Army of Humans and Monsters-The Book

Chapter 13

A few hours later, while Bloodtooth was introducing Jenkins to her niece, a ten year old girl named Denise, who had some slight magical skills, which she had inherited from her father, who was a medic-mage, who had truly died while protecting his patients, a year before the crash that took the lives of the rest of her family, except for Aunty Cindy, Bloodtooth’s given name, who asked one of the other officers’ family to take care of her when she was unable to herself, when the rest of the recruits started to trickle in, slowly. Each of them was escorted by an officer, whom the recruit looked at with a mixture of hope and fear in their eyes.

“The guiding officer is always of the race one fears the most,” Bloodtooth whispered when Jenkins asked her about the officers that escorted the recruits. “If it isn’t a real race, or is one that is quite rare, a shape-shifter will change his or her shape into what it is that the recruit fears. If that race won’t fit in the part of the barracks that they are to use, like if a human is afraid of giants for instance, an illusion is place on the recruit’s eyes, so that he or she sees their guiding officer as a giant or whatever it is that they fear. As the person gets over their remaining fear of that race, real or imaginary, that person is told the truth told the reason for the deception, like if the officer is really a fellow human and not a giant, or some such thing, and the shape-shifters reveal themselves for what they are, and the deception is dropped.”

“Well, what if a giant is afraid of something like a mage?” Jenkins asked.

At this, Bloodtooth shook her head, chuckled, and said, “Well, while I’ve never known one to come in here with a fear of mages, one did have a fear of rats, because, as a child, the pet rat of a human friend of his bit his finger quite hard and caused him a lot of pain, and he had a fear of rats ever since then. Well, a shape-shifting officer turned herself into a human-sized, humanoid rat-like creature, so that his fear had a physical form, as it were. Given how the recruit had to be in the giant section of the barracks, she more or less ordered him to carry her everywhere they went, from the showers, to the Mess Hall, to the grounds, to the sleeping quarters, everywhere, so, I guess that, if a giant had a fear of mages, or something human sized, they’d have to do something similar to that.”

“Well, here is a question, how does one part of the barracks communicate with the other?” (Jenkins)

“You mean between those in the giant section and those in our section?” (Bloodtooth)

“Yes, how does that work?” (Jenkins)

“Well, we tend to use cameras and microphones. In fact, Tiny has a monitor in his kitchen that lets him know what is going on in here, like if the buffet needs more food, if there is an emergency, such as a fire, or if some of the recruits are causing some sort of ruckus, whether it is because they honestly don’t like each other or if they are impatient to get a meal, so he can either activate the water sprinkler or the knockout gas, or some such thing. Also, there are similar things in the other parts of the giants’ section of the barracks, just in case of trouble. In turn, we have to let them know of faulty plumbing, like in the bathrooms or the showers, as theirs shares the same relative space as ours, if there is a leak somewhere, or, during the winter, if the cold is getting in, as that raises the heating bill, and other such things. Basically, they depend on us to do our part, and we depend on them to do their part, which how the whole military works, we depend on each other. The Air Force fights in the air, the Navy fights in the water, the Coast Guard patrols the waterways, the Army fights on the land, and the Marines fight anyplace that is connected to both land and sea. We all work together, and we’ll keep fighting until the day that the proverbial battle ax is used to cut down trees for housing, the sword is bent into a plowshare, and, above all else, that ones teeth and claws are not used to rend the flesh off of another so it can be eaten.”

“Damn, is that what the military really fights for?” (Jenkins)

“Yep, in fact, stunts like the one that I pulled yesterday are actually allowed, especially when we know without a doubt that those under recruitment age are being served as meals there. In fact, it was a set-up from the get go, because once the owner buys what is considered military property without a proper license to do so, we can roll in and claim everyone that they have, pressgang the patrons, take their children, whatever.” (Bloodtooth)

“But what if someone went to the law to report it?” (Jenkins)

“Well let me say this, the weakest human soldier can take on the strongest civilian police officer. By the time we are through training you, you will be able to take down a civilian giant without moving a muscle.” (Bloodtooth)

“Um, how will I be able to do that?” (Jenkins)

“You look them dead in the eyes, with a look that says, ‘Don’t even try buddy. You’ll be dead before you ever flatten me.’ Do that little trick, and ninety-nine percent of the time, the guy will back off. Of course, if that doesn’t work, you will know their weaknesses, little things that civilians try to keep secret from others, especially those they hunt, and you will be able to beat them using those.” (Bloodtooth)

“Does the military really know the weaknesses of every race?” (Jenkins)

“They have to, both to take on those who are our enemies, and to help those who are our comrades. After all, if you are fighting a giant, that is an enemy, you want to kill him as quickly as possible, so that you can help out your injured ally, who is also a giant. Also, you may want to use a weapon that is currently hurting an ally, so you can use it on an enemy that is of the same race as your ally.” (Bloodtooth)

“Like what?” Jenkins asked, curiously.

“Like what it is that you need to protect me from, so that you can use it on the traitor that killed your family,” Bloodtooth said, as she stroked her niece’s hair, as she kept an eye on the new recruits walking into the Mess Hall, with a mixture of amazement and confusion on their faces, as they came in, got their breakfasts, and sat down near their guiding officers, much like what Jenkins had done the previous day.