It was ten to fourteen hundred and the platoon was not formed up. Ray had seen to that. In actual fact, all within earshot when Ian had spoken in the canteen had seen to that. But it was Ray who had presented his fellow recruits with an ironclad excuse to disobey him. Before long, the haughty Leibenese was standing at the casern’s front steps, calling out to his fellow casern-mates like a politician trying to improvise a press conference.
“Is that how it is? Any Joe comes out of nowhere and says ‘hey, your commander says I’m in charge, so I’ll be giving the orders now’, and we just accept that? We were with the Lieutie one hour ago, and he said nothing about this! Why the sudden change?” he demanded as recruits encircled him.
Toni felt uneasy about Ray’s method of resistance. Nevertheless, he stood staunchly beside his new friend as the Leibenese argued his case. Hirum loitered anxiously beside the parade ground, clearly prepared to form up at a moment’s notice, as if being the first to do so would somehow spare him from the anticipated blowback. Gordie only shook his head and kept to himself, apparently just as convinced as Toni that there would be hell to pay if the drill team were to find the platoon at odds with itself. Some recruits kept glancing about apprehensively as if expecting their sergeant to show up any moment, sniffing the air like a police dog that had caught the scent of narcotics.
Mason’s particular charisma had somehow turned him into an omnipresent entity.
“Ray, don’t forget what we decided. We form up at five to. And that’s not too far off now ...” Toni reminded him in an undertone. Ray shook his head as if he was being troubled by a fly.
Ian approached quietly then and leaned close the tense recruit before speaking softly into his ear. A wicked grin stretched over Ray’s face and he gave a purposeful nod, and the two turned and entered the casern with a mystified Toni in tow.
The tension between the pair as they entered their sleeping quarters began to alarm Toni. He was suddenly reminded of the first time he had accompanied his father to the slaughterhouse they kept on the farm. His father had had nothing to say at the time, except for a brief explanation on how to use the captive-bolt pistol to euthanize swine cleanly. Toni had pulled the trigger on the last hog himself, and he had since put an end to many a critter that way.
But he had never witnessed a physical act of violence between two human beings.
Ian and Ray squared off in the open area opposite to the doorway, with only Toni, Gordie and a fearful but inquisitive Hirum as witnesses. Ray seemed fearless. He smiled at his senior.
“You sure you want a piece of May 23rd, Ian?”
At the sound of his name Ian bolted forwards, prompting a surprised Ray to swing wildly while backing up, missing his target. Ian fell on him with a vicious head-butt, followed by a knee to the stomach. As Ray doubled over, hugging his gut, Ian pulled violently at the back of his shirt, causing buttons to pop out all the way up to Ray’s collar. He then wrapped the cloth around his opponent’s head and began to unceremoniously knee him there while holding the shirt in place.
There was something mechanical and unforgiving about the way Ian broke Rosa down. Ray swung out blindly at first, hugging Ian’s waist alternately with each arm, apparently not realizing how near his opponent was to him. Ian kneed him mercilessly in the gut, repeating the act like an aerobic exercise until his quarry began to feel the pain and hugged his torso. Ian then promptly began to knee him in the head.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Toni made to intervene, only to be held back by a grim Gordie.
After a while, Ian began to tire. The recruit finally pinned Ray against the wall and unwrapped his head, peeling off the bloody shirt as if he were unwrapping a gruesome gift. He leaned close to Ray’s blooded and battered face.
“Had enough?” he asked, almost whispering.
“Yes ...” a hoarse voice replied.
Ian released Ray’s body and it slid down onto its knees.
Appalled and horrified, Toni tried to approach his fallen friend, but Ian blocked his path and gave him a frosty look.
“Let me get to him ...” Toni said quietly.
“I’m not done with you,” Ian replied just as quietly.
The calm statement set off every alarm bell in Toni’s head, and he tensed up just as Ian’s boot whizzed up to clip him smartly over the head. Toni backed up, reeling from the glancing blow as warm blood began to stream down the side of his face. Ian rushed him at a sprint and, leaping into the air, he pumped his leg out, hammering it into Toni’s chest with a resonating thump. Before the pain reached Toni brain, however, he captured Ian’s boot and kicked him stiffly in the crotch. The sound of the impact itself wasn’t impressive, but it was more than compensated for by Hirum’s audible gasp.
Ian stood there for a moment, his right leg held in his opponent’s firm embrace, his left one shivering, and for a moment Toni feared that his senior still had some fight in him. The blonde then sank to the floor and silently assumed a fetal position.
Hirum discreetly took his leave from the casern. Moments later, Gordie left with the unpleasant task of tracking down the Drill Team.
As Toni collapsed onto a bed, blood dripping steadily down his chin, breathing in painful gasps while he stared at Ian’s trembling body, he realized that he’d just given the Screamer precisely what he wanted.