The sun raked across Corinna’s sweating back, warming the b****y gashes lain into her forearms. The drill yard was emptier today than it had been in the previous months, and even more so than the months before that. It seemed whichever higher-up was calling the shots was whittling down his selections to those he deemed fit, separating the chaff from wheat. ‘He’ could be a ‘she’, Corinna supposed—after all, there were quite a few women among the conscripts here—but the demographics only served to puzzle her further.
A ragged grunt pulled her back to reality and Corinna looked up in time to see her sparring partner charge. She blocked him at the elbow, hooked her heel behind his, then shoved his weak chest to send him tumbling backwards into the packed, chalky earth. She pinned one foot on
