Max Arena Read online

  ‘How’s about you sit on top of me?’ the blonde piped up.

  ‘If you’ve still got enough breath to be funny,’ Kris continued, ‘station three is ten clean and jerks, which should be right up your alley, pretty boy? she said over her shoulder to the blonde. ‘Hope you can handle the weight?’

  ‘I handle heavy objects all the...’

  ‘And then for station four,’ Kris said over the top. ‘Leaping lunges with fifteen kilo dumbbells in each hand.’

  The blonde bloke opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he heard a voice speak quietly from behind him.

  ‘Do your legs run as fast as your mouth?’

  The blonde snapped around and found Max right behind him. Max’s cool blue eyes speared back at him.

  ‘They’ll run all over you, mate,’ the blonde answered, his face scrunching up.

  The group turned to focus on the two men as the blonde squared up on Max, who remained stock still, his bulky shoulders tense.

  ‘Stay with me, boys!’ Kris called out, a faint smile fluttering on her face. Max walked past the blonde, revealing Peter who was standing behind him. A grin split Peter’s face. The blonde sneered at him and turned to follow the group as they returned their attention to Kris. ‘Station five is a rope pull. You’ve all got a twenty kilo plate at the end of a twenty metre rope. Haul that rope in as fast as you can and then run it back out the other way and do it again. You got twenty to do.’

  Kris paused and let the group stand there for a moment as they visually imagined doing the exercise Kris had just explained. Glancing at the blonde, she found his demeanour far more serious now that Max had geed him up. As for Max, he looked like he always did. Rock solid. This was going to be very interesting.

  ‘On we go,’ she said. ‘Station six is ten burpees, but none of your standard, easy peasy burpees. For these I want you doing a handstand press instead of jumping up into the air and a proper man push up when you’re on the ground. If you need help with your handstands, there’ll be some more of my friendly helpers here to catch your ankles.’

  Kris led the group around the last curve of the four hundred metre course and back to where they had started. Looking up, she saw two of the black armoured Land Cruisers coming to a stop next to the trucks. Body guards piled out first and then she recognised Prime Minister Tollsen emerge from the back seat of the first vehicle.

  ‘And station seven is some good old fashioned muscle ups,’ Kris called out, coming to a stop at a collection of horizontal bars high off the ground. ‘The bars are nine feet off the ground, so your feet will be clear of the turf when you’re hanging and if you can’t get your big, manly bodies off the ground and up to the bar, there will be the usual friendly helpers around to give you a milk crate for assistance, but I don’t think any of you will be asking for help will you?’

  Silence.

  ‘Then, to finish off,’ Kris added as she watched the Prime Minister start walking towards her, ‘a sprint. Here to the far end and back again. It’s two hundred metres and when you get back here after your sprints, haul arse right back into station one for your squat jumps again, unless if it’s circuit three, in which case you’re done. Clear?’

  More silence.

  ‘Good,’ Kris called out, clapping her hands. ‘You’ve got three minutes to get ready before being over there on the starting line, so stretch up and I’ll see you in a tick. If you’re not there when I blow the whistle to start, you’re out.’

  The group slowly moved closer to the starting line and began preparing for the challenge. Max held off towards the back of the pack and found some space on his own. Kris couldn’t help but notice the blonde guy staring him down. Max was oblivious.

  ‘It’s Kris isn’t it?’ the Prime Minister asked, stepping forward and extending a hand.’

  ‘Ah...yes,’ Kris replied, woodenly accepting the handshake. ‘It is.’

  ‘Nice to meet you and please, call me Joe,’ the Prime Minister replied. ‘I think we’re going to get to know each other well enough to be first name friends.’

  ‘Okay, Joe. Nice to meet you too.’

  ‘How do you think Max is going to go against these chaps?’ Joe asked, waving his hand towards the limbering young men.

  ‘Well, sir, ordinarily I’d say this is a pretty formidable bunch of blokes to race against...’

  ‘Ordinarily?’ the Prime Minister interrupted.

