Paramedic Retraining 4
The instructor took them to their room, which was not to far from the shower boots. There he told them what and how to wear and helped them into it. As Sven walked into the room, the medication that his butt plug slowly infused into his Zona columnaris and then his bloodstream fully kicked in. Sven like all trainees, had an empty expression in their faces again and obeyed orders without hesitation. The instructor knew, this was a dangerous state, that he had to be careful with his trainees in this state, one wrong command or a forgotten check and one of his trainees might hurt himself. And that would result in punishment for him. But the instructor also knew, that soon they would not need the medication any longer, as obedience and certain pre set behavior conditioning would be part of in their personalities permanently.
The instructor helped the trainees step by step into their grey BDU uniforms. He still remembered the first time he was put into his uniform. These days he spent all of his time wearing what had been issued to him and he despised the idea of ever wearing civilian clothing again. There were times, when he had been ordered to do so, but it was nothing he felt comfortable in. Sven and the others did not know it yet, but their time as civilians had ended. Forces beyond their control, parts of the government but also industry, were keen to gradually force more and more parts of the uniformed services into these retraining academies. After leaving the retraining, most of the trainees would break with families and friends and relocate to jobs away from them and live in shared, barrack style accommodation with other servicemen.
As Sven stood there in the grey BDU uniform, the instructor helped him to get into the plate carrier, filled with a 4 kg plate on the front and back. Then the instructors adjusted the webbing and velcro straps, so that it was tight but comfortable.
This was only for the first time. In just a few days the trainees would be able and required to get into their full uniform within less than two minutes without help. A grey FFP2 mask was then put over Sven’s face. The straps went around his ears and when the instructor pressed the mask to his face Sven thought there was some glue like in band aid. The mask was tight. The instructor then helped him to step into his boots and showed him how to lace these properly.
“You will clean and polish these every evening, there will be inspections and I expect them to shine.”, the instructor told them. Last week Sven would have laughed but now there was nothing more true to him. Boots should be polished.
“You will be accustomed to wear gloves at all times.” The instructor told them as they pushed their hands into the black tactical gloves with the long gauntlet and closed the velcro straps. It would be difficult to get these off Sven thought. But then something told him: Why would you want that.
The finishing touch was their grey trawler beanie. All trainees now looked completely identical, except for the identification codes on the plate carrier at the front and the collar in the back on their uniform.
When dressing up was finished, Sven automatically went into parade rest and waited for all the other trainees to finish. The instructor looked at him: “Good. Yup. You are ready.” Sven felt good and safe in his uniform.
Outside the building the instructor yelled: “Fall in”.
Nobody knew what to do.
“Ok, when I tell you to fall in you form two lines of three people, each a elbow apart and stand at a formation at the position of attention, that means standing straight, looking forward, and not moving.... Yeah thats better.”
They started walking. “I’ll be teaching you how to properly march, later.”
Sven could feel his butt plug with every step. Somehow, this was a good feeling.
15 minutes later they arrived at another building. It was not clear if this had been the direct route through the converted military camp or if they had deliberately done turns and extended their march.
When they stood in front of the building the instructor said cheerfully:
“Time for the morning chow, form a line. I’ll show how it works.”
The instructor was first in line and held his bracelet to a scanner. A conveyer belt started moving and a tray with a bowl of warm oatmeal and some fruits appeared. The instructor walked on and got a half a liter of tea. Then went to another machine, held his bracelet to it and got a small plastic cup with two pills. He opened the tight webbing of his helmet and lowered his mask to swallow the pills. The Guard watching the dispenser nodded.
“Your turn.”
Sven scanned his bracelet and got a bowl of soup.
“You will have a light diet until your bowls are fully cleaned”, the instructor told Sven.
“Take your tea and pills, you may remove the face mask.”
Peeling of the mask was not that easy, as the slight duct tape style glue attached it to the face.
After all of the six trainees had taken their medication, they walked to a table.
“Sit and eat, boys”, the instructor told them.
They started spooning their food in silence. When they were finished and had drunken up their tea, the instructor reminded them to put their face masks back on. He himself closed the straps on his helmet, which he hadn’t removed and they put the trays back into another conveyor belt.
Sven noticed, this was the first time he had seen his instructors face. On their way out they passed another group of trainees. All the same empty looks in their faces. Sven was not sure, but he thought their instructor had playfully smashed his instructors butt.
Still under the influence of the mind altering medication, all trainees followed the instructor to the lecture hall. As with every building or room they entered, the held their bracelet to a scanner next to the door. There were rows of pretty comfortable looking cinema seats arranged in a hemicircle, all facing a stage with a large screen. When their group arrived, the first four rows were already filled with trainees. Identically looking men in grey BDU uniforms with grey face masks and grey trawler beanies. Sven went to a seat labeled 3234-13-012, he instinctively knew this was his seat. When he looked to the right, he saw he was next to Adrian. When they sat down, they put their bracelet again to a scanner.
