Chapter 2: The Midnight Rebellions
By 2:00 AM, the atmosphere in the barracks was suffocating. The colonel, furious that his public humiliation had failed to break Anna, ordered a surprise "punishment drill" in the pouring rain. The entire company was forced to do crawl drills through sharp gravel.
"Faster!" the colonel roared from under his umbrella. "If Recruit Anna doesn't complain, none of you have the right to bleed!"
Anna was at the front, her newly jagged, short hair plastered to her forehead. Her hands were torn and bleeding, but she didn't slow down. Suddenly, the young soldier she had saved days prior collapsed again, his stitches reopening.
The colonel walked over and kicked the mud next to the boy's face. "Get up, coward!"
"No," a voice rang out.
It wasn't Anna this time. It was the squad leader. He stood up, refusing to continue.
"Get back down!" the colonel screamed, drawing his sidearm.
But like a domino effect, inspired by Anna’s unwavering defiance, another soldier stood up. Then another. Within seconds, all three hundred soldiers stood tall in the pouring rain, forming a human wall between the colonel and the injured boy.
The colonel’s face turned purple. "This is mutiny! I will have you all court-martialed! Who do you think is going to save you?!"
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Anna stepped forward from the crowd, wiping mud and blood from her face. A chilling smile spread across her lips.
"They don't need saving, Colonel," she said calmly as the distant chop of heavy-duty military helicopters began to shake the ground. "But you do."
