Page 13 of Twins for the Secret Prince
“Hey, a victory is still a victory,” Eva said. She had no intention of sharing the news that she’d beaten Billings’ time, but she enjoyed seeing him squirm.
“Attention, new recruits!” she called out to both of their squads. “Boot camp will start at oh-nine-hundred hours. Sergeant Billings and I expect you to have completed your warm-up exercises by then and be ready to start. That means it’s time to make a move.”
As they were served breakfast, Billings said, “Why didn’t you tell them you beat me?”
“That’s between you and me, sergeant. Consider it the first of your many losses to me.”
Boot camp started well for Eva’s squad. Well, for all but Private Sully, who had the slowest time at the hell wall and the least troubled attitude about being the slowest. Eva pulled him aside once he’d finished the obstacle course and told him he’d be running the course again later, after team activities. He looked less than happy about it, and she had to remind him again that he had a choice: up his game or leave, either of his own free will or by being kicked out.
Eva divided each squad into two teams so that four groups carried out the team activities. She reminded her squad to look carefully at the equipment configurations, to take mental pictures or use whatever memory aids had worked for them in the past to remember complex information.
“Both teams can’t come first, but make no mistake — this squad will come in firstandsecond places. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, sergeant!”
The teams had less than a minute to memorize the configuration of the equipment before Eva ordered all four teams to load the boxes and sandbags onto the stretchers and carry them the full two miles to the activity station. After unpacking and stacking the boxes and sandbags, she announced the first activity.
“Each team will build a bunker, and the first team to do so correctly will win. Each bunker will be nine sandbags in width, eight sandbags tall, and four sandbags deep. Go!”
She and Billings stood watching their teams as they worked to build the bunkers. The first activity was always the most chaotic, with fatigue, nerves and stress affecting the recruits’ ability to concentrate and work together. Eva enjoyed seeing true leaders emerge, taking charge and ensuring the task was executed accurately, especially when the leaders were female. Private O’Malley, who had been the one to help Private Sully when he’d slipped in the mud the day before, was the natural leader of the orange team. Smart and decisive, it was clear that she was well-respected by her team members.
Private Sully, on the other hand, was on the brown team, and he was a chaotic mess. His team members were having to undo hiserrors and correct them, and they made no bones about the fact that they weren’t happy about it.
Eva was more than pleased, and not at all surprised, when the orange team won, a full minute before the blue team. Although half of her squad had won first place, it was one of the teams from Billings’ squad in second place.
Eva glared briefly at Private Sully before announcing that all of the non-winning teams would get their “rewards” — fifty push-ups.
“Corrective training,” Billings said as they watched the recruits. “Very effective.”
“If they don’t like it, they should come in first next time,” Eva said sternly.
The rainstorm that had been threatening all morning rolled in with a vengeance just as the recruits were doing their push-ups.
“What happens in the case of lightning?” Billings asked.
“We take shelter in the tents or, if it’s more severe, we go back inside the base.”
Billings nodded, appearing unfazed by the driving rain, and watched the recruits.
Eva announced the next task, which involved carrying a stretcher loaded down with sandbags equivalent in weight to a two-hundred-pound human across the activity field to the makeshift infirmary. When the blue team beat the orange team to victory, once again Eva announced that the losing teams would be punished, with full-length lunges.
The third and final activity was the reassembling of the equipment configurations, which saw the orange team victorious again. The storm had become practically biblical by that point, and the rain acted like water cannons, forcing many of the recruits to the ground. They looked miserable, but not one of them complained. Eva ordered them to carry the equipment back to the storage rooms and told Private Sully to stay behind.
“You’re running the course again,” she told him.
“In this storm?” he asked, looking like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You heard me, private. I told you that your poor performance earlier meant you needed practice. Storm or no storm, you need to do the course.”
Eva saw Billings look at her out of the corner of her eye and silently willed him not to challenge her in front of this recruit. He didn’t, and instead he supervised the others as they returned the equipment, then came back to where she was standing, watching Private Sully attempt to scale the hell wall.
“He’ll never get over in this rain,” was all he said.
“He should have done better the first time,” Eva said coldly. “He’s got to try.”
As soon as she’d spoken the words, Private Sully slipped from where he was dangling precariously halfway up the hell wall. With a sickening thud, his body hit the ground. Eva and Billings raced over to where the recruit was lying, immobile.
As Eva watched in horrified silence, Billings took charge, asking Private Sully where the pain was and delicately probing his arm.
