I relaxed at that.
“Sorry for startling you, anyway.”
“I thinkIstartledyou,” I pointed out.
Stryker shrugged.
“Anyway, I was just going to the bathroom,” I explained awkwardly, waiting for my roommate’s stiff nod to continue on my way.
“John tell you about training tomorrow?” Stryker called after me.
I turned back “uh...no.”
“Well, we do. Have training tomorrow, I mean. Need to see what you’re made of.”
“Skin, bone, flesh, muscle-” I began listing cockily.
“Go to the bathroom.” Stryker cut me off with an eye-roll, lying back down.
I snorted.
The second I spotted Johnathan in the kitchen the next morning, I sucked in a breath and marched up to him.
“Theo! Good morning! How are you?” He asked with a wide smile when I stopped right in front of him.
“Stryker said I'm starting training today. Is that true?”I asked, voice wavering.
“Yes, we do like to get started straight away, especially since we’ll be leaving soon. You up for it?”
“Yeah. Yes, of course.”I replied, furrowing my brow, not feelingup for itat all.
“Brilliant, eat your breakfast, then we’ll see how we start.”
About an hour later, I was stood next to Stryker at the training fields, accompanied by Johnathan and a few other lads from the unit: Dean, Max and Nico. We spent our time warming up by jogging around the grounds, then Johnathan sent Dean, Max and Nico to do their ‘usual exercise’ and led me and Stryker down a path leading towards a line of old trees. There were a dozen small, pretty unused training arenas behind us, each of them surrounded by tall bushes that had probably once formed neatly trimmed fences. Johnathan led us to one of the arenas, then clapped his hands together.
“Right then!”He said cheerily “today we’ll focus on basic close combat exercises so I can start planning on how to proceed withyour training. So, Stryker will act like our average target. He’s unarmed and is coming at you, and you need to neutralise him.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, blinking at the wooden knifes I was handed, feeling a little disappointed.
“What...?”
“We don’t need anybody getting hurt.” Johnathan murmured “we’ll use real knifes when I know you won’t end up accidentally stabbing your partner.”
Stryker looked amused, gaze flickering to the scar on his arm to make a point.
I laughed softly, then shrugged, taking my stance and holding the fake knives up.
Johnathan stepped out of the way from between us, and Stryker didn’t waste a second before trying to bulldoze me to the ground, arms ready to grab me.
It became quickly apparent that Stryker was going easy on me.
Instincts kicking in, I brought my knives up in front of me and jumped at him to thrust them into his chest and lungs upon impact. We both ended up on the ground, him on top and me- surprise surprise- underneath, but had the knives been real and had he been my enemy then he’d have been dead.
Stryker let out a few coughs and rolled off me to let air into his lungs.
“You good, son?” Johnathan asked, clapping Stryker on the shoulder as I sat up.
“Yeah, good.” Stryker assured him, getting to his feet. Satisfied, Johnathan turned to me.