At least four other groups entered after the. If Sven had calculated correctly this would be a total of 60 trainees in grey BDU uniforms for the orientation lecture. Each group was always accompanied by an instructor, a fit looking guy with a red cover on his helmet. There were also at least two guys with a black helmet cover in the room.
The lights in the auditorium dimmed and stage lights came on. A middle aged but fit men with a grey BDU uniform, short salt and pepper hair walked on stage. This was the first person Sven saw, that didn’t wear a face covering or a helmet. Behind him his face was projected to a large screen. Instinctively, Sven and all the other trainees got up and stood at attention.
An assistant put a wireless throat microphone against the neck.
“Good morning trainees”, the director addresses the crowd, his voice amplified through loudspeakers, stern but reassuring.
“I can see you already made a lot of progress in just one day. When we received you yesterday for processing, your were a disgrace for yourself and for your profession. You were sent here because you have been lazy and unreliable. Your bodies were overweight, untrained and hairy.”
On the screen images of the trainees collected from social media appeared but also yesterday from their arrival. Sven recognized himself on one of these pictures. He was such a lazy guy, always out drinking. He felt disgust for what he saw on the screen.
“Look what you have achieved in just one day here”, the director continued, images of their training this morning appeared from a screen. They must have been recorded from a camera attached to the helmet of the instructors.
“I bet many of you were surprised how fit they were this morning. Have you ever tapped into that strength? We will help you to become better versions of yourselves. Look around. Can you see how much better you already look? Does it not fell great to wear this uniform?”.
Sven nodded, he had not felt that great in a long while. The uniform both felt and looked amazing. At some point he thought, he couldn’t actually see how the others had changed, as their bodies were hidden beneath uniforms, that all looked the same.
“We will go so much further. You will become more self-confident within the next days. Look at the Guards next to me. Don’t you want to be strong, fit athletic men like them?”, he pointed to very fit specimen, a head taller then the director with prominent muscles and broad shoulders, next to him.
“I can guarantee you that this will not be easy. But we don’t do these things because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to better our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”, Sven felt he had never agreed to a statement more then this.
The director continued: “But for you and for us to win, you know you have to change. But I know as well, that you are yearning to change. You are yearning to get your personalities adjusted to fit our standards. And because of that, you know that hard punishments will be involved and necessary. But you know that these punishments are made with the best intentions and only serve our common goal.”, the speech of the director came to a dramatic climax.
As did the chemically induced arousal of the trainees. Behind the director, photos of athletic guards wearing the tight fitting training gear appeared. Two fully shaved and athletic men carried a tree trunk. Sven was amazed by their strength. Another picture showed two paramedics performing CPR.
The director continued: “Sometimes this mountain will seem unsurmountable, but I can assure you. You will graduate from this program as a perfect paramedic.”, the director explained. There were pictures of smiling graduates, with short hair in some kind of parade uniform, standing ramrod straight.
“You like this?”, the director asked rhetorically. “Upon graduation you will all have this level of fitness, you will all have this level of professionalism. But so much more. You will share that deep feeling of camaraderie those men have.”
Sven was sold—the punishments might be awful, but the prospect of becoming like these men appeared amazing to him. He had never really fit in all his life until this morning. This appeared to be the chance to change things for the better.
For the first time, he felt enthusiastic about being part of this program.
“For that, for that matter, it is important to leave your old persona behind. You will not go by your previous names in this program. It is forbidden to share that name with anyone. You will go by the designation that you find on your chair, that we put on your uniform this morning and that we use to label all your belongings. Many of you feel already quite familiar with it. The first 4 digits are your occupational code. The next two are your batch sequence and the last two digits are your designation. This is you now.” the director explained. A graphic came up on the screen behind him showing what he told them.
“You have all been given bracelets. These bracelets play an important role, as they guide you to your better selves. You can use them to open doors, access food, items or other thins. Also we will be able to monitor your vital and your whereabout 24/7 with them. Thats the reason you will be required to wear them all the time. The bracelets keep you safe. The bracelets also record your surroundings. They help you to not use your old names in any context. Should you forget that, the bracelets will remind you and if you do it again initiate a stage 4 punishment. This is a precaution to help you transition more easily.”
Sven did embrace his new designation 3234-03-012. It seemed really cool and fitting to him. Hadn’t monks or other groups given their members new names when they joined?
“I am sure many of you would like to contact their friends and families. We have arranged a letter to your next of kin, that you arrived safely and that there is no reason to worry. For more we will find time to do so after the first month of training. For now, we really need you to focus on your progress.”, the director further explained. In truth, he knew, they would only be allowed very limited contact after their personalities had been altered sufficiently.
“Are you ready to begin this new stage of your lives?”, the director asked the crowd and all shouted in unison “Sir, yes sir!”. A deep feeling of pride came over
3234-03-012. It felt good to him to do things in a crowd.
From behind the doctor smiled pleased as he took some notes. They had done it. The initial processing was working and so down to less than 24 hours for new trainees to embrace their new situation. With this efficiency, the facility could speed up processing very soon. But first they would see this batch through. He was looking forward to it.