The Soldier Who Taught Her to Love

Chapter Five - Sucker Punch

Chapter Five  -  Sucker Punch

“Kermit … here”

Jason ‘Woof’ Collie shouted as he threw another one of the black bag packs, that contained two sets of uniform, regulation socks and along with a wet kit, the armband for each contestant who had already been allocated their unique number tied to the handle at the top.  Out in the distance Jim heard Tank shouting the usual bull s**t, at the waste of spacers, his lips formed into a small smirk as he listened to him berate one of the females, calling her G.I Barbie.

“f**k me, he is going for that one, she must have royally pissed him off in just half an hour” Woof grinned.

“Aye, but judging by his tone, she is an obvious one here to make a name for herself rather than make the effort to self-improve” Jim answered, as he took yet another black backpack out the back of the flatbed truck.

Holding two in each hand, Jim ran down the narrow steep pass, as his combat boots skimmed the loose stones they fell like a small landslide beneath his feet, yet he remained unbothered, his balance unshakable as he dropped off the ruck sacks, then sprinted back up the steep path to gather more of them. On his way back down with the last three packs, Jim took the time to look over at the 22 shaking bodies that had emerged from the cold Loch.

A small smirk appeared on his lips. That will have woken them up, he laughed to himself, remembering all to well this exercise.  As his eyes glanced across them, he noticed the unmistakable frame of Cigs, as he stood next to a girl. Jim found his eyes had a mind of their own as they scanned her body, slim but not skinny, toned but not too muscular, her dark hair wet hanging down her back, he was unsure if it was a dark chocolate brown or if that shade of darkness was caused by the water her skin pale almost like it had been kissed by the moon. The girl stood, shivering, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, but he had the distinct feeling in his gut that she had covered herself less for the cold, and more as a way of maintaining her dignity. Out of all the 7 girls on this course, she was the most appropriately dressed, others were in small briefs and bras that barely covered them, one, in a pink see through lacy set, and Jim knew instantly she was the G.I Barbie Tank had taken a dislike to and understood his reasoning instantly.

Jim edged himself forward, with the bags, his eyes remaining on the appropriately dressed girl who was noticeably under confident, and he felt a small stirring in his loins, his breathing became slightly heavier. f**k what was that all about he thought to himself. As he walked closer to the contestants, the girl looked up, and he felt something akin to a sucker punch taking the very air from his lungs. She was drop dead, unmistakably gorgeous, with the biggest, brightest most hypnotic yet beautiful pair of violet coloured eyes, they rendered him prone, he was gone, unable to tear his gaze away lost in the sheer undiluted beauty of them, and their owner.

“You Ready?” Woof, brought him out of his daze, and Jim nodded, unable to speak, his throat had been become so parched as if he had been lost in the desert with no water ration.

This was not part of the plan; this was and could not be happening to him. Jim ‘Kermit’ Henderson, did not experience fire in his body by looking at a woman, no matter how utterly gorgeous and breathtakingly beautiful she was, maybe it was because he had not had a woman beneath him for over two years that he had become so affected by her. Jim had long given up on the notion of having a woman in his life, he had tried once upon a time, when he had first left the Army, but found that they would scurry away when the realities of sleeping with an ex solider hit home, the constant nightmares, would chase them away in fear and never return.

Jim remembered back when he had first enlisted, before joining the Special Forces team, like most “Squaddies” he had a knack of finding girls, loving and leaving them behind. It had been a thing when out on operations to used internet dating sites as a way of expelling some pent up s****l tension. f**k, he even had files on his computer, that gave him the information on all the ladies he conversed with, such as their name, where they were from, special interests, he had kept notes on them all, so that he may not mistake one from another when the need to get down and dirty arose. The arrogance of youth, and being young free and single, with a uniform on never failed to have many a woman eating out of his hand back then. But that was all over, and he had long ago accepted his fate of being terminally single, his punishment for breaking hearts was that he himself would become so broken no woman would entertain him for more than one night, disappearing after they encountered Jim in full nightmare rage.

Jim dropped the backpack down at the woman’s feet, as she stood shivering, then turned quicker than he would have liked to drop “Cigs” his pack.

Kyla felt naked once more, as they emerged from the water, the cold making her shiver, as she wrapped her arms around her body for both warmth and a way to cover herself. Suddenly she felt someone staring at her and she looked over to find the object of her crazy crush watching. Kyla took a sharp intake of breath, damn he was hot, the pictures she had seen, and his image on the TV did not do him enough justice. They could not portray the pure testosterone presence that surrounded him, which added instantly to the attraction. Kyla desperately tried to take her eyes from him, but his gaze held her captive, and she cursed her hormones. The cold from the water disappeared as she felt an internal heat from her loins radiating up through her body, and the shivering was more like shaking from such a wave of emotion that was starting to consume her.

As ‘Kermit’ looked into her eyes, she automatically lowered them, knowing they would cause some offence and he would be disgusted at her appearance, maybe that is why he stared at her, unable to believe this weirdo was stood before him. He threw the backpack at her feet, then handed her an arm band.  

