Come the next week, BELLE arrives to work extremely cheerful greeting everyone she meets along the way. Humming cheerfully as she waits for the elevator.
JOHN joins her…
"Knowing you either someone's day has already been ruined or someone is about to regret leaving their house today."
BELLE
"Am a good person you know?"
JOHN
"A person you are…"
The Elevator door opens ,the few people inside move around to create room and they both get in
BELLE continues to hum cheerfully sipping her milkshake. They both get off on their floor.
JOHN
"Don't Kill anyone today…I hate paper work"
BELLE
"I will try.."
As they both walk to their separate offices.
A few moments later BELLE already changed into training gear, walks into the training room and finds all the teams waiting for her.
BELLE
"Today we are going to carry out a few exercises. First, we will do martial arts training, pair up!"
After a short moment of shuffling everyone is paired up other than AEGIS.
BELLE to HEAD
"Why doesn't he have a partner?"
HEAD
"He is ruthless even in training so no one wants to pair up with him ,why don't you pair up with him"
BELLE chuckles…
The training begins but the teams are looking at BELLE and AEGIS expecting a show from AEGIS.
AEGIS on the other hand laughs on the inside.
AEGIS
"Are you sure you want to do this after every other person has turned me down?"
BELLE (Smiling)
"Go easy on me..."
They size each other and get into a tango .Immediately BELLE tackles him to the ground.
ALLURE Flinches
HEAD
"I think this time JOHN got a competent one, we need to get serious about digging
up the hidden facts about her."
AUGER
"We should have headed JOHN'S warning, am in big trouble"
ALLURE smiling
"Of course you are Mr. "hold my gun" am sure you are on the Crow's black list."
Meanwhile BELLE is on top of AEGIS as he is struggling to untangle from the hold
BELLE amidst struggling with AEGIS
"Now that we are dating Just so you know…I like to be on top"
AEGIS bemused bites his teeth as he tries to turn her
BELLE out of breath
"Ooh so you prefer to be on top as well…?but I don't like to take turns"
and pins AEGIS down more
AEGIS flinching in pain out of breath and clearly angry
"Wait !don't move I think I broke something"
BELLE
"Broke what?...Ooh.."
she looks down at his crotch
AEGIS
"Again!...really?"
BELLE
"What do you mean again really? I just looked now If you broke an arm or leg you would say I think I broke my arm or leg but something…what is this something you can't mention? can it break like that…"
AEGIS manages to get out from the pinned position fuming and limps away
HEAD
"Medic!"
An OFFICER-(a sturdy man who looks like a bouncer of a rowdy club ready to tackle anyone ) who is waiting by the door points towards BELLE.
HEAD
"Seriously!?"
ALLURE
"we truly are done for"
OFFICER
"You all know she is a trained combat medic as such anyone who gets hurt in today's exercise will have to be attended to by her."
AEGIS turns back with a disgruntled look on his face. OFFICER brings BELLE the first Aid kit.
BELLE
"So are you going to tell me where you are hurt or should I speculate…"
AEGIS
"I was limping just now of course it's my leg"
BELLE
"Am very sure if you had broken my speculation you still would be limping, that is why I ask, so that I take the right course of action"
AEGIS releases an Exhausted sigh
"It's My leg… my leg…at the ankle"
He taps his right leg impatiently BELLE looks at it.
BELLE
"Hmm...It's sprained how did you sprain it"
AEGIS Scoffing
"...you tell me"
BELLE
"What happened to the threat you issued before the start of the match? I should be treating myself now not you, just how fragile are you?...it wasn't even a hard tackle…I was expecting something huge, again you excel at disappointing me AEGIS, is this relationship going to work with all these predictable moves"
She sprays pain relief on his leg
"But ....am wondering if you are the best and everyone here is afraid of you..."
She tilts her head in concern
"What does that say about everyone else... or did I get lucky? should we try again?"
