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When I first arrived at Eagle Peak, he went the extra mile to help me feel safe and welcome. It’s because of his advice that I found it in my heart to reach out to Jud, even though he was a grad-A jerk to me at first. If it wasn’t for Doc, I wouldn’t be where I am now in terms of opening my heart and body to my men.
It’s time for me to show him how much I appreciate all he’s done for me.
“Sore,chér?” He’s quick to notice my discomfort. His beringed hands go to work on my shoulders, searching out my sorest places.
“A little.” Understatement.
As we all filed in from training, Doc touched everyone who wanted relief from cuts, bruises, aches, and pains. “Better than ibuprofen,” Recon had said with an appreciative chuckle. Too bad Doc can’t do the same for me. I had to settle for pills, graciously provided by Recon.
“Mmmm.”Doc’s gentle but firm massaging feels amazing.
Then again, maybe getting healing the old-fashioned way isn’t so bad.
Doc
I haven’t done bootcampsince I was eighteen. It sucks just as bad as I remember.
When Sarge hollered us out of our beds before dawn, he tossed fatigues at us and told us to get our lazy asses outside and give him three laps around the homestead, which is what they call the area including the house, the two nearest barns, and the hog pens. After the laps, when I haven’t done cardio in at least a decade, all I wanted was water and breakfast, but what I got—and what the others got, too—was an order to do thirty pushups and then to shove hay bales back and forth until we felt like passing out.
The only person who got a reprieve was Grim because he got to guard Cora while she did a pared down exercise routine and light weapons training. But, masochist that he is, the goody-two-shoes made up for lost time. Once his shift with Cora was up, he insisted on performing the workout the rest of us had endured instead of eating lunch.
The rest of the day included strategy sessions and drills to hone our Gifts. Blessedly, after lunch, which we devoured outside on picnic tables like a pack of wild animals, Sarge eased off the physical exertion.
“I don’t want to kill you men,” he told us, pacing the picnic area in his full bird insignia. “The next few mornings willnotbe about pushing your bodies to their limits. They will be about training you to respond to my voice and my voice alone. To respondimmediatelyandpowerfully. Because, make no mistake, Iamyour commander, and this mission is the most important of your life. We’ve got a P.O.W. to retrieve from enemy territory, and this battle won’t be like any you’ve fought before. This is a battle in the New World, men. The post-Virus world. This battle will help determine the direction of our civilization as we move forward.
“In our new civilization, we will not permit one man to steal another!” He shouted like a Southern Baptist preacher at a revival. “Give me a hu-rah!”
“Hu-rah!” we all shouted, even those of us who were never in the Marine Corps.
“We will not stand by while one group of men trespasses on another! Will we, Marines?”
“No, sir!” I answered with the others, figuring I was a Marine today. Hopefully none of the ghosts of my Army buddies would haunt me for it.
“We will not negotiate with terrorists! Will we, Marines?”
“No sir!”
“We will put these kinds of men in their place! Hu-rah!”
“Hu-rah!”
After Sarge’s speech, Rev preached a mini sermon to encourage us to grow our Gifts. It wasn’t anything me, Grim, Shep, Brawn, and Scrap hadn’t heard before, but Sarge, Recon, Steel, and Stealth hung on his every word. Target and X-Ray would have, if they’d been here (lucky dogs, getting to be on a road trip, instead of running laps and doing pushups all day).
After Rev’s sermon, we got to work. Shep and I practiced controlling and healing birds from a distance. We started with the chickens and geese on the ranch then graduated to wild Red-Tailed Hawks and a friendly flock of quick Killdeer that were happy to engage in a treasure hunt we set up for them. This was mostly Shep’s game, since he’s the one who can communicate with them, but I kicked in my Gift when I found injuries or illness in the birds.
We figure we can use our combined Gifts to protect our group when we go into New Orleans. Raptor will no doubt try to bombard us with fowl like he did at our camp. But we’re not falling for that again. This time, we’re ready, not only to stop his little Kamikazes in their tracks, but also to free them from their master’s control, like we did for Bernard.
As for what the others got up to this afternoon, I’m eager to hear about it as we gather for dinner. Shep and Stealth made mac and cheese with layers of Canadian bacon draped over the top. There are four big pans of it set out on the table, and it looks incredible. But I’m not half as excited about the mac and cheese as I am about the fact that Cora chose to sit with me tonight. Just me.
I don’t know if it’s because I soothed her aching muscles or just because she misses me, but I’m not questioning it. I’m thankful. I could use a night alone with mychér.
Rev says a blessing over our meal, and I serve Cora a big helping before piling up my own plate.
“How’d it go with Stealth this afternoon?” I ask her.
She swallows her first bite, and the look of bliss on her face is one I plan to put there again later tonight. “Good.” She licks her lips and scoops up a second forkful. “We figured out he can use his Gift to make me invisible, but I can always see him, so, he can’t, like, cloak himselffromme, but he can extend his Gifttome. Weird, huh?”
It’s hard for me to concentrate on what she’s saying, because her plump lips part, and more creamy mac and cheese disappears between them. As she chews, she moans over the taste, and now my dick is trying to drill a hole through my fatigues.
