Chapter Eight - GAS, GAS, GAS
2695 Words
Chapter Eight – GAS GAS GAS
Cigs opened his eyes, and glanced over at Izzy, as she sat up in her bed. Kermit had not wanted to leave Kyla’s side last night after the interview as she suffered with nightmares, so Cig’s had decided to stay in her bed so he could keep a close eye on Izzy.
After the punishing hike, she had no issues dropping off to sleep. He had spent most of the night watching Izzy, as she slept, his mind wandered to the first time he had seen her, damn she had changed, at that time her hair was shorter, died black and spiked up a bit, Cigs let out a low chuckle as he remembered when they had first gone on the run, she had to change her appearance, so reluctantly had stripped the die from her hair, returning it to her natural blonde. She had hated that, and it had caused many an argument, especially when he told her it looked pretty. Her hair was longer now, sitting just beyond her shoulder blades, and as much as he had fancied her with the dark hair, he had to admit he preferred her natural look she was beautiful.
It was five am, and her alarm was blasting out that ridiculous song that had also caused so many arguments he was sure she kept the annoying alarm just to piss him off.
‘oopen gangnam style
Op op op
Gangnam style’
Izzy sat up rubbing her eyes, and blinking awake, Cigs sighed, she looked a lot better than yesterday, so he was hopeful she had a handle on things. Suddenly out of the blue Izzy began doing the crazy dance to the song, whilst sat on her bunk then looked over at him grinning,
“Hey, if you are in Kyla’s bed you have to do the dance” she teased, knowing how much Cigs hated her alarm.
Cigs chuckled, loving how carefree Izzy seemed he shrugged his shoulders hopped out of bed and started to swing his hips and jump about in the room, making Izzy laugh so hard, he could not resist telling her to play the song again, enjoying her laughter.
Suddenly the door to their room burst open, and Kermit started to chuckle, Kyla giggling she jumped on Izzy’s bed, and began the little dance, whilst Kermit shook his head, at Cigs stood in his black boxer shorts, with his flag pole flying at half mast, wiggling his hips and dancing to the song.
“f**k mate, I wish I had a camera, Woof would love this s**t” Kermit chuckled
Kyla was giggling with Izzy, as they both looked at his neither region, Cigs looked down, realising he was having a glorious morning.
“Oi tell your fiancée to stop objectifying my morning glory” Cigs quipped at Kermit.
“It’s fine, I have nothing to worry about bro” Kermit shrugs,
One thing about being Ex special forces, nobody gave two hoots about nudity after all, that was trained out of you, something they could never show on the course they did for the TV, but it was important, as if you were ever captured not everyone played nice, and well to strip someone naked was a good interrogation method, and so the guys would be forced to sleep naked, and to get used to being comfortable in their own skin.
“What are you fuckers up to now”
Tanks voice echoed down the small corridor, a small chuckle in his voice.
“Just watching Cigs do his sexy dance for Izzy” Kyla shouted giggling
Tank popped his head around the door and promptly shook it chuckling to himself.
“Anyway, we have the wonderful task ‘gas chamber’” Tank said his voice low.
Izzy noticed even Tank shuddered slightly, and she looked over to Cigs, who all of a sudden looked less happy that a few moments ago, some may say he was deflated.
“I f*****g hate this one” Kermit groaned
“What is it?” Izzy asked, not sure if she wanted to know.
“Go into a building filled with teargas, take off the masks answer questions, grab a blow up doll that is meant to be a hostage, and take it outside. Seriously it sucks” Cigs told her.
“Who is demoing it?” Kyla asked her eyes wide hoping it was not Kermit.
“That would be me” Cigs shook his head clearly not wanting to do this task.
“We played rock paper scissors when choosing this one, and well, Cigs lost” Kermit chuckled then slapped Cigs on the back.
“It is f*****g awful” Cigs said.
“Okay so what do we have to do, whilst you do that?” Kyla asked
“Make sure the contestants do not touch their face or eyes when they come out, else they will be in a world of pain for a long time and try not to retch at the snot and drool that will be coming out of them.” Tank answered
Izzy nodded thinking that sounded easy enough, then shooed everyone out of her room so that she could get ready, it was her turn on parade this morning, and Tank was planning another stinger before breakfast for the contestants.
