Chapter 2
THE LONER
ZEKE
“Maxwell! Bledsoe! Get in formation!” The commander’s eyes pierced through the two Privates who raced to their places in line.
I frowned, recognizing the last names of the two newest arrivals in my unit.
Their behavior just ensured I would get an ass chewing at the end of formation, meaning I would have to give them an ass chewing. Not the best way to start my morning.
“Alright, I realize this is a four day weekend,” Captain Durham bellowed. “Don’t do anything stupid! One wrong move can have permanent consequences! Check in with your chain of command for reporting instructions. HOOAH!”
We all screamed HOOAH in response and stayed at attention until we returned the captain’s salute and the squad leaders dismissed everyone.
Even though I was only a sergeant, I had been plucked into a squad leader position, and I hated every second of it.
Bearing the responsibility of ten soldiers felt wrong, like a shoe that didn’t quite fit.
But that was what happened when your mentor became a general in the United States Army.
General James Leggett tended to make things happen his way, whether you wanted them to or not.
“Maxwell! Bledsoe!” I barked. “Can you give me a good reason why you were late to formation this morning?”
Both Privates, so new they hadn’t even earned an insignia for their uniforms, hung their heads. They had only arrived from training school a few days prior.
“We got lost,” Bledsoe offered. “We’re still learning where everything is on post.”
I figured as much, but I couldn’t let them off the hook.
Any whiff of leniency and Leggett would call me into his office before I drew my next breath.
“Then you need to leave early enough to look. It’s basically land navigation.
I assume you passed that course in basic training or else you wouldn’t be here. ”
Both men looked ashamed of themselves, and I internally cringed. This was the worst part of my job. “You’ll both have an added staff duty this month. Don’t be late again.”
I spun on my heel to escape the looks of despair and incredulity I knew the members of my squad wore.
My reputation as a hard ass meant I had to remain firm, keeping everyone in my unit an arm’s length away.
That had never been hard for me. I could no sooner conversate with an alien lifeform than I could my peers.
But it gets awfully lonely spending an entire life by yourself.
When I turned twenty-one on my last birthday, I spent the day alone in my barracks room without a single text or phone call.
Even Leggett, as my mentor, didn’t bother.
“Sentimentality breeds ineptitude,” he always said.
Birthdays weren’t meant to be acknowledged.
And most days, I learned to live with being alone. I accepted it the same way I accepted that my freedom was no longer my own the day I enlisted in the Army. It was only difficult during moments like this where I recognized that I was being too harsh, but I didn’t know any other way to handle it.
Captain Durham approached me and I saluted him as I brought myself to attention. “At ease, Sergeant,” he snapped. “What kind of a shitty squad are you running if you can’t get your guys into formation on time?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” I replied, taking great pain to keep my voice even and my expression blank. “I’ve already addressed the issue and both men will serve extra staff duty this month. It won’t happen again.”
“Be sure that it doesn’t!” Durham snapped. “You’re a good soldier, Hayes, but that doesn’t make you a good leader. Don’t disappoint me again!”
“Yes, sir!” I nodded once, which satisfied Durham enough to leave. That was probably the quickest I’d ever gotten out of an ass chewing before.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
CONTROL YOUR MEN BEFORE THEY CONTROL YOU.
Of course Leggett already knew about my guys’ fuck up. The man had eyes and ears everywhere, especially wherever I was concerned.
Sighing, I pocketed the phone again and headed into the office to grab my gear. Today consisted of marksman training at the gun range, a task at which I not only excelled, but allowed my mind the freedom to wander. It was exactly what I needed.
Except, when I arrived at the range and saw the motley assortment of soldiers assembled, the prospect of enjoyment disappeared.
Part of my job as an Army Ranger included training at marksmanship because all Army Rangers were required to achieve expert level.
New recruits had to hit a certain percentage of targets, and I had to help them get there.
Soldiers from outside our battalion had been sent over, likely the work of General Leggett, who liked to posit my abilities as if they were a direct reflection of him.
With just a single glance, I could already tell these soldiers weren’t up to snuff.
I sighed wearily. It was going to be a long day.
By the time the sun scaled the Western horizon, I wanted to yank my hair out by the roots.
Either this was the biggest group of incompetent idiots to ever enlist or my reputation proved to be impossible to work against. One soldier visibly shook in her boots if I so much as looked at her.
None of them would achieve expert marksman qualification without a lot of help.
Needless to say, everyone in the group walked out to the parking lot with slumped shoulders and frown lines at the end of the day.
Five of them clustered together around a battered SUV, likely a carpool where everyone lived in the same barracks.
They parked just one car away from my pickup truck and although I knew it wouldn’t help my mood to hear them complain about me, I slowed my steps and fumbled with my keys to eavesdrop.
“Yeah, man, Cremshaw’s hooking up with this girl off post and she’s throwing a party this weekend. It’s gonna be lit!” one soldier said. He knocked back a Redbull like it was water.
“And she doesn’t care who shows up?” asked the woman who shook from the sight of me. Anderczak, if I remembered her uniform correctly. “We can all seriously go?”
The first soldier nodded. “I swear. Cremshaw said anything goes and this chick has a lot of friends. Got me hopin’ to find my own little Georgia peach!” He thrust his hips suggestively, indicating what kind of peach he meant. His friends all laughed.
“Okay, then I guess we’ll be there.” The female soldier next to Anderczak gestured to her companion. “You said it’s that white house at the end of Bowers Road?”
Just as the air humping soldier nodded, one of his companions slapped his chest and pointed towards me. All of them stood up straighter and looked at me expectantly.
“Sorry, sir,” one of them said. “We didn’t see you standing there.”
“It’s fine. You’re going to a party?” I had no idea why I asked. Parties were never my scene.
They all exchanged a look, clearly battling over how much to tell me.
Rambunctious parties were exactly the kind of thing that got young soldiers in trouble.
They were the reason we needed to have quarterly safety briefs and trainings against sexual harassment, drug use, and alcohol poisoning.
Admitting they planned to go to one that could then lead to someone’s arrest, drunk driving, or any other number of punishable offenses wasn’t wise, especially to a non-commissioned officer like myself.
“One of the guys in the barracks is dating a local,” a soldier named Kreugla stated. “We were just discussing whether or not we were gonna go. You’re welcome to stop by, sir. It won’t get wild.”
Reading body language usually stumped me, but I was nearly certain that the looks of horror they flashed him meant the rest of the group didn’t want to extend an invitation to me.
“Thanks,” I replied. “I may just do that. To make sure it doesn’t get out of hand for any of you,” I added.
The panic stricken looks that crossed their faces told me the thinly veiled threat worked. Hopefully it meant they thought twice before doing something stupid. I hated filling out the paperwork, and even if they weren’t my soldiers, I would still spare their chain of command if I could.
Once I settled in my truck, I rolled down the windows just enough to hear their argumentative whispers above the roar of the truck’s engine.
“Yo, why would you invite him, man?!”
“That’s the Sergeant Hayes—are you nuts?” the dark haired female demanded. “Everyone knows he’s a freak!”
Kreugla shrugged. “I didn’t want to act like we had something to hide. He could run back to Leggett and then we’d all be fucked!”
Anderczak tilted her head thoughtfully. “Why do all the hot ones have to be so weird? I’d bend like a pretzel for him.”
The group broke out in laughter, which served as my cue to pull out of the parking spot.
I frowned as their words cut me deep. But they were right. I never belonged. And I likely never would.