The Gym

by B. P. Kasik

  “I wasn’t due to run out of clarity for hours!”

  Jerry smiled. “Yeah, maybe. Better safe than sorry, right?”

  “Fine. But no more sucker punches.”

  “That applies to you, too.”

  “Fair.”

  “Okay.”

  They walked out of the house together. Jerry fought the urge to look back.

  “Now let’s see what we can learn at the old Gym up north.”

  Chapter 35

  Belinda put her kids down for their nap.

  She lived for this moment, when the three of them finally got out of her head for a couple hours.

  She took this time to take a nap, take a drink, or watch a couple shows on Netflix with her earbuds in. Any and all of it felt like a luxury vacation after a full morning of childcare.

  She finished the last of the lunch dishes and started the dishwasher. She looked out the kitchen window and saw a couple of shabbily-dressed people running down the sidewalk like they were running a marathon.

  She plopped down on the couch with her iPad and positioned herself most comfortably. She was pretty sure she was gonna drift off halfway through her current Continuum episode, but that was fine. She could watch the other half after the kids went to bed.

  She tapped the triangle on the screen to start the show.

  And saw a face appear above her iPad.

  It was the personal trainer from her gym.

  She started to scream, but he put his huge, meaty hand over her mouth.

  He gently pulled her earbuds out and put a finger to his lips. “Shh! You’ll wake the children!”

  He removed his hand and her voice shook as she spoke. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled and sat down in a nearby chair. “We haven’t seen you at the Gym in weeks. We’re concerned about your health. Where have you been?”

  “What?”

  “According to our records, you haven’t been taking full advantage of your free Gym trial membership. We’re just curious as to why.”

  “You broke into my home!”

  “I did no such thing! The front door was unlocked.”

  “Get out of my house, now!”

  The personal trainer held up a thick object that looked like an embalming needle, attached by a thin tube to a large black bag. “We can service our clients in their homes now for maximum convenience.” He pointed the needle in her direction. “Care to lose a few pounds?”

  Her eyes widened, started to water.

  “If you attended to your personal fitness at the Gym more often, you’d know about the wide array of new services we offer. Liposuction, corrective plastic surgery, breast and muscle implants, pacemakers, tapeworm insertion, penis enlargement, and hot yoga. With more to come!”

  Belinda looked down and saw that her show was still playing on her iPad. She had the crazy thought that she should hit “pause” to make sure she didn’t lose her place. She wondered if that was the last show she’d ever see. She wondered if she died, how many Continuum episodes would auto-play in a row before pausing and asking if she was still watching.

  “And we offer all these services in the comfort of your own home, except for the penis enlargement. Which I don’t think applies to you.” He gave her a once-over. “Though we could change that. We could do gender-reassignment surgery, no problem! And then we could get your penis to whatever size you’d like!”

  Belinda wondered if she was dreaming. That had to be it. She’d drifted off the moment she hit the couch. None of this was real. She would wake up soon and feel rested up and ready to take care of the kids for the afternoon and evening. This was all a dream. There was no personal trainer from the Gym in her living room.

  She laughed.

  The personal trainer laughed in response. “That’s the spirit! We like fun at the Gym! And we want to bring you in on the fun!”

  “None of this is real!” She kept laughing.

  The personal trainer grinned. “Of course it isn’t! But let’s just pretend it is. If this was reality—and if I were actually here—what would you tell me, if I asked why you haven’t been back to the Gym?”

  She barely got her words out between laughs. “I just haven’t had time!”

  The personal trainer frowned. “That’s no excuse. You can make time.”

  “I have to watch the kids all day!”

  “Kids?”

  “Yes! Little versions of adults, you know?” She continued to laugh hysterically.

  The personal trainer tapped his chin with the liposuction needle. “How did you come to the Gym before?”

  “I took an evening for myself after my husband got off work.”

  The personal trainer nodded calmly. “Okay. So you don’t come to the Gym because you have to take care of...kids?”

  “You got it!”

  Belinda kept laughing. She heard her youngest child start crying from the crib in her bedroom. This was a vivid dream. Right down to the background sounds. And it was all a big joke. She had to keep laughing, otherwise the joke would end.

  The personal trainer picked up his large black bag with the needle and tube attached and walked away, a thoughtful expression on his face.

  Long after he was gone, Belinda was still laughing. Tears were falling down her face. The baby was still crying. And soon her other children were crying, upset at the sound of their mother losing her mind.

  She fell off the couch, curled into a ball on the floor.

  Still laughing.

  Chapter 36

  They drove up 29 and down 33 to get to Harrisonburg. Jerry knew taking 64 over and 81 up there would have been faster, but all the trucks on the highway made him uneasy.

  Halfway there, they pulled over at the 29/33 Sheetz in Ruckersville for some gas and road food.

  Jerry watched Ben tap away on the order touchscreen, selecting his burger toppings and sides. “How can you eat when we’re in the middle of this?”

  Ben shrugged. “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten all day. You should eat, too, or you’re gonna get stupid again. And that’s a stupid I can’t fix by punching you in the head.”

