Clouded in mist

(Backdated post, excerpt from diary)

Guard duty came down on me and my buddy unexpectedly today.

I’m one of the rare ones that have bene looking forward to doing guard duty with enthusiasm rather than distaste as it would be a break from the routine life of doing physical training daily. Also, I wanted to be able to put a rest to the so-called “paranormal sightings” that have became urban legends around here.

If I recall right, a total of sixteen people from my company had guard duty on the same day. We had an early dinner and were taught the parade skills required for the flag lowering ceremony since it’s the guard duty personnel that graces it. I was nervous because I’ve always been poor at parading. Fortunately, our two guard commanders were rather nice fellows and basically told us to just follow the person standing in front, who in turn was following yet another. Mistakes were made, but thankfully, no verbal abuse was dished out.

We were then marched off to the guard house where roles were assigned. The pair of us took the prowler role, which involves patrolling around rather than the sentry role, which involves being rooted the same spot for the duration of the shift. Each shift lasted two hours, followed by four hours of rest, and three pairs of guards rotated shifts.

Since I had the third shift, the pair of us headed up to the guard house bunk for a rest first. My oh my, the bunk was in an abysmal state. The place was a congregation of dust and the wall lined with cobwebs. It also felt like a furnace in there which left me unable to sleep. To add insult to injury, there was a dead cockroach near my bed, with an army of ants busy devouring it. It was the modern version of a forlorn inn.

My first shift started at 1130h. The first round around the camp was entrilling. As a recruit, I’ve never had this much freedom before. To be walking around at night without supervision - this was new! Between the pair of us we were supposed to keep a distance of 1 meter to 3 meters. This was perfect for me as I get to enjoy a rather solitary walk, something that was much needed which I have not had in a very long time. The walk was peaceful. There were no interruptions from any source, be it living or dead.

The second round however, was a lot less exciting. My feet and neck were sore by then and I just wanted to get over it as soon as possible. The euphoria of doing something new had worn off.

Once the shift was over, the pair of us went back up into the guardroom bunk. This time, despite the poor condition of the room, sleep came quickly due to exhaustion, until four hours later when the second shift begun, and then it was breakfast, and I was back at my company’s barracks, where another round of sleep soon came. The bed at company line never felt this good.