3 Drill Sergeant Lloyd

Drill Sergeant Lloyd inspected his batch of recruits slowly, walking up and down the rank and file. He stopped in front of Thomas Conlin, inspecting him. Thomas gazed straight ahead, not even swiveling his eyes to look at Lloyd. The Drill Sergeant was impressed and tried every which way to get Thomas to look away or be distracted. Thomas endured it all before the Drill Sergeant took a step back and impassively gazed at Thomas.

"Impressive recruit, what's your name?" Asked Drill Sergeant Lloyd.

"It's Recruit Conlin Drill Sergeant, Sir!" Conlin replied off rote memory, gaze still straight ahead. Lloyd snorted for a second before looking at the two recruits on the ground who were on their fifteenth push-ups. "I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TWO, STAND UP AND JOIN THE REST OF THESE MAGGOTS"

The two recruits joined at the end of the two rows of recruits, standing at attention, not daring to move a muscle. The didn't dare to look at the drill sergeant so they just stared straight ahead, hoping the drill sergeant wouldn't focus on them. Coincidentally at the same time, some random recruit in the middle of the pack started snickering, instantly garnering the attention of the drill sergeant, who came barrelling over.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE LAUGHING AT RECRUIT MCSNICKERS?!" Drill Sergeant Lloyd wasn't having any of that recruit's snickering. "DROP DOWN RIGHT NOW AND GIVE ME FIFTY PUSH-UPS! GO, GO, GO!" Recruit "McSnickers", dropped straight to the ground like a thirty-pound anvil and started counting out his push-ups, he was slightly faster than the other two recruits. One..two..three..four. His slim arms which didn't look like they contained much strength continuously pumped up and down like a steam piston.

Drill Sergeant Lloyd paced back and forth, "Listen up, every morning at oh four hundred hours you will get up and you will be dressed and in PT uniform by no later than oh four hundred one, we will then do PT for two hours before we move onto..." Conlin spaced out as the drill sergeant was explaining the schedule. He'd heard it all, of course, this was basic, boot camp they called it. The question is, how did he get back here? He clearly died, that much is certain.

The final scene he remembered back then. He was laying on the floor in the bunker, the crazed German soldier had been killed. He was laying there bleeding out and one of the soldiers was screaming for a medic. He was nice, looked like every other American, he was taking a compress out of his pack.

"Hold tight, soldier, help is on the way," The man was pressing the compress to him, "Gardner where's that goddamned medic!"

"On his way sir! Hell of a time getting to the bunker from the shingles sir!" The other soldier replied as he was on the lookout.

"Hang in there son don't---Gardner help me out! We're losing him! Hang in there son" The soldier with the compress looked at him with determination and that was the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes. Zipping back to now, he could still feel that cold steel knife stabbing into his flesh inch by inch like a needle. It slid in so easily, it felt so hot, yet so cold.

"RECRUIT CONLIN!" Drill Sergeant Lloyd barked, "Take these two buffoons at the end of the line and Recruit McSnickers here. You're in charge of them until the end of boot camp! Make sure they fall in line!"

"Drill Sergeant sir!" Recruit Conlin replied without a hint of disrespect.

"Alright, you maggots! Time for your daily dose of hell! Drop down and give 'em to me until I say otherwise!" Lloyd barked at the recruits who then immediately got into the push-up position. "Down! Up! One! Down! Up! Two!" Conlin forgot how weak his current body was, but he can ignore the burning of his muscles. He had other things on his mind than muscle exhaustion. As much as he wants to help those two soldiers who tried to save him, unfortunately, he only knew the name of one of them. Gardner...back then he was assaulting the beach with the 500th Badgers and 23rd Skulls.

Conlin shook his head, he had plenty of time to worry about it later, for now, he should just focus on the physical training in front of him so that he could build up his strength. Yet, now that he shook the thoughts out of his head, his arms started burning with intensity. Should have just kept thinking, he gritted his teeth.

"UP! DOWN! ON YOUR BACKS RECRUITS! SIT-UPS! LET'S GO!" Lloyd barked at them once more and a recruit off to the side looked like he was gonna puke. "YOU BETTER NOT BE PUKING ON MY GROUND RECRUIT!" The drill sergeant had unfortunately noticed this recruit. "THE HARDEST PART ISN'T EVEN HERE YET!"

Conlin, of course, knew what the drill sergeant was talking about, and with his current body, he wasn't looking forward to it any more than anyone else would, unless of course, they were that one guy. Yeah, he joined in three weeks later after one of the recruits here dropped out. Section Eight if he remembers right, poor bastard tried to blow his own brains out, speaking of which, maybe this time he could prevent it.

How could he forget! Since he was just really teleported back in time somehow, couldn't he just alter this reality with all of his accumulated knowledge of events from now until then? Couldn't he forge his own path and become one of those prestigious Rangers? Even better if he could be a Ranger with the Pathfinder designation! He could prevent some of the miss drops on the night before the invasion! With his course set, he became more determined. Now though, it was the part that he was dreading the most. An exercise that his current body was completely unready for.

"Stop! Everybody at attention! Drill Sergeant Lloyd smiled at everyone with a most sinister expression. "It's time for my favorite morning activity. Recruits how do you feel like a bit of a break?"

"We're going on a little hike."