Page 44 of Beyond The Maples
Instead, what I'm greeted with is a crowd gathered under the tower, just outside the rope that sections it's bottom off from the rest of the room. We hurry towards the crowd. My eyes no longer on the people below but on the man dangling from the disks, two thirds of the way up the tower. Head craned, I watch him struggle as the cadets' yelling turns into white noise around me.
His face is beet red, glistening with sweat as he clings to his life above us. It's the bald bully who was antagonizing everyone last week before the lieutenant stepped in. He's dangling from underneath the disks lodged deep in the tower, as he struggles to get his footing. His arms bulge as he struggles to pull the left disk out, gripping the right tightly and angling his body so his legs give him the leverage to yank it out while still remaining in the air.
He finally gets it out, swinging wide, and the crowd around me gasps. He lets out a strangled sound, pushing up with his legs and slamming the loose disk in about a foot above the locked in one.
His chest heaves with the exertion.
Baldie isn't a small man. The strength it must take to hold himself up with one disk, while wrenching out the second, and then heaving himself up farther… there's no way I could ever pull that off. I realize Berkley wasn't exaggerating when he said women struggle with this. My arms aren't even long enough to do this. It would take me a whole year to get halfway up.
I watch as he struggles and struggles, grunting and letting out cries of triumph every time he reaches far enough to make progress. He's about seventy-five percent up when he pulls his right hand out with a hearty growl.
I see a hint of movement in the disk that's stuck into the tower as he hauls the loose one back. The left one wasn't shoved in far enough, and it slips out with a small ping reverberating on the metal disk.
He tries to save it; he hammers the left disk at the tower as hard as he can, but it's too late. The angle of the disk was wrong, it lets out a gong and scratches the side, his body is too heavy as it already starts slipping, pulling him downwards.
We all watch in horror as he falls, letting go of the disks, the short tether pulling them together after him.
There is a flat thud and a crunch, metal clacking together, and several screams. I can’t see from where I'm standing, but my ears hear enough to know he didn't land well.
Not that there is really a way to land well from almost thirty feet in the air.
Medics dressed in cream versions of our jumpsuits come rushing past me and surround him.
"Is he alive?" I ask quietly.
Berkley shakes his head. "I'm honestly not sure, but even if he is, I don't know that he'll want to be. He came crashing down on his neck." He grimaces.
Leo looks like he wants to puke. "The sound was absolutely terrible."
The medics are carting the still body out of the room quickly when I catch Valo standing there with two from his legion. Is that satisfaction on his face? I shudder. Baldie was a pain, but I didn't want him dead.
The woman standing beside him seems just as confident as she did the first day. Her cropped hair is so short I can barely see it, but what I can see is the start of thick, tight dark brown curls close to her head. I notice again that the woman is crazy beautiful, elegant even. And she looks every bit as lethal as Valo. Her long brown arms are tattered with scars that contradict the perfectly feminine features of her face. She seems like she's arguing about something, but once again, Valo seems to be barely paying attention.
I turn before Berkley catches me gawking again, and start wrapping my hands. I hear someone clear their throat up front and look over as one of the other legionaries addresses us.
"For those of you I haven't interacted with yet, I'm Lachlan, Lieutenant Valo's third in command. One of your peers just tried and failed the tower. This should be a good lesson for you all to not dive into things without proper preparation or knowledge. There’s a difference between confidence and cockiness. One is earned, and one will likely get you killed. Now let's get going. We're moving on to more complex offensive strikes today. We're about a third of our way through training. It won't be long until you guys get your first test assignments."
He strides easily down the steps towards the closest group. Lachlan is by far the most approachable of all of leadership. He's handsome, tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He seems more personable than his colleagues, who have permanent looks of indifference or flat-out disdain on their faces.
"How has work duty been going?" Leo asks watching Berk and Tarius circle each other on the matt.
"I haven't actually been yet. Finished orientation this afternoon." I shrug, turning to Farra, who looks uncharacteristically giddy.
"I've had a great time in the mess hall, actually." We both stare at her suspiciously, silently commanding more information. There's no way Farra just enjoys cleaning up after the messy cadets.
"Well, I got a front-row seat to why our Berkley over here made such a huge racket about being in the kitchen. Chef and him are like... mortal enemies. I've never seen Berk's face get so red, I thought he might pass out from sheer fury."
I can't help but laugh in disbelief.
"Did you ask him why?" Leo asks, eyes lighting up mischievously.
"No, I couldn't really get a word in with them literally throwing things at each other. If I wasn't sure Berkley could take him, I might have intervened."
The image of our gruff teammate and the surly chef throwing things at each other in the kitchen is too much, and both Leo and I fall into loud, uncontrollable laughter.
Which draws the attention of the other two, who finish sparring.
"What is so funny?" Berk huffs.
