Written by LaraWatcher :: [Tuesday, 20 May 2014 15:56] Last updated by :: [Friday, 27 March 2015 16:23]
Author’s Note: SENsational is a collaborative tale by Wise Watcher and Larafan (aka LaraWatcher) and is the culmination of months of rewrites, edits, and intermitent laziness. The story will be released in multiple parts hopefully in its entirety over the next few months. We hope you enjoy!
Twelve years ago … Arlington, VA …
“Is it gonna hurt?” asked the eight-year old girl choking back her nervousness as her best friend held her index finger in one hand and a bobby pin in her other.
“C’mon, Priya, don’t be such a chicken! We both promised, remember?”
Pulling back her finger nervously, Priya began to ramble on “Well … why don’t you go first, the oldest always goes first!”
“Priya, I’m older than you by 3 days!”
“Still … C’mon Sam, you go first puhleease …”
Sam looked at her friend and rolled her eyes as she smiled. “Fine!!” she said as she quickly stuck her own index finger with the bobby pin, eliciting a tiny drop of blood that she squeezed and held over a porcelain saucer until a small pool of blood had formed.
“There! See? It didn’t hurt at all! Gimme your finger now you big chicken!”
Sam’s bravery was of little consolation to Priya as her finger tremored in Sam’s hand as she readied the bobby pin.
“OK, ready? One … two …”
Sam noticed a small tear run down Priya’s mocha cheeks as Priya closed her eyes in fear. Sam instinctively paused and squeezed Priya’s finger, her tone suddenly changing.
“Hey! Priya … it’s gonna be fine … you trust me, right?” Sam said soothingly as her young friend smiled and wiped away her tear.
“Sisters for Life …” Priya whispered as she smiled at Sam.
“S-F-L’s!” Sam responded as she pricked Priya’s index finger, causing her to yelp abruptly and then giggle.
Sam held Priya’s slowly dripping finger over the saucer with her own blood and squeezed seven or eight drops into it. Both girls swirled their pricked fingers in the saucer, mixing their blood together as they formally cemented their pact as “Blood Sisters”.
Priya Sen and Samantha Winters had been lifelong friends since they were born within the same week. Growing up, they were inseparable! Living in the same neighborhood, attending the same schools and even having each others’ parents as their god parents – up until three months earlier.
Three months earlier, Priya’s father had been fatally stabbed by doing the right thing and trying to aid a young woman from being mugged. It was a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the shock of it devastated both the Sen and Winters families, especially young Priya.
Sam was the model best friend for Priya during that terrible time and did her best to console her It was Sam’s idea to have them formally take a sacred oath as “Blood Sisters” upon hearing the news that Priya and her mom were going to travel to India for the entire summer.
“So you guys still leaving tomorrow morning?” Sam said as the girls continued to swirl their fingers in the tiny tidepool of their own blood.
“Uh-huh”
“I’m really gonna miss you, Pri.”
“I know. “ Priya mused as she took a deep breath and looked up from the saucer at Sam, tears starting to flow. “Sam … since Dad died, you’ve been there for me. And I didn’t think that was possible to have a friend like you. I’m really gonna miss you!”
Instinctively, Priya reached out and hugged her best friend as even the less-emotional Sam, started to well up with tears.
“SFL’s!” Sam said to Priya comfortingly.
“Sisters for life …” Priya whispered.
The next day, the moving trucks showed up. That ceremony was one of the last things Priya remembered about her childhood best friend. That-- and the unusual lingering stare Sam’s father had given them both when he saw that both their fingers had been pricked.
Present Day … New Mexico … GPS Coordinates 34.093480, -104.106208 …
“It’s incredible … so beautiful …” mused Priya as she looked out to the west, the desert sky engulfed in a sea of purplish and orange hues as the sun tried in vain to stay aloft across the horizon.
“It sure is …” said the corporal as he turned his head, momentarily lost more in the sight of Priya’s profile than the picturesque sunset. As Priya turned quickly towards him in response, Lance Corporal Gardiner’s face quickly turned a reddish hue that rivaled the deep rich tones of the skyline as he stammered and looked back towards the West.
