by L. H. Tide
He also found the big goggles hiding the young man's eyes quite odd. When the nearest of his saviors stopped in front of him, beginning to lift up his specs, he shivered. The chemicals Elmer had inhaled made him fear to discover monstrous eyes behind them.
The view of the normal clear eyes of the man reassured him, and relaxed, he sighed.
Bo smiled at him and said, "Welcome to the Community!"
"The Community... at last," murmured Elmer Hoffnung, a happy smile playing on his lips.
He then collapsed and fell on the dirty ground, fainting. The young man looked at the fat man at his +++feet, whose smile had faded away and, his eyes closed, seemed to be in Morpheus' arms.
"Hey, Bo, what did you do to him?" asked Johnny Jackson, joining him while he also lifted his goggles, showing teary eyes, despite the protection the pair of spectacles offered him.
"I dunno. He fell in the dirt when I spoke and smiled at him."
"You smiled at him?" yelled Johnny, seeming shocked. "I understand his reaction, your smile's sooo ugly when one sees your bad teeth!", and he laughed out loud.
"You son of a..." replied Bo, chuckling, and he stopped speaking. He was happy to see that his friend joking meant that his morale was getting better.
Their laughter continued a few seconds and then, Bo asked, "You think we should bring him to the hospital?"
"I bet we should," said Johnny, "after all, we're civilized people."
He briskly turned his flamethrower sideways and pulled the trigger, frying a last zombie, which had clumsily approached him. The creature fell on the ground, trembling a few seconds before immobilizing, becoming a burning mass on the dirty ground. He released the trigger and looked in another direction, slowly raising his chin.
He was suddenly startled and pointed a finger upwards, in front of him, adding, "What the fuck..."
Bo looked at what his friend was showing him and, surprised, opened his mouth.
They were watching the big black bag which was planted against the giant wall. They both approached the thing, while two male nurses came behind them, putting Elmer on a stretcher, taking him quickly inside. They contemplated, fascinated, the protruding blades which were literally embedded into the wall, as if its concrete surface was made of butter.
Amazed, the two young men looked at each other.
***
Grading
Red, in this episode, obtains brilliantly her black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. But despite her success, as she wishes to practice Kenjutsu, to whom is much given, much is expected. (Episode in PDF file attached here)
Mei was feeling nervous.
Not because of her work as a technician inside the agro-building, even if, sometimes, she knew what the word stress meant, like any other person working in the Community. After all, resources inside the dome were scarce, and every bit of energy to sustain it, and all its inhabitants, every drop of water, were actually precious.
She wasn't feeling nervous because of her grade-passage, like the numerous ones she had passed in the diverse martial arts she had studied; grades that she had acquired with success, according to her father, who had the tendency to spare his compliments.
No, today, her nervousness didn't concern herself. It concerned the umpteenth grade-passage of her daughter in Jiu-Jitsu. It wasn't the first time, but she still couldn't get used to it.
Red was barely hit by the kick at her face but was able to dodge. She fought back with a kick of her own, but her opponent, taller and with longer limbs, stayed out of her reach.
Johnny was a tough fighter. Despite criticizing, for years, with his father, any fight without a weapon, he had changed his mind. He had understood that it would be a plus to be able to defend himself, even when barefoot, and with only his bare hands.
The two fighters stopped moving, observing each other. Living alone now, isolated from his father, he had stopped criticizing Hiroto when, like many others, he had to accept a disturbing fact: the Community’s stocks of ammunition were lowering dangerously…
Mei watched in admiration her adoptive daughter, who was moving around the colored man with a feline grace. Red was big given her age, she was only twelve, almost thirteen, but she almost made her think of a young woman. Mei was rather baffled.
Why is this generation so precocious?
Is the human species evolving to be able to defend itself sooner against the zombies?
She was startled when Red leapt onto Johnny at a dashing speed, closing her legs like giant scissors around his pelvis, at the level of his brown belt. She twisted herself and made him perform an involuntary back loop. He hit the tatami with the back of his head.
Now half knocked out, despite the relatively soft tatami, he didn't react when she seized one of his arms with both her hands, and blocked it on her belly. The pain made him wince, because of his arm being forced by her into an abnormal position. He resisted suffering during many seconds, trying to relax his arm to avoid being wounded. He fought, but wasn't able to free it, and had his body immobilized on the tatami by her long legs.
Angry with himself, he noisily hit the tatami with the palm of his opened hand, signifying he surrendered. The sound reverberated in an impressive way inside the dojo and against its walls.
"End of combat. Red wins," said Hiroto, his face impassive, as usual.
But Mei knew what was hidden inside her father's heart: he was probably very proud of his adopted granddaughter. After all, she had passed her Jiu-Jitsu grades at a rate never reached, until then, by one of his disciples. Even by Mei herself, who had been quite a serious practitioner.
The girl freed Johnny's arm. They separated and stood up, standing in front of one another. He rubbed his elbow to ease his pain, while scowling at her, and murmured, "Red, you're nuts. I thought you were going to break my arm!"
"Sorry, Johnny," she answered, a determined and impish smile on her face.
