Sleep is for the Weak

The new day dawned, the second morning of their time as Soldiers, and it wasn't long before the sun began to peek up over the horizon. As soon as it had, several loud announcements began to play over a sound system, causing annoyance and disgruntlement amongst the youngsters who were recently now a part of their ranks.

Jay lifted a hand to his face, the man exhaling quietly in his own annoyance as he sat up from the bed. "Man. I hate getting up early," he announced to the quiet of his own room. Within a few moments, the man had gotten up and dressed for the day, the earthen house that he and the others had given them some privacy.

There was no door, of course, and Jay had opted to use his part of the tent to use as a blanket, but he knew that Sasha had used her tent parts as a sort of doorway to keep people from looking inside. But he didn't particularly care if anyone was looking in as he changed, and soon he was coming outside, scratching at the side of his head. "Mornin'," he spoke.

Sasha was already up, the girl's hair already tied back for the day's activities. "You're almost the last one to get up. Ted and Evie are checking in with the Instructor to see if there's any more weird bullshit that we have to do before breakfast," Sasha spat, the young woman clearly annoyed herself.

"Almost the last?" Jay asked, before looking oer to where his brother's hut was, and he noticed that there was now an earthen wall where the door had been. "What's he doing in there?" he continued.

"Beats me. It was like that when I woke up so I figured he was doing something stupid because that's what Wes does," Sasha muttered. "I didn't bother trying to knock on the little wall he made, but if you want to, be my guest."

Jay frowned slightly, reaching up a hand to the back of his head and scratching it lightly. "Yeah... I mean I guess, dude," Jay agreed before he began to make his way toward the earthen wall that had once been a doorway into the home. "Yo, Wes. What are you doing in there, dude?" he called out, reaching up a hand to knock on the wall.

There was a dull thud as he did so, but even as he had spoken, he could hear Wes moving around on the inside. A few moments later, the wall shuddered before it fell apart into loose dirt, creating a large pile at the base. Jay glanced up toward his brother, arching a brow. "Keeping everyone out for your beauty sleep, eh?" Jay asked, smirking.

"What time is it?" Wes answered, the young man looking more than a little haggard. Wes rubbed at his face for a moment, yawning. "Seems like the sun's up."

"Yeah, dude. It's time for breakfast. Maybe. Evie and Ted went to go make sure that we were able to just go and eat this time. Wait- didn't you sleep, dude?" Jay asked, frowning as he looked on at his brother.

Wes shook his head. "Nah. I was up a little later after everyone else went to bed and Gustave gave me this book," Wes murmured, his words slightly slurred from his exhaustion as he lifted it for Jay to look at. "It's got all the different Skills and Frameworks all together in one thing. It's awesome," Wes spoke, a hunger in his eyes alongside the exhaustion.

"Awesome is one thing but you not sleeping is like a whole different thing. The whole reason we agreed to come on back early was to make sure that we had enough time to sleep, dude. You can't be going out and doing this sorta thing."

"I know, I know," Wesley responded, yawning even as he followed Jay back over to the main part of their camp, where Sasha looked at him with an annoyed expression on her face. "Good morning to you too," he spoke, even before she had a chance to say anything.

Sasha snorted. "You look like hell. He didn't sleep, did he?" she asked, looking at Jay. When the larger of the two shook his head, Sasha let out a long, annoyed sigh. "This is what I mean. You're always doing stupid shit, Wes. You know we've got a full day today and then you go off and stay up all night like some kid."

Wesley frowned at that, about to open his mouth to argue when another yawn came to his lips and he raised a hand to cover it. "Yeah," Wes finished lamely, and Sasha rolled her eyes, about to fuss at him some more when she heard Evie chattering to Ted, the two coming back toward the group.

"Heyyyy Wes! You're awake!" Evie called with a grin. "Jay too! C'mon, it's time to go and eat! The Instructor said there's nothing we have to do first," Evie cheered, putting both hands into the air at her excitement. "Come on come on!" she called.

