The Soldier Who Gave Him Acceptance #4 The Soldier Series

Chapter Four - That Is Not Sanitary.

Chapter Four – That Is Not Sanitary.

Tank, Kermit, Woof and Cigs stood on the make-shift stage area at the head of the parade square. Doing his famous pacing back and forth, Tank bellowed the orders and expectations for the contestants. His main focus was on the upkeep of their kit, and what each recruit was required to have on them when they were inspected throughout the process, along with how to wear the uniform provided.

Rather than the old stone buildings the base had in Scotland, they had buildings made from temporarily constructed, corrugated metal. Building one was for the mess. It was filled with long melamine folding tables running front to back. At the side were some other tables, each with canisters for hot and cold water, along with food dispensing tins. Building two was where the staff would conduct their interviews with the contestants, and Building three had the medical suite, where they could visit the doctor. In this series, the contestants and staff would sleep in large tents. As Haley walked into the big green tent that had a covering of fake leaves over the top of it, she saw twenty small military issue camp beds all covered with mosquito nets and an all-weather green sleeping bag with one pillow dressed on the bed. Each had a small camping set of drawers beside them to hold their clothes and other items. There was no fire in the tent, nobody would need one in the heat. Just outside were rows of wooden clothes horses to dry off equipment.

Haley chose a bed in the centre of the tent, and began to unpack her kit, before heading out to find out where the toilets were.

Stacy walked with her, as they found two long tents. Inside were latrines dug out, with piles of mud on the side to bury what your body produced. One tent was for urine, the other for going for number two.

“Eww” Stacey grimaced at the holes in the ground that they would need to use as a toilet.

“There is no privacy at all!” She continued her complaint, scrunching up her face.

“Guess not. I think we are like bears now.” Haley laughed, shaking her head, it was exactly what she expected, but she could not tell Stacey that.

“Bears?” Stacey questioned, obviously confused.

“Yeah, we s**t in the woods” Haley laughed.

“Gross!” Stacey scrunched up her face even more.

They walked out of the latrine tent, and saw a row of four metal constructions, the doors only enough to cover your body. Beside each was a barrel of water used to collect rain. Thankfully, they were in the rain forest, so as hot as it was, there would be days of torrential downpours to refill the barrels.

“Guess that is the water for washing” Haley mused, seeing large jugs around each of the barrels. A notice on the barrel stated.

‘ONE JUG PER PERSON PER DAY ONLY.’ Written on it.

“That is not sanitary!” Stacy complained.

Haley suppressed a laugh, it was all they were going to get out in the middle of the jungle, she had used worse in her time serving and fighting for her country, remembering the time she had engaged in a three-day fire fight, only to return to camp and have to wash with little more than a baby wipe.

“If you don’t like it, you can always return to the hotel. It is easy, you just pass me your arm band.” Kermit’s voice echoed from behind them.

“I will manage staff.” Haley said, suppressing a small grin at her brother.

Stacy jumped, giving off a little squeal, then scurried away, back to the tent, leaving Haley behind.

Both Kermit and Haley looked around, and seeing they were alone they began to chuckle together.

“Back to your tent number 13” Kermit grinned at his sister in arms.

“Yes Staff”, Haley nodded and returned to the rest of the contestants.

As she finished off unpacking her kit, keeping the main things she would need in easy reach, Baldy approached her bunk.

“Hey number 13, so number 5, definitely think he is the mole. Look at his bunk. It is all sorted out perfectly.” Bauldy whispered to her, standing a little too close for comfort.

“I think you should stop worrying about it number 1, if he is. There is not a lot we can do about it.” Haley shrugged, the man was making her feel uncomfortable, especially as he stared at her, liking his lips.

Haley shuddered slightly, he really was trying too hard, and his attentions were not welcome. They never would be, the man was not her type, but even less so now she knew her Stan was there.

“PARADE SQUARE IN FULL KIT NOW!” Tank's voice boomed out.

Haley quickly made sure she was in the correct dress, and gathered her kit, running out of the tent. She did not leave anything behind, as she noticed baldy had one leg of his trousers untied, and that would be enough for the guys to deliver a sickener to them.

Woof walked out with Cig’s onto the parade square and stood next to Kermit.

“Number 15 is mine, none of you fuckers touch him.” He growled out.

“Ooo, someone pissed on your strawberry’s already bro?” Cigs chuckled.

“Fucker called me jail bate, I am having his armband.” Woof shrugged, glaring at number 15.

He was already majorly pissed off. He missed Jess, his fiancee, and was stressed about her pregnancy, given what her ex had done to her by kicking the s**t out of her and causing her to miscarry when she was with him, before she met Woof, and now they were having twins the at risk pregnancy was even riskier. Although at the six-week scan the doctors did, all was fine, apart from them finding out there were two little, Woof’s not just one, he could not help but be concerned.

Kermit and Cigs chuckled, normally in the competition to claim the most armbands in the first few days of a new show. Kermit won, hands down. But this year the competition would be tough, as all of the guys wanted the kudos of getting the most.

“Well good luck, I already have one to my name.” Kermit laughed, as Cigs and Woof glared at him.

