War

We trooped to our usual training ground in a mass exodus from the cafeteria.

Five thousand kids, all of them in high spirits, laughing and joking all the way to class.

All except for me, Victor and Barrick.

Yes, Barrick.

I was four man short, and I figured Barrick was so fat that he would count as one and a half, so my deficit would become only three and a half.

Not much of an improvement, but still better than four.

We all arrived to cluster of sombre looking instructors.

Their heavy mood seemed to inject the atmosphere with depressants, and within seconds of arriving, the boisterous class fell completely silent.

Five thousand kids stood neatly in front of twenty five instructors.

The lead instructor standing in front of the small cluster of instructors was a massive, bearded monster of a man. He looked at least two and a half meters tall, and he probably weighed two hundred kilograms.