The Rules by Paul Orton

Author:Paul Orton [Orton, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Action & Adventure, Boys, Computers, technology, Young Adult
ISBN: 9798511628325
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2021-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

14. DRILL

That siren was seriously annoying.

Ryan was in a deep sleep when it cut right through his dreams, shocking him awake. He rubbed his eyes but didn’t have enough energy to get up. The lack of sleep from the previous night had caught up with him.

‘Ryan!’ said Lee, shaking him. ‘Come on! Get up! We don’t have much time.’

Ryan knew he should. He knew the others were depending on him. He had been determined to make an effort, to try to follow the rules. But it was so early.

Ryan was not a morning person. He rolled over and closed his eyes. ‘I don’t feel great,’ he mumbled into the pillow. ‘You guys go without me.’

‘No, mate, we only have a couple of minutes to get to drill,’ explained Lee.

Ryan didn’t respond.

‘You have to get up!’ shouted Jael, frustrated at Ryan’s lack of movement. He was getting on Ryan’s nerves.

‘I don’t have to do anything,’ Ryan countered, opening his eyes. ‘Leave me alone. I’ll be fine.’

‘What do we do?’ Jael looking at the other lads, clearly worried.

‘We can’t force him to get up,’ reasoned Kev, ‘and we’re running late ourselves. We’ll explain it to the drill sergeant and hope for the best.’

‘This is bad. This is really bad. Why did we get stuck with him?’

Ryan turned and faced the wall, ignoring the lads as they finished dressing and left the room. Jael slammed the door.

Why is everyone on my case? thought Ryan. He couldn’t help it if he needed more sleep than they did. Why was drill so important, anyway?

Now the other boys had left, everything was peaceful and Ryan dozed off.

***

Confusion.

Pain.

Water, so much water.

It happened so fast that Ryan didn’t know what was going on. He spluttered for breath. Whichever way he moved, the water seemed to follow.

He swore, trying to get out from the powerful jet stream, rolling off the bottom bunk and hitting the tiles hard, taking the soaking-wet sheets with him.

It stopped. Ryan looked up.

James Sarrell stood over him, smirking as Ryan cowered on the floor. He was holding a fire extinguisher, the nozzle pointing straight at Ryan.

‘Did you enjoy your lie in?’ he asked, and then pressed the trigger again, releasing another barrage of water.

‘Stop,’ screamed Ryan, curling into a ball to shelter himself from the worst of the blast. ‘STOP!’

Sarrell held on for a few more seconds. Ryan couldn’t have been any wetter if he’d climbed out of a river. The vest, boxers and socks he was wearing clung to his body, freezing cold and dripping wet. He shivered as he half-lay, half-knelt in a huge puddle on the tiles. His bed was saturated.

‘Are you INSANE?’ yelled Ryan. ‘Look what you’ve done!’

‘You have five minutes to get into your uniform and down to the drill hall,’ replied Sarrell.

‘You can’t be serious!’ shouted Ryan. ‘You can’t do this!’

‘Watch me,’ spat Sarrell, pulling the trigger again. Ryan tried in vain to protect himself.

‘Ok, ok,’ Ryan coughed and spluttered on the floor. ‘I’ll do it. Just stop with the fire extinguisher.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.