Ch.9 | Bad Genes

Leo

I should've sent Riley to go live elsewhere. Another housing building or maybe I could've convince my superiors to give her an apartment.

But then she'd be surrounded by horny dogs. They'd try to touch her or sneak a peak while she changes.

Although she's a big girl. She could handle whatever they throw at her. I wasn't sure if I could.

It was proving extremely hard living with her.

Riley baked and cooked meals for us every night after a long day. She would save meals for those who had night shift jobs too.

She never left a mess and always cleaned up after other people. Private Wilson had realized this and began purposely leaving more and more messes.

It pissed me off.

"Sergeant Perish," A knock came from my bedroom door.

"Yes?" I called and sat up from my bed. I was due to report to the meeting hall in 15 minutes. We would assign the first mission today.

"You have a package from Major Perish." Whoever it was, slid a yellow envelope under my door.

"Which Perish?" I called and walked over to the rather thick envelope.

"Major Richards Perish,Sir. I need to return to my post but the meeting is in 10 minutes." I could hear his footsteps fade out and I gently picked up the envelope.

I opened it to see a mission contract along with a few files on my Privates.

I pulled out the contract to see it was a foreign mission. My mother wanted to send my freshly trained soldiers all the way to Italy during a war?

We were American soldiers, how did she think that would go down?

I groaned and pulled out the soldier files.

Riley's was the first one. It felt wrong reading her file but it was necessary for the mission.

I began reading the details. She was 18, from Oregon, her parents were both big shot research scientists for the Oregon state college, and she had a younger brother.

Her grades were off the charts and she could easily get into an Ivy League college.

So why had she enlisted?

Riley didn't have any current diseases but her distant relatives all have some form of kidney disease.

Which meant, she could likely get it. This complicated a lot.

Would it be wise to send her on the mission? What if she's showing signs right now? She may already have it.

And if not, she could get it. Unfortunately the Army worked on hypotheticals.

I looked at my watch and rushed out of my room. I was 10 minutes late.

Riley

"Well since Sergeant Perish couldn't be bothered to wake up on time this morning, I will get started on explaining this assignment." A man I didn't know stood behind a podium in the middle of the meeting hall.

I hadn't recognized him or seen him around here before. I wondered if he was here temporarily for the mission?

"Some of you may not know me. Some of you might. I am Major Perish. Riggs Perish." He flashed a smile I had seen before at us.

Leo's father.

My heart sped up in my chest, he would be the supervisor on our new assignment? That added a lot of pressure.

He could decide we weren't fit to serve. I could be sent back home or discharged and homeless.

It was clear my family didn't want me back. I guess that's what being disowned meant.

"My wife and I have decided to try a new approach with you new recruits. Are any of you familiar with the phrase, 'thrown into the deep end and told to swim'?" Major Perish asked us.

Several 'Yes Sir's'' could be heard throughout our crowd.

"Good. Well you all are being told to swim. Next week, you guys will be deployed. Where? Italy. Rome." Papers were passed around to everyone except me.

Apparently I wasn't worthy of one.

"If you look at the contract, you will see it's optional. You are not forced to be apart of this mission as recruits. You have a right to stay behind and train further. Although if you choose to join," A door slammed open behind us and everyone turned to see Leo in the doorway.

What a dramatic entrance.

"Perish, Nice to see you're joining us this morning." Major Perish nodded at his son before returning to us.

"To continue, Please read over the details. Check with your squad leader for approval. If you're planning on joining us for this mission, I expect to see you in the meeting hall Friday morning." Perish waited for us all to acknowledge what he had said and when we did, he stepped down.

"Riley," I jumped at Leo's voice behind me.

"Leo, good morning." I smiled and looked at his messy hair.

His shirt was stuck on his belt and his left boot was partially untied. A messy start to the day.

"We need to talk. Do you have a minute?" Leo impatiently tapped his foot and I slowly nodded.

"I need a paper though. They decided to skip over me." I crossed my arms. Leo nodded and turned towards Derek who was talking with another Private.

Leo snatched the paper and handed it to me. I chuckled and saw Derek's face distort with disgust out of the corner of my eyes.

"Now can we talk?"I nodded once more. Was I in trouble?