  ‘Yes, sir. Ordinarily, but I don’t think there’s anything ordinary about Max,’ Kris replied, turning to look at Max who was standing stationery on the starting line, hands down by his sides and his stance wide. ‘Fair enough I’ve only seen him in action once, but that was freakish. I’ve never even heard of anyone doing what he did and then there’s the way he moves. Everything he does has purpose. He doesn’t waste his movements and when I think about it, I can’t recall ever seeing him look even a little bit awkward in any way.’

  ‘You think he’ll beat all these stallions?’ the Prime Minister asked, looking her squarely in the eye.

  Kris returned the look. ‘Joe, I don’t think he’s going to just beat them. I think he’s going to blow them away.’

  A pause ensued as they both looked at Max, still standing like a stone pillar at the starting line. The blonde guy stepped right up next to him, brushing Max’s shoulder. Neither man turned to look at the other, but Kris knew that daggers were flying in their minds.

  Joe smiled. ‘Let’s just hope they all behave themselves. Nice to meet you,’ he said as he walked back to a safe place just past the finishing line.

  Kris watched her Prime Minister walk away, his body guards discretely forming a wide perimeter around him. She looked down at her watch. The three minutes were up.

  ‘Show time, boys!’ Kris called out.

  The men all lined up at the start with Max in the middle. A little bit of jostling took place, so Kris gave them a few seconds to settle in. She then placed her whistle between her lips. Max had not moved. All of the other men stood crouched in some shape or form, but he simply stood upright, his feet planted. Then she blew the whistle.

  All ten soldiers launched off the starting line in a dead sprint to the first station, their feet thundering on the turf. Kris squinted. One man had stayed behind. Max, absolutely unmoved. Kris took the whistle from her mouth and walked slowly over.

  ‘What’s going on, Max?’ she asked casually. ‘Forget something?’

  ‘You mean the bit about this being a race?’ Max asked back.

  ‘Yeah. It was kind of an important bit,’ Kris answered. ‘How much start are you going to give them?’

  ‘I figure the first circuit should make it fair.’

  Kris looked silently at him as he held poised, his attention zeroed on his competitors. Kris also turned and looked at the pack, who were mostly finishing up their squat jumps with the front runner legging it towards Station Two, closely followed by the blonde in second place.

  ‘Okay. It’s your call,’ she said. ‘See you at the end.’

  Kris walked away to the finish line to watch the race unfold. As she stood there, Kris reflected on how surreal all this was. Here she stood, at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, staying at a billionaire’s horse stud estate, watching a pack of human stallions tear around a cross fit circuit, so she could bench mark her new client that in six months time was going to battle to the death against an assortment of aliens in an attempt to save humanity from extraterrestrial annihilation. It was just plain ridiculous, but underneath it all, she was scared, very scared.

  Right now though, Kris held her fears in check. She was in control, but still they buzzed away in the background, incessantly. There were times though, mostly at night or when Kris was alone and it was quiet, that her thoughts slipped their chains and went wild. That was when the shakes came, followed by the tears and the roar in her head, like breakers on a beach, crashing over her. One after the other after the other. Relentless and never stopping.

  ‘You alright?’ E
lsa asked as she came up beside Kris.

  Kris’ head snapped up. ‘Yeah. Why?’ she asked quickly.

  ‘Looked like you were somewhere else.’

  Kris shook her head. ‘No, I was just thinking it’s not every day you get to meet the Prime Minister.’

  ‘You can say that again,’ Elsa said, casting a glance over her shoulder at Joe. ‘So, what’s Max doing? Why are you giving everyone else such a big head start?’

  ‘Nothing to do with me. It’s all his idea.’

  ‘Oh, so it’s probably right about now I should tell you he’s pretty competitive.’

  ‘A lot like you then?’ Kris said smiling and playfully elbowing Elsa in the arm.

  ‘Yeah, we’re great role models for our kids.’

  ‘They couldn’t have any better,’ Kris said, her smile softening as she looked at Elsa.