Hiroto looked at the young colored man who was arranging his kimono which was rumpled and said, "Despite your demise, Johnny, it was a good fight. You and Red both knew very well the name of the fighting techniques, the subtleties of the katas..."
He stopped speaking, observing the two young practitioners. They were watching him with intensity, waiting to hear what followed, both ready to drink in his comments. With an inner smile, he decided not to make them wait longer.
"... So, I've decided that you have both deserved your black belt."
Johnny and Red sighed almost in unison, having held their breath much too long. Suddenly relaxed, they both smiled at each other, happiness filling their souls.
"Red!"
The old Asian's harsh voice startled the teen redhead who murmured, "Yes?"
"I can give a belt to someone or take it away, with my willpower..."
Wide eyed because of the surprise, Red opened her mouth, ready to protest, but wasn't allowed to say anything more when her grandfather added, "Your opponent has fixed his kimono in order to have a correct appearance during the salute. I was awaiting the same thing from you. Arrange your kimono!"
She quickly smoothed out her training wear, and also readjusted her brown belt, smiling shyly at Hiroto. Then she became immobile like a statue, listening.
"That's better," the old man said, nodding approvingly. He took a peek at his daughter, kneeling like the other practitioners, near a wall on the tatami, who smiled at him.
Turning his attention elsewhere, hands behind his back, he walked leisurely toward Red and Johnny, and stopped in front of both of them. They remained standing side by side, in the middle of the dojo, looking beyond, averting his gaze.
Hiroto then brought back his hands, putting them in front of himself, and what they contained got the two youngsters’ attention. He was showing two completely new black belts. Their hearts pounding in their chests because of the emotion, both removed their brown belts, and put on the black one. The old man took from their hands their brown belts, and then walked toward a table near the tatami, putting them on it.
He then went back towards them, and told them to join the remainder of the group of students, who were kneeling around the center of the tatami. While they obeyed swiftly, he knelt down in front of them, and finally leaned forward, his forehead almost touching the mattress. He saluted his disciples in this way, who, respectfully, imitated him. Then, the Master, still kneeling, turned at ninety degrees to face an old, black and white photograph. It was one of Jigoro Kano, the Master who had developed Judo, the sporty version of Jiu-Jitsu. Hiroto leaned forward the same way, imitated once again by the crowd.
Finally, the Master and everyone stood up. The course had ended.
Everyone began to drift away as Mei joined Red and, smiling at her, said, "I'm so proud of you… go, now, ask him."
The young teenager smiled back at Mei and, turning around, looked at Hiroto, who was at the table, carefully winding the two brown belts. He finally deposited them in one of the big drawers of the table. Inside, Red saw, as usual, groups of belts neatly put in rows and columns, classified by color.
"Grandpa," murmured Red when arriving just behind him.
"Yes?" asked the old man, looking at her while he was closing the drawer.
"Do you authorize me, now, to follow the Kenjutsu course?"
A slight hint of surprise furtively showed on the man's winkled face. He looked at her from head to toe, and said, becoming impassive again, “I recognize that you've proved yourself in Jiu-Jitsu. None of my precedent or present students has ever progressed so fast in the mastership of the techniques." Red smiled at him, and he answered silently with his usual shy smile. She loved to delight the father of her adoptive mother. He continued, "Jiu-Jitsu was the martial art used by my ancestors, whenever they were unarmed during fights. For example, when their sabers were broken in battle. That art helped them to survive, even with their bare hands. Survival is important. It was the case in that distant past, and nowadays, it's more important, and harder, than ever!" Red watched him, hopeful, and he continued, "But I'm afraid that it's not sufficient."
That sent a chill through her. Taken aback, she turned to her adoptive mother, who was standing at the limits of the tatami, and saw that, likewise, she was clearly surprised.
Red felt that the Worshipful Master patted her on the back with a finger, so she turned again to face him.
He murmured, "I don't want to pull you down, Red. I live with you, I consider you as my granddaughter." He stopped speaking, and the red-haired teen sensed that a great deal of emotions filled the Asian's heart. Finally, he added, "But despite that, you must do something, in order to be accepted in the Kenjutsu course, the same thing that I had to do when I was your age."
He stopped speaking, and they then exited the Dojo, which was now completely empty, with the exception of the three of them.
Later on, during dinner in their apartment, he didn’t want to explain anything. Red and, especially, her mother, were used to his tendency to be secretive. The girl, who pensively ate her sushi, wanted deeply to know what he didn't tell her. She went to bed, not interested by what played on the family's TV, connected to the Community's channel. Lying on her back while watching the ceiling, she was thoughtful.
Turning around in bed, she lay on her stomach, playing with a curl of her long red hair. It was no more tied up in a ponytail, but now hung about her alabaster shoulders. A big question she was often thinking about: what did Hiroto really want from her? Where could she find the answer? She didn't clearly know…
Suddenly, she opened her eyes, the answer coming together in her mind.
She knew where she could find the answer!