“Game on Kermit, I am going after number 10, she seems ready to cry.” Cigs shrugged.

“Easy pickings.” Woof laughed at his brother, as they walked and stopped on the stage in front of the parade square.

“Still counts.” Cigs shrugged and stood motionless with feet apart and hands behind his back.

Haley formed up in the centre of the pack of contestants, as Tank walked around inspecting them. Baldy was beside her, his trouser leg still dangling over his boot untied.

“WHAT THE f**k IS THIS NUMBER 1?” Tank bellowed in Baldy’s ear.

“YOUR TROUSER IS HANGING DOWN, UNTIED. GUESS WHAT, INCY WINCEY f*****g SPIDER JUST CRAWLED UP YOUR LEG AND GAVE YOU A LOVE BITE, AND IF WE DO NOT GET THE ANTI VENOME INTO YOU, YOU ARE GOING HOME IN A f*****g WOODEN BOX.” Tank bellowed, as Baldy looked down at his trouser, fear consuming him that a venomous spider had crawled up his leg.

“WE DO NOT GIVE YOU INSTRUCTIONS BECAUSE WE LIKE THE SOUND OF OUR OWN VOICES, IT IS TO KEEP YOU SAFE. EVERYONE PUT ON YOUR BERGEN’S AND CROUCH DOWN AND BEGIN TO WALK AROUND THE PARADE SQUARE. YOU WILL DO THAT TILL TWO OF YOU V.W. MOVE!” Tank shouted, then turned away from the parade square hiding the small smirk on his face.

The contestants all began to walk crouched down, as the guys all began to shout at them. Woof was bellowing in the ear of number fifteen, encouraging him to ‘hand in his armband’. But number fifteen kept going.

“Come on my little ducklings, quack, quack.” Kermit shouted at the contestants, as sweat poured from each of them.

Some began to fall over, unable to take the burn in the tops of their legs and shoulders from the sickener.

Cigs walked beside number 10.

“MOVE, come on, my granny can do this better than you!” he began to torment her.

“You want to go home, number ten? Hand me your f*****g arm band, you do NOT have what it takes.” Cigs continued to shout, never letting up.

Falling on her knees, Kim could not do this, it was not what she expected at all, she thought this stuff was just for the camera, not real. She had only come to flirt with the instructors, it was not worth the torture she was going through.

“Here staff.” Kim said, standing up and handing Cigs her armband.

Stan walked towards the parade square, and took number 10’s bergen, helping her leave the compound. As he did, he took a quick glance at Haley, she looked so strong, she was so strong and pride of the girl he liked more than just a friend filled his chest.

“Come on number 10, early bath for you” Stan chuckled.

“Hey, weren’t you on the show before?” Kim asked.

“Yes, I won mine, was the mole in the last one, now part of the back up crew.” Stan nodded and smiled down at the crestfallen contestant.

“Yeah, I remember.” Kim giggled at him.

Haley’s legs burnt with lactic acid, but it was not unbearable, however, the sting of jealousy as she watched Kim chatting to Stan was what was really bothering her. Putting her emotions into a box so she could concentrate on what she was doing, she saw another contestant, number 20 hand their armband to Kermit, and walk off the square, where Stan took the bergen from them as well.

“STOP!” Tank Bellowed.

“THIS IS REALITY. IF YOU ARE IN THE SPECIAL FORCES, YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO MAKE EVEN THE SIMPLEST OF MISTAKES. WE TRAIN HARD, SO WE CAN FIGHT EASY. NOW GO BACK TO YOUR TENT, REF’S IN IN 30 MINUTES” Tank shouted to the remaining contestants, as they all ran towards the tent, and slumped on their bunks in exhaustion.

Kermit and Cigs pinned their claimed armbands and pinned them to the wall under their names.

“Number 15 not giving up yet?” Kermit chuckled at Woof.

“No, but the fucker will be by close of play tomorrow, just you wait and see.” Woof growled out.

“Hey, see Kermit is in the lead again.” Tank laughed as he joined his brothers.

“Yeah, but he won’t remain there.” Cigs chuckled.

After putting the withdrawn contestants into the SUV’s to transport them back to the hotel, Stan made his way into the staff area. Walking into the office, he looked at the armbands and laughed, before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“You bastards could have told me it was Haley who was the mole.” He said, shaking his head at his friends.

“What and miss out on the heart bubbles coming from your eyes.” Woof laughed, slapping him on his back.

“Yeah Stan, the SF: Have You Got What It Takes, love bug is going to hit you hard.” Cigs laughed out.

“Yeah, well, need to borrow your razor bro, to shave my balls just in case.” Stan laughed

Cigs pulled out a pack of disposable razors, and threw them at Stan.

“Izzy sent these for you, she said good luck, nothing worse than prickly balls.” Cigs laughed, at the running joke between the two of them.

Stan grinned, and picked up the razors, then with a sheepish smile he turned to his friends.

“So, when she is revealed as the mole, which tent is she sleeping in?” He asked.

“That is up to her bro, that is up to her!” Tank grinned.