  Jerry sighed, then tapped away at the other order touchscreen and got a spicy chicken sandwich and fries with Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce for dipping. Health be damned, the Gym be damned, he wanted to eat.

  They paid for their food and took it outside to eat under a red umbrella. They watched traffic pass in silence for a couple minutes, then noticed something odd. Everyone at the antique mall and CVS across the street had a distinct look.

  A distinct muscular look.

  Jerry dropped his spicy chicken sandwich on the table and walked across all four lanes of route 29, barely checking for cars barreling by in either direction.

  Ben was yelling after him, but Jerry wasn’t listening.

  He finally arrived at the antique mall’s front door and grabbed and spun the nearest muscular hulk to face him.

  “Why do you all look like this? There’s no way you’re all driving into town. What’s going on?”

  The guy narrowed his eyes. “Are you asking about our healthy physiques?”

  “Yes. What gives? You’re Gym clients, aren’t you?”

  Every man and woman in the group nodded and smiled. The main guy said, “We love our Gym! It’s all for our health!”

  Jerry chewed his lip. “Did the Gym offer you some kind of discount or gas reimbursement to get you to drive into town?”

  They all shook their heads. The main guy pointed north on 29. “There’s a Gym right down the street.”

  Jerry looked up there and noticed a huge strip mall. Hadn’t been there before, but he hadn’t been up here in years. There was a Lowe’s, a Wal-Mart, a McDonald’s, and...a Gym.

  It looked a bit more compact than their Gym in town, but Jerry had no doubt that it had all the amenities.

  “When did the Gym open here?” Jerry whimpered.

  “Just last week! They told us that they normally focus on large and mediu
m-sized cities, but this is a test to see if the Gym can be viable in smaller markets.”

  “And how’s it doing?”

  “Very well. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t work out there!”

  Ben finally made it across the road and grabbed Jerry by the arm. “What are you doing? Let’s go, man.”

  Jerry turned from the muscular mass of folks and let Ben walk him back across the street.

  “The Gym’s expanding,” Jerry said. “It’s like a cancer. We can’t stop it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’s one in our town. There’s one in Alexandria. There’s one in Richmond. There’s one in Harrisonburg. There’s one up here. Soon there will be one everywhere.”

  “That means it’s that much more important that we see what they look like in Harrisonburg. If we can see what a Gym looks like after a few years, we can maybe stop ours from becoming that thing.”

  “I know, I know.”

  Jerry and Ben got in the car and drove west down 33.

  As they passed through the mountains, Jerry crossed his arms and grumbled. Ben looked over at him. “What’s wrong now?”

  “We left our food on the table.”

  “Yeah, that was good stuff.”

  “Can we go back and get it?”

  “No.”

  Chapter 37

  Everything appeared normal in Harrisonburg as they came down 33. A wide array of malls, indoor and strip. Apartment buildings and student housing facilities for JMU. And endless gas stations and restaurants, including Olive Garden, the most popular restaurant in the city.

  The first person they saw walking down the road was a guy with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, a mullet on his head, torn jeans, and no shirt.

  He looked perfectly normal. Maybe even a bit scrawny.

  Ben and Jerry looked uneasily at each other.

  As they reached Court Square, they took inventory.

  “So that’s four shirtless white guys so far, plus three women pushing their baby carriages too close to the road while talking on the phone.”

  Ben nodded. “And every one of them looked perfectly average.”

  They turned right at Court Square and circled around it. They knew the Gym was somewhere in there. They saw the WHSV building and then turned left and found a parking spot. They walked past the Circuit Court and then the Church of the Incarnation.

  They kept waiting for an ambush. The Gym had to know they were coming up here. They had connections everywhere. Jerry was sure someone from the Ruckersville Gym had reported back to their home Gym and told the people there about their trip.

  No matter where we go, the Gym will know. We were insane to come up here. We were-

  The smell coming out of a restaurant to their left distracted him. Jerry stopped by the window and looked in. The place was called Jack Brown’s and it had a ceiling completely covered by dangling bras. He had a thousand questions about that as Ben yanked him away.

  “C’mon, man. We’re almost there.”

  Jerry acquiesced, though Billy Jack’s Wing & Draft Shack also had a smell that tempted his tummy, as he was still annoyed at missing out on most of their Sheetz meal.

  He knew he was just focusing on food to take his mind off their insane errand.

  We’re gonna be killed the moment we enter the Gym here. This was pointless.

  Ben tapped Jerry’s shoulder and pointed. There it stood, monolithic, three times the height of the Lady Jane Shop next door. A vivid glowing orange “THE GYM” sign up front.

  They stood and stared for a while.

  Jerry whispered, “We can just turn around.”

  “And go where?” Ben whispered back.

  He was right. Jerry knew it. They had to go through with this.

  They looked back and forth to see if they were going to get ambushed. But there was nothing and no one there.

  No traffic, no pedestrians, and no bird or insect sounds. Just the loud constant buzzing of the Gym’s neon sign.

  They knew their fate was sealed the moment they arrived in town.

  They entered the Gym.