“I mean … yeah … the sunset is pretty and um … orange and all …”
Priya grinned sheepishly and simply nodded, flattered by the seeming affection of her escort but unsure of how to respond. Priya Sen had spent the past seven days visiting the base and had spent several hours with Lance Corporal Justin Gardiner in a variety of different settings and found the young man to be remarkably fun to be around and also pretty darn cute, but still found herself wrought with a lack of self-confidence to say anything. The deafening boom of awkward silence swept through the desert air for a few interminable seconds before the young man finally looked at his watch almost disappointingly..
“It’s almost oh-eighteen-hundred, Ms. Sen, we need to get going back to the base.”
“I guess it IS getting late.” said Priya, immediately regretful that she hadn’t reciprocated any of her feelings to him. As they climbed back into the HumVee, Priya smiled at the young corporal and took a deep breath to steel herself.
“And Justin, it’s been almost a week … I think you can call me Priya.”
“Yes, Ms. Sen … I mean … Priya!” said Gardiner as he chuckled and strated the Humvee. It was the perfect icebreaker to relieve the tension as they began to head back down the dirt road for the long one- hour trek back to the base …
“ … so, yeah, my Mom left for India about 2 weeks ago, and I just finished up the semester right after that so Doc suggested to my Mom that I come out here and hang out on the base with him while she got settled in over there.”
“Doc? You mean Dr. Winters? You guys sound pretty tight.”
“Yeah … my Dad used to work with him in some research lab in DC when I was young. His daughter was my best friend growing up and our families were always doing things together.”
“Why didn’t she come out with you?”
Priya looked aimlessly towards the floorboard of their vehicle as it bounced over the rugged desert terrain. It had been almost two years, but still Priya had to consciously choke back the tears. She missed her friend.
“Sam died a few years ago. Some rare type of cancer. Doc had tried for years to save her but he just couldn’t. Shortly after the funeral, he got transferred out here. I think he wanted to get away from everything that reminded him of Sam.”
“Priya, I’m sorry … I didn’t know …”
“It’s ok … how could you? Anyways, even after the move, we kept in touch. Doc was like MY father too. My dad died when I was six and my mom was always traveling with her job, so I spent a ton of time with Doc and Sam growing up.
“What does your mom do?”
“She’s a college professor specializing in Eastern Indian Women’s Studies. She speaks all over the place on the subject and also travels to India … A LOT!”
“She sounds really smart!”
“Yeah, she’s a rock star in her field. But she can be a ball-buster too. We don’t really talk that much anymore …”
“I’m sorry … I didn’t mean to pry …”
“No…I mean to me … we just don’t see eye-to-eye about things. She’s really old school Indian.”
“Old school?”
“Yeah … the general stereotypes that people have about Eastern Indian kids here in the U.S … you can thank my mom … you know, study all the time … keep yourself covered up … arranged marriages … all that stuff!”
“And do you like all that stuff?”
“Well some of it, I guess … kinda …”
“Like the arranged marriages?” joked Gardiner.
“Ewww! No way!”
“You know, she might be over there picking one out for you right now!”
“I’ll pick my own boyfriends, Mom, thank you very much!” Priya shouted as she looked skyward.
“And what does your ideal boyfriend look like?” asked Gardiner as he smirked and tilted his head towards her in hopes of giving her a hint.
“I dunno…I’m not big on one type of physical appearance in a guy” said Priya matter-of-factly.
“Oh … ,” sighed the young soldier as he played black-and-white footage of a World War II aircraft bursting into flames in his head.
Priya grinned as she turned and took a moment before speaking. “But the one prerequisite is that he has to be from Torrington, Wyoming…”
Justin Gardiner swerved the HumVee in reaction as he grinned from ear-to-ear as a proud member of the US Military and an even prouder denizen of Torrington, Wyoming. “Well, lucky you then!”
