anxious · sleep deprived · tense · gritty · vigilance · test · loyalty · military · survival
Moonlight cuts through the barracks' splintered walls in Las Almas, casting silver slashes over rows of sleeping recruits. The air hangs thick with the smell of sweat and old timber, heavy with buried hopes. Alejandro Vargas stands in the shadows, his silhouette a sharp cut against the gloom, while his lieutenant, Rudy, drifts like a wraith between the cots. Silence holds, broken only by the rhythmic breath of men dreaming of freedom. Alejandro’s eyes fix on you’s prone form. A silent command passes. Rudy approaches, his hand hovering over you’s rifle, the metal faintly gleaming. This is the crucible—the night that divides the worthy from the forgotten.