As she pulled on her black combat trousers, and black ribbed jumper, Izzy sighed, yesterday had been traumatic, yet because Cigs had helped by taking her on the massive hike, she found the craving now held no power over her, the natural drug of adrenaline had taken over, making everything else fade away. She was more grateful that he would ever know because she would never tell him.
As she headed into the mess hall she could smell the bacon wafting in the air, damn, she missed bacon, being a veggi was a tribute to her father, an attempt to make him proud from which ever cloud he was floating on, and bacon was definitely her weak spot. Ignoring the amazing smell that literally made her drool, she grabbed a bowl of the slop they passed as porridge and headed to her seat. Cigs pulled up a chair next to her and took a seat then placed a sandwich in front of her.
“Before you kick off, I had them make you a fried mushroom sandwich” He chuckled beside her, knowing from bitter experience if she thought it was bacon, she would give him hell.
Izzy smiled, and whispered “Thanks” before taking a bite, letting out a soft moan, it was so nice to have something different for breakfast.
Cigs had to stifle a groan as he heard her soft moans eating the sandwich, his morning glory back at full mast desperate to escape the restraints of his tight boxer shorts and combat trousers.
“Okay, so going to go help with the stinger, thanks for the sandwich” Izzy smiled
“And everything else” she whispered, before scurrying out of the room.
Cigs could not stop the smile on his face, he knew that was difficult for Izzy to say thank you to him, and it filled him with a sense of pride, the ice queen was starting to melt, and he readjusted himself as he watched her leave the small mess room.
As the SUV pulled up outside the makeshift prefab building, Izzy looked over at Cigs.
“Okay, so let’s get that blow up doll blown up and in a jump suit sat on the chair” Cigs said
Izzy pulled it out of the car and began to blow it up, as she did, she could not contain her laughter, it was not any old blow up doll, but a s*x doll, a male s*x doll along with giant p***s.
“Hey, what we going to call him” Izzy laughed
“Not sure, whatever you like” Cigs chuckled
“Ron Jeremy” Izzy laughed
Cigs shook his head chuckling at her
“Hey, can I take Fake Ron back to the bunk tonight? You know some light relief” Izzy giggled
“If you really want to, you and Kyla can have your wicked way with him” Cigs chuckled again
“I think Kyla has had enough of her wicked way with Kermit, I am sure they were at it again this morning” Izzy shrugged.
Cigs laughed, as he threw the blue jumpsuit over to Izzy for her to dress “Fake Ron Jeremy”
“Who bought him, I need to thank them” Izzy chuckled
“Woof apparently, he got it for a f*****g wrap party one year according to Kermit” Cigs chuckled.
Izzy gave a small smile, she had not known Woof all that well, but she quickly noticed the sad look that flashed in Cig’s green eyes, before he masked the emotion behind his intimidating stare.
“I hope what we did yesterday helps” Izzy sighed
“Guess we will find out tonight” Cigs shrugged
He did not want to think about his brother in arms right now, the fact he was remanded in prison brought up so many emotions he was not in the mood to face at the moment he needed to concentrate on setting up the task and then demonstrating it, so placed all his anger, and concern into the box within his mind.
The peace of the secluded unit was soon shattered, as shouts of “MOVE” Echoed around the mountainsides, and Izzy smiled, knowing the contestants would arrive shortly.
“So, when I get out of this f*****g nightmare, you move me to a kneeling position, and I should not rub my eyes and s**t but if you see me going to do so shout like f**k at me to stop, same with the contestants” Cigs sighed
“Okay” Izzy smiled warmly; she could see he did not want to demo this task one little bit.
As the contestants all formed up, Tank began his pacing and speech once more.
“In the special forces, you need to know how to work in the most difficult circumstances. Learning how to deal with a Gas attack is one of those. What we want is for you to not panic, to do what we need you to do, and come out of this gas chamber. You will each be given a gas mask, when you go into the building, you will, on command, remove the mask, answer three simple questions, then rescue the hostage sat in a chair, and pull it to safety. You MUST follow the instructions once you are out of the building, or you will be in a world of pain. We are going to demo this now for you” Tank instructed them, his voice not as shouty as normal.
