Second Chance War - 10 Conlin's Files

Thomas and his squad cleared the rest of the obstacles with relative ease. Being the shortest, there were some obstacles Smith needed help with. Such as the wall climbing, it took a couple of running jumps to get a hold of Thomas’s hand so he could climb over the wall. Other obstacles posed a whole challenge for the team such as the rope bridge, if you imbalance your squad’s weight distribution the whole thing flips over and the whole squad drops down into a muddy pit of sand and dirt below. How they even get it to keep wet the whole day nobody knows, they’re in a desert.

Eventually after three hours they had cleared all the obstacles with a good amount of speed. They weren’t the fastest, but they were the first, most of the other squads got stuck on the first obstacle that they did. If you were to ask Thomas it was more like a playground for adults than an obstacle course, but he couldn’t deny that after the morning calisthenics, then the quick rest in class and then this, well he felt stronger than before. He was sure the rest of the squad felt the same, even if they still looked like scrawny not muscular men. That would slowly change.

They only had one more obstacle to go, the giant fort at the end, three hundred yards away. Thomas knew getting there wasn’t simple, it was pretty much a combination of everything they had done so far. Minus the pole forest of course. The first fifty yards was a barbed wire crawl, the next hundred yards was filled with walls, trenches, balance beams, and more. Then the final hundred and fifty yards were tunnel mazes, why anyone would make an obstacle course like this was beyond Thomas. Even in his previous life he felt it was a bit excessive for the military. Thomas waved his squad forward, prepared to traverse the obstacles.

Elsewhere within the fort straight ahead of Thomas and his squad, in a room completely closed off to the rest of the fort sat two men with a whole view of the obstacle course. One of these men was of course, Drill Sergeant Lloyd. Lloyd looked at the other man with a measure of respect and due diligence, it seems his background wasn’t simple at all.

“We have his file here, if you want it sir” Lloyd dare not be disrespectful in front of this figure.

“I’ve already read his file, it’s useless, it doesn’t tell me anything we don’t already know.” The man had a steady voice, a little on the grizzled side, he sounded like the bad cop during an interrogation in the middle of a TV drama. His features, cloaked in darkness, remain to be seen. “Grew up in Los Angeles California, born with no deformities, has two elder brothers, one younger sister. His father is a vet from The Great War, and his mother works as a waitress. He went to John Hopkins Elementary, average grades, then went on to Washington Middle School, moved on to Elmerton High School. He didn’t achieve much and was known as a slacker. Did I miss anything?”

“No sir, but our psych profile has shown something unusual, as you know we test everyone who enters the military,” Lloyd paused before tossing a file onto the table. “His psych profile suggest that he is unusually calm and collected even in the face of dangerous situations, take a look at this one here.” Lloyd pointed out to a particular article in the folder.

“Hmm, stopped a bank heist at the age of fifteen. the news article states that it all happened so fast and he was already moving on them before they even drew their guns to rob the bank.” The man paused, already suspicious of this “Thomas Conlin”. “It’s almost as if the man knew what was going to happen even before it does, future cognizance? No, can’t be, his ESP profile is way too low.” The man paused, taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts, muttering under his breath, tossing out idea after idea.

“You know we established Camp Young for one specific reason drill sergeant.” The man stared across the table from Lloyd, fingers tapping on the table. “I can’t help but think this is related to that, but after going through all of my options that is the only thing I can think of.”

“Sir?” Drill Sergeant Lloyd was confused, he had no clue what the man was referring to.

“Never you mind, it will suffice for you to know that we are paying very close attention to Thomas Conlin now, if that is indeed who he really is. Up the training regimen, I want to see what this Thomas is really capable of.” The man snapped before leaning back in his chair, hands folded on his lap.

“Sir! Yes sir!” Drill Sergeant Lloyd saluted smartly as he stood up, then walked through a revolving door at the end of the room, leaving the man to sit there, contemplating the answer to his current problem, then he sighed. “Thomas you’ve got a long road ahead of you and I don’t envy you for it at all. Even if this life is fabricated.”

The man slowly shook his head and stood up before crossing over to the two way window which had a view of the whole course. The light from the window briefly illuminated his should revealing a the gold oak leaf cluster of a Major and underneath that the acronym OSS.

“Nazi experiments with unintended consequences hmm?” The man took out a cigar and lit it before taking a nice long drag, the light briefly illuminating half of his face, the half covered in gruesome scars and wounds. “Let’s hope this boon from the future turns out to be a help and not a hindrance.” Ashes fell from his cigar slowly to the floor, settling there like dead blackened snow flakes before a slight draft blew them away to vanish into the air. Thomas Conlin was now a watched man who attracted the wrong sort of attention without even knowing it.