her eyes.

“Why would she do that?”

“She wants me to be normal.” I said and Gillis just stared at me. “I need a new shirt. This one has blood on it.” I took the decorations off and put them in my pants pocket, then took off the shirt.

“Good lord.” Gillis whispered and her eyes roamed all over my chest.

I took off my pants and laid them aside and then used the water pump to fill the tub. I took off my underwear and Gillis' face turned red until I grabbed the soap and I sat down in the tub.

“I'll be right back with a new uniform for you.” Gillis said and left.

I quickly scrubbed myself all over, lathering up well, and then sloshed the water over myself to rinse off. By the time I was done with my bath, Gillis was back. I stood up and her face went red again. I grabbed a towel and dried off, then took the clothes she had brought me and dressed, modified boots and all. I added my decorations and then she helped me put on the weights.

“Thank you, Gillis.”

“You're welcome.” Gillis said.

“Are you going to take a bath?” I asked her.

“Y-yes, I... probably should.” She said and slowly started to unbutton her shirt.

“I'll be right back with a new uniform for you.” I said and walked to the door.

“Th-thanks.” Gillis said and I left to get her more clothing to change into.