Everyone — even those watching — knitted their brows. All eyes were on the single man standing behind the group. The man panted, eyes stuck on Lola.
His entire body throbbed, his bones slowly wobbling as exhaustion crept in. His heart rate was racing, his knees jerking involuntarily. Yet, his attention didn’t leave Lola. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Lola continued because some men still kept running, but her head was turned toward the person behind them. She nodded at him, her eyes swirling with promise. The men, on the other hand, just stared at their comrade before another one slowed down until he came to a full stop.
Just like the man before him, his body was slowly entering what looked like a state of mild shock. Then, another one stopped, followed by another one. Soon, one after another, they slowed down and stopped until the last man.
This time, Lola slowed down and turned around, facing all of them. All of them were panting, but their solemn eyes remained on her. The latter scanned them quietly, her lips twitching into what resembled a subtle smile before she nodded at them.
*****
Meanwhile...
As the first man stopped, Atlas arched a brow. Even Allen paused mid-bite, staring at the scene. Slater and the twins blinked innocently. The crowd also froze in place, watching as all the men started stopping in their tracks, one after another.
"She made them stop," Allen blurted out under his breath when he recovered, his attention fixed on all the men staring at Lola. "Or was it the food?"
Everyone wanted to say it was the food, but they all knew those men weren’t that shallow. They might have been tempted, but giving in to temptation wasn’t what they were trained for. They stopped because Lola convinced them to stop.
"They really did it," one of the crowd muttered. "How did she convince them?"
"They’re dead, right? Like, dead-dead?"
"I don’t know. I bet that they wouldn’t stop—damn, my money."
"No way... they believed her just like that."
One after another, the crowd expressed their thoughts — all a mix of disbelief, amusement, and confusion. A huge part of them had believed Lola was wasting her time. Even if she ran more laps with them, it wouldn’t be enough to convince anyone.
However, the men who had been running with her might argue otherwise. Lola didn’t convince them with words. If anything, she was silent and barely spoke a few sentences. She probably didn’t even say more than fifty words throughout the entire day.
It was her resilience, her spirit, and the determination and sincerity in her eyes that swayed them.
For the next minute, thick silence hung in the air until everyone slowly turned their eyes toward Atlas. Some gulped, watching him chew his food casually before taking his time sipping from his glass of water.
"What’s he going to say? He’s going to get angry, isn’t he?" someone whispered.
Dread crept into everyone’s chests as they held their breath. Lola wasn’t excluded from that. She gulped and slowly moved her attention to Atlas, who was now wiping his mouth with a napkin.
When Atlas finally put down the cloth, he slowly lifted his eyes to Allen.
"Allen."
"Yes, sir?"
"What were the conditions I told them?"
Allen cleared his throat. "You said they would run, and the moment they stop, they’d have to kill themselves. If they could run for a full month with barely four hours of sleep and minimum food intake, then they might earn a chance."
Atlas’s gaze swept across the track. His expression was still plain, giving no clue what he was thinking. And yet, the air around him dropped significantly, growing heavier by the second.
When his eyes landed on the men, his voice came out calm but sharp. "Then why did they stop?"
Seeing that he wasn’t softening, she clenched her teeth mentally. How dare he continue this judgment day after I ran the whole day just to convince them to stop?! She inhaled deeply, trying to stay composed, and continued with her plan.
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