Priya placed her hand atop of his as it rest upon the stick shift of the Humvee as it rocked back and forth. “I don’t believe in luck… …” she said as she and Justin were suddenly rocked by a thunderous boom!
Gardiner jerked the steering wheel to the right instinctively as he heard the sound from under the left front of the vehicle, trying in vain to compensate as the jeep began to fishtail violently. The young corporal only got to shout Priya’s name aloud before a second cacophonous boom penetrated their section of desert and the Humvee they were riding in lurched up and rolled over as if swatted by an invisible hand.
For Priya, the orange and purple highlights of the desert sky quickly disappeared as a black curtain dropped from nowhere sending her into unconsciousness.
2 Days Later …
“Dr. Winters … she’s starting to respond!!” was the first thing she heard as Priya slowly began to rise into a state of semi-consciousness. A foggy image of unfamiliar faces of the nurses and medical personnel that flanked her bed on both sides began to slowly clear to the young woman as suddenly she blinked and began to recognize the familiar face of one Doctor Julius Winters. The outlines of a slight smile could be seen around the Priya’s oxygen mask that hugged her lacerated face tightly.
“D-D-Doc?” Priya said with barely a whisper.
The Doctor leaned over and stroked her blood stained hair reassuringly. “Priya … thank god. I … that was a close one, kiddo! But rest up now, you’re going to be all right.”
“What … what …” was all Priya could muster as her respiratory alarms sounded amidst the din of the other beeps of the monitors she was hooked to.
“Shhhh! Don’t talk … there was an accident. On the way to the base your Humvee hit a rogue landmine that must have been buried out there. You were lucky to survive.”
Priya’s mind flashed back to the instant that everything went dark and few seconds leading up to it where she was talking with …”JUSTIN!” Priya blurted out, as the increased frequency of beeps from her heart monitor betrayed her concern for the young soldier.
“Priya … I’m so sorry… … Corporal Gardiner is dead. There was nothing we could do …”
Tears began to well up in Priya’s eyes as the increased beeping began to obviously concern the support staff as the nurses and doctors began to buzz around the room shouting instructions.
“Priya, you need to calm down … take a deep breath… … Priya … PRIYA!” Winters shouted as the young patient began to sink again into a state of unconsciousness, her eyelids slowly shutting like two tiny curtains, her pupils unresponsive to the tiny pen light Winters tried to shine on them. Yet she still heard some of the commotion around her, though most of it was unintelligible fragments to her:
“I know what I’m doing!”
The conversations around her become less frequent, not to mention more unclear and less understandable as Priya’s mind once again was enveloped into complete darkness.
Once the scene of controlled chaos only moments before, the hospital room was now quiet. Doctor Winters and one lone nurse stood beside Priya’s bedside as the doctor looked at the monitors closely as Priya’s heart monitor elicited a faint, constant beep to indicate a sinus rhythm in the young woman’s heart. Winters looked at his watch and noted the time, writing it down in the right hand margin of Priya’s chart that he handed back to the nurse.
“She seems stable, Doctor …” the nurse stated with uncertainty in her voice.
“She’s in an induced coma. She’ll should be fine. Let’s let her rest.”
“I don’t understand, Doctor. I thought the SAM1101 was still in the experimental stage.”
“C’mon let’s give her some space” Winters casually said – almost dismissively – as he smiled and started towards the door
“But Doctor Winters, there are protocols! We weren’t author-”
Abruptly Winters turned towards the nurse, a disapproving scowl etched across his face. “Thank you, Nurse Beamon, that will be all! Continue to monitor the patient and let know the instant of any change to her condition. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Doctor!”
As the nurse and Dr. Winters left the room, Priya Sen’s body lay motionless in the bed as the SAM1101 traveled slowly and methodically through her bloodstream, laying the groundwork inside Priya’s body as the young woman continued her peaceful slumber.
10 days later …
“And how are her vitals?”
