17 Training

I came next to G and shake him by his shoulders.

"Hey bro, let's go"

The golden light I saw yesterday was nowhere to be found.

"I'm tired… not yet".

He ignored me and rolled to face the backrest.

"We need to go now it's sunrise already."

I fought to wake him up until he surrendered, when he got up, just as the days before for some reason he looked awful.

We left the house, and I noticed while the sun was coming out, the golden light appeared as well.

"You feel better?".

"Now that you mention it, I'm feeling much better than before". His face didn't look like before, the dark eyes circles disappeared and the tiredness you could see before wasn't there.

"Your power is definitely sun related then".

I already had that theory, but there was still something else for the mission to be completed.

We moved fast to his house and I was surprised by all the equipment he had. I haven't come here too much in the last couple of years since we usually hang out at my place and I was going to college in another city.

We took all kinds of protectors, a sandbag, a speedball, no idea the name of some of the things he took, a couple of weights, ropes.

I was wondering how we were going to carry all that stuff.

But I got the answer when we were about to leave. I could see how he took all the heavy stuff easily, I took the protectors the rope and the speedball… the light stuff.

Each time he moved the golden light moved too, then thanks to the medical skill I noticed that the movement of the light was the same as the muscles he used in every movement.

And it came to me

[Ding]

[Mission Completed: Figure out the changes in your group

Reward: 25 system points, Int/Wis +2]

"I get it!"

G looked at me just when we were about to leave the place.

"What you get?"

"Your power!! Let's go back, I'll explain it to you later".

We went back faster than we came, it took a lot of me to follow G's pace.

We came into the house and Hope was waiting for us, she made a relaxed face when saw us, and it changed to surprise when noticed all the stuff G was carrying.

We went to the backyard and started to install the equipment. We finished and joined Hope in the living room.

We had a little reunion that morning since Hope and G couldn't talk directly to Hayley we used Dante's mental connection to talk with her.

We decided to take it easy until Rose wakes up.

We will not leave the house to look for supplies, what we already have should last about a month, we made turns to take care of Rose, it's not like something was going to happen but it was better for someone to be always by her side, just in case.

Dante was going to be on the roof to keep an eye while taking sun, he said he was tired, and he indeed needed to rest so I let him do whatever he wanted.

I went to my room to take some clothes for workout, when I checked my pockets the necklace and the hairpin were there.

I put the necklace to Rose and caressed her hair a little and checked if everything was ok again, then I went to change in the bathroom.

Afterward, I joined G, and the training start.

Since going out to run he made some routines of aerobic exercises, after the warm-up he gave me one of the ropes and told me to start jumping, it was the beginning of a lot of different exercises.

I followed his instructions, when I was in high school, I used to swim to stay in shape, but I stopped when I got into college and started running in time to time. It's been a while since I worked out hard and was grateful to the system for the extra endurance points.

After half an hour what G called "the real training" started. He showed me the correct positions and made me throw punches to the sandbag while he was holding it… I couldn't even move it till he let it go.

"Now tell me what you meant earlier" I understood he wanted to know about his power.

"It's really simple… you get the energy (… huff) from the sun,… this… reinforce your muscles… when you use them".

"Really? I don't feel different thought"

"I don't believe that… (ha!) … You were able to carry all that stuff before".

"It wasn't that heavy"

"It was at least 80 kg… and you bring it… like if it was nothing, your muscles… were reinforced while you carried everything"

"So that's my power, I'm kind super strong?"

Breathing and talking were messing my rhythm so I stopped a couple of seconds to finish the talk.

"Maybe the energy has more uses, but you are not able to use it yet".

"If it just reinforces me, why it hurts when I'm not moving"

"I think that you can't save the energy you get, so if you don't use it, it starts to accumulate".

"Then I Absorb energy all day long and I have to use it, or I explode?"

"Yes… not explode, but that's the idea, maybe you faint until you deplete the extra energy in the night or something like that"

"It's a really bad power don't you think?"

"At least we know you can fight better, who knows, maybe when your body gets used to the energy you will be able to store it, I think it's movement is smoother than yesterday."

"That would be awesome… the break is over, keep throwing punches… Dante hits harder than you".

I resumed the exercises and then changed to the speedball, after teaching me the technique G went to the sandbag and after hitting it, it went 5 times farther than when I hit it, I was scared that he would break it.

Afterward the last 10 mins he grabbed a couple of pads and we started a kind of sparring I had to hit the pads with some combinations that he told me.

Suddenly he made a different movement and the pad was getting bigger in my sight, I bend to a side and it grazed my face. I jumped back to leave his range, but he followed me and was about to hit me.

I couldn't dodge so I tried to block. It hurt like hell, and it pushes me back, my wound stung a little this time. He saw my pained face and stopped.

"Calm down bro, remember my wound"

"S**t, sorry Spence I thought that if I push you hard it was going to be better for you".

"After my wound heals I have no problem with that, but let's take it easy for now". At that moment I didn't know how much I was going to regret those words.

I checked the wound, and everything was ok, we continued as before, but this time he just tried to hit me a couple of times, but it wasn't as hard or as fast as before.

After we finished, I have my shirt soaked in sweat, a question came to me.

'How are we going to clean ourselves?'

This was not as bad as the toilet situation, but it was annoying anyway.

Everything that was so normal before the change, now was a problem. The girls probably noticed yesterday, but there is no solution unless we go to a lake or a river, the bottled water we have it's only for drinks.

About the toilet when I thought about it, I discovered that it was among the first things G have done, he dug a hole outside and used some wood we found to make a little bathroom next to the wall to use for a couple of days, the smell is horrible, but it's better than nothing.

In another part of the backyard, he was going to build a bigger one and was making a bigger hole to make a septic tank that should be more hygienic.

I'll talk to him to see if he has any ideas to make a shower or something similar but the water source it's the main problem for that.

I put on a new shirt after I dried the sweat with a towel and put deodorant on for the smell.

Every detail can become a survival problem, probably we are going to be ok for a month here. If I got enough system points I'm going to be able to keep everyone from starving, but we need a better plan and a better place, one with water and food. Hayley's presence is complicated because we can't join other groups and probably can't even walk from here together, and leaving her alone wasn't an option.

I need her to control that aura in some way, or at least to make it bearable enough for G and Hope to be in the same room with her.

While I was thinking about our next steps.

'Hey, someone is on the street coming~'

I went inside to the living room and looked outside.

A person stopped in front of the house and looked like if he is thinking about something.

Hope and G noticed me and I told them that someone was outside, Hope didn't leave and G took out his revolver just in case.

Then I recognized the figure outside.

"Everything is ok", that seemed to help them relax, but we kept the guard up just in case.

I went to the door and just as a knock was heard I opened.

"It's been a while, Mr. Ryan"