  Elsa returned the look and then turned back to the circuit. Both women watched as the group of men pushed themselves through the exercises, the leaders going as hard as they could and the back runners now just pacing themselves, so they could at least keep their dignity by simply completing the course and not failing to finish.

  Meanwhile, Max stood unmoved on the starting line, watching the blonde guy drop from the overhead bar at station seven, his muscle ups done. The blonde then turned to begin his two hundred metre sprint to finish his first circuit. Fifty metres down the track he passed the front runner and moved into the lead.

  ‘He’s pretty fit this blondey,’ Elsa said. ‘He’s almost one circuit in and still looks keen.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s got some go. I agree with that.’

  ‘You reckon Max can still take him with this head start?’

  Kris turned to look at Max who now had a firm bead on the blonde, his gaze fixed on him as he turned at the other end to start running back.

  ‘Elsa, I think he’s going to downright embarrass him.’

  ‘Wow! You think Max is that good?’

  ‘There’s something special about your husband,’ Kris replied. ‘He’s got something I’ve never seen before and I reckon we’re in for a real show here.’

  Kris also turned to look at her husband, who was now starting to tense up as the blonde approached the finish line.

  ‘Strap yourself in,’ Kris said as the blonde charged past them, sweat streaming off him. ‘We’re off.’

  The blonde guy straightened as he ran towards Max, his eyes drilling into his adversary’s. As he pounded past the starting line, Max launched as well and in a split second, he was ahead of the blonde and into his squat jumps.

  All ten hurdles were lined up in close sequence like a condensed hurdle course. All the other competitors had squat jumped over each hurdle with a couple of small hops in between each. Not Max. He bounded cleanly over each one without pausing or slowing down, one at a time and if anything, got faster as he progressed. Within seconds he was sprinting away to station two, while the blonde had just jumped over the second hurdle.

  ‘Did you see...’ Elsa started.

  ‘Yes, I did,’ Kris finished.

  Now Max was down and doing his push ups. As he dropped to the ground, one of the assistants placed a twenty kilo weight plate on his back, which made absolutely no difference. In just over half a minute, he had ripped through all thirty push ups, shrugged the weight plate off his back like a rag and sped off towards station three. The blonde was just struggling over the last hurdle.

  ‘Max will hit the wall somewhere won’t he?’ Elsa asked.

  ‘Don’t count on it,’ Kris returned.

  Now Max was into his clean and jerks. No sooner had he stopped in front of his barbell and he had flicked it up over his head as he squatted down. In the blink of an eye, Max straightened to full height and then thrown the barbell back down to his feet. In a matter of seconds, Max had completed all ten and was off again.

  ‘How heavy are those barbells?’ Elsa asked.

  ‘Fifteen on each end plus a ten kilo bar, so forty kilos all up.’

  ‘And he just threw it around like it was made of plastic.’

  ‘We should be paying money to watch this,’ Kris replied.

  By the time Kris had finished her sentence, Max had picked up both his fifteen kilo dumbbells at station four and launched into his leaping lunges. The complete set lasted only a few more seconds as Max’s pace failed to slacken. By now the blonde was halfway through his push ups, pain etched into his face.

  As Max picked up the end of his rope at station five, he had caught up to the stragglers in the race. The two last placed competitors were methodically pulling their ropes in one hand over another, with no intention of breaking any speed records. One of them even stopped and put his hands on his hips to watch Max haul his rope in so fast, the twenty kilo plate at the end bounced and skittered across the grass. Max finished his twentieth repetition before the other, still trying competitor had got halfway through his set.

  Station six still had three other men at it, struggling through Kris’ signature burpee set. Each of them had stopped at least once mid set to rest, but when Max joined them, it didn’t take long for them all to stop and just watch him. Max hurled himself into the exercises, his power and balance eye-popping. Every competitor so far had needed help at some stage to hold their balance in the handstand position, but not Max. He went from push up position on the ground to inverting himself better than any seasoned acrobat, the handstand press not slowing him down in the slightest. In less than half a minute, Max had smashed out all ten burpees and was up and running again, leaving the other three men watching him power away.

