Exercise in James's mind was something other people did and he would understand them but never actually do it himself. That all changed with the project, every four days was specialised physical training for four hours after classes finished. James had been to a few gyms before and had had to do basic gym in year nine but this. This was something different. The drill Sergeant whose name was still a mystery at this point was a man made of what seemed to be pure hatred for anyone not as fit as he. The moment he and the rest of the Meta entered the gym he began to yell. He yelled when he was angry, he yelled when he wanted you to do something and he erupted with an ungodly fury when someone complained.
"Common Tartoni what the hell'ya standing around for keep running maggot!" he roared from the sidelines. James huffed one last time and resumed the sprints. There were five groups of two on either side of the white polished metal gym, about fifty meters apart. Each partner had to run to t the middle, back again and to the other side then back to their side while the other partner rested. It'd been going on for ten minutes and there was no sign of it stopping. James had been trying to get into a rhythm for a while now but his focus was broken though when one of the girls on the far side tripped, there was a sharp screech as she cried out in pain
"Smith, get running or we start over you hear me!" he shouted, the girl winced as she tried to stand up only to fall over again. James wasn't sure if she was crying or if it was sweats pouring down her face. The sergeant motioned one of the guards, a woman by the looks of it to examine the girl. She knelt down and began slowly prodding the girl's leg, the girl screamed when the guard touched he ankle.
"Sir, badly sprained" she said. With help from the guard the girl was able to stagger out of the gym. The drama hadn't gone unnoticed and everyone had stopped.
"No Breaks keep moving!" shouted the sergeant. The gym was once again filled with the sound of panting and thundering footsteps. The girls partner stood hesitantly, not sure what to do
"What'ya standing around for? Keep moving!" the girl stood her ground
"I don't have anyone to train with" she said hesitantly
"I don't give two shits whether you have a partner or not!" the girl looked around pleadingly, the rest of the gym looked away as if they'd turn to stone if even the slightest glance was given. The sergeant marched to the center of the gym
"Alright stop" he said with less of a shout and more raised voice. "Because some of us are too stupid to work on our own we're going to be doing some burn out exercises" a grin on his face grew through his stone cold face.
The boy's locker room was at the far side of the gym, there was a small inlet in the coliseum like walls that made up the gym where the entrance was. Inside there were sealed lockers and a shower room. No one bothered to get undressed before standing beneath the lukewarm water. James just stood beneath the spout and tried to calm his breathing, everyone around him tried to wash only to find their limbs limp from exhaustion.
"This is worse than the sprints we did after the sim" muttered tailor, a tall lanky guy with short cut hair. The rest of the boys nodded in agreement, it was a shallow nod but the message was clear. James raised a strained arm underneath the soap dispenser and washed away the dried sweat on his skin, the suds slithered down his legs and into the drain. Drenched like a drowned corpse James turned off the faucet, and headed back to the lockers. He dangled his bracelet lazily toward the scanner and obediently the door swung open. James changed quickly; he pulled his shirt off and tossed it into a bin. While grabbing a fresh shirt he noticed himself in a mirror, the flab was starting to recede but was still visible. Once his pants and shoes were on he began the long tired walk to the mess hall.
Kim as usual was waiting for him. his tray was filled with fresh looking mashed potatoes and long precut pieces of meat.
"James, you ok? You look dead" he said looking concerned. James was too tired to respond. He fell into his chair, slamming his food tray on the table.
'No Really James, your nose is bleeding and everything!" said Kim, James reached up and brushed his face, his arm was coated in a thick maroon colored blood. Looking down he could see the empty bowl in his tray filling with blood as well. Then the feeling came. Numbness like you get when your foot falls asleep, he could feel the neon liquid...neon liquid. It was the psycho, it'd been three weeks since his last dose. The last time he'd screwed up and gotten himself in this mess. The withdrawal was coming, psycho doesn't have any symptoms afterword for up to a month. Then it hits you all at once. The body starts to dissolve, massive internal bleeding when the bone marrow just disintegrates after an hour. Nose bleeds were the first stage, next was coughing blood, then crying blood and finally as insult to injury sweating blood. James could feel the craving clawing on the inside of him like a caged animal.
"I-i-I havta get out of he-"as he spoke spurts of jellied blood began spilling from his mouth.
"Holy shit, fuck, fuck, fuck oh shit!" cried Kim, all eyes were on James now. James felt as though he was going to fall apart from the inside out. Kim began pulling James through the hall. Guards began to notice a screaming Asian guy dragging a friend bleeding from his mouth and started helping. To James it was all a blur, there was screaming into radios and movement but it all meshed together. His last memory was a flashing light and a sudden darkness.
Beeping. Beeping was what he remembered first, from what he could remember from Sunday school there was no beeping in heaven so it was a start, the next thing was the feeling of a bed underneath him, hell isn't known to have beds so James was sure he wasn't dead though not being dead can only take you so far. He took a breath and prepared himself for the worst. He opened his eyes to see a steel ceiling. Still at the facility then, he took a long look around. He was in some sort of hospital; beds lined much of the space. He raised his arm that was the first mistake it hurt like something awful. He could hear rustling to his left
"James... can you hear me?" the voice, the voice felt so close. But he couldn't put a face to it. "James please wake up" again he couldn't put a face to the voice.
"Listen" it was a different voice, older "I'm breaking enough rules letting you be here, I'll let you know when he wakes up alright" the other voice wasn't having it
"Fuck no that's my brother you're talking about, I'm with him whether he dies or wakes up" brother...
James opened his mouth, the pain was horrendous but he drove on
"T-Tommy?" he said
"Holy shit! James can you hear me?" it was Tommy, but it couldn't be. "give him some pain killers so I can talk to him"
"We're already pumping him full of morphine to keep him alive, he needs rest now"
"He's my" the other voice cut him off
"You're brother I realise that but there's nothing you can do now" there was silence for a while
"Alright" James felt the IV pump something into his arm, only a moment later the drug took hold and dragged him back into the darkness of deep sleep.