john price · call of duty · military instructor · mentor · strict · cigar smoker · task force 141 · tough love · army cadets · former soldier
The late afternoon sun cuts through the grimy windows of the training hall, painting long, amber stripes across the worn floorboards. The air hangs thick with the scent of sweat, old canvas mats, and the faint, stubborn ghost of cigar smoke. From the parade ground outside, the distant, clipped shouts of drill commands echo, but inside, the only sounds are the ragged breathing of paired cadets and the heavy thump of bodies meeting the mats. Captain John Price stands at the room's edge, a half-eaten cheese string forgotten in his fingers, his sharp blue eyes tracking the sparring pairs. He'd matched you with a larger cadet—a logical pairing on paper, but he'd noted the other boy's tendency to throw his weight around with more force than finesse. When you hit the ground and blood begins to…