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My heart was threatening to hammer out of my chest when a clock on the wall came to life. It counted down from ten. I did my best to lock my feet in the stirrups of the contraption I was in, but I was struggling.
Drake leaned over and helped me tighten the straps on my feet. As he straightened, he grimaced and jerked the arm that had the cuff on it. He’d been shocked for helping me.
I wanted to feel remorse for it, but the clock was down to three seconds. I grabbed the handle that was attached to what looked like a bicycle chain that disappeared into the bowels of the machine.
When the clock reached zero, a buzzer went off, and the other three started working. I watched Elise for three strokes, and then tried to mimic what she was doing. Pressing my feet against the foot pads, leaning back, and then pulling my arms toward my chest. After a bit, it did feel a little like rowing a boat. Within seconds, a fine sheen of sweat formed across my body. Of course I’d worn a sweatshirt and pants, which didn’t help at all.
Drake was quick off of his rower and running to the track. As he jogged, I gaped at him and looked at my own monitor and was shocked at how fast he’d done that. Liam followed a few moments after. Even with his injured leg, and basically only using his good one, he was still somehow faster than me. He hobbled after Drake. I finally finished about twenty seconds after Elise. At least I knew how to run. I was able to catch her on the track, but I knew that had been a bad idea. By the time I sat on the rower for the second round, I was already gasping for breath. I’d done too much. Tried too hard to get ahead of Elise. Stupid. I didn’t have to beat her. Just the clock.
The next fifteen minutes went by in a haze. All I could do was listen to my heaving, gasping breaths, and stare at the little distance counter on the screen of the rower. Each time it hit two hundred, I got up to sprint again. Drake and everyone else except for Liam had lapped me multiple times. The injured man was still ahead of me but was struggling with his leg. The dripping sweat poured down into my eyes, burning and stinging them. I didn’t dare wipe my eyes while I was rowing for fear of falling even further behind.
Drake finished his last row at the same time as I finished my fifth. The clock said we were fourteen minutes into the workout. Every second dragged by like an hour, each minute was a day. It was as if I’d been here, doing this workout, for years. My lungs were on fire, and it was all I could do to shuffle my feet as I did my best to run. Drake, with plenty of time to finish, slowed his pace to join me. Surprisingly, even at our slow pace, we passed Liam as his jog had turned into a fast limping walk.
“You’re doing great. Keep pushing. You’ve got plenty of time.”
“No, I don’t,” I gasped. “I have—three more of these—to go.”
“Push your pace on the row and run the next three rounds—ah fuck,” he barked.
I looked over and saw him rubbing at the skin around the cuff. He’d been shocked again for trying to help me and give me a strategy.
“To hell with him,” Drake said. “You push it hard the next three rounds. Make sure you have at least ten minutes for the burpees. That’s ten every minute. You can do it.” His last word twisted into a sneer of pain. This time I even heard the electric crackle as he was given an even stronger jolt.
He’d hurt himself to help me again. Not wanting his pain to be for nothing, I pushed myself to run faster. I was getting back on the rower when Drake started his burpees. Liam fell further behind, though I was still surprised at how well he was keeping up with me. Elise started hers as I was getting on the rower for the last time. I looked at the clock and it showed we’d been going for almost nineteen minutes. Remembering what Drake had said, I pushed even harder for the last round.
By the time I was running my last lap, I truly thought I was about to pass out or vomit. Maybe both. Plus, I still had a hundred burpees to go. I glanced over and saw Drake moving slowly and smoothly through his. If anything, he looked like he’d recovered and was barely working. Of course, he’d had plenty of time to do them. He didn’t have to hurry. I did.
By the time I was done with the run I only had eight minutes until the time ran out. Terror gave me a spurt of energy. I did the first twenty burpees faster than I thought was possible, but I had to stop. Bending over with hands on knees, gagging as I sucked in air, but none of the breaths felt like they were doing any good. If anything, each time I exhaled, I felt more winded.
Drake finished his last one and squatted down beside us. He was breathing heavily, but nothing like my wheezing gasp.
“Move, Dahlia. Move. You’re running out of time,” he said.
I dropped to the floor again, moving through the exercise. For several minutes, I was able to disassociate my mind. It was what I’d done as a child. Eventually, after years, I’d learned to take my mind somewhere else while those men used me. My conscious thoughts went away as I punished my body. All I could do was keep moving.
Elise had finished, Liam and I were still going. I kept hearing grunts of pain as Liam tried to hurry, but his leg had basically locked up on him. My distant thoughts were yanked back to my body by a warning alarm. I glanced up and saw there was one minute left. Dread surged in my chest, and I found the energy to go faster. I still had seventeen to go, and only a minute to do it.
My body slammed into the floor, I pushed myself up, raised my arms, and jumped an inch off the ground. Over and over, faster and faster as the clock ticked down. If my body had been a car, it would’ve been redlined. My vision was going blurry as I moved as fast as I could. It didn’t even feel like I was breathing anymore. The air being gulped into my lungs seemed to do nothing at all. Fear and fear alone drove me on.
I jumped up on my last burpee an instant before the alarm went off. Collapsing onto the floor, I sucked air in great heaving gasps, my entire body arching with each breath as though every muscle was helping pull in the blessed cool oxygen. I gagged and dry heaved for a moment after getting my bearings back. My pulse thundered in my temples like a hammer smacking into a rock inside my head.
“A little dramatic, aren’t you?” Elise said with a smile.
“Fuck,” Liam bellowed. He lay on his back, gasping for breath, clutching his injured leg.“”
“Dahlia? Are you okay?” Drake asked.
“Ugh, uh,” I still couldn’t form words. If I tried, I’d probably puke. All I did was nod vigorously at him.
“Jesus, Drake, why’d you try so hard to help her?” Elise asked. “You must have gotten the shit zapped out of you.”
“I wanted her to finish,” Drake said.
“Are you two getting all buddy-buddy?” Elise asked as she wiped sweat from her brow. Strands of her hair stuck to her neck and temples, soaked in sweat. “Because you know that’s stupid, right?”
“Yeah,” Liam said, “it’s pointless here. All making friends will do is make everything worse. What do you do tomorrow when Sam tells you to break her nose, or asks her to shove a piece of glass into your eye?” He shook his head in disgust. “Fucking stupid,” he muttered and massaged the area around his stab wound
Bong. “Well done, everyone. Please shower and change. Lunch will take place in two hours. After your shower, as a reward for completing the task, you may return to your rooms to rest. However, Liam did not complete his task. Drake, please make him bleed as punishment.”