She grabbed on her bedside table the smartphone which had been offered by her mother for her birthday, and immediately began to surf on CommunityNet. Like this old used smartphone, that interior WiFi link used old computer technologies predating The Plague, before its subsequent industrial collapse. These, and the few iPads and smartphones amassed by the Community’s thousands of immigrants, were part of the last remnants of Humankind's past Technological Glory. A legacy which was in danger of being lost, despite the efforts of the many engineers and technicians living inside its walls. Learning how to reuse old electronic and electric components, how to recycle everything, at least, they were able to keep everything up and running.
And at least thousands of Terabytes of data, coming from the vanished Internet, had been saved in the memories of the net’s old web servers.
And searching on CommGoogle with the words "Martial", "Arts", "Student", "Tradition", and a few others, she finally discovered the information she needed.
"What? That?"
She turned around in her bed and, lying on her back now, threw the phone back onto her table. Finally, motionless now, she watched the neat and clean ceiling of her bedroom, and sighed heavily. I've worked very hard, to earn the right to wear my black belt... I didn't imagine I would have to do even more, to be admitted at the Kenjutsu course. Well, if it's the predominant tradition in Asia, I'll do it...
***
Space
The nerve-breaking sound of the circular saw was mixed with another sound, a crystalline one. Once again, trying to bear with it, Johnny was trying to cut one of the dark protruding blades, which seemed to have almost sunk into the wall. The rotating saw spit impressive sparks, while it rubbed the strange, glistening blade… while being unable to even scratch its surface.
Bo and Johnny were really flabbergasted!
The strange black bag remained plugged against the wall of the Community, some of its protruding blades strongly embedded into the concrete surface, and all their last efforts to change this reality only resulted in a series of failures.
The young colored man, who firmly held the saw in both of his hands, suddenly heard a deafening sound of shrieking metal. He felt brutal vibrations, which made the tool shake violently, despite his resistance. This sent painful pulses through his arms, while he maintained his grip on the handle of the rotating saw with his gloved hands.
He finally switched off the electric motor and silence came suddenly when he brought the saw back toward himself. He watched the rotation of the saw slow down, and finally become motionless.
And once again, he saw that the teeth of the circular saw had been completely wiped out. The saw looked like an irregular metallic circle now. Goggling at it, he observed little wisps of smoke coming out of the damaged border, with a red glow. It had been heated to redness!
"Damn it, that was my third saw!" shouted Johnny.
"Wow, what kind of material is that?" Bo asked, watching the damage caused to the saw with him.
"As far as I know, it could be from outer space!"
"You're closer to the truth than you would think."
The voice startled both and they turned around, seeing Elmer Hoffnung, followed by Adams' two bodyguards. The man had said that phrase to make himself look good, but the two young men could easily see that his self-confidence was only faked: he frequently glanced at the edge of the woods, not far away. Two other guards, with their rifle-looking flame throwers, were also surveying the surroundings, but clearly couldn't reassure him.
"Well, Professor Hoffnung," bellowed a voice coming from over their heads, "please tell my men how to get rid of that abject growth on our wall!"
Lifting their heads, they saw the Administrator, Joshua Adams, who was looking down at them, from the parapet wall.
"I told you a thousand times that I don't have the equipment for cutting this kind of blade," the little fat man yelled at him, his head turning red with anger.
Suddenly it was as if many roars echoed as an answer to a call, coming from a nearby bush. The shouts had made Elmer jump, and he squeaked, "Please, let me go back inside!"
"Not before you have…"
"Professor Hoffnung!"
The Administrator turned his head towards the young Asian who had just said that, interrupting him by the way. The old man scowled at him, but decided for the moment to not say anything.
"Y
ou… you here? What a good surprise!" shouted Elmer when he saw the young man, a big smile full of hope on his face.
"You know this man, Mister Lee?" asked Adams, frowning.
"Do I know him? For sure, at College, I learned from him, in the domain of special materials used in the space industry, and in peculiar at NASA."
"Really?" snorted the old man, looking at them in turn, as if he was looking for a vague family relationship.
"He wants to exclude me from the Community!" Elmer plaintively yelled at the young man, fear growing on his face.
"What?" the young man asked, surprised, while turning his attention to Adams. "You can't leave at the door such a remarkable scientist!"
"A useful scientist for the Community?" asked the Administrator, while looking at him with a smirk, adding, "More useful than you, at least?" The tone of reproach was heard by the young Japanese, whose face and gaze became suddenly hard. He looked at him for many seconds, and finally spat, "Perhaps."
Adams showed a grim smile, after being surprised by the young Japanese's defiance, and murmured, "Perhaps we should welcome him inside, give him your job and your apartment, and finally throw you outside?"
"That would be as bad a decision, in the same way as not welcoming him."
The eye of the young Asian crossed the gaze of the old man, whose face began to grow red with anger. Is he going to exclude both of us?The young man was suddenly very worried.
A growl was suddenly heard, and turning his head in the direction where the noise had come from, Elmer saw, in the shadows between nearby shrubs, two glowing red eyes appear. Sweat trickling now down his temples due to fear, the fat bearded man swallowed hard.