  ‘Most people hate even thinking about doing your special burpees,’ Elsa said, ‘but he just ate them up.’

  ‘I suspect he even enjoyed them,’ Kris said.

  Max charged into station seven just as fast as he had entered station one. Muscle ups. An elite bodyweight exercise that tested even the fittest and strongest of people. If there was any true test of individual strength, this was it. Max ripped through his set of ten in less than thirty seconds.

  ‘He did it again,’ Elsa said.

  ‘Yeah. It’s a bad joke,’ Kris replied.

  As Max dropped to the ground, he left another competitor dangling and struggling on his bar. Only four other men lay ahead of him. Turning to start sprinting to the other end of the circuit, Max shot a glance across to where the blonde was just finishing his second round of clean and jerks, the man still going as hard as he could, but clearly labouring.

  And he was off. Max legged it like no one Kris had ever seen run before, his arms and legs pumping like pistons. His entire body transformed into a machine, more train-like than human being. Back straight and stride long, Max tore across the turf. Kris felt her mouth gaping.

  Then Max turned to come back and Kris’ gaze stayed glued to him, hypnotised by his motion. Max screamed past two other competitors on the way back like they were out for a casual jog. One of them even shied away as he burned past. Then he was back at the finishing line and the ground thundered as he ran past Kris and Elsa, heading straight back into the hurdle squat jumps, his pace no slower than the first time he did them.

  Kris pried her eyes off Max and thought inwardly for a moment. Yes, Max’s performance was nothing short of astonishing, but his efforts were too regular, too even. He was pacing himself, which meant only one thing. He was holding back.

  Looking up, Kris watched Max drop into his push ups, leaving his ninth competitor on the squat jumps. Kris then swung her gaze around the surrounds of the circuit and reality slapped her hard. Every single person in line of sight to the course had stopped to watch Max. All of the patrolling soldiers, all the helicopter pilots lounging nearby and even all of the security detail who should have been watching every other way, had halted to gawk. Everyone was fixated on him. That confirmed how she herself felt. In awe.

  ‘Yes, he has everyone’s attention,’ a voice said behind her.

  Kris turned to see Prime Minister Tollsen st
ep up next to her. ‘You got that right, sir, I mean, Joe,’ Kris stammered.

  ‘I suspect he’s just about to bruise that chap’s ego too,’ Joe said, nodding towards the blonde who was grunting his way through his first few burpees, just as Max powered through his second set of clean and jerks.

  ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a real tragedy,’ Kris drawled.

  Joe smiled.

  Max scooped up his dumbbells at station four and launched into his leaping lunges, the spring in his step as fresh as his first. Kris flicked her gaze to the blonde who was still straining his way through his burpees, even with an assistant helping him to keep his balance with every handstand press.

  Then Max was with him. He stormed into the station and literally dived forward onto the ground and straight into a push up. In an instant he was inverted and doing his handstand press. The blonde sneered, but to his credit kept going as hard as he could. As both men competed at their own pace, Max caught up to the blonde and they both finished at the same time, rising to their feet and coming face to face.

  ‘Who are you?’ the blonde shouted at him. ‘What are you on?’

  Max paused and looked at him. It was like chalk and cheese, the difference in stature of the two men. The shirtless, blonde stood half hunched over and breathing hard, while Max held himself firm and upright, his chest rising and falling steadily, but not heaving, a light sweat over his tanned skin.

  Then Max took everyone by surprise, not least of all the blonde, as he bent down, drove forwards and in the blink of an eye, picked the blonde up and draped him over his shoulders. An instant later Max was off and running to station six where the first two competitors he had passed were still sitting down watching the show.

  Coming into the station, Max thundered to a halt and virtually threw the blonde off his shoulders and down to the feet of his fellow soldiers. The blonde stumbled around and made to get to his feet to attack Max, but the other soldiers grabbed him and held him back, smiles on their faces. Max ignored the ruckus and grabbed the nearest rope to start dragging it in like there was a paper weight on the end and not a twenty kilo plate.