AEGIS scoffs again. BELLE finishes bandaging his leg excuses him from the training but asks him to watch by the sidelines.
BELLE
"Let the training continue ,who wants to pair up? "everyone scuffles away.
"Okay …okay I get it…Next, we are going to do casualty evacuation scenarios"
BELLE to the OFFICER
"Bring them in!"
Suddenly Sumo wrestlers wearing tags on their arms walk into the room and there is murmuring in the room from the teams.
BELLE to the Sumo wrestlers with a slight bow and a big smile on her face
"Hi guys, thank you for creating the time to be with us today...As you were briefed earlier, please take your positions."
The Sumo wrestlers lie down like casualties.
BELLE to the teams
"What are you waiting for? hurry up and evacuate the casualties based on the tags with red being the highest risks therefore should be evacuated first"
When the teams inspect the wrestlers ,they realize the heaviest amongst them all had red tags. Disgruntled murmuring sweeps the training room.
ALLURE Panting heavily and out of breath…trying to lift one of the men
"She really couldn't find lighter casualties "The wrestler being lifted opens one eye
ALLURE
"No offense man but work with me here, act like you want to survive as well…"
The man turns his body limp making it even harder to carry him ALLURE curses as he drags the man out. The Teams manage to carry the last casualty out and come back into the room sweating and out of breath.
While the exercise is ongoing the CHIEF (A tough looking woman in her late forties)is standing by the glass of the training room looking amused. JOHN joins her
JOHN
"Any casualties?"
CHIEF
"We have one sprained ankle"
JOHN
"I expected more"
CHIEF
"The day is young am sure the toll will rise before the day ends. But then again smart move on your end…"
JOHN
"If I didn't place the burden of treating every injured person from the exercise on her…half of that room would have been in the infirmary by now"
The CHIEF chuckles as they continue to watch
BELLE
"Okay for the next exercise I will have all the ladies to my right and the men to my left"
The Teams move as instructed but there is murmuring as a result of the speculation of what is to come next. She signals AEGIS who is supporting himself on one crutch to join the men.
MEMBER 1 TEAM TWO
"Seeing he called him back to exercise the next one doesn't seem intense."
MEMBER 2 TEAM TWO
"Yes, am sure I will be easy too"
BELLE to the OFFICER
"Please bring them in"
More murmuring as a group of men and women enter the room carrying unmarked boxes.
At this point even the CHIEF is curious and looks keenly.
BELLE
"Now all you need for this exercise is to lift up your shirts and do a few push-ups and sit-ups of course, the Injured will just need to stand in line."
she side eyes AEGIS
The murmuring becomes louder
MEMBER 1 TEAM TWO smiles as he looks at MEMBER 2 TEAM TWO.
BELLE
"Okay, okay… let me demonstrate "
she lifts her shirt slightly and one of the delivery ladies removes a device with no labels from one of the boxes and attaches some sensors to her abdomen.
She then directs the delivery men to attach sensors on the male team members and the delivery ladies to attach on the female team members.
MEMBER 1 TEAM TWO
"What do you think it's for"
MEMBER 2 TEAM TWO
"Maybe its for counting the number of pushups everyone does or its one of those medical devices to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure"
MEMBER 1 TEAM TWO
"…I think she wants to exercise us to the brink of death that is why she has these monitors just in case…"
MEMBER 2 TEAM TWO
"It's a good thing everyone in this room has undergone rigorous training, let her bring it on"
BELLE thanks the installing team as they leave and turns on a screen that was set before her.
BELLE
"What I have attached on you is a period Pain simulator…"
Loud Murmuring…
BELLE
"Why? the reasons are so many but for the sake of time let me name just a few, reason one…Of course to make you get you a VIP experience on the life of women once a month…
Reason two and the most important reason is to see how effective you are a carrying out your duties while distracted by pain. I will control the devices from here"
She points to the screen and the remote control in her hand.
