“Okay, let’s stop the targets and look and see where you hit them. Wow, again, you are just barely off the bull’s-eye. That’s what we are talking about. Overall outstanding on hitting the targets with the knives. Now we need to show you how to cut with the knives. We have some dummies set up over there and we have a picture there of a human body. Now depending on if they are in vampire mode, then you have to stab them in the heart. If they are just regular Wasioux, then you need to slit their throat. If it is a wereboon then you need to also slit their throat. So if you look at the picture you can see where both areas are. I mean we all know where the heart is and the throat is, but you have to cut them just right to kill them. For the heart you will need to use the knife with the bigger blade that you like. You need to be able to have the blade go into the heart and not just pierce the heart. Then the shorter knife you would want to use to slit the throat. For slitting the throat you need the knife to go partly in the throat and then slit it down and across. We don’t have anything live you can practice this on, so you will have to use the dummy. Are you ready to try it on the dummy?” Trevor says.
“I am ready. I understand that when they are vampires I need to stab them deep into the heart, and if they are not vampires I need to slit their throats in a downward motion. I don’t even want to think about having to do this, but if it comes down to life or death, then I will not have a problem killing them. As for the wereboons I will for sure not have any problem killing one of them. They are mean and they had no problem wanting to kill Max and me. They would kill me in a heartbeat and I am sure they would kill any one of you guys. They are animals and yes, they are controlled right now, but they will turn on us in a heartbeat. So again the wereboons will not be a problem. So please show me how to hold the knife and how to use it on both of them. I know how to throw them since you showed me, but I have no clue how to cut anything with them,” I say.
“Of course I am going to show you how to cut with them. I am not just going to throw you to the Wasioux and the wereboons without teaching you how to defend yourself. All this training would have been for nothing. Alright, let’s stand over by the dummy and I will show you how to cut into a human.
We actually have two dummies to use. I will show you on the first dummy and then I will let you cut on the second dummy. You can practice on this dummy after I show you, and then you can cut the second dummy. Okay, when you are going to cut into the heart you have to hold the knife with the blade down and then slam it down into the chest. Then, when the blade has gone all the way in, you need to turn it back and forth. Blood will be coming out everywhere. The vampire will be trying to get away from you, but you must keep smashing it down and turning it. Eventually the vampire will stop fighting you and you will feel them take their last breath. It’s going to be tough on you standing there while they are taking their last breath, especially when it’s going to be someone you have met and you might even become friends with. I am telling you this so you can try as best as you can to prepare yourself for it. If you can even prepare yourself to taking someone’s breathe which is not an easy task. Before you ask, yes, I have killed someone before and so have Anita Kay and Stella. Remember what we said before: we came to an understanding with the vampires they used to drain us for blood. Well, they couldn’t stop and would drain us and kill us and so we would kill them back. They lost family members and so did we. We had to come up with something before we killed off each other. We learned how to survive at that time. We had to learn quickly how to kill someone. The first kill, even if it was a vampire, was very tough on me. I kept seeing me cut him over and over for days. I could hear the knife going into his heart. I could hear his insides when I moved the knife back and forth, and I could hear him over and over trying to catch his breath all the way until I couldn’t hear him breathing anymore. At night, I had nightmares and in the daytime I still could hear all those sounds. It took me a while and then I ended up killing a couple other vampires. Did it get easier? Yes somewhat, but it still bothered me. If it stopped bothering me, then I would have become just like them. It was tough on all of us,” Trevor says.
“Well, speak for yourself. Not all of us. Yes, at first it bothered me, but I just need to remember they killed my dad and then I was angry and I couldn’t wait to start killing them. I killed several of them and it did not bother me at all. I started loving hearing that sound of me stabbing them in the heart and then turning that knife back and forth in their heart until they took their last breath. It made me feel so good. Then one day I said enough and then we brokered the blood trade. Do I feel bad about killing the vampires that I killed? No I don’t. They deserved it and if I have to do it again, I will without even thinking twice. Yes, you will be bothered by it, but I wasn’t because they drained my dad and killed him. They haven’t done anything to you,” Stella says.
“Don’t let Stella fool you, Hollis, it does bother her to kill someone. She is still human. Is she angry and still blames the vampires? Yes, and she should, but it does bother her because she is not a killer,” Anita Kay says.
