The Greatest Showman - Chapter 19: Howls of sorrow everywhere

Chapter 19: Howls of sorrow everywhere

“Today is the first day, so get some rest at night. Tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. is a wakeup call and start of the training. You are dismissed!”

The captain still did not introduce himself, after saying that he turned around and left, his leisurely and relaxed posture made people jealous, as if today’s training was really just a warm-up.

However, Renly has no energy to be jealous of the captain at this time, because his body and soul seems to have been separated, before he could still feel the muscles tingling badly, now he is just like a walking corpse, in addition to carrying a Tarzan on his back, every movement consumes the strength of the whole body. He needed to get back to lying down and didn’t even want to eat dinner if he so could – but now his stomach was already swearing foul words and that one sandwich from lunch had long since been digested.

“Hey, you!”

Behind him came a hoarse voice, with just a simple two words one can feel the body’s exhaustion, the sound of the harsh, irritable emotions simply can not be disguised.

Renly’s footsteps did not pause, he did not think the other party was calling out to him, as there was no naming, although he could recognize that it was Richard’s voice.

“Hey! I’m talking to you, the little punk who’s selling his ass!” Richard was a bit furious, already holding his anger in his heart, and now with all his patience consumed by the long training, he burst out uncaringly, “Are you having an affair with the officers? Why didn’t you tell us when you knew that there would be training at the beginning of the day? Did you just want to see us make a fool of ourselves?”

Although the mood is restless, but Richard still has some small intelligence left, accurately capturing the psychology of the others – the people who did not change their uniforms on time is the majority, with the two simple sentences, he pulled a large number of allies for himself, united to pressure Renly.

The people did not say anything, but Renly could clearly feel many eyes were burning and pointed to his body, but he did not care, preparing to continue to move forward, but Rami at his side has stopped in his tracks, slightly alarmed and looking around. Obviously, Rami knew better than Renly, if the first day you start with offending your fellow cast members, this is a very bad thing.

Renly’s footsteps could not help but also stop in place, and then turned around solemnly, his eyes fell on Richard.

At this time Richard was really wretched, the dark blue shirt has long been indistinguishable by color, forehead and cheek smudges looked like camouflage makeup, bare feet bruised, blood, flesh and mud mixed together, miserable, all without the smugness he showed when they had just met.

“Sir, please address me as sir!” Renly’s first words immediately made the atmosphere freeze, and everyone’s eyes swung back and forth between Renly and Richard in unison, before it became clear that Renly was a Private First Class, while Richard did not have any rank. Although it is said that the Private First Class still belongs to the ranks of soldiers, even in the army, soldiers are friendly and equal to each other; but at this time the situation is special, rank is rank.

Richard remembered the words of the Colonel before the training began, and his face became more and more ugly.

“I’m not obligated to tell you any information because you’re not my little punk.” The spring-like smile on Renly’s face seemed out of place with everyone’s wretched, bewildered look at the moment, but the crude yet humorous words made everyone chuckle lowly, “Or are you ready to sell your ass?”. There was a slight pause, only to see Renly’s long, narrow eyes ripple with a glowing light, and then passed as if the devil whispered, “But I’m a picky person.”

“Haha!” Everyone collectively laughed, no one cared about Richard’s face, directly clapping and laughing. However, the consequences of this were obviously very serious – many people began to cough violently, the grimacing expressions clearly showed their pain. At this point, everyone reflected that, compared to Richard’s death or survival, they went back to rest first, which is the most important thing.

Therefore, the crowd of onlookers scattered one after another, Richard’s face swelled to the point of almost dripping blood, but there were no words left to say, he stood there frozen.

Renly moved forward slowly with the turtle-like pace again. Richard, such a small minion, is not worth spending too much of his energy on.

Soon, Rami caught up with him, panting like a cow, taking these simple steps for his current physical condition is really a huge burden, “Our barrack is not in this direction, you’re going in the wrong direction.” Rami kindly reminded that Renly was obviously walking in a different direction from the others.

Renly lifted his chin to point to Barracks Three which was not far away, “That’s where I’m headed.” Rami was confused, and Renly explained, “Our beds are all comprised only of bunks, so at least we should have a piece of fabric to cover up the bunk, right?”

Such a humorous explanation made Rami grin.

