The radio-alarm clock on Corporal Davis’s bed woke him as it crackled into life. He hit the button above the red digits reading “03:00” and groaned. He hated waking up this early, but it was the only way he could make it to the gym before his shift started and he knew he would be too tired to go afterwards. Military operations on Camp Williams ran 24/7 and Davis had been stuck with an early start for the last three weeks. He preferred to work out at this time anyways, the gym was always empty and it was before the heat of the middle-eastern sun was enough to make you sweat without any need for a workout.
He entered the gym at 03:15, surprised to find he wasn’t alone this morning. His supervisor Sergeant Parker was there and already well into a workout of her own. A no-bullshit woman in her late 20s, her direct attitude and career success had garnered the usual “bitch” comments from the guys beneath her (though never to her face of course) and accusations that she was trying to prove something. The rumours of her recent divorce going around camp had only added to this impression (“Who could blame him?” they’d say) even if four months in this place had many of the guys’ relationships with their own wives and girlfriends back home on the rocks. She gave a slight upward nod to acknowledge his arrival but seemed otherwise indifferent to his presence. Davis grabbed some weights and a bench and began his workout. Sgt. Parker continued lifting across the room from him with what he had to admit was an impressive amount of weight.