“Everything looks … well … amazing, given her circumstances!” said the doctor as she flipped through her iPad, recalling the young woman’s vital signs. “Temperature is a steady 98.6. Blood Pressure is 111/65 and pulse rate is – wait that cannot be right – forty-eight?! That’s close to most professional athletes!” The nurse looked up at Dr. Winters who seemed unsurprised and nonplused at the data.
“What about the EEG?”
“We gave her two of them cause we were sure there was something wrong with the machine. But both tests showed the same results.”
“Which were?”
“An incredible amount of brain activity readings. The frequencies were what you expect from someone who was completely alert, not someone in a coma. Based on the readings we tested her for epilepsy but it came back negative. I’ve never seen readings like hers.”
“Anything else abnormal?”
“You mean aside from all her external wounds are completely healed without the slightest hint of scarring? Or the fact that there has been almost no muscular atrophy to speak of? In fact, she looks healthier than when she first came in here. Some of the nurses have sworn that her facial features have changed the past week.”
“Changed how?”
“Well …” the young doctor paused for a second, not knowing how to put it into words that didn’t sound unbelievable and make her sound stupid. After a few seconds she gave up trying. “They think she’s gotten … prettier!”
Doctor Winters only smiled as he nodded silently, understanding fully what she meant. As unbelievable as it sounded, he knew the S.A.M. Formula was taking ahold of Priya and improving her. By his calculations, it would still be a number of days till the formula had sufficient time to work its way completely into the young girl’s body. Only after she had awoken, would they knew the extent of the formula’s long-term effects.
7 days later …
“Priya?”
Priya had awoken only about 15 minutes ago from her induced coma, but strangely she felt no exhaustion or malaise despite being unconscious for almost three weeks. Though for Priya it felt like simply awakening from a great afternoon nap completely energized and refreshed. Quickly expecting the worst, Priya reached for her face, expecting to feel the coarse texture of bandages or surgical tape, only there was only the sensation of her own silky skin as she ran her hands over her face experimentally. As Priya smiled a sigh of relief, she practically leapt out of her bed brushing Winters aside as she walked – without the slightest sign of difficulty – over to the corner of the room where she now stood motionless…speechless… …
“Priya? Can you hear me? PRIYA!”
The young woman only nodded with an almost zombie-like cadence as she stood mouth agape at the reflection that stared back at her in the full-length mirror. Priya’s radiant brown eyes swept up and down, ogling at her new, improved reflection. Sure, she had always been cute but now she was … flawless! Marveling at herself for countless numbers of seconds, Priya broke from her catatonic state as if released from some magical spell and immediately clutched her new, shimmering hair and squealed in delight.
“Oh … my … god! Is this me?!?!” Priya excitedly replied, as she looked down and noticed her newly-enhanced appendages that tented out her hospital gown. Cupping her breasts, she blurted “Oh my god … oh MY GOD!” as she turned to Winters in disbelief. Dr Winters could only grin sheepishly and nod quickly as he fumbled with his clipboard, obviously not comfortable with the awkwardness of Priya’s self-discovery.
Priya retorted laughingly as her hands swept over her new and improved physique. Even under the hospital gown, Priya could feel how firm and tight every part of her body was now! As Priya continued to admire herself, Winters went to the dresser and laid out a spare nurses outfit on her bed. As he walked to the door, Priya still barely paid him any interest as she continued to marvel at her astounding transformation in the mirror.
“Doc, how is this even possible? Did I get plastic surgery or something?”
“Priya, we have a lot to discuss, but first I think you need to get dressed. After that we’ll talk and I’ll explain everything in more detail”
“Uh-huh…” Priya responded, as her eyes failed to wane off her new self in the mirror.
“as well as begin assessing the other possible effects of the procedure you’ve undergone”
“Uh-huh…”
“PRIYA!”
“Uh … okay!” Priya said as she quickly turned to acknowledge Doc, her head slightly bowed like a scolded puppy. Doc’s brief scowl slid into a reassuring smile as he opened and closed the door behind him.
