Max Arena (11 page)

‘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?’
Elsa 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 step 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.

As the blonde
continued to rant and rave at him, Max completed his set and then
sprinted into the muscle ups station. Kris jogged across to the bar
where Max was rhythmically pulling himself up and down and stood
next to him.

‘Hey, you’re
holding back,’ she said quietly. ‘Don’t.’

Max dropped to
the ground, his set finished.

‘Okay,’ he
mumbled back without looking at her and launched away.

Kris watched
him turn the corner and go. Max’s first sprint had been awesome,
but this time it was unbelievable. Kris froze in her tracks. Even
fifty metres away, she could feel the vibrations in the ground as
he tore across the grass. Goose bumps rose on her skin. If things
had been surreal before, the strangeness had just ratcheted up to a
whole new level.

Max turned and
sprinted back and without breaking stride, launched into his third
set of hurdle squat jumps. By now, all ten competitors had stopped
and were congregating in the middle of the circuit. Even the blonde
had settled down and was sulkily watching the show. Some of them
had even started to cheer Max on.

‘So much for
the race?’ Elsa said.

‘He’s not done
yet,’ Kris replied.

‘Is he getting
faster?’ Elsa asked.

‘Like I said,
he’s not done yet.’

By now Max was
into his last set of push ups and he’d even told the assistant to
drop a second weight plate onto his back. Then he was into the
clean and jerks and now instead of just springing up from the squat
to stand, he was actually jumping with the barbell overhead.

‘Is he meant to
be doing that?’ Elsa asked slowly.