The Bounty Hunter's Trilogy: Chosen By Fate

Chapter 12. Making Progress

I looked at the gym wall again, glaring at it. I ran full speed towards it and kicked off the ground planting my foot on the wall and tried to flip backwards again but I landed on my chest, like the last two thousand times I'd tried. "Daniel, we can try the wall jumping parkour tomorrow, alright?" Lucas said helping me up. "Now throw something at me." I thought of the kettle bells over at the weight station and the size ten whacked him in the gut. He faltered and fell on his rear, the wind being knocked out of him. I suppressed a laugh as he took it off of himself and tried to breathe.

"Daniel!" Audrey came in carrying an office notepad. "Come here, I want to talk to you." I went over and we walked to the elevator, stepping in when the doors opened. Audrey wrote something down next to whatever list she had on the notepad and nodded to herself about something. "So how's your training going?" She asked without looking up.

"Really well, I think."

"Lucas is telling me how you're doing. He says you won't give up on trying to master the wall flip?"

"I can't land on my feet. The closest I got was my chest a few seconds ago. I landed on my shoulders like twelve times."

"I couldn't do it at first either. I fell on my face and dislocated my jaw. It was awful." She laughed a little bit.

I furrowed my brow in confusion. "Why is that funny?"

Audrey smiled. "Because despite my face being swollen and purple, Stan and I had our first kiss that day."

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After I finished training for the morning, we had lunch, which is when Audrey got up to make the daily announcements.

"So, today was another good day for us, so far. The turned Korenye are still silent. We will be keeping them here as long as need be." Everybody groaned a little. "I know, but they're all we have to our advantage. The bounties only attacked four times last night rather than the normal six we've been experiencing with all of our training. Also, the cafeteria staff has taken into account the complaints about the undercooked potatoes and has offered pizza for Wednesday to make up for it." Everybody cheered at that one. We never got junk food. We all need to be fit so nothing is ever processed or super fatty.

She took a deep breath and I braced myself to hear the news from her. "And I know there have been questions about my odd behavior recently but I'm here to clear it up now. I'm pregnant. And not that I think any would question it, but yes, the baby is Stan's. Now, everybody meets in the training area upstairs on the main level in half an hour for some hand to hand combat training."

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"I'm so sorry!" Said Oliver. The twelve year old we'd recruited a few days ago  had just kicked me in the gut and knocked the wind out of me. I caught my breath and nodded.

"Don't apologize. That was good. Just make sure your breathing is steady. And you're bringing your leg up to the side then snapping, because you're just bringing it up straight and out. It needs to be in, then up to the side, and then snap it out to kick. Got it?" He smiled and nodded. I blocked his next kick and he dodged a right hook I tried to hit him with.

"Daniel!" Lacy called across the gym. "You and Travis are in the ring in ten minutes." I nodded and turned back to Oliver, who was laying on the ground, sweaty and gasping for air after the exercise.

"Okay, I guess that wraps it up for us, then." I stood him up on his feet and handed him a water bottle. "Drink up, you're going to be with somebody else while I'm gone, okay?" Oliver nodded as he drank the water.

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I had gotten a lot more muscle built up since my training began to get more intense. It had been a month since Conner died and I had spent most of that time focused on training to let all of the frustration and anger out. I had especially gained more balance and upper body strength, and everybody knew when I hit the boxing ring with somebody, either they were toast or I'd go till I wore myself out. (I'm Irish, it's what we do.)