As the door clicked shut, Priya turned back to the mirror and began examining herself in astounded detail. She widened and squinted her eyes a bunch of times to admire how her eyes didn’t have the slightest hint of discoloration. Peering deeply into the mirror, her pools of brown presented a stark contrast between the pure white of her eyes with the brown irises that seemed to scintillate no matter what angle she looked at.
She then fluttered her eyes testing to see if her new luxurious eyelashes would fly off only to see them stay in place looking fuller than any Maybelline ad she’d ever seen . Darting over to her nose, she noticed that it was definitely slimmer in shape and added a touch of beauty to an otherwise completely ravishing face. That made Priya smile her usual big smile like she always did ever since she got her braces removed years ago. Only when she did she immediately noticed that her teeth were now even straighter than before and shined a bright white as if they were just recently polished. She pouts her lips in disbelief before beginning to make pouty kiss faces that she occasionally made in some of her facebook updates and noticed that her lips were fuller with not a chap or crack on them. She slowly licked her new set of lips and found that they looked like they displayed the look of lip gloss all their own. “This can’t get any better, can it?” Priya thought to herself – incorrectly – as she grasped some of her hair between her fingers and noticed how it now shimmered with an almost otherworldly jet black shine to it like polished obsidian. Priya ran her fingers through her hair multiple times, admiring its health while searching for split ends or tangles but couldn’t find one. Her hair shone like satin but had the feeling of pure spun ebony silk!
“OK … let’s let what’s under the hood …” Priya muttered as she hesitantly lifted her hospital gown up, stopping in mid sentence as she stared at herself in front of the mirror. “Wow …” was all Priya could think, although no sound came out of her mouth. She turned to every angle and looked in every direction at her new figure trying to categorize any imperfection as was her normal ritual. Only this time, she couldn’t find any flaw or even any slight hint of cellulite over her entire body.
Priya raised her arms and looked them up and down in sheer delight. They were so fit and toned – just like one of the fitness models in the magazines she sometimes read. Prior to her accident, her arms were not exactly fitness model material but now they were so sleek with sexy little muscles and curves almost carved into them. Biting her lip, Priya raised one arm and gingerly tensed it as she made a fist. She gasped as her bicep sprung to life seemingly out of nowhere as it grew to the size of a golf ball, then a lemon and finally to a giant lemon! She stared at her incredible flexed bicep. Reaching out to touch it, it felt like her now flawless skin was stretched tightly around a cue ball or something even made of steel! Priya experimentally lowered and raised her fist a few times, staring hypnotically as her bicep bounced up and down at her command. She loved the way she looked – and the way she felt! She felt healthier than she could ever remember!
Her eyes then focused on her breasts. “Flawless …” was all she could say as she cupped her new, ultra-firm breasts. She stared in amazement in the mirror at how beautiful they were – so large yet not even a hint of sagging from them. Quite the contrary, they seemed to almost defy the forces of gravity as they sat proudly on her chest. Skeptically, Priya reached up with a hand and began experimentally kneading her left breast, smiling as it felt completely natural to her as she gently squeezed and felt her firm breast compress slightly in her tiny hands before settling back into its indomitable position, sticking out proudly atop her chest.
She then swept her palms over her curves and then to her wasp-like waist. She estimated her waist was now a svelte 23” at the most! She marveled at her stomach as well, now toned and showing a definitive “six pack” that would be the envy of all the girls at the gym back home. While staring at herself in the mirror, she tensed her abs which then brought even greater definition to her midsection. She knew she was easily the equal of all those fitness cover models from Oxygen, Self, and the other magazines she read. Hell! With a body like this, they all might not be HER equal now!
Taking a quick quarter turn in the mirror, Priya’s hands slid over her hips and down to the new shape of her butt. “Unreal …” she thought in her hands grazed over the heavenly contours of her posterior, giving her cheeks a playful squeeze. “Holy shit!” Priya giggled as she continued to look in the mirror, shifting from one leg to the other repeatedly, her eyes transfixed on her new buns of steel!
