He arrives at the base

Doe tried to take it all in. The gym, the courts, the people, Subway – man was he getting hungry - he saw signs for a dentist office and a theater, and a swimming pool before those things fell out of his line of vision again. They were leaving something called Area 53 for Area 52. Mama B’s BBQ feel into sight behind the tailor shop and launder. Just as his belly was starting to growl, they cut further inland again and Doe saw signs of Infantry posting.

“Sir, we will have to walk a bit down onto the course but we will leave your bag here. It’s not going anywhere. Have your phone on silence before we head down.”

Doe hopped out and stretched his arms high above his head, leaning back. The wind blew a cool breeze on him and he shuddered from the sensation of Mother Nature’s breath. He could hear yelling and what sounded like a horse race of about 100 ponies going on somewhere nearby. He followed the Corporal down the path a ways and around a bend.

There they were. Logs and poles set up at varying heights and angles with men clambering and vaulting over them. He saw a man slip off a pole and the dirt’s dust puff up around him. The soldier hopped back up and ran to restart the challenge without so much as dusting off his now tan pants. Doe searched the faces, looking for a shock of strawberry blonde hair. Finally he caught sight of her.

She was running up and down the path that ran alongside part of the course. Her back was slightly to him as she yelled her commands to a particular looking group of men. She had something held down at her left side that her slender fingers were wrapped around. He loved how only a week ago those fingers had wrapped around him. But this was so not the place to think about that. He looked at her other hand which was pointing down the course. Every now and then she would lower her right arm before throwing it out again in the same gesture. He could tell that she was in her element. Her body language was on fire. Her little Irish face turned enough for him to see her flushed cheeks and fiery eyes. She lifted a whistle to her lips and blew. He watched her lips purse around the whistle, saw her drop it where it hung against her chest, bouncing off of her breasts with every footfall. Her plain, olive drab t-shirt was tucked into her BDU trousers. The flimsy shirt was outlining the cups of her bras where his hands belonged. He barely became self-conscious enough to realize he was biting his lower lip before Corporal Drake turned to speak to him.

“That’s her down on plot A. The middle is B and so on. This is the O-Course. Or as we call it, the Big-O for the ladies. It’s most people’s favourite course to run. We host a lot of challenges here for families too. But they only have to do separate heats that are less than three minutes long. Here we run it forwards, take the entire course for the sprint back and run through the whole damn thing again. There are exercises to be executed by the entire company as individual platoons before they can start their next heat though. Here they come for another set. Ohhhh, burpees. Glad I got put with you today, sir.” The corporal shook his head and grinned at his relief.

Doe hated burpees. Why on earth John had **** him into learning those satanic maneuvers – he would never understand. Hopefully, she would not be making him run the course. All though it would be kind of fun if they were the only ones around. He watched as John joined her men in the exercise. “Why is she the only sergeant doing the exercises with them?”

“Because if you fuck up on with improper procedure then there is no excuse since she was showing you the entire time and keeping them on time with each other. She doesn’t take any excuses for them not keeping her pace.”

“What happens if they… don’t do the pace or lose it?”

“If they fall behind then the whole platoon has 10 seconds added to their run’s time for the total. It can cost the entire challenge.”

“What do the guys get that win?”

Corporal Drake smirked, “They get to not participate in the loser’s PT run.”

“Ahh. I see.”