“You are number 11”

His deep baritone voice that sounded softer than you could comprehend stoke the fire inside her and it began to rage into an inferno.

“Get dry, put on the kit, and place your wet clothes into this bag” he commanded, bringing Kyla out of her daze.

Kyla sprung, into action, getting changed quickly, because as soon as Kermit had moved to give the hulk beside her his pack, and issued him with number 2 the heat evaporated, and the coldness hit her like a tidal wave once more.

Tank watched on as the contestants changed, G.I Barbie was again taking her damn sweet time, putting on yet another show, her underwear completely transparent, to say he was wholly unaffected would be a lie. Tank was still a man, and his body was starting to respond as such. But he was not interested, and her determination to make a show of herself worked better than any cold shower or a swim in the Loch before them do dampen down his basic needs. Kermit had issued her the number 1 and oh boy did she make a f*****g show of it, to those around her, thinking it was some kind of prize, she was in for a wake up call, it was just a f*****g number.

Tank walked the line once more, as he began his speech, the one the cameras seemed to love.

“You are all here or different reasons, most of you will leave here unable to deal with this course, but for those who stay you will find out more about who you are and what you can achieve. The Staff and I take no prisoners, if you are lacking, we will dismiss you from this program, if you do not have what it takes, you will return home. Many of you will voluntarily withdraw, some of you will be medically withdrawn, and only a few will complete the course in its entirety. Now, anyone here want to hand in their armband?”

As he spoke number 20 a tall lad with long hair stepped forward, pulling the arm band off his arm and handed it to Tank.

“Good go” he shouted at the man,

“Anyone Else?” he bellowed, hoping he could get rid of at least three more of them, especially number 1 the G.I Barbie.

No one moved, and so Tank nodded his head, and upped the game.

“Put your back packs on, they only way 25 pounds, and jog to the top of that hill and back down, you will keep going until another two of you withdraw”

“MOVE” Tank shouted.

Kermit smiled, as he noted the look of horror on some of the contestants faces, they broke off to run up the hill.  People thought running up was the most difficult, they were wrong, the hardest part was running back down as you slip and fall on the stones and wet grass beneath your feet. His eyes scanned them as the ascended the hill and he noticed number 11 was holding her own, the first of the girls, and around sixth overall. He smiled inwardly as he noted the effort and determination in her eyes.  Up and down the hill the contestants went, they were exhausted, some falling behind. Jim went to the stragglers, number 1 being the last of them.

“f*****g MOVE, YOU SCARED YOU WILL BREAK A f*****g FINGER NAIL, IF YOU CANNOT DO THIS THEN HAND IN YOUR ARM BAND” Jim bellowed at her.

He then turned his attention to a young lad, who was towards the back of the field, yet looked like he was putting little effort into the exercise.

“MOVE, YOUR NOT f*****g TRYING, YOU DO NOT GET TO BE HERE AND NOT f*****g TRY” Jim screamed into his ear, suddenly the young lad turned, and took off the arm band.

“Here, f*****g have it, not doing this s**t” he said, and number four left.

Jim smiled to himself, yeah there was those who had what it takes and those like that bozo who thought they were good enough yet could not last the first day.

Woof arrived beside Jim, smirking “you got rid of one already Kermit” he chuckled.

Jim nodded, yeah, he wanted rid of another, it was kudos with the lads when you managed to get them to leave. On the contestants fifth decent, Jim noticed that Cigs was keeping a close distance to number 11, and a pang of jealousy hit him.  Was it not important that the mole be treated the same as the others? yes, it was, and Jim found himself screeching at Cig’s using all the annoyance of him sticking by number 11 and her beautiful hypnotic eyes.

“NUMBER 2, STOP TRYING TO FLIRT WITH NUMBER 11 AND f*****g MOVE” he shouted, inches away from Cigs ear as he ran past him.

By the tenth assent Number one, realised she was not first at anything, as she fell, and had a small scrape on her hand, indeed she had broken a fingernail, and was exhausted beyond belief. Finally admitting defeat, she walked up to Kermit, and handed him her number, wishing it were a different number she was giving him, he did not look at her, just took the arm band and told her to move down the mountain and into the truck.

Kyla felt the burn in her legs, and her lungs were screaming for mercy, but still she continued one step at a time, determined to never give in, when finally, they were told to stop.

As they met at the bottom of the hill, they were instructed to make their way to the SUV’s so that they could continue the journey to base. A wave of relief washed over her, she had managed to survive the first exercises, and three people had gone she was not the first, internally Kyla smiled, and gave the middle finger to her never loving parents. Kyla moved out towards her awaiting car, when suddenly she felt a presence beside her, the hairs on her neck stood up, and a nervous twitch in her stomach told her who it was.

“Good effort number 11” the soft baritone voice of Kermit praised her, and that was the first time in her living memory that she felt any sense of pride in herself.