A Fishy Beginning

Breaking off from her line of friends Cam came to stand in front of Mallory with a small hop to get on her mark. Asking her if she could use her skills to help her friends she smiled as she heard a positive response begin to flow from the boss lady. "Awesome!" Cam cheered as she heard her speak. Looking to Ziggy and Ayita who had sat down together Cam began to turn on her heels to return to them before she heard Mallory begin to add onto her previous statement. With a never faltering smile Cam quickly turned back to face the leader and listen to what she had to say, it seemed that not only herself but also Brody and Thomas would be on the team together with them as well, While the thought of fighting alongside Brody made her nervous it wouldn't have been the first time and they trained together so much that it didn't matter either way. The thought still made her blush slightly.

The last part of what Boss Lady had to say though caught Cam completely off guard, Tilting her head as she heard her say that she should brush up on her first aid and that she was going to be the leader. "Me? The leader?" She asked in a state of confusion. Quickly recovering Cam shook her head and smiled back at Mallory. "Uhh, I mean, Sure thing Boss! I'm on it! Uh, Do you want me to hang around here and teach Zigs and Ayi the basics of parkour after you finish with their training? or should I go ahead and go find Ms. Cassie and come back with Zigs and Ayi later?" She asked as she looked to her friends again. 'I'm the leader?' She thought again as she looked to Ayita as she sat there looking as calm as a cucumber. 'shouldn't Ayi be the leader?' She wondered to herself before looking back to Mallory. Not being one to contradict her elders however Cam didn't fight the decision and stood quietly as she listened for Mallory's answer on the matter. 

Mal thought it over for a moment but she saw no reason for Cam to go over parkour basics. Ayita and Ziggy were both in the prime of their lives and quick learners, and the same went for the others of the squad. Whatever Cam would do Mal was certain the others would be able to mimic it. There was no need to get all fancy with backflips and stuff like that. What was more important to Mal was that as a squad leader Cam would be able to take care of the people she was leading.

"No, I'm sure the others will be able to keep up." Mal answered. "It's more important you know what to do if someone gets hurt."

Mal grabbed a clipboard and an empty sheet of paper along with a pen. Then she wrote the following on it: "Cassie, prepare a kit with 7 tourniquets and go over the basics of wound care with Carmin. Mal."

To indicate the note really came from her, Mal would draw the Instagram logo as instead of the dot on the letter 'i'. That way Cassie would know it really came from Mal. She then handed the note to Carmin.

Knowing what they were getting themselves into Ayita tried her best to focus on the here and now in a vain attempt to keep her nerves down as she waited in anticipation for their training to begin. Having spent a number of hours with Mrs. Valentina she wasn't fully concerned about being able to prove her skills to Mallory, What she was concerned about however was the methods she would employ in their training. Watching how she had taken to training Sieglinde and Sarah so far over the course of the day she had a nagging feeling in the back of her head that whatever she had up her sleeve was sure to be something, unpleasant.

Seeing her dismiss Camrin Ayita watched as her friend retreated further into the camp before disappearing behind a row of tents. Turning back to Mallory she watched as the woman began to give Thomas and Brody orders to grab their rifles as well as their pistols and to take up a position to cover Sieglinde's back as well as her own. Staying silent Ayita continued to watch as Mal closed the distance between them and ordered them to take their positions. Hearing the order made the entire thing feel a lot more real than it had been a few minutes ago and as she crawled to her stomach to take up a position to the left of Sieglinde she looked to her and saw that she was readying her weapon. Seeing that her girlfriend was putting in the effort to impress Ayita took a deep breath and grabbed the bino's that rested on the ground in front of her.

"Ready?" She asked Ziggy before seeing her nod to her. Looking through the bino's Ayita quickly honed in on the target that Mallory had instructed they fire at and relayed the details to Ziggy just as Valentina had instructed her to previously. Relaying whether or not the shot was good for the five rounds that they were instructed to fire Ayita then looked to Mallory for her next order, but instead of an order she was greeted by their leader setting up a number of boxes beside her and Ziggy as well as Ellie and Sarah. 'what are those?' she asked herself as she watched Mal work. Soon enough however what the boxes were became clear as extremely loud and distracting music began to play, if you could call it music that is. Taking another deep breath Ayita blinked a number of times before looking back through the binos in her hands, She heard Ziggy shout something over the music but it was quickly shut down by Mallory telling them to fire five more times.

