Day Two:

“Psst… oi, Jan”

“Ye canne wake her like that, don’t be so soft,”

“Look, mate, you want to get your head lopped off then by all means go ahead. I ain’t got a death wish…”

“Fine but make it quick, we don’t have time,”

“Oi… Jan, wake up.”

Though I heard the dialogue, at the time I could not make any sense of it. I was too far from the shore, drifting peacefully in sleep after my restless night. Eventually, my eyes forced themselves open with a heavy sigh to the blurred image of a brick wall.

Before my brain could make any sense of it, a pair of burly hands grasped my shoulders and rattled the cobwebs loose. “Come on lass, wake up! We dunna want to be late, now do we?”

I shrugged them off violently, turning to look over my shoulder in a sleepy daze. As sunlight shone in through the window (though, in hindsight, it was really just a hole carved into the brick), I squinted to focus on the two figures standing over me.

As I rolled over onto my back, Charles Buchanan put a hand on my shoulder, giving me a sympathetic smile. A tall, muscular man with rugged features, he hailed from the heart of Scotland, his crown of red hair and heavy accent proof of the Gaelic blood that ran through his veins. From the day I was assigned to this unit, Buchanan was one of the few with a motherly disposition towards me and the rest of the new recruits. It was years later that I found out he had decided to take me under his wing because I was the only girl. I figured that he was probably the reason I always had the right gear, ample time to sleep and no heavy workload. At least until I was able to hold my own against the others; things were evidently different by then. But it was his way of teaching me and for that, I have to thank him.

By his side was Saeed Imran. My best friend. My brother. My better half. At least when he wasn’t bouncing off the walls with his goofy excess energy, which was almost always. Imran and I had a long and deep history together, starting from our fathers being two of the first Asians in Alperton. We had both joined the recruitment process together and because of the nature of our jobs and similarities in our backgrounds, we were fortunate enough to be assigned to the same unit. Be it fate or chance, I would remind myself time and time again that I was grateful he was there. He was thin, not even remotely as brawny as Buchanan, with a dark olive complexion, brown eyes and an infectious grin. Imran was always considered a handsome young man, if not an annoying one. He never seemed to lose that smile and it was a rare sight to see him serious. Call it a blessing in disguise if you want; I just call it lovingly irritating.

“Bloody hell Jan, you sleep like a log,” Imran grinned. “Good thing Chucky here is so impatient,”

‘You belt up, before I make ye,” was the playful retort. “Didne sleep well, eh?” he squeezed my shoulder as I rubbed the last remnants of sleep from my eyes. All I could do was nod in response like a child, which only seemed to make his smile grow. “Well there’ll be plenty of time for that later, but for now we’d best get moving; otherwise Captain Ball will have a fit.”

“Oi Braveheart, the Captain wants to see you outside once you’re done with these toddlers.” We all turned to see Lieutenant Jamie Anderson standing at the door. He nodded in my general direction. “And you two had best get ready, everyone’s been called in for a briefing... welcome speech.. local training... or something...” he waved a hand at us dismissively, trailing off as he walked back out.

Buchanan shook his head with a sigh, standing up to leave. “Speak of the Devil. But Andy’s right, hurry up the both of ye. We got a full day ahead of us.”