The Chosen (Contender #1) - SAMPLE OF NOW PUBLISHED BOOK!

Chapter 8

1 month earlier

Cade gasped and staggered to his feet, nausea roiling through his stomach like a coiled snake.
"Again!" the counselor shouted. "Three more."
Down he went, flat on his belly, then up into the push-up

position, an awkward hop into a crouch, and finally the jump straight into the air, his hands pointed at the sky.

Burpees, they called them, a terrible, full-body exercise that used his own weight against him. Cade had thought the name funny at first. It wasn't funny anymore.

"Down," the counselor barked. "Faster."
Cade went down.
It had been so stupid. Gobbler had tripped him up in the canteen, sticking out his leg when Cade walked past. Cade hadn't been looking, too focused on finding his table among the crowd.

Usually, he sat with Eric. Not beside him, but at the same table. Even though Eric pointedly ignored Cade, he was safer territory than the others. Having somewhere to sit made Cade's life a little easier.

In any case, when Cade had fallen, he'd smacked his face on the floor. Just a minor bruise on his cheek, but the war- dens had seen it later that day and threatened him with punishment if he didn't tell them who else had been involved.

But the kids here didn't rat on one another—the code of silence was ubiquitous, and those who broke it were duly treated with contempt, even violence, by all if they were found out. Cade kept his mouth shut, and he was given a month on "punishment duty."

For the past four weeks, each lunch break and evening, he was put through his paces: push-ups, star jumps, and of course the dreaded burpees.

He'd do the interval courses at full tilt, only to be told to run back to the start and do it all over again.

The red-faced counselors would scream in his face for min- utes at a time, daring him to do anything other than stare straight ahead, his body rigid and at attention.

One had bellowed their job was to break him down so they could build him back up again. But Cade didn't think he needed breaking, or fixing for that matter. Most of the students didn't.

A garbled voice came from the counselor's pocket radio, jarring Cade from his thoughts. The blood was pounding too hard in his ears for him to hear it.

"Two four," the man replied. "Sending him now."

Cade, suddenly able to stand still, swayed on the grass. Then, in a sudden bout of nausea, he puked. 

"You're done," the counselor said, wrinkling his nose. "Now run back to your room, and I better not see you slow down on the way."

Cade stumbled away, forcing himself into a half jog as he wiped his mouth. He watched the other boys, tossing around a ball out in the yard. Though he wouldn't have had the courage to ask to join in before, he still felt a pang of jealousy.