so i was at a run club a few months ago and it was very nice, very beginner friendly, very positive. There was a lot of encouraging talk and it was a very pleasant experience however.
What if there was a run club where instead of a leisurely 5k jog around the neighborhood, it was an arena with really high concrete walls and inside the arena was an amalgamation of sized up playground equipment and hills and tall grass and what if the run club knocked us all out and we woke up to the sound of a timer and there was a little clock burried in the ground counting down from a minute and we all sort of stared at it dumbfounded until some primal urge kicked in and as one we scattered into the trees as the clock ticked down to one and the Things clawed their way out of their cages and were set free amongst us.
and what if instead of water and encouragement we had to unlock that deep seated feral urge to survive and took to all fours, clawing our way along the dirt, a picture of frenzy and panic and tears as we hear the Things start to crunch their way through the stragglers at the back of the pack.
And after a while when the first panic cools but the lingering paranoia sets in we started to form loose teams. And what if instead of befriended my teammate only to push them in front of me and into the mob at a pivitol moment, because fuck, it’s them or me and i’m making it out of here alive, but when i make it back to the others i pretend to cry and act like i tried to save them. When i close my eyes i see their body twisted and blood pooling and i claw ar my face to try to fight the image of my own actions, my own concequences.
and imagine one of the other teammates finds out about me and is so filled with rage that they hold me down and try to slaughter me before the monsters have a chance and i need to claw and tear my way to freedom and my teeth are so much sharper than i remember, and as my nails drag bloody lines down their arms i see one split second of an exposed juglar and i rip into it without thinking and when they’re dead i lie unmoving with blood caked into my lips and splattered down my front, breathing hard and tasting salt and my mind racing trying to figure out how i’ll hide this from the others and what have i done what have i done what have i done. What has happened to my humanity?
and then my watch beeps and i would have met my goal of 10k steps!
i think that would fix me a little bit :3