"DEEP BREATH ZIGS! STAY FOCUSED!" Ayita shouted over the noise before relaying target information again, Looking downrange she noticed that the music was defiantly effecting Sieglinde but to her delight she was still hitting most of her shots, each time she would miss Ayita would relay information allowing her to correct her aim and as they went on it seemed the music would never end, The earsplitting sounds bombarded her eardrums, a headache was surely to be in her near future.

A few minutes later Ayita and Ziggy had continued letting rounds fly down range and a decently sized hole had begun to form in the target dummy's head and torso. Hearing Mallory call out to Thomas and Brody telling them to unload their weapons and to come to her Ayita felt her muscles tense up at the thought of what she had in mind next. Continuing to focus on the task at hand Ayita had shouted some more corrections Ziggys way when she felt foliage begin to run down her back stopping just shy of her hips before moving up again. "FOCUS SIEGLINDE!" Ayita shouted to her girlfriend as she realized what Mallory was having Thomas and Brody help her with. Doing everything in her power to keep Ziggy concentrated and hitting the target Ayita kept at her work until finally the music stopped and the never ending feeling of foliage on her back finally came to a stop.

Taking a breath and letting it out slowly as she heard Mallory tell them to unload and relax for a moment Ayita climbed off her stomach and came to sit crisscross next to Ziggy as she got up. "My head hurts." She said quietly to Zigg as she got close to her, Hearing as Ziggy groaned and moaned in response told her that she felt the same way, Pulling her pack up from the side she pulled the freshly refilled bottle of water out of her side pocket and took a swig before passing it to Ziggy.

"You're doing good babe. Hang in there." She said as she waited for her to take it, Mallory was sure to have at least a few other things up her sleeve but Ayita was determined that she'd keep Ziggy focused as best she could through it all.

Having spent the bulk of her lunch break alone Sarah had returned to the training grounds before anyone else and sat against a tree to the far right side as she waited for the others to return. Sitting down she brought her rifle to rest in her lap and ran a finger along the engraving her and her sister had made in the stock.

"I'm going to get you out of that hell hole." She said to herself as she ran a finger along her sisters initial. Looking to the training grounds Sarah watched as Mallory came back early and began prepping everything for their next round of training, before being dismissed from lunch she had been informed that Ellie would be her spotter during all of it and while she knew Ellie had the eyes to not lead her astray during the fight it just didn't seem right having someone other than her sister at her side. With a heavy breath Sarah leaned against the tree and looked to the sky, where she remained until she heard the rest of the trainee's return to the shooting range.

Getting to her feet Sarah joined them in silence and came to stand next to Ellie who had returned later than the rest of the group. "Just call the targets and I'll shoot." She said quietly to Ellie as she came to stand next to her.

"Understood." Ellie responded before looking down to Sarah, she could tell that she had a lot on her mind and without a doubt it was her sister. Looking at her features as she stared off into the woods Ellie placed a hand on her shoulder causing Sara to jump before looking up at her. "Hey, We're gonna get her back." Ellie said gripping her shoulder.

Hearing what Ellie had to say Sarah nodded, she was right, They were going to get her back. They were also going to stop the fuckers that had taken her. Clenching the fist of her free hand Sarah looked to Mallory as she began giving her instructions.

Breezing through the first section of training with ease Sarah closed her eyes and listened to Ellie relay her needed target information before opening them again and getting on target. Sending five rounds down range as instructed Sarah made sure to hit the target dead center. For the next round it seemed Mallory had a new element to add to the challenge, outside distraction. It was something that her father had done with her and Fearah as well and wasn't something especially new to her, although it had been a long time since she was subjected to it.

Closing her eyes again and taking a deep breath Sarah focused on Ellie's voice as she relayed orders, shutting out all the background noise as best she could as they went. Having gone through the sort of training before it did little to phase her and only led to one missed round out of the fifteen or so she fired. Soon another element was added, this time in the form of branches being moved along their back. But Sarah didn't pay any mind. Closing her eyes again she took a number of deep breaths to focus herself before opening them again and continuing to fire.

Shortly the obnoxious music and the outside distractions were put to a stop and Mallory told them to unload and take a breather, doing as she was instructed Sarah unloaded her weapon and laid everything out besides her weapon before getting off her stomach. Looking to Ellie as she got to a sitting position across from her Sarah looked to the ground as she felt Ellie place a hand on her shoulder. "Remind me never to get on your bad side kid." Ellie joked as she patted her shoulder. "Your prowess with that rifle is terrifying to say the least"

Offering a smile in return for Ellie's compliment Sarah looked to Mallory and took a drink out of her water bottle that she had sat beside her during training. "She reminds me a lot of my dad." Sarah said out of the blue as she swallowed a mouth full of water.