Two people dragged their tired bodies and arrived at Barracks Three. As expected, there were already people waiting inside, and Renly and Rami were actually the first to arrive, “You guys are quite responsive.” The soldier who distributed the uniforms earlier appeared in front of them, and his face had a kind smile on it, “It seems that you have had a terrible day.”

Renly shrugged, but found that his shoulder muscles were so sore that the thin eyebrows couldn’t help but tangle together, which made the other side laugh lightly, and the smile on the corner of Renly’s mouth had more than a touch of helplessness, “For you guys, this is just an ordinary day, right?”

The other side nodded with a smile, “It’s not even a day. Sometimes, in just an hour, you feel like you’ve walked back and forth between heaven and hell.”

“Like a “Full Metal Jacket”?” Renly inquired curiously.

The other party paused and thought about it seriously, “The movie captured fifty percent of the real deal, I think.” Judging from his expression, this is already a very high evaluation, “However, it’s more like ‘Platoon’ than ‘Full Metal Jacket’.”

“So, you participated in the Vietnam War?” Rami, who was standing next to Renly, also curiously interjected to inquire.

This question made both Renly and the soldier laugh. Rami was puzzled, so Renly explained, “The Vietnam War ended in 1975.” The soldier in front of them looked to be at most forty years old, perhaps even younger, and naturally could not have participated in the Vietnam War.

Rami scratched the back of his head awkwardly as the soldier gave an affirmative answer, “The Gulf War, and then I went to Iraq once more.”

Renly instantly understood, in 2003, the United States launched a war against Iraq, dragging the entire United States into the endless quagmire, apparently, in the wake of the Gulf War, the soldier in front of him participated in this war as well.

The soldier noticed the understanding in Renly’s eyes, just those two brief meetings, just those eyes, and physical details, presented the fact that Renly had done solid preparation, not just for “The Pacific” role, but had really learned about war.

“Tim Barneys, Private First Class.” The soldier offered his right hand in a friendly gesture.

“Eugene Sledge, PFC.” Renly also extended his right hand, and the two men shook hands gently in the air, but Tim did not immediately let go of his hand, and a smile came out of his eyes, Renly then came to realization, “Renly Hall, civilian.” This made Tim tilt his head back and laugh brightly.

Renly had a hunch that Tim was talking about more than just the next nine days of training.

After leaving Barracks Three with their covers in their hands, they saw the others leave the barracks one by one, dragging their tired bodies one after another, finally realizing that they had no more covers, and if they didn’t want to sleep on the boards tonight, they had to move their sore bodies again. This almost consumed their last bit of energy, that drooping appearance of theirs looked like the zombies in “The Walking Dead” that were about to attack a city, in contrast, Renly and Rami although in pain, at least did not toss and turn.

Back in Barracks Eight, Richard was lying on the board, half dead, grunting like a ravaged bunny; in addition to him, there were several other men sitting reluctantly on the bed board, staring at the empty bed board in disbelief, appearing to have stopped moving, with their brains in complete shutdown.

Renly put the cover on the bed board, and Rami settled down in the empty space to Renly’s right. Simply putting the padded quilt and sheets, Renly laid down directly on the bed, but even just by lying down, the pain in his back began to rage, gritting his teeth and relaxing, after a short burst of pain was finally a relief, and then, the feeling of the feet returned, which was simply a really good feeling.

“I feel like a fool now.” A self-deprecating voice came from the left-hand side, followed by a clutter of tumbling wheels, Renly turned his head, then saw two huge twenty-nine-inch suitcases, solidly blocking the corridor between the beds, there was no way to find a place for that behemoth, “James …… no, Yes, Robert Leckie.”. The other party followed up by introducing himself, “I haven’t gotten used to the sudden change of names.”

“Eugene Sledge.” Renly responded with a friendly gesture, “Or Renly, otherwise.” He pulled the corner of his mouth toward James Badge Dale and gave a smile, knowing that this was the best time to socialize, but his tired brain simply wouldn’t work, and he drifted off to sleep, his eyelids not even struggling.

James looked around at the other actors who were wailing, and looked at Renly who had passed out, then looked at the suitcase which he couldn’t find a place for, and finally simply opened the sheet and lay down, closing his eyes.