Rites of Passage (6 page)

We stop in front of a cliff, a drop-off that stretches at least a hundred feet below us, where, by the looks of it, we get to jump into a mud pond.

The first column in my company makes it over and down easily, just like we'd practiced during the week. Then suddenly it's my turn. My heart pounds in my chest and I refuse to look over the edge of the cliff.

“Ready, McKenna?” Kelly turns to me and holds out a harness. Another buddy, Nix, the giggler from the first night, grabs my arm to steady me. He's a typical ginger, head full of hair and pale skin constantly sunburned. I step in, pulling the nylon harness up over my BDUs—the camouflage uniforms soldiers wear into battle—and tightening the straps around my thighs and waist. Katie's supposed to go behind me so I swallow the fear and let Kelly hook the rope to my harness.

Blood roars in my ears and the ground spins below me. I grip the rope like we practiced and turn around, the heels of my combat boots lined up with the cliff edge. Kelly and Nix both smile. I fix my eyes on Kelly.

He nods encouragement. “You got this, Mac. Just like we practiced. Don't look down, keep your legs straight, and bend at the waist.”

I nod back and keep my eyes focused on his face. Then the training takes over. My right arm stretches behind me, locking the rope in the “brake” position. I let just a bit slide through my hand and feel it give, letting me sit back out over the cliff. Taking a deep breath, I move one step, then another, sliding the rope ever so slowly through my hands as I lower myself.

“Good, McKenna. Good. Now, just pick up speed a little bit or we'll be here until we're recognized as cadets.” Nix grins so the implication that I'll be here until Christmas doesn't hurt and when I take another step, I realize I
can
do this.

Three recruits are descending at the same time as me, and they disappear below quickly, pushing off against the rock face and bouncing out over the nothingness beneath us. I've done everything else they've asked of me this week. I'm not going to stop now.

I push off, releasing the brake position for a few seconds, my body freefalling through space, before pushing my arm behind me and locking it back into place. I quickly lose sight of Kelly and focus on the rocks in front of me instead.

I've gone twenty-five feet. Three more pushes like that and I'll be down. A grin tugs at my face through the paint that's setting up hard on my cheeks. I can totally do this.

“Atta girl, Mac!” Kelly's voice bounces off the rocks. “See you down below.”

Three, two, one . . . my boots sink into the mud as I hit the ground. For a second I could have been flying. It felt awesome—definitely not the worst way to travel down at all, and the rush is enough to keep me moving.

“Hit the deck!” I hear someone yell as soon as I've gotten out of my harness. I press myself flat against the ground, mud and all.

In front of me stretches an oozing brown pit, surrounded by the rock wall I just descended on one side and a bank of trees on the other. Barbed wire stretches across the gap about a foot above my head. I hear the pop of weapons as people in the trees fire blanks at me and the other recruits slogging through the pit.

“Get some!” someone yells from above.

I keep my head down and start crawling, inch by inch, through the mud. It oozes in through my clothes and slides down the neck of my shirt. My hands and face are covered but I keep crawling, head down, just an inch above the mud. The bullets are blanks, but they're meant to sound real and right now that's all that really matters.

Another recruit pushes his way through the muck in front of me and I stall, having to wait before I can move again. Hair dangles in my face, coming loose from the mandatory bun I've got it in, and I blow with all my might to get it out of the way.

“Hurry up, recruit!” I yell at the guy in front of me, but he's going too slow. I glance behind and there's a line of Worms waiting. They're going to think it's all my fault. Is he hurt? Tired? Who the hell cares? “Whatever,” I mutter and push myself up equal to him. “You okay?”

He glares at me, his eyes like moons in the darkness of his face. “Shut the hell up.”

“You're keeping everyone back. There's a line of people behind you.”

“Like I'm going to let some
girl
tell me what the hell to do. Just get back in line.”

“No way. You want to take your sweet little time, that's fine. But you're not holding me back.” I move my elbows, first one, then the other, and crawl past him. The bullets are coming with more frequency now and I really don't want to be the reason everyone “dies.” I make my way past him and pick up speed. The path in front of me is clear. Easy going now, I crawl on, rocks scraping my stomach.

