_Hamster in a Wheel_

ff7 zack snipet

(after 'The Hospital')

"Now, take it slow... for beginners there is a tendency to overcompensate for things. You will need to relearn how to balance yourself while in motion..." The doctor smoothed the front of her coat with a tired gesture, obviously repeating the boring words from memory.

"The purpose of today's session is to begin to recondition you with your new body. While some of the drills are repetitive, remember that muscle memory is slower to set than any other kind. Alert us immediately if you feel any dizziness, difficulty breathing, fever or chills... At intervals we will stop you and ask you questions to gage your mental and emotional state, answer quickly and honestly. We will also be tracking your heart rate and blood pressure, hence the arm cuffs. Do you have any questions..." She glanced at her clipboard again, "... Lieutenant Thomson?"

He tried not to sigh at the blatant implication that the medical personnel couldn't be bothered to remember his name. After a month under their loving care, he had never felt more like a hamster in a cage in his life. If smiling, nodding, and doing as he was told would get him out and back into standard army routine as quickly as possible, he'd happily kiss even Heidigger's ass. Zack kept his vocal response to a demure, "No ma'am."

Sighing again, she gestured him towards the familiar comforts of the weight bench. He forced himself to behave instead of skipping or otherwise making an idiot of himself, and sat to start some pulls as she set his weights. Curious he looked back, disappointed to see her setting it at his usual number. The doctor pursed her lips. "Eyes front! Do not look at the scale."

"Yes ma'am." Silently he decided that sticking his tongue out at the impersonal woman would only get him into a psych evaluation. They really didn't kid around when they evaluated 'potentially successful' SOLDIER program initiates. Given the abysmal success rate that the scientists had on paper, Zack didn't blame them for the over enthusiastic vetting. Looking around the gym at the other 3 candidates who had survived their first month, each training with their own personal physician, he wondered if at least one of them would suddenly snap before the week was out.

// One in four develops mental aberrations sufficient to put them behind a desk for the rest of their life, or out of the army all together. //

He frowned at the though and methodically set himself to completing a set with his weights. Counting to eight in his head, he slowly returned to his 'wait' position while the doctor fiddled with his weights again. It felt the same as ever. Whatever 'super strength' he had was probably overrated.

// It's not going to be me. I feel fine. //

Starting again, he felt a slight increase in the resistance on the bar, but nothing to shake a stick at. It certainly was nothing near his previous maximums.

// ... then again, maybe the reason why I feel great is because it didn't take. Wouldn't that be fucking funny? //

Not letting his worries affect his performance, he reached his eight-count, and waited for her to tinker with things again. She seemed to be moving him up in two pound increments; child's play.

// ... That makes sense really... I mean, there are three possible outcomes for the SOLDIER process... Success, mental or physical disqualification... and the inexplicable 'duds'... //

His arms were starting to warm up with the work out, the exercise unusual after several weeks on his back. It felt good to be moving again. He tried not to look back as she made yet another niggling change. "... I'm increasing the weight a bit more than before, lieutenant, don't be alarmed."

"Yes ma'am" Zack agreed calmly, rolling his head a little to loosen up before pulling the bar again.

// Another ten pounds? this is lame. What do they think I am, a monkey? Maybe if they made me do fifty of these things instead of eight, then I'd feel it but really... //

If nothing else he'd feel nice and tone by the time lunch came around. Maybe it was for the best to ease back into things.

"Stop and take a rest." The disinterested woman was scribbling on her file again. "... How do you feel?"

"Excuse me?"

"How do you feel, lieutenant, are you having difficulty with your ears?"

At first he thought it was sarcasm, but then he realized that she was completely serious. "No! No ma'am ears are just fine. I feel..." He hesitated, "Well truthfully I feel a little bored." Curious, he turned a little to see her reaction.

"Eyes front!"

"... yes ma'am..."

// ... harpy. // He kept his poker-face on as the woman bent over to read the sensor taped to his arm. She humph’ed softly and continued writing. "Nausea, dizziness, chills?"

"No, no, and no... ma'am."

"Very well. Turn around and look at the number on the weights, lieutenant, read out the number you see." He blinked at the order, contradicting the earlier ones, and gingerly looked behind him to the gages on the weight bench.

"Current weight is..." His eyes had to be playing tricks. Blinking, he looked again and decided he felt a little light headed after all. "... two-hundred and ten kilos..." Looking down at his arms, he tried to correspond the number with reality, even in a one-time dead weight challenge, he had never pulled more than one-hundred and ninety. Doing eight repetitions should have been impossible. His hands looked no different than before. He chafed them together in disbelief. "... that can't be right."

"I assure you, the scale was calibrated this morning." Unimpressed, his medic sighed and calmly increased the weight until it read two-seven-zero. "Try again."

"I can't." Zack laughed lightly. "That's insane."

"Your heart-rate was barely elevated at the previous weight, that implies that you should be capable of more."

"But..."

"Lift the weight, lieutenant." She scolded gently, staring at him she seemed to decide that a little more sociable encouragement was required. The doctor flipped a page on her clipboard. "You're friends with Captain Pavan Jain, are you not?"

"Yes ma'am..."

"His current record is three-hundred and forty kilos." She raised an eyebrow, impressed in spite of herself. "He is one of the best products of the program as far as pure strength goes. Most of the others fall between the two and three hundred range."

// God damn! No wonder he can pick up trucks... //

Feeling the attempt was still futile, he carefully gripped the bar, and slowly pulled. It wasn't easy. It wasn't anything near easy, but to his amazement, it /moved/. Going at half speed, he coaxed the pull down to his shoulders and just as carefully raised it back to it's resting position.

// holy shit. That felt like one hundred, not two-seventy... //

It took him a moment to find his voice. "Out of curiosity... how much can the general pull?"

"Who, Sephiroth?" The doctor snorted, amused for the first time all morning. "He is not something you should measure yourself against. His enhancements are superior."

// Not a 'someone' but a 'something' ? Jeez, these people are cold. // He waited quietly instead of complaining, and his look of bored interest seemed to do the trick. His doctor flipped the charts again with a sigh.

"Let's see... Sephiroth... his current maximum is four-hundred kilograms."

Zack blinked again. The number was staggering. Nothing short of a bull elephant or a dragon should be capable of that much weight. For the first time he understood the random whispers that the man 'just wasn't human,' how could he be? How could anyone be that powerful.

// Fuck! ... and to think I shook his hand... It's amazing he doesn't go crushing things by accident... //

"And now... a lower weight I think..." The woman lowered the scale down to a mere forty-five kilos. "Remember, you will have to re-learn the feel of the different weights."

Cautious, he pulled the new weight just as slowly as the previous one, aware of how easy it would be to yank too hard at the unexpected feather lightness. When she set it back to its original value of one-hundred and five, he pulled and was amazed at how incredibly light it felt in comparison to when he first sat down. It was alarming, the way his mind and body were suddenly out of synch.

"... this is going to take some getting used to." He grinned nervously. Sephiroth, and even Pavan, had obviously gotten a handle on their insane strength. At least he'd never seen either of them accidentally rip a phonebook in half. Given time and practice, he could only hope that he could do the same. Until then he was suddenly sure he'd be terrified every time he reached for a doorknob, wondering if he would forget himself and pull it off by mistake.