Fight or Flight

Chapter 11: Molting

A few days later, after some more intense training, Johnny had told his students to meet at the old junkyard after school that day.

They were there now, and Josie was a bit confused as to why. All she could see was busted cars and a bunch of junk.

Johnny was standing on top of an old bus. He popped a beer and announced to the class standing in front of him, "You've trained hard. You've gotten faster, tougher, stronger. You've done your best. You're ready for this tournament, am I right?"

"Yes Sensei!" They all yelled.

"Wrong!" Johnny threw his beer can at their feet.
"Your best ain't shit! If you wanna win the All Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament, you gotta give me better than your best. Which is why from now on, you're gonna get my worst. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sensei!" They all shouted again.

"Are you losers?"  Johnny yelled.

"No Sensei!" They replied.

"Are you nerds?" Shouted Johnny.

"No Sensei!" The students answered.

"Are you sure?" Johnny shouted.

Josie replied, "Yes Sensei!" but her teammates hadn't caught on. They answered once again with, "No Sensei!"

Johnny covered his face in his hands, before saying, "Follow me."

He led them to a very intense-looking obstacle course he had set up.

They started by jumping through tires, Johnny yelled at them to hurry up and move their feet.

Aisha was in front, and when she tripped, Josie's momentum propelled her forward right on top of Aisha. Hawk was behind her, and Miguel behind him. They both fell on top of Josie and Aisha.

"I'm sorry," Eli said in Josie's ear.

Next, Johnny gave them all goggles and bats, and told them, "Your enemies are all around you. Destroy them."

So they smashed car windows and anything else they could find. That was definitely Josie's favourite exercise of the day.

Next, Johnny placed a metal bean across a large bin discarded glass shards and pieces of metal. They took turns balancing and walking across it, trying not to slip.

"There's nothing to fear except for fear itself." Johnny told them. "That, and falling into a bin of broken glass and sharp metal. So don't do that!"

Eli's foot slipped a bit at one point, and Josie's heart skipped a beat. They both made it across fine in the end.

Next, Johnny handed out pieces of weird meat to all of them. Josie was disgusted.

"You wanna win? You guys gotta be hungry. Are you guys hungry?" Johnny asked them.

"Yes Sensei!" They answered, all holding a piece of meat.

Johnny took an actual bite of the mystery stick, which made Josie gag, and said, "Good. So are they." And he blew a high-pitched whistle.

Josie was confused along with everyone else, until she heard loud barking. Two huge dogs appeared, and they ran. The group dispersed in every direction away from the dogs, and most jumped onto cars. Josie managed to jump onto the back of an old pickup truck with Miguel.

Hawk, however, wasn't so fortunate. As he tried to climb onto a car, a dog ran at him and bit the back of his leg. He screamed, and Josie winced.