BELLE
"This should be a piece of cake for most of you besides it doesn't come close to being shot or
stabbed in the middle of an operation."
Unknown to them earlier she had discussed with the OFFICER and for the males she had Labor Pain simulators but for the females she had period simulators.
BELLE
"I will now turn the devices on...before I forget the rules to be followed are...you un attach the device we get to start the exercises from scratch with the devices on of course."
Murmuring from the Teams, she continues
"The females are allowed to tap out at any point… why? nature already has guaranteed that they experience this once a month for several days so it's only fair. Also …we don't stop until the last female taps out…and just in case some of you can't tell I am a female….and I will do everything in my power to save face… and to let men experience it just a little longer..."
More murmuring, she continues
"I know I shouldn't have said the last part but I want to be an honest instructor am really looking forward to the men's experience on this one"
She turns the devices on.
BELLE
" Level one…now just feel the sensation and get used …to…"
She pauses as she notices some men start to exhale in pain. he female team members are unimpressed as well and look at the men in disbelief.
BELLE
"Push-ups! 10 only am generous…."
The Teams start...
BELLE
"One, two, three, four, five…"
She tunes the devices to four…The men wince in pain as they are caught unaware…
BELLE
"A bullet will not come with a warning…who said you could stop continue!"
ALLURE Panting in pain
"I have new found respect for women…is the screen only reading four?!...who comes to work in this condition.."
AUGER In Pain as well
"HEAD look at your wife she is not even flinching…"
HEAD looks across and sees his wife (a young stern lady in her early thirties) just doing her pushups unmoved. Still the ladies look on in disbelief…. the CHIEF smiles in delight
CHIEF
"Would you like to join them down there?"
JOHN
"No…No for today… I would just prefer to watch"
CHIEF
"But mostly I see you exercise with the teams, but ever since your niece joined us you haven't exercised with the teams"
JOHN
"And from what you have observed so far you understand why, if I start crying down there in front of her she will loose respect for me. Also I have some paper work...I..I will get to it" and he rushes off.
BELLE
"Let's do sit ups!"
As she cranks it to seven without a warning the men squirm in pain, while the women scoff in disbelief. The men look at the women in disbelief
ALLURE In pain his face all red to BELLE
"Are… you sure… you.. remembered to turn the Ladies devices on?"
BELLE
"The ladies' devices are tweaked to put out more pain as this is something they are used to. As you can see their devices are slightly different than yours, would you like to exchange?"
MEN In unison
"NOOO!"
BELLE
"This is the life of a lady in combat and in the office every month! Die like a man they say to mean bravery, try living like a woman"
HEAD's wife Looks at her husband and sees him writhing in pain and sweating he looks at her and she mouths the words
"Very unattractive"
HEAD tries to stand straight in the pain while AEGIS tries not to collapse on the crutches but he seems to be loosing.
BELLE
"Ooh…. I forgot…if one of you faints, or cries in the process…I mean the men of course…the men will have to do the exercises with the simulator on…. every single day so, if one-man cries or faints one day if ten faint ten days…. you get the math…Up!"
She cranks the devices to nine and then ten few seconds apart. The men collapse to the ground…in serious pain
BELLE
"Okay, okay …sigh it seems we will not get anything done un attach the devices…"
The men yank the devices off so fast…still on the ground some sweating some crying while most are in fetal positions.
HEAD'S WIFE stands above her husband, he looks up and stands up so fast trying to look manly. His wife looks at him in disappointed disgust.
HEAD
"Hon….ey"
She walks away.
BELLE signals the OFFICER and the men and women who brought in the devices are let back in the room to collect them.
BELLE
"Eat lunch properly in the afternoon am we are going swimming"
She leaves with the OFFICER.
MEMBER 1 TEAM TWO
"I was a few breaths away from passing out…Thank god its over…"
MEMBER 2 TEAM TWO
Am sure she intends drown us in the afternoon
The women leave for lunch while the men still lie and sit on the floor recollecting themselves as they leave one by one.
