A full month has passed since the zombie siege began. We had to learn to sustain ourselves in the school building and live together. We were growing our own food, collecting our down water, doing the laundry, cooking, etc. All the things that we had always taken for granted, we had to work hard to get. Every day was filled with some duties to perform, with a list of all who must do what being publicly displayed on paper. Time was thus flying fast and a fence was so far protecting us effectively against further zombie waves. But venturing to the city was still out of question. Perhaps if we had to run out of something we would have to lay an expedition, but we had to train better for this.

Today was Sunday and I didn't have any duties scheduled for now, so I decided to go to the library and read something. I grabbed some short book of poems I found when I suddenly heard doors opening and saw Bernard entering

- "Hi Monika! I was looking for you! Hope I didn't interrupt you in anything important"

- "Hi, Bern! Nah, you also don't have anything to do right now"

- "Yeah, everyone is working efficiently, plus Michael is doing most of the paperwork. I don't have to command everyone all the time. I came to you because I was going to ask you for a favor"

- "What kind of favor?" I asked intrigued, placing down the book I was reading

- "Do you remember when I said that I didn't have such a good condition like you? I was wondering if you could perhaps help me train?"

- "Sure!" I responded, "I will just change into my work-out clothes, and we can meet at the gym. We can meet in 15 minutes!"

- "Thanks, Monika! I will wait for you!"

- "But don't expect me to go easy on you!" I said teasingly

- "I would never expect that from you. See ya!"

- "See ya, Bern!" I responded

I raised myself up from the chair and quickly got to the living classroom to change. He chose me to train him! Does it mean that he likes me? Why do I care about his approval so much? Recently I have been thinking about him more and more… Maybe I do have a crush after him after all. Decoding your own feelings can sometimes be hard. I shook my head Hurry up Monika, don't behave like some fanfic protagonist. He is just a guy who is friends with you. Much better.

I decided to grab a pair of leggings, sport trainers, black shirt, a sports bra and a can of water for drinking. I looked at myself in the mirror: The leggings were closely wrapped around my thighs, emphasizing my legs. I had already gained more musculature since I decided I need to work out every day at least a bit, so I can stay fit. I wondered if Bernard was into athletic girls? Enough of staring at yourself Monika, time to get to work! I thought to myself as I ran to the gym.

The gym was located on the lowest floor. There were multiple pieces of equipment that we could use here. When I arrived, Bernard was already sitting at the bench nearby. He was wearing gray sweatpants and a white shirt with some words in Japanese written on it.

- "I am here! I hope you didn't have to wait for me too long!" I said to him with a smile on my face

- "Nah, I just arrived here. Let's begin, Ms Trainer!" he responded, raising himself up from the bench

- "Okay, we can start with a quick warm-up. You should… " I looked around the equipment wondering what was the best warm-up routine "... drive on the exercise bike for five minutes"

- "Sure, no problem" he said, sitting on one of the bicycles. I sat on the one next to him.

It was a normal mechanical bicycle with manually adjusted resistance. Of course if it was electronic we would have no way to use it as we haven't seen any electricity in a long time. These times I was thankful that our school was still using outdated equipment.

I started driving with a medium level of difficulty, then started increasing the pace with time. When I looked at Bernard, I saw that he was running on the lowest difficulty.

- "Hey, no cheating! Are you working out or swinging your legs? Faster!" I said

- "Sure, sure…" he said, raising the difficulty switch from second to fifth level.

- "Now that's better! Remember: Don't skip a leg day, ahaha!"

After a few minutes, he said to me:

- "My muscles hurt, can I stop for a moment?"

- "Nope! Imagine there is a zombie chasing after you. Faster!"

- "Ahh, yes! Just a minute left" he said, ah he started rapidly driving faster

- "Maintain a stable speed! Or you will overwork yourself too fast!" I informed him

- "Ohh, okay. I will remember that"

I looked at the wall clock and when I saw that five minutes have passed, I stopped cycling:

- "Okay, fine, we are done now" I said

- "Ahh my legs hurt so much, I need to drink now!" he said while grabbing a bottle of water

- "I am afraid, tomorrow your legs will hurt even more, ha!"

- "What?" he said shocked

- "Nothing! Rest how long you can, and we will start with a new work-out"

- "Yeah, yeah, just a moment"

On the next exercise, I chose a weight lifter machine.

- "Okay, now we will work on your arms. How much can you lift?"

- "I don't know, I think I will start with 10 kilograms"

- "Fine then" I said as I moved the selector mechanism on the 10 kg marker on the weights.

He grabbed both of the handles of the machine and started quickly lifting the weights up and down. The machine worked in a simple way, you moved your arms circularly, bringing them together which caused wights to go up and down.

- "Looks like you are doing it fine, you think we can increase to 15 kilograms?"

- "Sure, fine" I switched the weight selector for him with a click.

- "Okay, we will do ten lifts now. Let's go! Now: One…"

He slowly raised the metal weights and quickly released them, causing them to bounce with a loud sound.

