War INC by Toby Neighbors

Author:Toby Neighbors [Neighbors, Toby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Young Adult
Publisher: Mythic Adventure Publishing, LLC
Published: 2020-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

For three days, Master Sergeant Grossman had put Alex through harrowing ordeals. In each instance, he’d insisted that Alex and Tito were safe, but on the fourth day, things went wrong. Alex and Tito were placed in a water tank, each with a bucket. Their instructions were simple: once the tank filled with water, they could hold the buckets over their head with enough air to breathe until the tank drained. They were strapped with monitors to show their heart rate and oxygen levels in their blood. Each of them had the INC synced to a device that would record the desire to ring a bell that would immediately evacuate the water.

It was a simple exercise until the tank began to fill with water. The water come gushing in, frigidly cold. Alex had never swum—in fact he’d never been in so much water before in his entire life. NP8261 had no liquid water on the surface. It had to be pumped in from underground and then put through a rigorous purifying process to ensure that the mining operations didn’t pollute the aquifer. The colonists were limited to only a small volume of water for bathing, so when the cold water gushed into the tank it took Alex’s breath away.

But it wasn’t the temperature of the water or his fear that most troubled Alex; it was Tito’s attitude. The cocky recruit had begun to lose control of his grasp on reality. For two days, he’d been hinting that Master Sergeant Grossman was trying to kill him. The steady degradation of his only friend’s mental state wore on Alex. It was impossible not to worry about Tito, and the young man’s ranting fed Alex’s own doubts. The only thing that kept him sane was practicing the mental discipline that Master Sergeant Grossman had taught them. Alex forced himself to think about the other activities that had seemed dangerous but had been proven safe. There was no rational reason to believe that the water tank would be any different, but Tito was convinced they were both going to drown.

Alex was reeling from the cold and the surging motion of the water. When he pulled the bucket over his head, he was in almost complete darkness. The bucket seemed small, and his breath was loud, but he forced himself to work through his mental process.

I’m safe, he thought over and over. This is just a test.

Time always seemed to slow down when Alex was exposed to danger. He had been wrapped in protective gear and set on fire. He’d had vicious animals set on him, only to have them called off at the last possible second when Alex was certain they were going to rip his throat out. He had even been hung upside-down by his ankles and over a bed of spikes. Each time, despite feeling like he had endured for hours, he learned afterward that it had only been a few minutes at most.

Every time Alex breathed in, the water level rose up to his chin.

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