Escaping the room, he closed the door, stopping the smell from invading the rest of the apartment.
Looking around, he pulled out a tub, emptying the contents on the ground, quarter filling it with water. Grabbing the lid and breathing deeply, he opened the door and entered the sewer. Quickly Norbert went and took all the sheets off the bed, careful not to spill any of the gunk on the floor.
Bundling it up, he put it in the tub with the water, placing the lid on top, sealing the flavour. Quickly Norbert went around the bed, opening up the window. Sticking his head out, Norbert exhaled deeply, then breathed in the fresh air before getting a blanket, wafting the air out of the apartment. Breathing in again, he entered the room, leaving the tub there.
Finding the laundry powder, he grabbed the box and cups of water. Back in the room with him, opening the tub, filling it with water and powered the detergent box into it. Closing it again, he wiped his brow. The hard part done. Norbert started shaking the tub around, swishing the powder with the clothes to combat the filth.
Looking at the bed, all signs of what happened were gone now, thanked the mattress wasn’t ruined. Exiting the room, he went and made some breakfast … dinner at this point. Having lost track of time going from place to place. Putting some food on the plate, he sat down and started thinking of what to do in the other world.
Currently, as he is, he would get eaten alive once the wolves dared to come down the cliff. Doing some research, he wouldn’t be able to out-swim them by going to the other side of the river, and as they were still keeping pace, they wouldn’t seem able to outrun them either.
Remembering his time trying to outrun them, he would not usually have been able to last that long, having been out of breath or getting a stitch long before. And remember the rest of what happened, able to even get on top of the cliff in the first place and pull the stone out.
Fishing into his pocket, he retrieved the remaining items, the coin and the stone with the emblem, still glowing purple, surprised Norbert fiddled with it, sliding it across the table and watching it spin. It keeps the same colour as before and not pulsing. Quickly snapping a picture, he put it back in his pocket.
Back to the wolves, he only had a few options available as he did not have the time to wait for something to come in due to the randomness of it or the time to learn the weapon. It must be something simple and destructive on the wolves, a swing and a miss.
Looking through the options, he chose a classic in the zombie apocalypse, the wooden bat with nails.
With his plan to get the items and another backpack while also testing the new limits, he went back into his room, now able to breathe a bit easier. Shaking up the box once more, looking at the water slowly turning dark and spraying the room with deodorant, he closed the door for the room before exiting the apartment.
Walking down the hallway and exiting the complex, he stood on the stairs, looking out at the sunrise in the air. Breathing in the fresh air, he went off and started his day.
***
A baseball bat, nails and a hammer were placed inside his new backpack. Norbert made his way to a gym. Looking around, he found one with a first week free when joining. Entering the gym, the weights are rhythmically dropped, banging against the ground like a stallion pulling a load up a hill. Seeing a staff member, Norbert approached her and started the signing-up process.
“So have you been to a gym before,” Emily asked
“No, first time”
“Would you like a personal trainer added? The first three sessions will be free?”
“No thanks”, Norbert replied. “My schedules a bit hectic at the moment, so I won’t be able to commit to any times.”
“Oh ok, then”, Emily replied, looking back to the keyboard and filling out the form.
“So why did you want to join a gym in the first place, then.”
“To make sure that I’m not that out of shape”, Norbert replied, keeping the actual reason to himself.
He started tapping his leg excitedly to see how hard he could push himself. With a final ding, a last signature, and confirming details, Norbert was officially part of “The Gym” gym.
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Exiting the room, Norbert was shown the gym facilities, where the toilets, changing rooms, machines, treadmills and weight lifting area. Walking around and listening to Emily talk, surrounded by the clanking of machines, Norbert couldn’t wait to get started. When his tour of the gym ended, Norbert stashed away his backpack in the locker rooms, pulling out his trusty coin again, not knowing where to start.
“Heads weight lifting area, tails cardio,” He said as he flipped the coin in the air, catching it as it fell into the palm of his hand. Showing up to the world was the tails side, happy not to see that snickering face anymore. Popping the coin back into his pocket Norbert stalked out to the treadmill area. Hopping on the automatic treadmill, Norbert looked at the buttons, one lever for elevation, the other for speed. Looking at the screen, he pressed the big “START” button.
