Ryan glared at the men across the way. Delta hadshown up to withdraw their weapons from the armory the same timeCharlie did. There was a deep-seated hatred for the bastards ofDelta Company.
“They look so fucking smug,” Kennethcomplained.
“That's because they fucking smoked us lasttime,” Brendon said, glaring just as hard as Ryan.
“Dude, they were totally trashing Grabowskiduring KP,” Patrick said.
“No one gets to trash Grabowski except us!”Self-righteous anger zoomed through Brendon.
“That's fucking right!” Kenneth growled.
“Well damn, the girl scouts are in town,” calledDrill Sergeant Davis.
Phillip just grinned. “Hell, yeah; mark me downfor two boxes of Thin Mints, Davis,” he said, causing the guys inhis platoon to laugh.
“Charlie Company! Attention!” The guys snappedforward. They did it as one.
“Gawddamn that was pretty!” yelled DrillSergeant King.
“About FACE!” They all pivoted on their left andswung around to face Delta Company.
“FUCKING BEAUTIFUL!” cried Connelly.
“Down by the river we took alittle walk! We ran into Delta and we had a little talk.”Hisvoice rose with each word until all that could be heard was hisbattle cry.
“We pushed them down!”It was obviousthat Charlie Company was looking for a new bitch and Delta got theduty.
All three Drill Sergeants joined in. “HEY!”
“We kicked 'em!”Every man inthe platoon's voice rose together. They looked through Delta andstraight to the Drills. Delta's Drills had nothing on Charlie’s.They would fucking slit their throats if they messed with any of'em.
Again Grabowski, King and Connelly joined in.“HEY!”
“We threw them in the River and laughed whenthey drowned!”
“WE DON'T NEED NO DELTAA-RUNNING, A-RUNNING AROUND!”Grabowski called.
It was a glorious thing to hear forty-somethingvoices joining together and making the ground shake with theirthunder. Windows rattled. Even a few of the Delta guys werewincing.
They had let their Drill Sergeants down before.They wouldn't do it again.
Delta was called to attention and started theircadence.
Charlie burst out laughing. Delta sounded likecomplete asses. They didn't get it this time. Drill Sergeant Davismade a big show of sighing.
“Fuck, I shoulda known better,” he shouted,looking at his own platoon. “HALF RIGHT FACE!” He proceeded to heapembarrassment onto his belittled platoon.
“Make that three boxes of Thin Mints,” Phillipcalled, grinning wildly. He looked over his platoon with pride.
“And two boxes of those Caramel Delight things!”King added.
“Don't forget those peanut butter ones. Thoseare awesome,” Connelly cackled.
Overall that day freaking rocked.
***
The day started out with a cattle car ride. Ryancrinkled up his nose at that. Riding in anything that smelled likeweek-old cow shit wasn't pleasant for anyone. Hell, at eighto'clock in the morning it had already been in the eighties, so notonly did it smell like shit it was hotter than hell. By the timethey got to their 'campground of love' as the Drills called it,they were all bitchy. Brendon was calling Kenneth a jackass andKenneth was calling Patrick a moron and Ryan was calling them allgirls. They were given twenty minutes to set up their two-mantents. Ryan wanted to laugh over that one.