  Chapter 38

  And it was about what they expected.

  Same layout, only with gold edges on everything. Oversized glass stairs, no railings, a large burning fireplace, a room marked “Liposuction Services,” and dozens of people with inhumanly perfect physiques.

  “It's all the same,” Ben whispered.

  “But why is it so peaceful outside?” Jerry whispered back.

  “What did you expect? Chaos, disorder, mass hysteria?”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  “Maybe they need to keep up appearances.”

  Jerry shook his head. “This is nothing like the Gym that guy described in Alexandria. There should be blood and bodies everywhere.”

  “But that would be so uncivilized!” said a smooth voice from behind them.

  They turned and saw a dapper, slick-haired Gym rep.

  Chapter 39

  Jerry's eyes darted in every direction.

  Ben took a step backward, which just took him further into the lobby.

  The Gym rep walked toward them and cocked his head. “I think I recognize you. Are you members at another one of our branches? We have a database of every member record nationwide. I try to memorize each face.”

  Jerry gave up. “Fine, you got us. I'm guessing you'll hunt us down if we run. So what now?”

  The Gym rep looked confused. “Pardon me?”

  Jerry waved his hands around. “We came here to see how you sickos operate. To see how the first Gym in our state evolved over time. And you're not gonna let us out of here alive because we might learn some way to stop you. So stop toying with us and get on with it.”

  Ben touched his shoulder. “Uh, Jerry…”

  “Get on with it!”

  Ben touched his shoulder again. Jerry spun on him. “What?”

  Ben pointed up.

  Jerry looked.

  Every patron in the Gym was watching them.

  And they looked concerned.

  Concerned?

  Jerry met their eyes and saw no menace in any of them. And then he looked at the Gym rep. He saw no malice there, either. The guy looked frightened by Jerry’s outburst.

  Jerry lowered his voice. “Okay, what's going on here?”

  The Gym rep smiled. “Sorry, sir. We sometimes forget that other Gyms aren't quite as friendly as ours. I'm sorry that one of our branches seems to have upset you. Please. Come with me.”

  He turned and walked through the lobby.

  Ben and Jerry made eye contact, shrugged, and followed.

  They followed him up the stairs. The rep didn't say a word, just occasionally gestured at paintings on the walls. He was all smiles. And none of the smiles looked sinister. He was giving them a silent tour. The unspoken sentiment: Don't be afraid. We have nothing to hide here.

  He went back dos the stairs and Jerry and Ben warily followed.

  The rep walked into an empty squash court and they joined him.

  “It's soundproof in here. We can talk freely,” said the rep.

  Jerry had to hold back tears. He was so confused and relieved, he couldn't find any words.

  So Ben found them. “The Gym in our town is completely deranged. People are being attacked. And we're pretty sure they're being killed, too.”

  The Gym rep nodded. “It's very unfortunate. We are not permitted to interfere in the affairs of another Gym, but I will tell you off the record that some of them get a bit out of hand.”

  “‘A bit out of hand’!?”

  “Each Gym is an independently owned and operated franchise. We all must abide by certain policies, but our business practices and strategic initiatives are entirely our own.”

  “So you're not doing anything sick or crazy up here, like turning everyone into violent cannibals, or—”

  “No, none of that. We do offer liposuction services, but decided we didn't want to offer any fu
rther surgical services. That was our decision.”

  “So you're not hurting or drugging your customers?”

  “Goodness, no. Why would we? They're our customers!”

  “The Gym in our town is manipulating people to not be upset by all the horrible things they're doing. Why are they doing that? And how?”

  The rep started pacing. “They do it because they can. And the how is a trade secret. We don't apply that technique here, but that doesn't mean I'll divulge it.”

  “So you're okay with what they're doing down there?”

  “I didn't say that. I just know that we operate differently up here.”

  Jerry kicked a wall. “You're not telling us anything here! We already knew they're evil, we just don't know why. And yeah, it's weird that you guys aren't monsters up here, but you're not telling us why, either.”

  The rep shrugged. “Our only wish here is to provide you with a great fitness experience. If you ever move up here to Harrisonburg, we'd be more than happy to have you as clients. You could be happy here.”

  Jerry whispered to Ben. “What are we doing now?”

  Ben waved him off. “Okay, sir. Do you have a personal trainer here?”

  “We do. But he's off today.”

  “Fine. Can you at least tell us how many Gyms are like the one back home and how many are like yours?”

  The rep shrugged. “We don't discuss strategy at our regional meetings. But I will say that each Gym is dependent on the personality of its owner.”

  “Why would someone be so evil as to do something like what we're seeing back home?”

  “You'd have to ask him.”

  “Was this Gym always...normal? Did you ever do weird things to people here?”

  “It was. And no, we've never treated our clients with anything but care here. It's all for their health.”

  “Right. Have Gyms ever changed? Have you ever heard of one that was bad becoming more like...yours?”

  “I’ve never heard of one changing.”

  “But is it possible?”

  The Gym owner shrugged. “I suppose.”

  “Will you try to stop me if I attack the Gym back in my hometown?”