"Sis," I said, inclining my head.
Beside me, Commander Brutus was standing with his jaw hanging open. His huge finger was slicing the air as he pointed first at me then at Shadow.
"You—her—" he spluttered. Both of us started laughing at his apparent mental breakdown. Like it was inconceivable that we're siblings. I laughed while I still can without the fear of having my brains pushed out from my nose.
"I'll see you after training, Thor," my sister said, still smiling. She turned to the still sputtering Commander. "I see you have promising trainees this year. I'd love to see them perform well in their aptitude tests tomorrow."
With that, she turned and marched out of the training field. I stifled the laughter choking me and tried to look as serious as possible as Commander Brutus turned back to me. I snapped into a salute.
"Just because you're the Lieutenant's kid brother doesn't make you any better than Terran chow, you hear me?" he barked.
"Yes, sir!" I said.
He straightened and looked at the rest of the trainees. "Show's over! Get back to training!" he bellowed.
"Yes, sir!" replied the one hundred and sixty three trainees.
With that, he turned on his heel and stomped back to where he came from. I released the breath I'd been holding in a shaky laugh.
A fist, ten times smaller than the Commander's, smacked the back of my head. I turned to see Juris glaring indignantly at me.
"What?" I grumbled, already knowing where this was going.
"You didn't tell me you have a sister and a gorgeous one at that! I thought we were friends!" he complained.
"Could you keep it down?" I sighed. Even without Juris hollering to high heaven, the fact that everybody heard that Shadow is my sister was enough to garner me more than my share of daily stares. Maybe it was because of her Elite status?
"Oh, don't give me that. You are the worst. Friend. Ever!" he whined, accentuating the last part with lightning-fast punches that landed bulls-eye everywhere he threw the punch. He started to come at me with fists and feet flying. You would think that a small guy like him would have second thoughts before taking on a guy twice his size. But Juris is different.
Despite being small, he made up for it with his speed and agility. He was also one of the guys I could actually spar with without fearing that he'd break after a couple of punches. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the instructor, glanced at Juris and smiled evilly. I dodged his next attack and spun away from him. Jogging over to the instructor, I requested to have my sparring partner changed since mine was still in treatment.
I turned back to Juris who had noticed me talking to the instructor. He held up his hands in a bid for surrender but I had other ideas. My own were starting to crack some knuckles as I stepped closer to him.
Let's see about that punch...
***************
The mess hall was packed by the time our batch finished with training. Commander Brutus came back an hour after I started chasing Juris around the field, ordering us to do a special course for the aptitude tests tomorrow.
By special, he meant climbing the small mountain behind the camp loaded like a supply mule, wearing complete gear and take the long way back down. Trust me, this is not a happy trail Boy Scouts will even consider taking. My legs were screaming torture and my back looked like it had frozen permanently into a straight line. Something latched onto my ankle. Surprised, I kicked and heard a very familiar yelp.
"What the hell are you doing down there?" I exclaimed, frantically pulling a near dead Juris to his feet. Double the weight since we didn't have enough time to change out of our gear.
"Food," he wheezed. He then pushed off me and practically crawled over to the counter. I followed closely, knowing that he's more of a danger to anybody within a meter readius of him when he's like this.
"Hey, Joe!" I said.
Joe is Hope's head cook. Easily rivalling Commander Brutus' size, this is another one of the peculiarities this world has produced. Big, buff and bald, anybody who passes through the counter are as disciplined as cowed schoolkids. You would be if Joe is the one serving food to you. Rumor has it that he beat up a couple of trainees before for trying to take more than their share. So you can pretty much guess that nobody is thinking of pulling something. Especially when he's holding The Spatula. Don't ask.
"Hey, kids!" he greeted, his deep voice booming out like a cannon. "Training over?"
I nodded and grabbed a couple of bowls, one for me and the other for the zombie hanging onto my leg for dear life. I dragged both of us towards Joe who was staring at Juris. He made no comment, spooning a generous amount of stew into the bowls before shooing us.
"Bah, the what is the military thinking? Making you kids train and train for something that you shouldn't even be doing," Joe said under his breath. I shrugged and shuffled to a less crowded place.
I bent and waved the bowl under Juris' nose. It twitched once...twice...
"Food!"
I barely had time to release the bowl before he snatched it with an energy I thought had gone. I left him in the middle of the hall to sit down at our usual table. The others were already there.
"You, sir, are a celebrity now," Scott, another friend and classmate of mine, said while pointing his spoon at me. His girlfriend, Hazel, smiled at me.
"What makes you say that?" I grumbled, dutifully spooning a mouthful. In truth, I just wanted to sleep. My eyes felt like it bore lead weights. I could barely even focus on my food.
"Don't play dumb," Juris scoffed. Apparently, he'd regained enough energy to plop himself down on the seat beside me. "The fact that you're the top trainee since day one already has the other military factions battling each other to get you in the choosing ceremony. Plus, your drop-dead gorgeous sister is one of the highest ranking officers in Hope's Military Faction. That ought to hike your rep up a few more notches."
I blinked. I didn't know I had made a reputation for myself. I threw a look in Juris' direction at the mention of my sister.
"What?" he said.
"Off-limits," I said, finality leaking into my voice.
Juris pouted. "Won't stop me from trying. Anyway, I heard a couple of guys back at the mountain talking about you."
"Me?"
"You should give youself more credit, man," Scott said, finishing off the last of his stew. "It's not like you were the number one for having a sister in the Elites. If anyone can go head to head with the combat instructor and escape with just a busted lip, that would only be you."
I smiled at that. Sir Felix, the skinny combat instructor is one heck of a fighter. You wouldn't even guess it by merely looking at him. He just didn't project the obvious strength and intimidating presence like the Commander did. But take him on and you'll find that you got more than what you asked for.
Juris had licked his bowl clean and the others were down to their last spoonfuls. I shoveled the rest of my stew in my mouth and chewed, letting their usual chatter flow over my head. It's not that I have low self-esteem but compared to those who are in the Elite and Recon factions, I was still green. Training scores don't mean anything once you're outside the wall. It's kill or be killed. If I would be given the privilege, I'd join the Recon faction.
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