“Wow, I still can’t even believe we are talking about killing people, but it’s a reality that I am going to have to deal with if the time comes. Yes, you guys are right: it will bother me. I am scared about it, but I will do it. So I take the larger knife with the larger blade and then I take it and I stab it into the heart like this - the knife slides right into the heart and it feels like it is real. It feels like I am really cutting into someone - and then I need to move the knife back and forth like this, correct?” I ask.
“Yes, believe it or not, that is perfect. You listened to me and did exactly what I said. Very good job. Now you need to slit the throat of the dummy,” Trevor says.
I grab the dummy from the back and then I take the knife and then I take the second knife and then I stick it in the throat and cut down and across, and again it seems real to me. I can feel the knife cutting through the dummy like I am cutting into the skin of a human. I can imagine me actually cutting someone and them yelling and trying to get away from me. It is a horrible feeling. Please don’t make this become a reality.
“Very good again, Hollis. You made a perfect cut in the neck: if that was a human you would have killed them and you would have killed them pretty fast,” Trevor says.
“Man, the dummies feel so lifelike. I could hear it ripping through the skin,” I say.
“We try and make them as lifelike as we can. It makes it easier to train on, but it is not like the real thing. They will be moving all over and not sitting still like these dummies are. They will also be fighting you and trying to get away. If they are a vampire, then you might need to knock them out first, because they are very strong when they are vampires and you can’t fight them. They have so much more power than we have. Always the best choice is to knock them out. Once they are knocked out they can’t overpower you and kill you. Yes, I have knocked out vampires. I know it doesn’t sound right since they can’t defend themselves, but we don’t have any choice sometimes: it’s life or death. You don’t have time to think. You are fighting them, and then you need to knock them out. I will show you how to do this during our combat training, or fight training. Whatever you want to call this training we will be doing,” Trevor says.
“Trevor is right. I have had to knock them out myself a couple of times. If not, they would have caught me and drained me of my blood. My first time was different for me so I had knocked them out and then I had to kill. I felt at first it was not a fair fight, but if they had been awake they would have killed me. So I said this had to be and it was a matter of life and death,” Stella says.
“Now you know exactly what you have to do when it comes to cutting and stabbing the Wasioux. I don’t feel we have to spend any more time on this. You now know how to use the crossbow, which you are great at. You also know how to throw the pocket knives, and now you know how to stab someone and you know how to slit someone’s throat. Now let’s take a quick little break and then we will
get ready for your fighting training,” Trevor says.
“I could use some water, so a little break would be great,” I say. Then I go over and sit down on the bench next to Max who is sitting on the bench and was watching us train. I sit down next to Max and I wrap my arms around her and give her a big hug, and she turns around and licks me right in the face and her little stubby tail is just wagging back and forth. She is happy and I don’t want to mess that up right now. She seems to be enjoying being here. I wonder if she knows we might be in a battle soon with the Wasioux.
“We will need to get you dressed for our training,” Trevor says.
“What do you mean, get dressed?” I ask.
“Yes, you will need to put on a couple things for safety. You will also need to take your shoes off. You will need to put on these shin guards and these partial gloves, and last you need to put on this head safety helmet. Then once you get everything on we can go over there to the center of the room and that’s where we will train at. The equipment is over there by the wall. I will put safety footies on, so when I kick you it will not be as bad,” Trevor says.
“Can you cover up your whole body with safety equipment on? That might help when you start beating on me?” I say.
“I am not beating on you. I am just going to be training you how to handle any situations. So if you do have a situation come up you will be ready for it: I can almost guarantee you that we will have to fight the Wasioux. They will be either regular or vampires. The moon is coming soon and then the double moon will be coming right after that. They have a human with a rare blood type that will make them the most powerful vampires and then they never die. So as I see it, we will be fighting with them. I can’t see them just wanting to work out a deal with us. They will do whatever it takes to protect Cody from getting away and from us getting to Cody. They are too close to the double moon to let that happen. We all need to brush up on our fighting skills and get ready for a battle,” Trevor says.
“I am ready when you are. I think I put on everything you said to put on. I would prefer that you didn’t punch me in the face,” I say.
