The smoke hadn't even cleared when the bodies were brought out.
Aiden stood in the mud, rifle limp in his hand, staring at the ruined training field.
Hours ago it had been loud, chaotic, alive.
Now it looked like a place where the earth itself had given up.
A medic walked past him carrying a stretcher.
There was a black body bag on it.
Aiden knew who was inside.
Ellis.
He'd only known him for three days.
And yet Aiden felt like a piece of his own chest had been ripped out.
Parker sat on a crate nearby, shaking uncontrollably, his hands stained with blood that wasn't his.
Sarah was wrapped in a blanket, staring blankly toward where Ellis had fallen.
No one spoke.
There were no words.
Only the quiet sobs of grown men who had never cried before.
Only the crackle of drones burning in the distance.
The sergeants who survived limped through the wreckage, barking hoarse orders that sounded more like prayers than commands.
"Form a line for the count… make sure… make sure we didn't lose anyone else…"
Aiden's throat tightened.
They had lost too many.
He felt someone touch his shoulder.
It was Reeves the older recruit he'd fought on Day 2.
His face was gray, jaw clenched so hard Aiden thought it might crack.
"You alive, kid?" Reeves asked, voice rough.
Aiden tried to answer.
Nothing came out.
Reeves nodded slowly, as if he understood.
"Good," he whispered. "Because you're one of the few."
Aiden's eyes burned.
He looked at the ground so Reeves wouldn't see the tears.
"I should've… I—" Aiden choked. "Ellis was right behind me. He was—he was right there."
Reeves didn't let him finish.
He grabbed Aiden by the back of the neck and pulled his forehead to his.
"You listen to me," Reeves said, voice shaking. "There was nothing you could've done. This is war. And war… doesn't ask permission."
Aiden squeezed his eyes shut, the grief too raw, too sharp.
"I'm so damn tired," Aiden whispered. "I'm tired of seeing people die. I'm tired of being scared. I'm tired of—"
Of everything.
Reeves put a heavy hand on his shoulder.
"That's how you know you're still human," he said. "The day you stop feeling this? That's the day you've lost."
Around them, the camp gathered slowly.
First came the roll call.
Names shouted into smoke-filled air.
"Parker — present."
"Sarah — present."
"Holt — present."
"Reeves — present."
"Ellis—"
The sergeant's voice broke.
Then he steadied himself.
"Ellis — KIA."
Parker let out a quiet sob.
Sarah covered her mouth to keep from crying out loud.
Aiden gripped his rifle so tightly his knuckles turned white.
He hated this
He hated how normal it felt.
How expected.
The sergeant continued through the list, voice hoarse, shaking.
Every KIA broke someone a little more.
When the last name was called, silence blanketed the field.
The surviving instructors stepped forward.
Gone were the screams, the insults, the bluster.
These were men and women who had fought real wars.
And they looked like the world had aged them a decade in an hour.
The head drill instructor the one who had yelled the loudest since Day One stood before them.
A bandage crossed his forehead.
Blood dotted his uniform.
"No speeches," he said quietly. "No fancy words. What happened here today… is the reality of what you're training for."
He looked at the stretcher carrying Ellis's body.
"This was supposed to be a safe zone."
His jaw tightened.
"It isn't anymore."
A murmur spread through the recruits.
Fear.
Anger.
Disbelief.
The instructor raised his voice.
"You think I shout at you because I like hearing myself talk?" he asked.
"I shout because out there..." he pointed toward the mountains where distant explosions lit the horizon
"The universe doesn't wait for you to grow up."
Aiden swallowed hard. His chest ached.
The instructor continued.
"Some of you froze today. Some of you ran. Some of you fought back. All of you survived. And now you know what the enemy looks like. Now you know what it feels like."
He paused.
"And now you know what it costs."
Aiden felt something shift inside him a crack, a break, and then something harder forming beneath it.
A resolve born from pain.
Not heroism.
Not glory.
Just the simple, aching truth that people around him were dying, and he couldn't bear to lose another one.
He looked at Parker shaking, pale, eyes empty.
He looked at Sarah wiping her face, trying not to fall apart.
He looked at Reeves standing rigid, hiding the tremors in his hands.
Aiden felt a quiet whisper in his mind:
If I don't stand up… someone else dies.
The commander called for a moment of silence.
The recruits bowed their heads.
Some prayed.
Some wept openly.
Some stared blankly at the ground, too numb to cry.
Aiden closed his eyes.
He saw Ellis smiling in the mess hall yesterday.
He heard his stupid joke about the protein paste.
He remembered how Ellis had reached out to help Sarah with her gear.
A normal guy.
A good guy.
Gone in a blink.
Aiden wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeve.
He whispered, voice cracking, "I'm sorry, Ellis."
Parker leaned into him, shaking.
"We should've...should've done something…"
Aiden put a hand on Parker's back, steadying him.
"We're still here," he said softly. "So we'll carry him with us."
Parker nodded, tears dripping onto the dirt.
As the sun dipped behind the mountains, the instructors brought out shovels.
No chaplains.
No ceremony.
Just shovels.
Recruits dug graves until their hands blistered.
Not because they were ordered to.
But because it felt like the only thing left they could do.
Aiden's hands bled.
He didn't stop.
When Ellis was buried, they placed his dog tags on the mound.
Aiden stared at them for a long time.
His chest hurt.
His throat ached.
He didn't care if anyone saw.
He cried.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just quietly tired, broken tears for a boy who would never get to go home.
When they finally returned to the tents, the camp was too silent.
Too heavy.
Too wounded.
Aiden didn't sleep.
He lay staring at the tent ceiling, listening to Parker cry softly in the cot beside him.
And he made a promise.
To Ellis.
To Parker.
To Sarah.
To Reeves.
To himself.
"I won't let this be for nothing. I won't let us die scared. I won't let them take everything."
The promise sat in his chest like a burning coal.
Painful.
Heavy.
Alive.
Tomorrow would hurt more.
But he would rise.
Even if his legs trembled.
Even if his heart cracked.
Even if the world burned.
Because if he didn't…
someone else's Ellis would die next.
And Aiden couldn't bear that.
Not ever again.