Page 29 of Veiled

I grit my teeth and bite my tongue.

The deeper we get into the woods, the less light that makes it through to us, despite it being early afternoon. I hear someone behind me slip and fall with a thud and a curse, followed by a clearly embarrassed call of “I’m okay!” giving me a much-needed moment of comic relief.

Our Bravo guides keep their pace steady, mechanical, and somehow in sync despite being spread out around us. The rest of us? We’re like a drunken stampede barreling through the forest. The sound of boots hitting the earth around me comes in an uneven tempo, while the coughs, panting, and dragging of feet would give away our location long before we could ever sneak up on an enemy.

Before I know what’s happening, the girl running in front of me has lost her balance on the slope of the hill, sending a spray of dirt into my face and mouth. I spit, blink, and repeatedly try to clear my eyes as I grab her arm and haul her upright.

Lucas laughs softly behind me.

“Thanks,” she gasps.

My lungs burn as the trail turns uphill. Sweat trickles down my spine, my legs screaming as Bravo’s pace never falters.

Another Bravo recruit runs a few people behind Matt, yelling for what must be the thousandth time, “Stay tight! Keep formation!”

Easier said than done when everyone here has wildly different conditioning—and one of them is actively trying to make me eat dirt.

By the time we crest the hill, nearly half our class has fallen out—some injured, some simply unprepared. My legs are on fire, but I push harder.

Lucas edges closer as I cross the finish line, his boot catching the back of mine—just enough to make me stumble.

I recover, barely.

“Oops,” he says, not sorry at all.

“Real nice, but you’re going to have to try harder than that, asshole.”

“Do I? Okay. You’ve now earned yourself remediation on Sunday.”

Matt’s right there, shoulder-checking Lucas with a force that’ll leave his shoulder sore if he doesn’t take something soon. “You piece of—”

I grab his arm, pulling him back, “He’s not worth it, Mattey.”

Not waiting for him to respond, I turn with Matt toward Sasha, who is walking toward us, looking absolutely miserable with dirt smeared across her face. The last glimpse I got of her, she was literally crawling back in the direction of the Vanguard building, and we weren’t even a mile into the run.

“I knew you were crazy, but the fact that you do this for fun might qualify you to be institutionalized!” Sasha says, finally free of her pack.

“Still better than Combat Medicine,” I say as we walk toward the shooting range. “Now who wants a protein bar?"

Chapter twelve

Annalise

Getting back to my dorm, I’m in desperate need of a shower and one of Sasha’s tonics she’s been brewing in her bathroom.

I turn the shower on high so it can start to warm up, and I spot myself in the mirror. With mud streaks all over my uniform and splatters of it on my face and in my hair, you would think I had rolled, not run, through the muddy sections of the path.

Peeling off each layer of clothing, I try my hardest to keep each piece from moving too much so the mud doesn’t fly off and make a mess of my bathroom. The last thing I want to do tonight is get on my hands and knees to clean.

Once the shower is full of steam, I step in and let my head fall back under the steady stream of water. The heat begins loosening my tight muscles immediately, and I have never been more thankful for good water pressure than I am in this moment.

By the time I make it to the dining hall, the day’s classes have all bled out, leaving the room packed with recruits from both companies. Whatever hell the instructors put everyone through today must have taken a toll. Instead of the usual barrage of noise, the only sounds are of clattering silverware and low, exhausted grumbling.

Fine by me.

I’m on my own tonight since Matt and Sasha swung by right after class, so I’ll get to enjoy a quiet dinner in a corner booth. I’m an extrovert in so many ways, but there is something about being surrounded by people and not having to talk that I find peace in now and then.

“Hey. Annalise, right?”