Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter Fifty Eight - Advancing in These Times

One of the rooms in the east side of the property happened to be used as a small gym; set up with a treadmill, cross trainer, exercise bike, rowing machine and one of those large, gym balls that happened to be deep purple in colour.  There were also some small weights, not dumbbells nor barbells, just something with a minor mass to be held or attached to wrists and legs while exercising and other small pieces of equipment.  The treadmill could no longer be used and the gym ball had been wedged into a corner, but the rest still had some function, even if the electronic parts were pointless. 

Desperate for something to do, especially when the storm had been swirling around the property, this had become a den heavy with testosterone of late.  Currently, Harry was stretching his calf muscles having finished a long round upon the exercise bike, while Arthur was upon the rowing machine and Winston was jumping rope.  Cole entered the room and gave the others a curt nod before strapping on some weights and approaching the bike.

"Not hanging out with Chang Min?" Arthur asked, but there was a hint of subtext to his words.  Cole raised an eyebrow in response to his tone, but shook his head regardless.

"Chang Min had something to do," Cole replied, shortly.

Harry didn't understand the inflexion in Arthur's tone either, but thought it had to have something to do with the whole meditation-cultivation thing.  Cole had awoken abilities that were not dissimilar to the ones Chang Min had, so it really was not surprising that Ren Zexian thought Cole should learn from him. Besides, Ren Zexian was one man, there was only so many people he could teach his knowledge to at anyone time. That and recently, most of his time had been spent with Nathan.

"Hey, do you think that Ren and Nathan ever will...you know, cross the line," Harry mused, aloud.

"Get it on?" Winston grinned, lewdly between heavy breaths as he took a break. Sweat beaded across his brow and he swept his hand through his frizzy black hair, before thinking that he seriously needed a cut. "Hard to imagine, really. Hey, who do you think would be on top?"

Arthur rose to his feet, abandoning his work out with heavy sounding words; "I'm not homophobic or anything, but doesn't mean I want to imagine that kind of thing between guys!" Winston and Harry simply laughed, in reality, they joked about it, but couldn't imagine nor wanted to imagine about it either! Sex aside, they thought Ren Zexian and Nathan made a saccharine sweet picture when together and had no ill thoughts about their relationship.

"Ren'll be on top," Cole suddenly added nonchalantly, drawing glances his way and an awkward pause.  Cole ignored them all, continuing to cycle upon the bike as they groped around for a different topic or at least some small talk to gloss over the previous one.  Suddenly, Cole stopped moving and shuddered inwardly, rubbing briskly at his arms.

A sense of deja vu whispered over Harry, whose brown eyes were trained on the odd motions.  "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think," Cole responded, though his brows were furrowed.

Arthur slipped out of the gym room, heading towards the bathroom; he wouldn't be able to bathe, not his turn, but there was usually enough spare water that he could wash up a bit with soap and a cloth.  As he reached the stairs, a foggy black shape appeared then vanished again before reappearing upon the landing and bounding down the hall.  Not thinking much of it, he ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, before having to pause at the top as the little guy, Patrick rushed past.

"Sorry!" The flaxen-haired man apologised as he rubbed at his arms and headed in the same direction as the hound. 

Arthur was an observant man, it helped to be so in the force, after all, he realised that something odd was happening.  Actually, despite seeming to adapt well to the changes that had occurred since the end, deep down he was very uncomfortable about it all.  He joined the police as to have some sense of control after experiencing crime as a victim; nothing major, a burglary within his parents home when he was twelve.  Coming home, seeing his room turned upside down and his console missing wasn't much compared to what his parents must have felt.  And it was nothing compared to other crimes he'd dealt with in the aftermath.