Chapter 6

Accademia Militare di Modena.

Location: Road.

We're about 30 minutes away from the camp right now.

In the backseat of the car, Emily and my mom are both leaning on me, and I'm just caresses Emily's hair.

We're just 5 minutes away and we can already see cars parked by the side of the road and in the parking lot. We arrived at the gate and went to the tiny registration room. When I finished signing my registration, I returned to my mother and Emily to say my final goodbyes.

"Please don't strain yourself, my little baby." Mom said this to me as she hugged me.

"Yes, mom," I said as I wiped her tears away.

"I'll wait for you, Val," Emily said before kissing me on the lips.

To reply, I simply kissed her back. After that, a muscular man went in front of the gate and shouted, "Recruits in formation!" As I kissed Emily one last time, hugged my mom, and said my goodbyes.

I ran into the group of people on the right's center side. When he opened the gate, ten men approached us and ordered us to march to the boot camp. We all marched, and you could hear a * THUD * * THUD * sound even if you were just a block away. The boot camp consists of a 1-hour run and a 3-hour jog. We've been marching for about 2 hours and I'm still unable to see the camp.

Some of the recruits are drained, with sweat pouring from their faces and bodies, while I can't even make sweat pour from my face or body. I will admit I'm tired, but not tired; I can go all day without stopping.

We can now see the camp. Some are exhausted and want to rest, while others are excited. I'm looking forward to it as well. We've arrived at the camp and can see a firing range, various stations, huge tents, and several staff sergeants. I can see their badges, at least.

A man in front of us said as he stepped up to us. "My name is Arthur Armstrong, and I'm going to be your drill instructor!" Master Sergeant Arthur screamed so that everyone could hear him.

Master Sergeant Arthur took us to a room with ten seats and ten middle-aged men wielding electric razors. I waited 3 minutes until it was my turn. I took the last available seat and sat down.

"Are you prepared, boy?" inquired the middle-aged man.

"Yes, sir!" I replied, sitting up straight.

He cut my hair in less than a minute and a half. I stood up and walked to the door, where we needed to clean our heads before heading to the other room. I just wiped my head and went into the other room. Many officers were handing out uniforms to my fellow recruits.

I approached the line and waited my turn. Now it's my time to get my outfit. "Name?" the officer inquired, staring at the document on which our names were written. "Valentino Accardi, sir!" I exclaimed, standing up straight.

The officer reviewed the list and handed me my uniform, and I immediately thanked him and went outside. After that, we went to our respective tents and unpacked our belongings and uniforms. Once that was finished, we returned to the unit and in front of the Drill instructor.

The drill instructor instructed us to do 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, and two laps around the camp. Some of my fellow recruits seem weary, but they can't whine. I completed the 50 push-ups in 3 minutes and the 50 sit-ups in another 3 minutes. Although I had finished my push-ups and sit-ups, I was still not exhausted, while some fellow recruits had just started their sit-ups and were exhausted.

I stood up and began running around the whole camp. Since there were so many structures, tents, and stations, the camp was massive. I completed the 2 lap in around 1 hour and 30 minutes as the drill instructor yelled at me and some sergeants yelled and cursed at my exhausted and worn-out fellow recruits. All I can hear are the Drill instructor's fucking loud voices.

When I'm done, I return to my position to stand and wait for my recruits. I waited an hour for them all to finish. I'm tired, but not too much. The drill instructor informed us to eat and rest in the mess area or on the mess decks.

We finished our meal, and it is now nighttime. We were led to our respective tents by the drill instructor. We all went to our tents and cleaned our bodies before laying in bed. We washed our bodies for 2 minutes in the showers, which had no anonymity. That's a long time to wash and clean my body.

When I was finished, I tucked my towel around my waist and went to my tent to put on my shirt and pants. I finished getting ready and went back to my bed to lie down. Our tent has 20 recruits, five on the right side and ten on the left.

I then closed my eyes and fell asleep.

"Get up, you motherfuckers!" When walking to the middle of our tent, the drill instructor shouted.

We were all startled by the noise and quickly stood up and formed a line. 'Sir!' We all said this while standing up straight. The drill instructor leads us outside, even though the sun had not yet risen. I didn't ask any questions and just followed the drill instructor. The drill teacher instructed us to sprint across the camp to the mud path. We all saluted and began to jog. We were the first unit to begin training. The road was complicated, and I was in charge of my unit.

Since the mud road was challenging for my fellow recruits, I chose to slow down and try to lead the unit even though we were all coated in mud. Mud was splattering everywhere. We decided to carry our boots because they were coated with dirt and water. Since my fellow recruits are becoming familiar to the road, I decided to jog more quickly. I still think that carrying their boots rather than wearing them benefits us greatly.

We were the first to jog and the first to finish. We could see the sunrise slowly before ending, and the sun is now fully up. Before we went to the stations, the drill instructor ordered us to eat our meals.

Two officers approached me while I was sitting under the tree. "Recruit! Valentino Accardi! Master sergeant Arthur Armstrong has directed that you go meet him." As I stood up and saluted him, the officer said.

"Yes, Sir!" I said while standing up straight.

"Follow us," the officers told.

We made our way to the headquarters. I found a significant number of officers carrying out their duties. We entered Master Sergeant Arthur Armstrong's office. The two officers left after saluting the Master Sergeant. They walked outside and shut the door.

"So you're part of the Accardi family, and as your mother said, you're strong," Arthur Armstrong said in his other chair.

"Please come on and sit," Arthur Armstrong said.

I simply sat down where he indicated with his hand. We had a 5-minute conversation.

"I told the higher-ups what you can do, and they said in a year the Captain of S.A.S from Britain would let you go to their camp to be a recruit and pass all the training and tests, and if you can pass you can become one of them," Arthur Armstrong said as he sipped his coffee.

"Sir, yes!"

"Well, I'm looking forward to seeing your performance when you're still here."