There was nothing in recent memory which compared to the feeling of abundance and freedom which came with running laps around the exercise area. I had stopped counting the laps after the fourth and instead had simply let my body continue propelling me forward. I was moving at the same steady pace I started; the exercise area trailing by me along with the other teenagers and Pied Piper officers. At first I expected my body to kick up a fuss about what I was putting it through; inevitably there would be a stitch, overheating, exhaustion; it had already been such a long day of conversations, violence, moving around, there simply had to be a limit to what my body could handle without proper rest. Or so I thought.

I could push myself even further, I thought to myself. I decided against it. What I was already doing was incredible and obviously superhuman, it was more than enough and I didn't have to push my body even harder.

A few laps later I checked my Meter. It had turned green.

"Oh," I said, feeling kind of disappointed. It would've been nice to keep going.

My body, still tense like a coiled spring, was aching to get moving again. I could try and power down, I thought. But no, I didn't want to do that yet. I wasn't eager to return to my uncomfortable mattress and pillow, not when the simple act of running; coasting along like a breeze brought a satisfying, euphoria-like feeling too good to pass up.

I set off again. I was sweating, but it was a steady, regulated kind of sweat that wasn't threatening to become like the sunburn state Tiffany and I had endured last time.

Several laps later I noticed the sound of my feet slapping the floor. Where had my plimsolls gone? I kept jogging and looked around and saw they had flung off near the exercise area entrance. How long ago had that happened? How come I didn't notice? I picked them up on my way round and held one plimsoll in each hand, imagining them to be little weights to add to the mammoth exercise I was already doing.

It felt better to run barefoot anyway. I wondered how long I had been jogging? An hour, maybe? I had stopped paying attention to the people around me and still didn't care to see who was around beyond a vague glance round the exercise area; there were a dozen less teenagers than when I first came in.

At some point jogging round, and around, I just let my mind switch off. This in itself might as well have been a superhuman feat. Switching off my mind and not fretting about something was close to impossible for me; yet I could do it in the flow state of running. I didn't even feel bored.

One must imagine the hamster on the wheel happy.

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A little while later I saw a familiar face. It was Tiffany.

"Hey!" I said, raising a friendly hand and passing her by.

"Burgess! Hold on!" she said.

"Come on!" I said, ushering for her to keep up with me.

Tiffany broke into a jog and matched my pace. She looked down at me with concern.

"Burgess, stop running," she said.

"Why?" I said.

Tiffany started to flag behind. She wasn't coiled like me so she had to put in the extra effort to match my ever-steady pace.

"Because!" said Tiffany, huffing, "You've been running for eight hours!"

I chuckled, "Yeah, sure!" I said.

Tiffany grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me to a stop. She was pretty strong. I started jogging on the spot to keep the momentum going, tugging my wrist from her grip.

"What are you doing?" I said.

"Burgess," she said, "I mean it. You've been running all night. Look around you!"

Still jogging on the spot I glanced around. Where was everybody? The exercise area had just a handful of teenagers and only two Pied Piper officers. This didn't make sense. I had just seen them. I had glanced around and saw plenty of people. Had they all left at once?

Tiffany put her hands on my shoulders, bringing her weight there, forcing me to stop jogging. But I wanted to keep jogging so bad. It felt awful not keeping up the constant motion. If it weren't for the genuine look of concern and the intensity with which Tiffany was looking at me I wouldn't have considered stopping any time soon.

"Hold on," I said, "Give me a moment."

Tiffany eased her grip and let go. It felt so wrong to renew my stance, I dropped my plimsolls and then put my closed fists to my hips in a power stance; it was as if my body was screaming at me; begging me to not stop the glorious momentum that had been built up and kept in motion.

Slow down, I thought, relax; there's no need to be stronger right now; I thought this over and over and focused on my breathing. The tightness across my body wasn't going away.

I began to worry that I might not be able to remove the coiled spring-like feeling that had taken hold of me. What if I couldn't? What if I had to perpetually stay in such a state moving forward?

My body relaxed all at once and I collapsed onto the floor. Once I had stood up too fast when getting out of bed and the blood hadn't rushed to my head fast enough. I had fallen over, crumpling like an item of discarded clothing onto the floor. I had been lucky not to seriously injure myself when that happened. In much the same way I felt a similar rush and light-headedness take hold of me; my head hit the exercise area floor with a hefty thud, and my back took the brunt of the rest of the fall. It hurt, but not to a degree I was worried I had done any damage.

"Are you okay?" said Tiffany, stooped over me.

"Yeah, I…" but before I could finish what I intended to say the world around me darkened and all sound cut out, just like that I lost consciousness.