Elite (24 page)

Daniel’s jaw dropped as he noticed the giant pillow-like mat below that would catch him if he fell off the wire. He suddenly felt a little dizzy. He slowed his heart rate a bit and contracted his blood vessels back to their normal size, evening out the flow of blood throughout his entire body. He also decreased his testosterone and adrenaline levels to about half.

He suddenly felt sore and fatigued, but he wouldn’t need strength to get across the tight-rope. He reached out with his right foot and placed it on the wire, trying to get a feel for the tension in the line. After sufficiently frightening himself, Daniel brought his foot back to his side and continued staring at the high-wire.

Using only his peripherals so as not to show his concern, he caught a glimpse of his friends standing against the wall. He noticed Charlie whispering something to Shifty, and Shifty shaking his head in
reaction to what Charlie was saying, but never taking his eyes off of Daniel as he did so.

I must be going about this wrong
,
Daniel thought to himself.

He could not imagine that every agent at Elite had the balance to walk across a tight-rope for thirty feet. Yes, they were in top physical condition and had incredible skill sets, but they weren’t all ninjas – they weren’t built for it.
Especially an oversized man like Titan whose center of gravity would be outrageous.

How did he get across?

Then it hit him, and he felt like a buffoon. He just had to
get
across. No one ever said that he had to
walk
across.

He got down and sat with his legs hanging over the edge, one on each side of the rope. Then he leaned forward and grabbed the rope with both hands, getting as tight a grip as he possibly could. He maneuvered himself out onto the rope, careful not to crush his testicles in the process, and before he knew exactly what he was doing found himself lying belly-down on top of the rope. He then wrapped his legs together, locking his right ankle over his left, and swung around so that he was hanging upside-down from the rope.

Daniel closed his eyes and reopened his blood vessels in both his arms and legs. He would not need added strength, but the increased levels of oxygen would keep him from cramping up halfway across the gap. If he pumped hard enough, it would also hopefully prevent all of the blood from rushing to his head, causing him to red-out before making it across.

Once he was satisfied with where his blood was being directed, he reached forward with his right hand and pulled himself further into the gap, looking forward toward the platform on the other side rather than down at the giant pillow that lay forty-five feet below him. He pulled himself – hand over hand – letting his legs slide across the wire behind
him. He now understood why Shifty had recommended he wear pants rather than shorts this morning.

Once he got himself into a rhythm, Daniel found himself at the other platform in no time. After just a second or two of planning, he unlocked his ankles, and let himself hang from the rope by his hands. He then contracted his biceps and pulled himself up on the rope until he could throw his entire arm around it, leaving him hanging with the rope under his armpits. He then used his triceps to raise his body higher off the ground, his waist even with the rope, and with his hands walked himself over to the platform. He sent blood and adrenaline flowing to his triceps, commanding them to remain contracted and not give way.

Once he had both hands firmly planted on the platform, he pulled his legs over and clumsily threw himself onto the platform. He was sure he hadn’t used the best method of transferring himself from the rope to the platform – and it certainly was not the most graceful – but he had made it and that was all that mattered. He was now over halfway through the main part of the obstacle course and feeling as though nothing could stop him.

This time, rather than decreasing his levels of adrenaline and testosterone, he increased them, feeling the surge within him. It was almost euphoric, and made him more confident and determined than ever.

Seven feet in front of him, even with the platform on which he stood, was a metal bar. It was four-feet across, and its supports rose up from the ground below. Beyond it was a series of five other bars of equal size and shape, but at different heights. Once again a giant pillow-matt lay below, ready to catch Daniel should he miss one of the bars and fall. Past the sixth and final bar was another platform, signifying the end of the obstacle.

Daniel jumped off the platform he stood on, reaching out toward the first bar below him. His hands impacted the bar with so much force that he almost completely lost his grip. Fortunately he was able to catch just enough of the bar with his right hand to hang on,
then was able to pull his left hand back up and gather himself as he hung from the bar.

The next bar was five feet in front of him, and three feet below. Before swinging toward the bar he decided to open his neural pathways to the dark area of his brain and find the signal that told his hands to contract and hold onto the bar. He swung himself back and forth, and once he felt he had enough forward momentum to carry him to the next bar he let go, sensing the signal being sent from his brain that told his hands to release.

He carried the perfect amount of momentum toward the next metal hand-bar, and was able to line his hands up easily. This time he sent the signal his hands telling them to contract with an added intensity as they wrapped around the metal shaft.

The third bar presented a different challenge than the first two, as it stood higher than the second. Daniel used his strength to pull himself up onto the second bar, and maneuvered himself so that he crouched with his feet on top of the rail, using his hands support himself. The position he ended up in made him feel like Spider-Man.

Then, with a little extra help from his mind, he pushed upward and forward with his legs, reaching the fourth uneven bar which stood four-feet in front of, and three-feet above him. He repeated the process – going up to the fourth bar, down to the fifth, back up to the sixth, and from there he was able to stand up on the horizontal crossbar and step over to the platform, completing yet another obstacle.

Daniel knew that he should be feeling worn-out and sore at this stage, but he had now begun to fully expand his lungs with every breath, absorbing the maximum amount of oxygen and sending it
soaring through his bloodstream, into every critical muscle mass, mixed with high levels of adrenaline, testosterone and other hormones. He felt nothing. He was a machine. He was unstoppable.

If he had been able to step outside his mind – which was currently occupied controlling dozens of the signals being sent from his brain to the inner-workings of his body at once – he probably would have been slightly frightened by the reckless figure he had become. But right now he had a job to do, and he had every intention of getting it done.

