Hard Times

"You just can't... help yourself, can you?" Mostafa chided, in between breaths, "We're in a hole... and you want to dig deeper?"

"Do not waste your energy arguing," Ramatla said, steadying their breathing while glaring at Viking as well.

The big man would have scoffed if he had the energy. Vités wanted to say something, but Daniel's voice came storming outside,

"Get in here! Break's over,"

"Time to go," Said Ramatla with a barely perceptible tone of resignation as they marched towards the building's entrance. Vités sighed and followed with a stiff gait. Mostafa crawled a bit before finding the strength to stand, and Viking all but dragged himself inside.

When the rookies reached the track surrounding the 5 rings, they found the coaches waiting for them with weight vests at their feet.

"Put on the vest with your name on it," Daniel instructed, "Hurry up!"

They did so, with difficulty, as Daniel explained, "They're all customised to your max outputs. You're going to have these on the whole day."

Vités' vest weighed 20 Kilos, Ramatla's was 33 Kilos, Viking's was 35, and Mostafa's weighed 27. Combined with the exhaustion from the run they were just on, it was a mission for any of them to stay upright.

"Now then," Daniel said, "Drop and give me..." He paused and squinted in thought for a moment, "Hmm. I'll let you know when you get there. Get on with it,"

"Yes, Coach!" The rookies got down on all fours and began to do pushups. Vités collapsed immediately, as did Viking.

Daniel stood, "If you wanna nap, I'll put you to sleep myself. Get the hell up!"

"Yes, Coach," The Speedster whimpered before pushing himself up. The Viking simply growled, but did the same.

Mostafa was close, but held himself. Ramatla was able to do their reps, but slowly.

The four of them continued this for another hour, until they all eventually collapsed. By the time Ramatla collapsed, Daniel had already tagged out, and the sound of Tonye clapping drowned out their heavy breathing.

"Alright, time's up, inside!" He ordered.

"C-Coach..." Mostafa pleaded, "P-Please, can we... can we at least have some water?"

"Your body is 70% water," Tonye said, to their collective horror, "On your feet! ¡Ándale!"

And so they peeled themselves off the asphalt and went inside. The first thing they realised was that the ACs had been turned off. Now, the inside of the building was hotter than the outside.

After that, they were brought back to the area with the 5 rings and found an insane obstacle course. First, a set of monkey bars, followed by tyres, then hurdles, then a crawling tunnel, then a rock wall with no harness, then spinning bladed sticks, then hot, burning coals, then a bed of spikes, then flaming hoops.

One of the rings, the Northwest, had its ropes replaced with barbed wire. The Northeast had its ropes electrified. The Southeast had no mat or turnbuckle pads, just the solid oak and steel underneath both. The Southwest was covered in slippery, sticky slime. The centre ring was normal. There were guiding arrows indicating the line they needed to follow.

They all stood there with eyes jutting out of their skulls and their jaws on the floor. All except for Ramatla, who, despite their own exhaustion, was mentally calculating their movements.

Tonye snapped them out of it, "What are you waiting for? Get started! If you fall, trip or knock anything over, you start again."

He then blew his whistle, and off they went.

Meanwhile, in a small locker room, Simon was seated on a bench, still staring at the tiny scrap of paper with Suzanna's phone number on it.

He finally growled and pulled out his phone, but instead of taking down the number and calling, he called another one.

"Hello?" came the voice of Bruce, "Simon? Did ya git in trouble agin?"

"S-Sort of," Simon said.

"It's either yes or no," Bruce stated, "Wot did ya do?"

"Never mind that!" Simon snapped before sighing deeply, "Just... Look, I... I need your... advice."