First Day At The Military Academy:

The US plan for turning us into cannon fooder was basically to set up multiple last-minute military bases all around the country with personal barely capable of teaching us correctly, we were only cannon fodder after all, the good thing is that they gave us one week notice before we had to show up, meaning that we would have enough time to say goodbye to our families, as chances were that we would be sent off to India as soon as we graduated from the military 'academy'.

Originally, the Peruvian populous was conflicted but hopeful, we were certainly not happy that all people over 18 and under 50 were being enlisted, but on the bright side, we were very hopeful that at the very least the presence of the US within our country would at the help improve the corruption within the government.

That turned out to not be the case though, and the Peruvian government began doing even more stupid things with our tax money before writing it off as an expense for the country. Apparently, to save face, the US made a deal with the Peruvian government that as long as they provided the people, the US government wouldn't take any action against the Peruvian government, they did this to make it seem that the government was ok with what was happening (which they were).

So with US intervention out of the question the government was basically allowed to do anything it wanted as long as it could provide people to be turned into cannon fodder, thankfully though, the US had the foresight to make the transportation of water to families of people who were serving as cannon fooder a direct one, meaning that the Peruvian government had no say in it.

I passed the rest of my time with my close family, at this point although unwilling I had accepted that there was nowhere I could run, and that I was going to go off to die in India, so I wanted to enjoy what would basically be the last good moments of my life. Although we didn't go anywhere, I remember spending an entire day with one of my family members (my grandma, mother, and my 5 uncles).

It was fun to reminisce of the past, the times when everything was so much simpler and our biggest worry was what score I got on my latest test in school, or whether or not we would buy food from the street from dinner. I didn't know much about what would be of me in the training camp, but at the very least I knew that I wouldn't see my family.

I was also happy to have a family member that served in the military before the government completely fell into corruption, because he gave me some pointers on what to do and how to act, to sum it was to never be disrespectful, ever, even if I thought my life was in danger, and to do anything I could to make my life easier as long as it didn't go against the orders or expectations of a superior.

Sunday was the most painful day, as it was not only my last day as a free human but also the day I spent with my mother. I had recently been too caught up with my own problems to stop and think about how this must of all felt for her, in the span of a year her entire life fell apart, I just tried to comfort her by telling her that I would be ok, that everything would be fine, but I knew it was a lie and I'm pretty sure she did too.

We didn't talk much, it was mostly just crying, before the day ended though, my mother went into her drawer and brought out an old rusty watch, she told me that it used to be my grandfather's, apparently, it was a family heirloom from the revolutionary war, the only thing I remember thinking when I saw it was why it was our heirloom.

There was no answer though, apparently said knowledge had been lost to time, maybe I would never truly get to know, regardless, the next morning after having one last meal with all my family I had to say goodbye and leave with Josue to catch the metro, although he didn't live close, he went out of his way to come all the way over here, so I just followed his lead.

It only took us half a day to get over to the camp, thankfully we just had to be there before the end of the day. That didn't mean we didn't have to get leave our homes early though, Peru had always been know for its terrible traffic, adding that plus the fact that everyone else was also going to the same place, and you had a two-hour trip turn into a twelve-hour one.

I almost shed tears of joy when I got out of that overcrowded bus and got to breathe the fresh humid air once again, honestly looking back at it, it a miracle that neither I nor Josue died from lack of oxygen, that wasn't an exaggeration either, although thankfully nobody had died, there had been a lot of people that had been nocked out due to receiving too little oxygen from the air around them.

Regardless, I was glad that I ate way too much for breakfast because it was already noon, and I'm sure that I would be starving right now If I didn't, with a prime example being Josue. Anyways, when I looked at the structure in front of me, I felt a little underwhelmed, since the US didn't have much time to make these camps they were basically just barracks, those tables you could find at camps, barbed wires all around the perimeter, and a lot of obstacle courses with workout equipment here and there.

My first day felt like hell on earth, I had never eaten healthy, or gotten into exercising so I was one of the fattest people there, which granted, wasn't that bad because all of the people in my group were 20 or younger and we still lived with the aftereffect of ungodly teenage cholesterol, but it was still pretty bad, plus, it made it all the more difficult to finish the first obstacle course.

The worst part was that unlike all of the other times in my life where Josue helped me out, we were to go through the obstacle course individually while all of the others did basic military exercises and got to enjoy the show put on by whoever was going through the obstacle course at the time, thankfully, we were allowed to volunteer to go first.

Although I understood that the instructor told us that to try and make an example of the first person that went on the obstacle course, and straighten everyone else out, I still volunteered. Although I did get yelled at and belittled by the instructor and knew that everyone thought that I was stupid for volunteering, there was no other way for me to even stand a chance at making it through the obstacle course if I did any other exercise beforehand.

As expected, I was criticized a lot more than all of the others and didn't even manage to make it to the end of the course, but at least, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would. After that, I'm pretty sure I just put myself on autopilot in order to numb the pain, all I remember was that I couldn't feel any of my muscles by the time I finally got to lay on my new bed and that I was terrified for tomorrow when the actual soreness would kick in.