"I imagine... there will be... something to do... once we're there," Ted spoke, his voice no more tired or distant than usual. In fact, it didn't seem to matter that it was the early morning, he seemed exactly the same as he always did. However, after he'd spoken, he looked toward Evie, the girl currently glaring at him. "What..?"

She pointed a finger up toward his face. "Don't 'what' me, mister. Do we need to have another talk about being optimistic?" Evie demanded, before setting her hands on her hips. "Being a pessimist all the time is way too stressful!"

"Hey, we can talk about this on the way, dudes. Let's go grab some food," Jay called, already beginning to head toward the mess hall. "We don't wanna be the last ones there and not have anything to eat."

Wes felt a gnawing at his own stomach, realizing that being up the entire night without food probably wasn't his best plan. "Yeah. I'm with Jay. C'mon," he spoke, beginning to move along with the others as they followed along.

There were several other groups who were still getting up and around for the day, and Wes wondered if this is how it was once they were trained up. After all, it felt like this was a relatively lax sort of way to run things. He supposed that there were the classes they would need to attend, and not doing so could cause an issue with the Instructors.

However, as they neared the mess hall, it was clear that Theodore's thought that there was something else going on was very likely as of the groups that had gotten up and around, most of them were currently standing around outside of the building, murmuring to one another.

"What's going on, dudes?" Jay asked as he came closer, causing a few near the back to turn back to look at him.

"Doors are locked. We don't know what the hell's going on," one of the two muttered, before he turned back to look at the front, as if willing something to happen.

The other shook her head. "We just got here though. The announcement said to meet here by six, and... it's almost time," she offered with a small smile, gesturing to the large clock.

"This is totally going to be another round of bull," Sasha muttered under her breath, reaching her hands up to fix the pony tail she had, making sure that it wasn't falling out, before she looked at Wes. "This is your fault."

"What?" Wes responded, blinking in surprise at the sudden aggression toward him. "Wait, why is this my fault?" he asked, frowning.

Evie grinned widely, giving him a small pat on the shoulder. "It's because you were the last one up. We might've been here earlier if you'd gotten up when Teddy and I did! We probably still couldn't get in though," Evie admitted. She closed her eyes for a moment before Mr. Woodhead began to appear from the use of her Skill, and she clambered up onto his shoulder, trying to see further ahead.

"Maybe arriving late is actually the key?" Wes offered lamely, earning an eyeroll from Sasha and a shrug from his brother. He was about to try to add on more when the announcements suddenly started up again.

"Attention, everyone outside the Mess Hall! It is time to begin this morning's exercise!"

Sasha grunted under her breath, a string of curses coming forth as she glared at the ground in her annoyance.

"Each group will, in the order in which they arrived, receive a slip of paper. This is your meal ticket. To start with, it will be empty. You will need to reach four checkpoints. Each one offers a different stamp on your ticket, and each stamp will determine what foods you get to eat for the rest of the week."

"Fill up the meal ticket and you will have all of the food available. Just do one or two and you'd better hope you like what is being served. One last thing- there are only so many stamps. Meaning if there are those of you who still haven't gotten up and around, you may have to fend for yourselves."

The announcement cut off at that, leaving a silence over the gathered Soldiers before the doors to the Mess Hall opened. Immediately a clamor began to begin from the front of the crowd, working its way back to where Wes and the others stood.

"One last thing. All Skills are fair game, so long as you do not directly injure one of your comrades," the announcement came out, before clicking off.

"This is literal torture," Sasha spat through gritted teeth. "Wes I swear to everything that if we don't end up getting food, you're dead."

Wes exhaled slowly at that. "Yeah. That's fair. We'll just need to win this little race of theirs and get all the food."

"You got a plan, dude?" Jay asked, glancing at his brother.

Wes smirked. "Of course."