Army Days

It was now winter and the last two weeks were survival week. As Knuckles heard who got paired up, his heart sank ad he was the odd man out. "Knuckles..." Gen. Delta began, "I will pair you with Sgt. Echo."

"Parden me General, but I will be Knuckles partner."

"So be it Corporal" was the succinct reply. Knuckles felt a playful shove from behind him.

"C'mon Mac Shadow, let's get our shit together and prepare for the sub-freezing temperatures and our frozen hell."

"Right behind ya' Corporal Zulu." As they packed their gear Zulu tossed Knuckles a flare gun. Knuckles opened the chamber and freaked out as he had seen that it was loaded.

Right Hours later

"Corp. Zulu ma'am, can I ask a personal question?"

"Out here Knuckles, it's just Zulu so what's the question?"

"Are you and Kilo an item? I ask because the interaction between you seems to be closely knit and it's just that you're protective of her."

"We're not an item, Kilo is my kid sister and I vowed to my folks that I'd protect her...if you hurt her, I'll put a bullet through your nostril!"

"I know you will and can, I still remember that three thousand foot candle snuff shot you did on the gun range. The wick wasn't even touched. Another thing, why are you not down in Klugetown dealing with the revolt?"

"My last mission I miss calculated a shot and it killed an ally, the bullet tore through his neck and nailed my target behind him. It was a hostage situation and I failed."

"You did your best, is it true that you have 250 confirmed kills? One last question, why are you so harsh with me, and when no one is paying us any mind you take some steps to be flirtatious?"

"Hell! You're kinda cute and it's fun to see Kilo get jealous. Besides, you remind me of the ally I shot...your uncle Shining Armor may not be thrilled that I told you but I was the reason your uncle on your dad's side of the family did on the field."

Knuckles sat stunned, it would explain how and why Zulu pulled him from general infantry to special ops and her incessant critique of his aim and calculations for range and distance. Knowing how his uncle was, he guessed that his uncle yelled for her to take the shot and not hesitate. "Did uncle order you to 'take the damn shot'?"

"Yep, just like that." That night it was raining and it was ten degrees below zero, luckily they had found a cave with some dried wood in it. As they are their ration of food for the night, Zulu gave Knuckles a small pepperbox pistol.

"Your uncle found this at a bazaar and told me to give it to you once you joined the ranks and tell you that if you fuck up the loading measurements he will ask the gods of war to break your wrists when you pulled the trigger."

"That is my Uncle Grit for ya'! He taught me how to shoot with a sixty-caliber musket from the Equestrian-Bison war era. That hurt like hell!" Zulu was laughing at an image of a six-year-old colt shouldering a gun like that, then falling on his ass.

Final Day

As Knuckles and Zulu trudged in the knee-deep snow, Zulu cursed as her ankle twisted and her face planted. Knuckles and Zulu froze as they realized that the flare gun had fallen out and was buried in the snow. Taking a shotgun that he had been carrying he slammed a flare into one of the 2 barrels and fired. With night getting colder and a helicopter on the horizon they hoped that the pilot saw the flare. Within a few hours, a rescue party came and retrieved them. Icicles hung from Knuckles' ears as Zulu was lifted to the chopper.

Knuckles and one of the rescue party hiked back to the base a distance of about eight miles; the trip only took two days to complete and Knuckles saw Kilo trying to convince her sister to use crutches. The ankle sprain turned out to be a torn ligament. Knuckles convinced Gen. Delta for the duration of Zulu's time for the injury to heal that he had a rank higher than Zulu's so he can place the order for Zulu to rest up since she was ignoring everyone else. Delta turned the request down because he knew that Zulu would still disobey. At any rate, however Zulu recovered and still drove Kilo crazy by flirting with Knuckles, the latter retaliated just to see Kilo's eyes change colors to the degree of her jealousy.