At the end of the mud pit I pull myself up and go to find Alpha. They're busy, picking up large stones and arranging them on the ground in the shape of an
A
for Alpha Company.

“Way to go, McKenna,” Ritchie, Kelly's roommate, says. “Grab a rock and help out.”

He's the only one who talks to me, but a few others smile and nod approval as I grab a rock so big I have to carry it with two hands. I place mine and when Short and Cross appear, I hand them each a huge rock of their own. They look exhausted as they put the last two in place, finishing the
A
. Then we take a few seconds to rest while watching the little camouflaged ants of the rest of the battalion make their way down the ravine, through the mud pit, and to their companies. Finally Kelly appears, high-fiving me and the other recruits, taking time to rally us, even though we're exhausted.

I high-five Cross and Short. “Way to go, guys. Almost done, huh?”

Cross couldn't smile any bigger if she tried. “In just a few hours we'll be official recruits. God, this has been intense.”

“No kidding.” I straighten the orange hat on my head. “I'm just asking for an hour of sleep.”

“I want a shower. That's all I can think about.” She glances at her roommate. “I gotta go cheer her up or something. She's dragging today.”

Cross and Short move off to the side, now deep in conversation, oblivious to the team motivation that is going on right in front of them. But they stand and get ready to march when it's time to move out.

We're one recruit short, though. Katie is nowhere to be seen.

SIX

EVEN THOUGH IT'S BEEN OVER A HUNDRED DEGREES THE
last five days, the water of the Maury River is still cool when we finally arrive after hiking seven miles from our rappelling site. It takes all I have in me not to squeal as the water reaches my neck.

Once in, we're ordered to run in the water together as a company, following Huffman, the upperclassman Drill talked to the morning of the five-mile run, and our blue-and-gold Alpha Company flag down the river. Thirty minutes. An hour. Ten hours. I can't tell how long we're in the water. At a shallow section, where the water splashes against our ankles, we drop to the ground. I can't feel my feet, and my fingers sting from the tiny cuts caused by doing push-ups in the river.

“Flutter kicks! Move!”

At this point, I would kill Matthews if it would put an end to Declaration Day. I lie on my back, using my arms to keep my head propped above water. Still, we scissor our legs out in front of us, stirring up the river mud. Cold, gritty water fills my mouth and I sit up, coughing and spluttering. I try to squeeze air into my lungs but it won't come.

“Keep going, McKenna,” Matthews says, although he's looking up the riverbank and farther up the hill rather than at me. “Don't slack off now.”

I finally catch my breath and spit water from my mouth. I grit my teeth and lift my legs, moving them up and down to Drill's count. Every inch of me hurts but I do it—no way am I giving Matthews a reason to yell at me for holding everyone back or not pulling my weight.

Upperclassmen shoot blanks all around us, and yells echo up and down the river as companies get to each physical training portion of the river run. Of course at the DMA we can't have just a simple march through the river.

When we get the order to march, Cross stumbles and I reach out to grab her arm. Short is moving slowly, and because we're sticking together, we're at the back of the pack. Our recruit buddies are way up ahead.

“You okay?” I ask. Kelly leads the rest of the company around a curve in the river and we're alone in the water.

“Damn rock,” Short says. “Slippery as hell. I rolled my ankle, but I'll be fine.”

“You're doing really well,” I say, once the last of our company is gone and the three of us are alone in this section. We haven't seen Katie since the rappel. Bravo is coming up fast behind us.

“I know I'm not the most obvious person to sign up for something like this. You must have it made, though, right?” Cross's words are a dig even though I don't think she means them to be.

“Matthews has been riding her harder than any of us, Bekah.” Short walks slowly, pushing her legs through the water.

“She's the sister of the cadet colonel. I just figured once classes start he's not going to let anything happen to her.”

