Between Two Skies

chapter seventeen

I hadn't left my room for days now. Except for when I was sent back out to be a spy.

The word spy tasted bitter in my mouth. I pushed the thought away immediately.

Most of my time was spent training inside my room. I had watched enough combat drills on the base to know the basics. It made it easier to copy what I had seen. I focused on building discipline, muscle, endurance, and confidence. If my mind was weak, then my body would have to become strong first.

Once, I sneaked out to the gym on the base.

It surprised me how many rooms existed up here. Endless corridors, hidden levels, entire sections you could get lost in. The gym was one of them. Which explained why everyone here looked so ridiculously ripped.

A barbell caught my attention first.

I remembered Quaritch telling me the bar itself weighed twenty kilograms, but lifting only the bar felt embarrassing. So I added ten more. Five on each side.

I decided to start with bench press.

I lay down on the bench and lifted the bar from the rack, exhaling shakily. I lowered it carefully to my chest, then tried to push it back up.

It didn't budge.

I grunted, arms trembling. Then suddenly the weight lifted off me effortlessly and clicked back into the rack.

I sat up fast and turned around.

"Lyle?" I swallowed. "What are you doing here so late?"

"Same question goes to you."

"I'm just messing around."

"Yeah, I can tell," he scoffed. "Who bench presses like that? You look like a—"

I rolled my eyes and started getting up.

"Wait," he said. "Try again."

I sighed and lay back down, gripping the bar again. I lowered it to my chest. When I tried to lift it, my arms shook violently. Lyle placed his hands lightly on the bar.

"What the hell?" I snapped, holding my breath.

"Push."

I tried, but my strength gave out and the bar started dropping. He immediately caught it and lifted it back into place.

"You're weak," he said flatly.

"No shit, Sherlock."

He flexed dramatically and kissed his biceps.

"Ugh," I groaned, closing my eyes.

"Okay, now get out," he said. "Go sleep before I tell Quaritch."

"Before I tell Quaritch," I mocked in a high voice, making a stupid face as I left the gym.

The gym wasn't the only place I trained.

During the day, I trained on Pandora itself. Running. Climbing. Jumping. Using the terrain like an obstacle course. Honestly, it beat any gym equipment. Who needed weights when you had an entire planet trying to kill you?

Quaritch allowed me to go out as long as I stayed away from the Sullys and behaved.

Which still confused me. Who exactly was I supposed to spy on if I couldn't go near them? Maybe he just wanted locations, animal patterns, terrain mapping. He had people sketching everything constantly.

I even found a bow with two arrows once. Probably left behind by a fallen Na'vi. I reused those same two arrows over and over. I missed every time and had to run after them endlessly.