The First Protectors by Victor Godinez

Author:Victor Godinez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945863363
Publisher: Talos
Published: 2018-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

17

Nick looked out at the Moroccan desert, shielding his eyes from the swirling grit, squinting at the mountains in the distance, shimmering in the heat, and turned to Ben and Eddie.

“We’re a long way from Coronado.”

Eddie grunted. “Yeah, but we’re still gonna get sand in our damn undies.”

Ben even smiled a little.

“You wanna quit, maggot?” he sneered, echoing the instructor they’d had many years ago at the Naval training center on the California coast. “You can ring the bell anytime you want.”

The highlight of the first training stage for prospective SEALs was “Hell Week,” a five-and-half-day nonstop marathon of running, swimming, paddling, pushups, sit-ups, log-carries, and verbal abuse. You were lucky to get four hours of sleep over that time. It was the ultimate test of sheer desire, to determine which recruits would rather die than give up. It was an early stage in the long process of the construction of a SEAL. Many of the recruits who survived the grueling slog would still wash out in future training segments, but Hell Week survivors were forever bonded by the experience. And none ever again set foot in so much as their kids’ sandbox without remembering the sadistic grins of their instructors as they shoveled piles of cold, wet sand down the backs of recruits struggling through one more set of pushups in the frigid midnight surf. For those who couldn’t bear the onslaught, quitting required only walking over to a bell and ringing it three times. Do that, and you could take a shower, hit your bunk, and return to your life. Many did. Those who gutted it out, like Ben, Nick, and Eddie, pitied the quitters, but also envied them.

The shared memory went unspoken among the three men, but they really didn’t need to speak at all anymore, at least when communicating with each other. They were connected telepathically now, radios inside their bodies connected to each other in a way the scientists still didn’t understand.

“Y’all ever been to Disneyland?” Nick said out loud, startling the other two men.

“I thought this was it,” Eddie said, surveying the endless sand dunes around them. “Looks like I need to kick my travel agent’s ass.”

Ben chuckled, but Nick just continued staring out into the distance.

“We went when I was a boy. Drove, because my dad was a construction worker and couldn’t afford airfare. But still, we saved and saved, and off we went. We finally got to our hotel in Anaheim at like midnight, and everyone just crashed in their beds. But I remember looking out the window. I could see the Magic Kingdom, all lit up. We were so close.”

He picked up a handful of sand and watched it slip through his fingers. Ben checked his rifle and Eddie flopped down on his back, pulling the tan kerchief around his neck up over his eyes.

“It felt like the next day would never get there. Just waited all night. Think I slept about two hours. Next morning, we’re all up, bouncing like

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