Cigs placed on his gas mask and entered the building, which was now filled with teargas as he walked in Kermit was stood, his mask in place.
“Remove the mask” Kermit ordered
As Cigs pulled off his mask instantly he felt the effects, his lungs crying for mercy, and he had to stop the panic that was forming in his mind as his eyes nose and throat burn, it felt like there was no oxygen, and he had to control his mind and focus on his task.
“What is your name?” Kermit asked
“Cigs”
“What country are we in?” Kermit said again
“Scotland”
“How old are you?”
“38”
Cigs then moved without the mask to pick up fake Ron Jeremy and ran out of the building.
There was an audible gasp from the contestants as they saw him, tears streaming down his bright red face, his nose running freely, and white bubbles coming out of his mouth, as he knelt down and promptly began to vomit.
“Keep your hands off your face” Izzy shouted, as he instinctively twitched his hand.
After a few moments, he was able to compose himself once more, and taking deep breaths the effects began to become more manageable.
In the distance you could hear Tank shouting at the contestants
“The vomiting and foaming are natural, it is your body’s way of expelling the gas, now when you go in there do not panic”
Kyla moved next to Izzy, ready to help with the contestants as they exited the building.
“f**k this is brutal” Kyla whispered
Izzy nodded her head, worried for Stan, he was first in the building.
As he ran out holding the blow up doll, Kyla grabbed it, as Izzy helped him kneel down
“Breath” she told him,
“don’t touch your face” she barked, as his hands automatically went to rub his swollen eyes, and he began to throw up the white foam.
“Good Effort number one” Tank shouted, as Stan started to recover
“f*****g arse holes, trying to kill me” he whispered to Izzy only this time his voice held none of his usual humour.
The task continued, some of the contestants bolting out of the door, before they had even answered one question, without fake Ron, others managed to complete the task, and Izzy could not help but feel so much pride in everyone who had entered that building, she was certain this would be one task she could never have completed.
As the contestants all returned to the barn, Izzy headed into the interview room, Tank, Kermit, Kyla and Cigs were all sat around a table where she saw a TV set up.
“So, we are going to watch tonight’s episode, we have also put a TV up in the barn so the contestants can see it as well” Tank announced
“I don’t want to watch it” Izzy said immediately
“Me neither” Kyla added, shaking her head
“Okay, why don’t you two head to your room till it is over” Kermit smiled placing a kiss on the forehead of Kyla
Nodding Izzy got up followed by Kyla and walked to their room. As they sat on the military bunk, both girls wrapped themselves up in the scratchy woollen blanket, as if to cocoon themselves in safety.
“How were you last night?” Izzy asked her friend softly
“Not good, kept Kermit up most of the night with nightmares, I cannot believe we survived that Izzy” Kyla sighed
“I know, I had an episode, Cigs found me and took me for a long hike, it helped” Izzy gave a soft smile
“I am glad, you two seem to be getting on a lot better” Kyla smiled at her friend hopeful that both Izzy and Cigs would finally accept their feelings and move forward with a relationship
“Yeah, a little” Izzy shrugged it off not wanting to think about her feelings for the man who had rescued her from her cravings the previous night.
As the program aired, the friends kept track on the social media accounts, gauging the reaction of the public. Apart from the odd i***t troll, most of the comments were very positive, and Free Soldier B was once more trending.
Suddenly Kyla started to cry, and Izzy ran over to her bunk, wrapping her arm around her.
“Look” she sobbed
Izzy looked at Kyla’s social media account, and saw the comment that had upset her so much
Malcolm White – I have never told my girl I love her, and only once said how proud I am of her, that is on me, something I will regret for the rest of my life. But today watching my brave girl as she relived the horrors, she had endured made my heart break. I know too much has happened for her to forgive me, but I want to say Kyla I love you, and I am one proud father right now. #FreeSoldierB
- Writer
