I chuckle, putting my arm around Elodie as we get to the gym. Fiz is in there – shirtless body dripping with sweat – doing butterfly pull-ups, curls pushed back by a thick headband. He doesn’t notice us coming in; he wouldn’t, not once he’s in the zone. Rap music pumps through the speakers, vibrating the floor.
Elodie freezes at the sight of him, eyes popping as he drops from the bar and heads straight into burpees. It takes me a moment to realise, then I just chuckle and let her ogle for a moment, going over to the mats and rolling one out. Elodie hasn’t seen Fiz in the gym yet, doesn’t know what that madman can do. I’m not entirely sure she’s seen his body either. He’s giving her an eyeful in his loose grey joggers, just barely hanging on below his narrow hips. Sweat trickling down his chiselled torso as he lifts and drops his body, thick muscles in his arms rippling.
He gets underestimated a lot because he’s so trigger-happy but really, he’s the secret weapon.
Everyone knows I’m the muscle. I can take out any threat with my bare hands. That’s what I train for. Caden’s the cool and calculated one with the ability to lead armies, but Fiz… He’s known for being reckless, sure, but that’s why he’s so good at having the element of surprise. You disarm that man and he could still take you down. He’s always ready for anything. He trains to be ready for anything. I’m built for strength, Caden’s built for speed and stealth. Fiz is a combination of it all.
His body is honed for survival, his mind carved into a discipline that me and Caden could only hope to reach. He pushes his body to limits I’d never get to. That’s why it took four guys to hold him back while the other hurt Caden. And he still managed to fight them off. Just not quick enough. But it’s not his fault. Four against one and beating them off is still insane. I know he can’t see it that way. I know he blames himself.
Once the burpees are done, he heads over to the wall and flips up into a handstand, then starts doing handstand push-ups.
“Holy shit,” Elodie breathes.
This time, I bark a laugh. “Yeah, he’s full of surprises, right?”
“I didn’t even know the body could do something like that.”
I wave her over. She drags her eyes away from him and walks to me. “Fiz can do a lot of things you wouldn’t expect a body to do.”
“How?Why?”
I point to the mat. “Squats.” She gets into position and does as she’s told. “Fiz grew up in a way that you and I will never understand.”
She frowns. “Didn’t he grow up with you?”
“Not for the first twelve years of his life.”
“So, how did he grow up?”
I swallow, not sure how much of Fiz’s life I should expose. There are certainly some things I could never tell this girl. Choosing carefully, I say, “He grew up never knowing when his next meal would be. He had to fend for himself a lot.” I look over at him as he drops his feet down, goes straight back to the pull-up bars and restarts the circuit. Turning back to Elodie, I say, “You ever heard of parkour?”
She nods, breathing steadily through her squats.
“Fiz learned that unwittingly. Always running away from trouble, scaling buildings and shit so he didn’t get killed or arrested. He learned he was pretty good at it. That’s how we met him, actually.”
“How?”
I feel a ghost of a smile on my lips at the fleeting memory. “He had just robbed one of Russell’s cars. Caden spotted him and went after him. He nearly outrun us, but Cade’s always been like a damn cheetah. They fought, Fiz started getting the upper hand, so I stepped in and, strangely enough, Caden wasn’t mad at him. He took a liking to him, no one had ever almost beat him in a fight.”
Elodie finishes her squats and straightens up, hands on hips, cheeks a little flushed. “So what happened?”
I point to the mat. “Inchworms.” She obeys, and I continue. “After Fiz explained his situation, Caden didn’t think twice about taking him under his wing. He never told Russell about the robbery. Just made Fiz give the cash back, introduced him to Russell, told him what he could do. He’s been working for him ever since. And to this day, that’s how he still trains. It’s ingrained in his DNA.”
Elodie comes back up. “He trains to be able to jump buildings?”
“To always be able to escape. To survive.”
She wipes her hands down her thighs, peering over in Fiz’s direction, a slight glaze over her eyes. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” I say, “weights and machines might be good for our bodies, but really… it’s the natural exercises that are the best for us. Callisthenics. Body weight moves. For survival, that’s really all we need in our lives. We were hunters and gatherers. Built to run, to hunt, to survive. All this shit” – I flourish a hand around the gym – “it’s all modern luxury, but what he’s doing” – I turn to him as he starts his push-ups again – “that’s what we really need. And that’s the hardest shit we’ll ever do.”
She watches him, observes the muscles in his sculpted body ripple and flex. “I think I’m beginning to understand it a bit better.”
I hand her a light kettlebell, and she gets into stance. “What’s that?”
“The Cleanse. The Hunt. Taking all luxuries away and just being who we’re meant to be. To move and work and not worry about anything else.” She starts pressing the weight.
I nod. “Good. That’s a good start. Perhaps next year you could participate in The Hunt as a hunter, rather than a hunt-ee.”