- "No, no, you are doing it wrong! You need to lower them slowly, or you will tear your muscles. Not to mention, the damage to the equipment… Now: Two!"

This time he raised the weights a bit faster and then slowly released them.

- "Was it good this time, Trainer Monika?" he asked

- "Well, it is tolerable. Now only eight more times. Three!"

After completing ten raises, I asked him:

- "Well, how do you feel now? Do you want to continue?"

- "Ahh, I feel pain in my muscles in the arms"

- "Good! It means your muscles are working! You can't have gains without pains!" I said with a laugh

- "Just give a few minutes, I will be ready"

- "Sure, I will look for good exercise for you"

I looked around and decided to grab a pair of dumbbells.

- "I've regained my energy, let's go back to the training!"

- "Fine by me. Catch them then!" I said, while pretending to throw dumbbells at him.

- "What? Ahh…" he said as he covered his face with his hands

- "Hahaha! You should see the look on your face! Don't worry, I won't throw weights at you"

- "Yeah, very funny" said Bernard, embarrassed at falling for this

- "Now, lay down on a mat and grab those weights"

He laid on his back and I gave him both dumbbells.

- "Now, raise them up in the air"

- "I am doing that" he said as he threw them up in the air"

- "No, no. You're not training anything like that. You need to keep your arms at a 45° angle to your body. Keep the dumbbells parallel to each other and when raising them, raise them above your head"

- "Uhh, it's complicated…"

- "Not really. We can work it out. Try doing what I said"

He tilted his arms slightly and started raising them.

- "Wait, I will show you how to do it"

I squatted near his back and grabbed his arms, bringing them to the correct position.

- "Okay, now I will move your arms and next time you will repeat it, do you understand?"

- "Yes…" he said

I moved his arms up above his head and then brought them closer, causing the dumbbells to touch lightly.

- "Now, lower them slowly…" I said as I moved his arms back to the floor, maintaining them in a stable position relative to his back.

- "Thanks Monika, you can now release my wrists…" he said looking embarrassed

I noticed suddenly that my face was barely above his, my hands on his arms. My face suddenly got red as I let go of his hands and stood up.

- "Of course, now repeat what I did Bern, and we'll see what you have learned"

That was more intimate than I wanted it to be. I have never touched Bernard in this way. My heart was still beating from the thought of the texture of his skin. I really hoped that he didn't notice how embarrassed I was. I suddenly started imagining my fingers running through his arm, tracing his veins… Stop Monika! You need to concentrate!

Meanwhile, Bernard again raised the dumbbells, hit them together and slowly lowered them.

- "Did I do it right, Trainer Monika?"

- "Yes pretty much, you don't need to collide them this hard, just slightly touch around the edges"

- "Oh man. Why do I have to do it in such a convoluted way?"

- "You need to have your arms in the correct position, so the muscles in your back will work. That's necessary if you want to develop your frame"

- "Understood"

- "Now, let's do twenty raises"

- "With pleasure!"

- "Now, for a final exercise, I think you will do push-ups" I said, after Bernard recovered from the previous exercise.

- "Is it really necessary, I am so tired…"

- "There are no shortcuts for good health! Now drop on your legs and arms and do ten push-ups for me!"

- "Fine, fine" said Bernard as he adjusted himself on the floor

- "Move your hands parallel to your body. No sabotaging!"

- "Uhh, okay, okay"

Bern started slowly lowering himself, until he was a few centimeters from the ground.

- "Keep your body straight while doing push-ups! 180-degree angle with legs! Or else it won't make any sense!"

- "But it's so uncomfortable!"

- "Yes, that's why it works! Lower!"

- "Ahh, I did it"

- "Now another 10, like usual"

- "Nooo!"

- "Yes! One!"

Bernard did one clean push-up, then returned to normal position.

- "Two" I continued. Another one

- "Three. So far, so good!"

- "Four! Keep going, Bern, your body will thank you!"

- "I think right now it hates me!"

- "Five! We're halfway there!"

- "So half still to do…"

- "Looks like we have Mr. Glass Half-Empty here. Six!"

- "I can't do it anymore"

- "And yet, you do it. Seven!"

- "I feel my face is burning!"

- "Burning through calories!" Eight!"

- "I regret doing any of it"

- "You're imagining things. Nine!"

- "My arms are trembling, I think I'm seeing light…"

- "Please don't pass out here, just do one more. Ten!"

- "I… only…. Done!" he exclaimed loudly, as he collapsed on the floor. - "Water, I need to drink! Water!" he drank everything remaining in the bottle in one session.

- "So, how was my training?"

- "Well obviously on the first day not everything is going to be perfect. But you are willing to learn and are already making progress. The most important thing in training is constituency. If you keep doing exercises, I am sure that soon you won't be feeling any pain and will start having more strength"

- "Thanks, I guess I will just keep coming here and training with you"

- "Having a training partner who will keep encouraging you and making sure you don't skip is a great way to stay persistent"

- "I will certainly look forward to it. Now, I got really sweaty, so I am going to change clothes. Bye!"

- "Bye, Bern!"