Sitting down on the bed, Priya reached for the socks that Winters provided. Lifting her foot up she noticed her legs were smooth. She then noticed that all her body hair below her head as well as all of the calluses on her feet were gone and she was left with nothing but perfect, smooth skin. Reaching for the pants, Priya found they were much too loose so she tightened the drawstring as tight as she could, her flaring hourglass shape being all that could hold up her pants because they were a tad too large for her impossibly tiny new waist. Priya finally put on the shirt and did a quick check in the mirror to her left, right and backside, smiling momentarily at her new figure and then exhaling a deep thoughtful sigh as to how this was all possible. As she thought about it for a second, several questions popped into her head that she was anxious to be answered.
3 Days Later …
“Doc, I don’t understand what’s happened to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong … I love the hot bod … but you still haven’t told me HOW this is all possible?”
“Priya, please concentrate! This is important!”
“Doc, I AM concentrating! Are you not gonna ever tell me?” Priya asked quizzically as her legs moved in concert to the sound of the whirling treadmill belt underneath her. She was wearing a fitted yellow T-shirt and grey yoga pants that molded perfectly to her newly defined legs which churned with grace and power.
BEEP! “That’s 5 minutes, sir! Raising to 5 miles per hour …” came the voice of a technician in another room over the loudspeaker.
Doc nodded as the treadmill motor suddenly revved faster as Priya’s legs quickly adjusted and began keeping pace for a 12 minute mile. Doc peered over at Priya’s silver bracelet that monitored her vitals, turning his head sideways to get a better look at the readout which he scribbled on his notepad.
“Doc, I’m serious! Our jeep supposedly runs over an old landmine and explodes. Justin friggin’ dies out there and not only do I survive, but I wake up with no ill-effects of being injured, and I somehow now have the body of a Sports Illustrated cover model. C’mon, I’m playing along with all your tests! But unless you tell me, I’m hopping off this thing right now!”
Doc looked up from his clipboard, surprised at Priya’s sudden assertiveness. She had always been so shy and reserved, it was very uncharacteristic of her to speak like that.
“Priya, after your accident, you were in bad shape. REALLY, bad shape. I couldn’t simply just let you die, so I did something I probably shouldn’t have. I gave you an experimental drug that we’ve been working on at the base here for years.”
Priya shook her head in confusion even as she still, almost effortlessly, kept the cadence of her ten minute mile pace while trying to wrap her head around everything as Winters asked “Priya, do you know what I do here at Fort Hanson?”
“You’re a doctor on the base, just like you were with dad back in Arlington.”
BEEP! “That’s 3 minutes, sir! Increasing to 7 miles per hour” the loudspeaker interrupted, Doc gave a dismissive nod and the treadmill belt began to whirl faster. Still, to Priya, she barely noticed it.
“Not exactly … your father and I weren’t medical doctors, Priya. We’re geneticists.” Doc paused for a moment as he watched Priya trying to process what he telling her. “You know … when Samantha was diagnosed with cancer, I spent every waking day for years trying to find a cure for her. Granulocytic sarcoma of the pancreas is extremely rare and there was little hope her. The oncologists only gave her 6 months to live, and they all thought it was a miracle that she survived another 28 months.”
“And that was something you did, right?”
“Yes, the Army wasn’t all too happy how I had used their facilities and labs for my own little side project, but when I told them of what I did and the possible implications, they basically set me up out here in New Mexico to continue my research.”
“Umm … where is this going? I didn’t have cancer from the accident!”
“No, but the same concepts of manipulating cancer at the cellular level could also be used to manipulate healthy cells as well. I used my research based on the serum I created for her to aid the military on a way to augment soldiers abilities. I figured that with what I’ve done I can prevent them from dying in battle and prevent other parents from enduring the loss of a child the way I have. Anyways, we’ve been developing a serum called the S.A.M. Formula … named after Samantha. Unfortunately, we haven’t had as much success we’d like up to this point … until you came along!” he said pointing at Priya.
“So you injected me with SAM’s formula?”