The machine whirring to life, Norbert moved back slowly; taking his first few steps, Norbert got acclimatised to the motion; increasing the speed from the base to 1km/h. Norbert began a light walk at 5km/h once more, getting familiar with the movements. As time wore on, feeling comfortable, Norbert stepped it up and slowly started to increase the speed. Staying at an increased increment every 2 minutes, time slipped past, and Norbert did not realise he was at 16km/h; he started to feel winded, his muscles screaming at him to stop.
Running at the speed he was at, thumping on the treadmill now and then, he would see people staring at him, at the noise he was generating and the speeds he was going. With a sigh, knowing if he wanted, he could go for longer and grit past the pain. Norbert started slowing it down, knowing his endurance had increased significantly since before the change. Looking around, he found another type of treadmill, a manually powered sprinter.
Looking at the black body and its rise, Norbert was once more enraptured, wanting to push himself once more before changing out to a different area. Looking at it, he climbed on, watching the screen; slowly, he started walking, getting his balance with each step. The further he stepped, the faster it would go, forcing him to step forward even more, repeating the cycle.
Norbert would hold onto the side rails several times to catch him and slow the machine down before jumping back on it again.
With determination Norbert started walking with a purpose, making his way up to 5km/h; he changed his pace going into a jog. 7, 8, 9 up and up it went Norbert pumping his arms and going into a run to keep up. His legs were trying to fall from under him, like running down a mountain. Faster and faster he went, the numbers going higher and higher; looking down for a second, he saw he was at 20km/h, with a grin on his face; he took his next step, his foot not lifting. In slow motion Norbert’s face slowly changed to one of horror, his face tilting down, smashing into the belt of the treadmill, ejecting him off of it in a pile.
Dazed Norbert looked down, his shoelaces getting untied and caught between the belt sections.
Looking at his grazed arms Norbert extracted the shoelace and went to the bathroom, cleaning the wound with water, inhaling as the stings spread up his limbs.
Getting bandaged up, Norbert went to the machine area, not going to lose interest now at his defeat. He started repping out around the machines, doing one set of 10 before bumping the weight to the next plate. And on and on he went, from the bicep curl to the dip to the leg press. Norbert did them all.
Ultimately, he was a sweaty mess, and his muscles were tired. However, he was happy as he entered the locker room to shower. He could quickly get halfway on every machine, going up and down the sets until the muscle burned. Something he knew he would never have been able to do before. Whatever was in that goblet that he had some real kick.
Freezing for a second, he remembered he had put the goblet in the backpack he threw at the wolf.
SMACK
Norbert’s hand was on his palm, annoyance at what he had done. He could have identified or sold that somewhere, anywhere, and he was sure it was worth at least something due to the weirdness of the place it came from.
Grumbling, Norbert changed into his sweaty clothes again and exited the gym, the bell tinkling on his exit. Looking at his phone, he would still have enough time to get another bat … just in case.
***
Having returned, his backpack loaded with his items for immediate survival Norbert returned to the apartment. Once entering, he saw Jack raising an eyebrow at his late entrance.
“Just wanted to get some stuff and go to the gym for once,” Norbert said
Jack just stared at him, thinking something had happened to his friend. Slowly closing his eyes Jack responded
“Tonight is pizza night; I thought you would have gotten one when you were out for the day.”
Horror once more racked he had forgotten about the classes he needed to attend that day, or was it days? All the time merging, but more importantly, he had forgotten the PIZZA. A crime worth the worst punishment, going out into the cold and retrieving it.
Madly dashing to the door, Norbert exited it, a backpack of items still in hand; not wanting to make any mistakes, he sprinted to the pizza shop.
Running down the street, he saw the shop still had its lights on; with a burst of speed, Norbert once more through the flags and entered the shop.
Breathing hard, ringing his entry with the door slamming, Norbert looked at Bob, wearing the same smile as ever.
Hands open he looked at Norbert “You almost missed it; we were just about to close. Good thing I left one on the side for you” With a wink, Bob presented the pizza. Looking at it, Norbert did the ritual, opening it up. Once more, the steam flowed out, and a wave of hunger took him. Quickly closing the lid, Norbert stepped up and paid for it, with a smile and a wave exiting the pizza joint.
Still smiling, he rounded the corner, starting to jog again to deliver the pizza to Jack and for them to feast, his stomach already rumbling.
Once more, Norbert was surrounded by light. He was quickly dropping the pizza; he was consumed in darkness.
Not wanting to take the pizza out where he will need a fight, he pulled a baseball bat out of his backpack, a bar in hand. He was once more surrounded by light, stepping onto a river bed.