It's what I've been scared of all along—anyone thinking I'm getting preferential treatment that lets me ease through the Corps without really completing Amos's dare. She doesn't know Jonathan, though. There's no way he's going to cut me any slack. “We need to hurry up,” I say. “We're falling behind.”

After just a few more minutes, though, Short speaks up. “I don't think I can do this anymore.” It's the first time I've seen her doubt herself, but she's looking for all the world like she wants the river to swallow her up.

“Sure you can. It can't be much farther,” I say, trying to sound encouraging. I think it just comes out sounding annoyed.

“How do you know?”

“I heard the cadre talking about it. They're tired, too, you know. We're almost done.”

Short shakes her head, shivering in the river and not even moving. “With today, but not with the year. I want to go home.”

“Come on, Short. We've talked about this in the room.” Cross sounds annoyed. The fact that they've had this conversation before surprises me.

“I know.” Her teeth chatter now, her eyes about to spill the tears that are gathered there. “But I don't have anything else to prove. I made it through Recruit Week. It's more than a lot of guys can say.”

“Yeah, but—” I try to rally her, but she cuts me off.

“No. I'm done.”

“That's right! Quit! No one wants you here!” A voice yells from the riverbank. They can't hear us over the roar, but it must be obvious what's happening. Boy or girl, quitters all look the same. “Get the hell out of our school. You sluts aren't even worth screwing!”

The pain of the words is obvious on her face. She's the last one of us I expected to quit. Strong, squared away. If she can't make it . . . but I can't let the doubt creep in.

“Ignore them,” I say, looking around nervously. We've got to pick up the pace—the company's already too far ahead. “If you quit, that's it. You can't regret it and come back later.”

“I know.” Her teeth clack together. Then she decides. Her shoulders hunch over and she takes a step to the side. “Good luck, girls.” When she turns away, she holds her hands up in surrender. Cadets cheer on the riverbank, and instantly I'm pissed. They treat us like we're no better than animals.

“We've got to get going.” I glance at Short once more but she's made up her mind. Bravo Company's flag bearer leads the way and they're bearing down on us.

“So, let's move.” Cross takes off, not bothering to give her roommate another glance, and suddenly it's me who's the last one.

Short has made it up the riverbank and is sitting there, head hung low, not even listening to the upperclassmen around her, laughing and jeering, happy they've broken her. I give her a small wave and then turn away and push on. I've got to catch up to Cross, then we've got to catch up to the rest of the company.

The water is waist high here, making it hard to move while dressed in full camouflage pants and combat boots. Every step uses energy my muscles just don't have. The only thing that saves me is that the freaking day is almost over. I can see the end up ahead: a giant DMA flag waving over the bridge that leads back into town. I keep pushing on and soon I've caught up, surrounded on every side by my recruit buddies. I can't even take a step without stumbling over them.

Matthews is helping my recruit brothers climb onto the riverbank and grabs Kelly's hand in front of me. “Great job, Kelly.”

“Corporal Matthews, thank you, Corporal Matthews.”

Once Kelly is out of the way, I reach up and Matthews grips my hand. Just as I'm starting to climb, though, he loosens his fingers and I fall into the water, a sharp rock digging into my elbow. Tears sting my eyes instantly, but Cross reaches for me and helps me stand up.

“Ignore him. Let's finish this.” She's determined to finish strong. Kelly reaches a hand down. When I grab hold, he puts his other hand on my wrist and helps me climb up on the bank. We both hoist Cross up and just like that, we're done. We're officially recruits. Around us, Alpha Company cheers. We join in, for a moment free of any worry.

After high-fiving, Kelly leans in. “Are you okay?” he whispers, though I doubt anyone could hear him over the splashing water as Bravo reaches the bank.

“I'm fine.”

“Your arm okay?”

“I said I'm fine.” My elbow throbs a little, but it's not going to kill me.

He
humphs.
“Matthews is a dick.”

“You aren't wrong.” I grin, hoping he knows I'm not mad at him. Just tired. We're all so damn tired. But we did it. We survived Declaration Day.