Chapter 4 - The Twelve-Mile March
The afternoon confrontation began after a twelve-mile movement across rocky terrain.
Every recruit carried a fifty-pound rucksack.
The temperature passed ninety-five degrees before the halfway point.
Maya crossed the finish line second in her squad.
Cross still shouted that she had held everyone back.
She checked the recorded order posted by the timekeeper.
“Sergeant, I finished second.”
The formation went silent.
Cross walked toward her.
“Are you correcting me?”
“I’m correcting the result.”
His face flushed.
He grabbed the rucksack from her shoulder and kicked it across the dirt.
The metal flask rolled away.
The survival manual landed open.
A sealed medical pouch struck the ground hard enough to split one clasp.
Cross waited for Maya to lower her eyes.
Instead, she told him to retrieve it.
What Cross did not know was that Lieutenant Colonel Cole had arrived at the training building twenty minutes earlier.
Cole was conducting an unannounced command-climate review after receiving multiple anonymous reports.
The company commander intended to observe quietly.
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Then Cross kicked a soldier’s issued equipment across the formation.
The review no longer needed an interview to understand the atmosphere.