In his current state, the next stage offered no difficulty for Daniel. It was a series of small four-foot by four-foot platforms separated by considerable gaps. Each podium was lower than the last, eventually leading down to the floor.

Daniel had no problem clearing even the furthest distances between platforms. In fact, at one point he put too much strength behind one of his jumps and almost overshot the next podium. Fortunately he was able to reach back and hold on. With each jump he gained muscle memory – better able to judge the amount of muscle contraction necessary to cover the distances he needed to jump.

Before he could take the time to realize that he only had two obstacles to go before successfully completing the main portion of the course, he was already making his way to the eighth challenge. He had heard quite a lot of chatter about this stage and he was ready to face it head on, feeling a sense of almost god-like invincibility flowing through him.

Outside of the Pipe Ladder, both Charlie and Shifty had labeled this as the absolute toughest obstacle complete, and had also cited it as the reason so many guys like Jitters – who was otherwise able to climb the length of the Pipe Ladder – were unable to successfully tackle the tenth stage after completing the rest of the course.

“It will fuck you,” Shifty had said.

It was called the “Inclined Pack Climb.” This stage of the course required carrying a seventy-pound backpack up a sixty-foot ramp that was angled at forty-five degrees. The ramp was also made of Plexiglas, making it very hard to get any kind of traction underneath your feet. To assist with this hindrance, a rope was tied to the top of the ramp and strung down the center, all the way to the floor. The challenger was to use the rope to help pull
themself up to the top of the ramp.

Only there was one more added complication.

The backpack had no straps on it. This meant that the challenger could not just simply wear the pack on their back, allowing them to balance out the weight as they pulled themselves up. Rather they had to find another way to carry the hefty pack up with them.

Daniel stepped up to the base of the ramp and grabbed the bottom of the rope with his left hand, holding the pack by the small loop at the top with his right. He stepped forward onto the glass-like surface of the ramp and pulled himself forward with the rope. He stood, holding himself upright with the aid of the rope, but realized that he needed to let go and grab further up the rope up so that he could pull himself further up the ramp.

Without much thought, he dropped the rope and leaned forward in order to grip it further up the ramp. As he did so, the weight from the pack caused him to lose his traction on the Plexiglas surface, causing him to slip.

He fell forward, grasping for the rope as his chest smashed into the Plexiglas surface. Aware of where he was on the ramp, he quickly bent his knees as he hit to keep his feet from touching the floor of the complex. If any part of his body left the surface of the ramp, it would mean failure of that stage and he would have to start from the beginning. He had come too far for that now.

He turned to look down at his knees. There was only an inch or two of Plexiglas surface between them and the floor of the complex.

He cursed himself. He had gotten so lost in his brain, controlling the chemicals and hormones inside of him and enjoying the pleasures that came with them, that he hadn’t taken the time to think over what he was doing. His heightened strength and agility had made him feel invincible, but he knew that arrogance was so often the downfall of able-bodied men. This course, and this stage, required strategy and conscious thought. Brute strength alone would not help him achieve his goal.

He took a moment to gather more focus in his conscious mind, letting his traditionally involuntary functions operate on their own, though he remained in-tune with the signals his brain was sending.

He looked up to the top of the ramp,
then pulled up on the rope with his left arm. Once he had put enough distance between himself and the bottom of the ramp, he lifted himself up onto his knees, making sure he wasn’t going to slide downward.

He took a breath, and stopped to think for a moment. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to do this with one hand. He looked over at the pack, still clutched in his right hand. Quickly, he maneuvered his hand so that he could shove it completely through the top loop.

Daniel grabbed the rope and wrapped it around his left arm, anchoring himself into position. He then laid his body down on top of the pack and shoved his forearm through the loop as far as he could, until it rested in his elbow. The loop was too small to slide any further up his arm, but at least this would free up his right hand.

He stood up on his feet, the rope still tied around his left forearm. He then reached forward with his right arm, the seventy-pound bag pulling down on it. He surged blood and adrenaline through his veins,
redirecting much of what he had been sending to his left arm over to his right, and pulled forward on the rope.

He only needed repeat this process one more time before realizing that he could not maintain it for the entire sixty feet. He dropped down to his knees again, resting the pack on the surface of the ramp and allowing his right arm some relief. Even with the intense amount of blood and adrenaline aiding his fatigued muscles, working them so intensely would result in either his arm falling off or his muscles exploding.

He decided to take a somewhat different approach. He laid down flat on his stomach, and began pulling up on the rope, slinking his body upward along the ramp like a worm. This still put a great deal of stress on his arm, but at least this way gravity was only pulling on the pack at a forty-five degree angle rather than ninety, and although the surface was made of Plexiglas,  it still created enough friction to work in his favor.

Still, the stress on his arm was great, and no matter how much aid he pumped into his muscles, they began cramping up. He couldn’t stop now however. He had already spent enough time thinking about it, he now needed to persevere and
do
it.

After what seemed like far too long, Daniel finally reached the halfway point. Here he wrapped the rope around his waist, turned over on his back and planted his feet in front of him to keep himself from sliding. With a bit of a struggle, he managed to switch the pack from his right arm to his left. His right arm was throbbing in agony, completely worn out from the thirty-foot climb.

That agony only worsened as he redirected blood and adrenaline over to his left arm in preparation for the second half of the climb. Daniel turned himself back over, gripping the rope with his right hand. He cringed as a stinging pain suddenly shot through his right arm.