“Yes, Priya! You and Sam with BOTH daughters to me; I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you too. I had no choice but to inject you with it with the hope of saving your life. Your new figure is a side effect we never foresaw. That’s why it’s critical to conduct all these tests to make sure everything is ok.”
“Thanks, Doc, I really appr-”
BEEP! “Initiating final program, sir,” came the voice through the speaker as Winters sheepishly looked at Priya. Priya smiled broadly and then gave a thumbs up to the technician as Doc stepped back.
The treadmill motor groaned again as the RPM’s increased only this time even more so. Priya expected the same level increase but the treadmill seemed to only get faster. Priya stumbled for a moment on one of her steps, grabbing one of the sidebars and suddenly doubt began to creep in her mind that the treadmill was too fast. But just as fast, her muscle-filled legs began thrashing faster and faster until she was keeping up with the treadmill. After a few seconds the treadmill stopped accelerating and, Priya seemed to clearly adjust to the new speed.
Winters could watch in fascination as Priya did not even seem to struggle or become tired with the new program as she easily maintained the pace for another 5 minutes until Doc finally gave the order to ramp down the test.
“How’d I do?” beamed Priya as she hopped off the treadmill, covered in sweat but barely winded as she spoke.
Winters grabbed her wrist and read the digital readout aloud proudly “Seventy-Two!”.
“What’s that? Is that good?”
“That is your heart rate after running a six minute mile pace for almost 5 minutes”
“Not that I ever really ran much before, but I’m pretty sure I was never that fast, was I?”
“Could be just adrenaline or another side effect of the formula, “ Winters said quickly as he pressed a button on the intercom. “Let’s log the sample data to the S.A.M cloud and proceed with the next test.”
“Next test? I thought we were done?” asked Priya disappointingly.
“We just want to run a quick benchmark to test your strength now, if that’s ok?”
“Strength? Why”
“To help us determine the extent of your recovery. You were in a coma basically for 3 weeks. We’d expect to see some muscle atrophy and this will help us gauge the extent of that.” Winters stammered, almost making it up as he spoke. “Now this young soldier will show you how to perform a pulldown.”
While wiping the sweat from her brow, Priya watched on, as a young corporal sat down and demonstrated a pulldown with 30 pounds in slow and controlled movements before standing up and giving way to Priya.
Priya sat down unsurely before being corrected by the working soldier who shows her the correct posture. Taking a deep breath, Priya reached and wrapped her hands around the cold steel bar and slowly pulled the bar down, expecting resistance which never came. Floating slowly up and down she brought the bar down smoothly to her now amazing chest for ten controlled movements. So easy!
“Hmmm, let’s have her try it again, only with more weight this time” Winters mused, as the corporal moved the lynchpin down to 70 pounds.
“Just give it a try, Priya. The staff will spot you the whole way”
Priya inhaled deeply and then, to her amazement, snapped out another ten smooth repetitions. It was definitely heavier to her but she still handled the weight with relative ease.
Additional sets and subsequent strength exercises soon followed with amazing results as the young Indian girl maxed out exercises with weight the belied her sexy, feminine figure. When all was said and done, Priya had performed pulldowns with 150 lbs. Likewise astounding were the 100 lb curls she was able to do as well as a maximum bench press of 230 lbs!
Finishing the last set on the bench, Priya sat up giddily “Doc, I can’t believe it. I’ve never been able to lift half as much, and now I’m some kind of Olympic athlete!”
“Well, I don’t think a two-hundred thirty pound bench press will put you on the podium just yet, my dear!” joked Doc as he quickly tried to downplay her results. Still, in his mind, he was fascinated by her astounding progress this soon. “ Tell you what, why don’t you get cleaned up and we’ll grab dinner.”
Priya nodded excitedly and grabbed her sweatshirt off the chair as the corporal escorted her to the locker room. As soon as she was out of sight, Winters pulled a phone from his lab coat and dialed.
“General, it’s Winters. I have an update on Project Pinnacle. I suggest you come by soon in person so we can discuss.”