That afternoon, the teams are driven by the company bus to a nearby lake. BELLE, JOHN and the OFFICER join them.
BELLE Into the loud speaker.
"The final exercise today is combat water survival you do not finish the training until the last member of your team is back at shore...now get on the boats"
The teams get on three rigid hull inflatable boats.
She signals AEGIS to get off the boat, he waits with JOHN,BELLE and the OFFICER under a tree.
ALLURE
"I wish I had a broken ankle am sure what is waiting for us is not pleasant."
The teams travel a short distance, she then looks at THE OFFICER who hands her a riffle.
JOHN gasps…
BELLE Looking into the rifle
"Relax am not going to shoot anyone, at least not today I just want to see how good
they are at swimming and team work."
She shoots the boats one by one and they deflate immediately starting to sink.
She hands the gun back to THE OFFICER
JOHN
"You know these teams are elite...there is no way they can drown"
BELLE
"They better not drown am the only medic here…"
She looks at THE OFFICER again,
THE OFFICER signals a man who comes dragging what look like two big cooler boxes. JOHN looks at her…
JOHN
"I guess I spoke too soon"
BELLE smiles opens the boxes and releases several water snakes into the lake.
AEGIS gasps BELLE Picks one snake and tries to hand over to him, he falls to the ground.
BELLE
"Relax they are harmless but the fun part is that they don't know that"
JOHN sighs while AEGIS stands back up as BELLE continues
"Everyone is a team player when they feel safe and comfortable but once danger sets its everyone for himself as you can see the chain has already been broken and everyone is trying to save themselves…no one is thinking about their team mate now…Look at them…"
She points at the teams trying to swim to avoid the snakes.
BELLE
"Seriously, where are those ones going to..."
She points at some members who are swimming further and further away from shore…
"It is worse the deeper they go the more comfortable the snakes are and some other creatures which I don't know live in these waters"
Below the tree they are standing something falls into her shirt. She tries to remove it and catches AEGIS staring at her…
BELLE
"What!..."
she unexpectedly shoves her chest to AEGIS
"You get it for me…"
AEGIS falls off his crutches to the ground trying to avoid her.
She laughs,
"You are afraid of everything ,someone would think I shoved grenades on your face...speaking of grenades...They kind of look like..."
JOHN interrupts her
"Please don't finish that statement am standing here"
BELLE
"How do you know what I was about o say?"
JOHN
"I know you and your "puns"..."
BELLE
"Still not what I was going to say...but thanks for putting the idea in my head, most of them actually are shaped like grenades.."
Disappointed scoff from JOHN and fear slightly sprints across AEGIS'S face as he thinks to himself
"I really did step on a mine...a shameless mine with no filter"
She then takes out the loud horn…
BELLE
"Don't leave your team mate behind…bring each other to the shore…"
HEAD notices the guys swimming further away and he signals the other boys and they bring them back
BELLE
"A least I understand why he is the Head of a team"
Just as the guys start to get a hold of the exercise and communicate, She takes out her hand gun and starts shooting in the air in their direction… the guys break formation again in panic.
BELLE
"In the real world there would be multiple dangerous creatures in the water and gun fire aimed at their heads not in the air..."
Finally after much suffering ,the teams manage to reach the shore and get back to the bus exhausted which takes them back to the offices.
The teams drag themselves to the changing rooms with most members drained beyond words. After a short while several curse words are heard flying from the changing rooms.
While the teams were out at the lake, BELLE had someone fill their lockers with realistic fake rubber snakes.
AUGER cursing
"That crazy…woman!"
BELLE changes back into her outfit and leaves the building smiling ,pleased with herself. She meets JOHN again.
JOHN
"You know the BOYS will be out to get you now more than ever"
BELLE
" I really hope so, so far they have been nothing but mediocre"
She cheerfully bids him goodbye, as he gets into the vehicle that is waiting for him by the entrance.