Crushing hard in Marine Bootcamp and Operation Semper Fi

Chapter 45

Ashs POV

3:00 am

I awoke to a DI screaming at our tent, yelling almost unintelligable things at our tent and the one next to us. I looked over at Chloe who was already up and out of her sleeping bag, rolling it up and strapping it onto her backpack.

My eyes felt heavy and swollen. It was only 3 am, and the past two nights we had gotten four hours of sleep instead of three.

I peeled myself out of the sleeping back and pulled on my boots, being extra careful with the left one. Rolling my sleeping bag up as small as possible I strapped it onto the top of my backpack and put it on. It felt lighter than it had yesterday, probably because of the fact that this was the final day of the crucible. Most definetly.

There would be no new events today, the only thing seperating me from becoming a Marine was a grueling nine mile hike back to what for for the past 10 weeks called home. 

I wasnt sure if I could keep up with the hike, but English's words echoed in my mind that she would drop me if I fell behind. I had done everything in my mind to keep up yesterday, my today would be a true test. 

Me and Chloe left the tent and hurried to fall in with the rest of our platoon. It was very dark outside and the only lights were from the DI's with flashlights, shining them in our faces to wake us up as we stumbled around looking for our DI's 

When we finally found her we were the last ones to arrive and English was not happy, but she didnt yell much at us. Atleast not as much as I had anticipated. 

After Reville we began to head out along the trail back to base camp.

"Yall  have till 7 am to get back to base and you will run!" English shouted at us.

Little sirens went off in my head as she said the word run. Nine miles in three hours would require some running. I knew our pace wouldnt be a great as it could have been because we were all hungry and exhausted.

Piper was up in the front with Robinson and I was in the very back, Chloe had decided to hang back with me to keep me going. The terrain was through a deeply wooded part of the entire base and it was not a smooth walk. There were very steep parts and rocks everywhere, slipping was very easy and I knew if I slipped I wouldnt be able to get back up. 

At 5 am we were on mile two, and three was the target distance, The trees had given way to a winding road surrounded by trees on either side. And thankfuly the road was paved.

Every so often we would see a medical truck drive past us, and our DI would wave them on if we had no one to surrendor to them.

Many times I had thought about giving up, but I kept thinking everything I had gone through to get even here and  the thought of that hurt more than my foot. 

"Daniesl your doing a good job." English said as she paced back to me.

"Thank you Ma'am" I said to her, trying to work a grin onto my face. 

The road ahead of us was long, and the sky above was dark. But somehow and someway we would make it.  I thought back to a time about a week ago.

Last week, Wensday

English had us in a line, and walked down it handing us each a gas mask. When she got to me I took it from her and examined it, it was very strange looking. We had all gotten instructed on how to use it earlier in the day.

English explained how it could save us on the battlefield, and after that discussion our confidence was upped a little to get the gas chamber over and done with.