"Eddy...?"
"Yes Brett?"
Firefighter Brett felt very awkward saying anything to his colleague since the owl-retrieval incident but this, what he and Eddy witnessed in front of their eyes was just too weird not to bring up. And this time around it wasn't just the 2 of them either. A large number of their firefighter colleagues were with them and they were all finding it rather amusing to see another set of "Brett and Eddy" as their instructors.
"Mate, are you guys related?"
"Mate, that's some weird family tradition if they were given the same names?"
"This is rather strange..."
"They look so alike..?"
"Look... those guys have their surnames stitched onto their uniforms? OMG they have the same surnames too?!"
Instructor Eddy first couldn't work out what their students were talking about until he noticed they were fussing over two firefighters, claiming that they looked a lot like himself and Instructor Brett. Instructor Eddy couldn't tell if he looked like the taller firefighter in question but he had to agree that the shorter looked a lot like the Brett he knew. He glanced over at Instructor Brett who was looking back at him and raised his eyebrow. Instructor Brett then raised his voice.
"We are warming up!! Two lines!! Each line nominates its heaviest person. We are running a relay race, running with that person on your shoulders, up to this line, then back, change, till all had a lap each. Then nominate the lightest person and repeat!!! Ready ?"
Instructor Brett's instructions were fast, straight to the point and commanded urgency.
"Well Eddy, you're up at the front then, mate."
Firefighter Brett saw Firefighter Eddy get pushed towards the front of their line by their colleagues. Eddy had up kept his workout regime from when he was chosen to be calendar boy for the fire brigade fundraising so he was one of the most muscular and heaviest in today's participating group.
"Okay, are we ready? START!!!"
As soon as Instructor Brett gave the command, the firefighter standing first in line hoisted Eddy up onto his shoulders and started running. There were two lines and as two men started running each with a man on their shoulders, the rest of the men on standby in their lines were cheering, their roars deafening.
Brett was getting tense. He had done similar training before but it's been a while since he'd tried to lift Eddy's bodyweight. Brett was third in line.
When Eddy returned for the 2nd time from the relay and it was Brett's turn to run, Brett decided he'd try his best to just focus on the task at hand. He grabbed Eddy's arm and pulled him onto his shoulders and started running. Ignoring the fact that he was grabbing hold of his wrist. Ignoring the fact that his shoulders were making contact with Eddy's chest. Ignoring the fact that Eddy was so heavy, he could've easily collapsed on the spot.
Brett grimaced at his speed or lack of it. His colleagues had been much faster to move and he felt he had to pick up his game.
Eddy let his voice rattle as he was carried by Brett as he whimpered;
"Brrrreeeeetttttt... I'm slowing you down. We're not gonna make it at this speed. Just drop and leave me, I don't want you to die..."
Brett grunted.
"Shut the f*ck up Eddy, you should know by now that I would never do that."
And Brett ran back at double speed on his return. Once he passed Eddy onto the next runner, he leaned forward to grab his knees and heaved to breathe.
Instructor Eddy sidled up to Instructor Brett.
"Um.. Brett?"
"Yeah?"
"That guy in the row closer to us... the one that just carried the big guy... the one hunched over panting ..."
"Yeah?"
"Doesn't he look an awful lot like you?"
"...What?"
Firefighter Brett felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders.
"You alright?"
"Yeah... I'm fine."
"Well you can rest for the next round, we're carrying you after this"
"...What?"
"Remember? The second race is the lightest guy in the line. That's you. It's about to start. I wanna get ready so I can start as soon as the last guy returns with Eddy."
"Oh sh*t."
Brett was hoisted up onto his colleague's shoulders. The colleague who had returned running with Eddy on his shoulders went past him as Brett's carrier started to run. Brett managed to catch a glimpse of Eddy in the corner of his eye, Eddy was grinning and waving at him. Brett grimaced and dreaded Eddy's turn to carry him.
Eddy was anchor, the last runner. He hadn't carried anyone as he was the dead weight for the first half of the race and was therefore pumped for his turn. As soon as Brett was placed back on the floor by the second last runner, Eddy quickly hosted him up over his shoulders and made a dash for it. It seemed like Eddy didn't even feel any weight on his shoulders.
"Oh sh*t...!!"
"You're right, I gotcha.."
Eddy sprinted. He minimised his up and down movements so that Brett wasn't rattling along. It was the most smooth and comfortable ride Brett had amongst all the runners.
Brett felt bad for Eddy. As his partner, Brett may not be able to ever carry him and run as fast as Eddy could with Brett.
I'll have to train so that I can carry and run with him.. I don't want to be in a situation where I couldn't save him because I couldn't lift him out from somewhere fast enough. That would be so bad if it ever happened, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself...