Killer Empire

Chapter 17

With her clipboard and pen in hand, she led Devora over to where the treadmills were. After going through a few stretching exercises with her to prep her for the run, she gestured at the machine, implying for her to get on.

"We'll start easy," she said, fiddling with the buttons on the sports equipment. "Three miles. I'll let you adjust the speed according to what you're comfortable with but let's aim for forty minutes. That should be easy for a beginner like you, right?"

Scribbling madly on her clipboard, Candice kept her eyes glued on Devora as the latter fixed a speed for herself to start off with. Once Devora was ready, her finger hovered over the start button. She cast a glance over at Candice, waiting for the blonde to give her a signal.

"Alright," Candice huffed out. "And your time starts now."

♕♕♕

Her timing was awful.

The first mile passed by perfectly. Devora had paced herself to make sure she would be able to meet both Candice's standards in regards to time and also make it to the end of the entire course. However, she didn't think that her body would buckle so soon. By the time she made it to the last mile, her legs burned and ached. She had forgotten about the wound that was just recently bandaged and had depended on her injured leg too much. As a result, the wound reopened and she had bled all over her pants.

Due to the pain of her wound, her speed got slower and slower. Ultimately, she spent the last mile walking instead of running or jogging. She had also gritted her teeth through the pain, refusing to voice out her discomfort. Hence, Candice, who was busy with writing down comments on her clipboard and offering tips to Leah who had entered the gym sometime during Devora's run, hadn't noticed something was off.

One of her pant legs were soaked through with blood by the time she had stopped. She hobbled off the treadmill like a newborn fawn, her legs wiggling like a plate of jelly before collapsing on the floor in a thud.

"Geez," Candice clicked her tongue under her breath. She had been on the other side of the room, coaching Leah with knife throws. When she noticed that Devora was finally done with her three miles, she made her way over. "You're finally done. Even my grandmother could run faster than you and the poor woman's already six feet under, God bless her soul."

On the floor, Devora made a gurgled groan in response.

Her eyes were shut, squeezed tightly together as she struggled to regulate her breathing. At the back of her head, she could faintly recall the words of her school's fitness teacher barking out reminders to not lie down after a bout of intense exercise. However, she couldn't find the strength in her muscles to stand back up. Her shoulders heaved up and down as she sucked in breath after breath but no matter how much she tried to breathe, the oxygen didn't seem to stay.

"You're going to kill her at this rate."

Through her hazy vision, she could faintly make out the silhouette of three newcomers entering the gym when she cracked one eye open. One of them walked over faster than Candice could, one of his hands gently pulling Devora up to her feet before leading her to the seat of an exercise equipment.

"Drink," the mysterious person instructed, shoving an opened bottle of water into her hands.

Instantly, Devora chugged the drink down like it was her last safety line. The bottle was emptied in seconds, water trickling down the sides of her mouth in her haste. Once she was done, her lips parted from the bottle with a soft 'pop', sighing loudly in satisfaction.

"Is this how you're taking care of my partner?" Devora couldn't quite see yet as her vision was still hazy. However, she was sure it was Nathan that spoke this time. "Maybe I should drop Cain a message to let him know you're planning on murdering his new recruits."