"Mind elaborating?" Ellie responded.

"The way she approaches training. Pops would train us hard no matter the time of day but if either Fearah or I showed discomfort he wouldn't push us. Mallory does the same thing. She's throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us but she segments it out in a way that makes it all less stressful. I appreciate that." Sarah said, Ellie could tell she was feeling like she had the world on her shoulders by the way she spoke but unfortunatly there wasn't anything she could do to stop that, When it came to the twins they always did everything for each other, And now Ellie was learning what happened when someone separated them by force. The look in Sarah's eye when she was firing her rifle was that of a mother who's family was in danger, just by the way she looked Ellie knew the girl would do anything and everything to get her sister back to her and as training went by Ellie told herself that she was going to help her reach that goal.

Their break coming to an end Ayita heard as Mallory began explaining that feeling they were going through at the time was the effect of battle-Fatigue and that what she was doing to them was effectively a crash course of what they do to you in the military. Getting back to their positions Ayita looked on as she began handing out rags and instructed them all to wrap their gear up in it. Following orders Ayita wrapped her bands around the binoculars before setting it to the side to help Ziggy do the same.

As they set about wrapping their gear Ayita heard as Mallory told the boys to help her get a large fire going. "What are we going to need a fire for?" She asked Ziggy with a curious look in her eyes. Before long however the reason became clear as they all heard Mallory tell them to strip down to tshirts or tank tops. Having tshirt on herself it wasn't herself that she was concerned about, it was Ziggy as she knew that she only wore a light tank top

"You going to be okay?" Ayita asked her lover as she watched her features go nervous as she reluctantly began to strip to her tank top .

Getting back to the ground as they began training again Ayita crunched up her nose as the music began to blare again. Relaying target information to Ziggy again she waited for a few rounds to land before hearing Ziggy groan in pain. Looking to her girlfriend with concern she looked on to see Mallory had her foot planted square in her back. Anger filled her stomach at the sight, That was completely and utterly uncalled for. Hurting your own for training? Really? Her eyes afire at the sight Ayita blew air out of her nose but she couldn't do anything about it. If she fucked things up for everyone then that would be the end of it. Frustrated and angry Ayita looked back to her binoculars and begrudgingly continued her work.

A while later training came to an end, thankfully Mal hadn't had anymore physical torture up her sleeve and quickly she told them that training was over with and that they could warm up. Without a second thought Ayita grabbed her clothing and began pulling them back on before feeling herself pulled towards the fire by Ziggy who instantly began to cuddle with her. It was exactly what she needed. "Come here, Let me warm you up." She said gently as she ran a hand along her lovers head and pulled her into her as she heard her shiver out an unknown name. About to ask for context she went quiet as Ziggy answered her question before she was able to ask. Nodding she began to rub Ziggys back, making a point to message where Mallory had planted her foot.

Shortly however the moment was cut off as Brody came up and said that they needed to cuddle with him in order to warm up, In Ayita's mind Brody had anterior motives. A feeling that only grew stronger as he sat down and snuggled up with Ziggy. Moving to the other side of Brody Ayita cuddled up to the boy as well before bringing her hand to hold Ziggy's, she could tell by the way she gripped it that there wasn't anything to worry about in terms of their relationship but there was one thing that Ayita knew boys were notorious for. Pulling her head up from Brody's right shoulder Ayita looked the boy in the eyes with a look that told him 'you try anything and i'll end you.'

"Whoa there Pocahontas, Don't worry I'm not gonna try and steal your girl. Not that I could anyway, No girl actually likes me anyway, I'm just too nice for my own good." Brody responded to her gaze with a nervous chuckle.

Hearing the words though Ayita's face went soft as she got Ziggy's attention, looking her in the eyes she nodded to her girlfriend. "We need to talk." She mouthed to her, She knew Ziggy would know what she meant by what Brody had just said, and by that sentence as well Ayita knew they had a lot of work to do if they ever were going to get Brody to realize that what he had said was absolutely not the truth.

Gripping Ziggys hand again Ayita wrapped her right arm around Brody and snuggled up to him before laying her own head on his other shoulder opposite her lover. Their hands still held around him as she began to warm up thanks to Brody's heat, Ziggy wasn't lying he was warm and the large coat he wore was actually sorta comfy to lay against. Beginning to relax in the warmth with the safety of Ziggys hand in hers Ayita wondered. 'who's pocahontas?'