Chapter 71 - First proper mission

The knocking continues for a few more seconds before I opened the door. Strangely enough, it wasn't Sergey or Gustus, who was knocking, instead, a soldier wearing military gear was standing there, slightly annoyed, most likely because he had to wake up two teenagers.

"Get dressed and come out. You have a minute before we leave."

He didn't even wait for me to say something to him, nor did he look at me more than once, before the soldier turned around and walked down the stairs.

I quickly went back into the room to dress and thankfully, Zoe heard the man, so she was already dressed which to be fair saved us a few seconds. By the time, I was fully dressed and when we reach, the door that led outside, I saw the same man clicking his tongue in response when he saw us, but nonetheless, he pointed at the door and we quickly got into the vehicle.

Inside, we only saw Sergey, who by the way he looks, woke up quite harshly by the soldier or even Gustus, who was nowhere to be seen. While the soldier drove us to where the training grounds, the three of us decided to talk since we didn't have anything better to do.

"Did Gustus leave earlier?"

"No, he went directly to one of the few outposts that still live by the same standards as the rest of the grounders. He also said that we shouldn't come after him, at least not until we got proper training from the Rangers."

'He has a point, you two. Between the three of us, Sergey is the gunner freak, you Leon are the muscle that surprisingly has some brains there as well, while I… I'm not that special, but for me that's perfect. I'd rather be a riflewoman than someone like you two, no offense."

"Hey, I'm not a freak."

"She right, man. We both are freaks to some extend and before you argue with me, remember how to hurt you were back when the mountain men saved you."

"Ughh…fine, you two lovers are right. Happy now?"

Monroe and I smiled at him when the car stopped forcing us to stop smiling when the door opened and we saw Sam standing there alongside a squad of soldiers as if they were waiting for some president by the way they were positioned to greet us.

When Sam saw the shocked look on our faces, he smiled, before he greeted us.

"Snap out of the shock, kids, and this is just a formality, let's go. I want to see if you three have some training or if you need to take the course from zero."

For two hours, we suffer under Sam's strict orders and his Spartan-like training regime as well as the way his soldiers were fighting and cooperating to beat the shit out of us. By the end of the test that Sam had planned for us, all three of us were tired, beaten, and hungry, but at least we didn't disappoint the colonel. Instead, we somehow managed to impress him to some extent, especially when we had to fight unarmed against these trained soldiers, contrary to what they expected to happen. Rather than succumbing to the pressure and exhaustion, we managed to take down a dozen of them before they overwhelmed us with numbers and Sam had to step in before anyone is too injured to be useful in the short run.

After we all ate something, Sam called us into his office, which from what I found out from one of the soldiers that had the common sense to at least tell us a few things, was a place where other than when someone is assigned a mission, no one really stays in there.

At first, the reason we left Camp Jaha was to get away from all the political drama that Dr. Griffin has created, but after we reached this place, all of us realized that our temporary trip would be far better than anything we could experienced back at our camp under Byrne's peaceful command. Moreover, now that we have a proper place to train, alongside proper instructors as well as missions that would only gain us further experience that would definitely be put to use when we return back home, considering that we would return sometime.

Just as we were about to return, a man riding a horse burst through the gate, before he fall down from it in the middle of the street. As soon as the first group of guards approaches him, they shouted for a medic. By the time the medic was done patching the man up, the guards brought him to a room, where Sam and we were already waiting.

"I'm not complaining that you brought us here with you, sir, but may I know why ?"

"Well, boy, you and your friends are better than I expected, but that's sadly not enough to make you three proper Rangers. Right now though, you are nothing more than a bunch of recruits and by my standards, that's still far away from the weakest recruit of ours, especially at how unorganized and ineffective you are, not to mention the lack of specialized tactics and equipment. "

The colonel was right, even though his words may hurt, he's not wrong. Neither one of the delinquents was a soldier, yet thanks to the guns that we managed to find, we won, albeit with some casualties, but the more we fought the more our lack of proper training was showing. Even inside Mount Weather, we were stopped by just a handful of soldiers and if not for Clarke, Bellamy, Finn, Monty, and Raven, we would have suffered even more casualties, before we would have been able to take out these people. Besides, we need to become better at both using firearms as well as using the same style as the grounders, and right now, becoming rangers may just be the way to that.

While Sam and I were talking, Sergey went to help the soldiers carry the wounded man, while Zoe just stayed beside Sam, listening to our conversation and me.

"Sir!"

"Yes, Zoe, right?"

"Yes, sir. You said something about us becoming recruits. Does that have something to do with the man that your men and our friend are bringing him right now?"

"She's smarter than you, kid, I have to give her that. Moreover, to answer your question, yes, whatever the man has to say to us, would become your mission. If you manage to complete it, then all three of you would be officially welcomed into our ranks, well, hoping that you are alive.

When the wounded man saw Sam, his eyes lit up as if he just saw the representation of hope inside of Sam. As soon as the man was lying on the bed, Sam walked beside him and asked the man what happened to him.

The man proceeded to describe in detail the history of the battle against the hefbis and his tribe, then about how one squad of Rangers gave him a mission to warn the Dam, and finally, about he, despite his injury made his way here. When they heard how one of their own sacrificed themselves to save a tribe, the soldiers started to whisper among themselves, some incredulous, others animated, while Sam who sat next to the man raised his hand in the air so that everyone stopped speaking.

When the whispers finally stopped, the man was allowed to continue his story, but from that point on his story was nothing more than his running away while being chased by a few ghouls.

"I don't know what you smoked, but you sure know how to invent things."

Just as Sam was about to ask the man about the numbers of the ghouls, a woman interrupted him. She wasn't older than thirty and from the way she glared at Sam, the two of them mustn't be on the best terms.

"What are you doing here, Patricia?"

Patricia ignored Sam and instead she glanced at the wounded man before she once again argued with his words.

"Everyone knows that the only way for those meat seekers is on the other side of the dam and I don't see us killing them on the streets. All of the outposts had increased the numbers of guards and not even one of them reported that they were under attack. Besides, we have squads checking the perimeter almost daily and once again, no one mentioned anything about an attack. The only attack that happens was related to those three rookies and nothing else, so I say that you are lying."

From what I can see, Sam, however, did not support her angry outburst. For some reason he doesn't seem to believe that the was lying, instead, he somehow knew that the man was telling the truth. Otherwise, why would he take us with him here?

"Enough, Patricia! This is the third time already! How many times do you need to be locked before you finally understand that you aren't in charge anymore?"

"Fuck you, traitor! You are the reason my people have forgotten their culture! You are the reason, my people died, years ago when the hefbis broke through because you left the warriors alone!"

Before she could continue her angry outburst, two soldiers grabbed her and dragged her, presumably to the place from where she was just released.

After a few moments, Sam turned and apologizes to us, before he told the man to rest and us to follow him to his office for the second time today.

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