“Well, I will try not to hit you in the face, but I do need to teach you how to block punches that are coming towards your face. You will have to be able to defend yourself, and mostly your face because you do not want to get knocked out. The easy way to start draining your blood from you without you fighting is to knock you out, or kill you, but since they don’t know yet that you have rare blood, they will not want to kill you because they want you to supply them with blood every month, and if you are dead you can be their supplier. They really don’t want us dying because we start depleting their supply. They can’t feed off of each other,” Trevor says.
“Okay, you ladies stop flirting and get to fighting,” Stella says.
“Ha, you’re a funny lady, Stella, a very funny lady. We are going to start in just a moment. Okay, Hollis, you ready? So let me see you stand there ready to protect yourself. How would you stand?” Trevor asks.
I reply, “I would stand with my arms up and my fist balled up, and I would put one foot in front of the other to be able to brace myself.”
“Well, not bad, you do need to stand with your feet one in front of the other. If you stand with your feet together and get punched in the face you could fall, so the one in front of the other one helps you stay standing. What if I do this?” Trevor asks and then he takes his arm and his balled fist and wham, hits me right in the face and hits me in the jaw. Shocked, my head goes back a little. But I stand erect and don’t fall. “Why didn’t you try to keep my fist from hitting you. You didn’t even try and block it at all. I just went straight in there and you stood there. You can’t do that.”
“That’s because you threw me off guard. I didn’t expect you to go straight for my face when you were starting out. I thought you would build up to hitting me in the face, but you did not, you went straight for the face on the first punch. I didn’t react because I think I was in shock that you were really doing this. Also you are really fast, and I am not fast like that. For some reason I thought you would be slower at first, but I was wrong,” I reply.
“I could see that, but I want you to be ready now and I don’t want you to have time to think about it. I want you to react and react really fast. We don’t have time to take time training you on this. We need to get you through the fighting training today and still some mental training. If we meet a Wasioux today and they were to want to fight you, not saying they would right now, but I want you to be able to block the punches and be able to punch them back. So let’s do this again. I want you to punch at me. I want you to be pissed off when you punch at me. Punch at me like your punching someone that you don’t like. Is there someone you don’t like and would love to punch in the face?” Trevor says.
“Yes, Jimmy Stewart would be the person I would love to punch in the face,” I reply.
“Okay then, my name is Jimmy Stewart and I am about to kick your butt, so what are you going to do about it? Come on, hit me, little nerdy boy Hollis. You know you want to hit Jimmy in the face,” Trevor says.
I put up my fist to block his reaction when I try and punch him. Jimmy Stewart, I am going to punch you right in the face. I rear back and throw a punch and I hit Trevor in the cheek of his face. I can see his head go back some. I can also see that he is a little surprised that I hit him. I am surprised I hit him also.
“Oh my gosh, are you alright? I am sorry for hitting you in the face,” I say.
“What? Don’t apologize! That’s what you are supposed to do. I am surprised that you did hit me in the face, since this is your first training ever. Granted, I am not happy that I let you hit me in the face, but I am also proud of you for hitting me in the face. You surprised me and you were faster than what I thought. I can see that this Jimmy Stewart guy really gets under your skin. He got you all pissed off and he is not even here. Just his name got you all pissed off. So now we know how to get under your skin. Okay, let’s keep going. Try and hit me again. Reminder: I am Jimmy Stewart and I am going to keep bullying you until everyone at school knows that you are a nerd boy and everyone will be laughing at you thinking that you are a joke of a person. So hit me, little boy,” Trevor says.
I get ready and swing again, but this time I miss his face and just clip his ear and wham, I feel a hard hit to my face and down on the ground I go. I hit the floor and then jump back up and swing again and then I hit him right in the chest, knocking him back some. I then move toward Trevor, swing again and hit him again in the chest and back he goes. I then keep moving forward, with him moving backwards, and I swing again while he is off-balance and wham, I hit him right under the chin and down on the floor he goes. I then stand over the top of him. I have so much adrenaline going through my body.
Trevor says, “Wow, what the heck, dude? Look how fast you picked that up. Everything we keep teaching you, you keep picking up really fast. You have never even been in a fight before and dang, you have just knocked me down. I am starting to believe that you have been bull crapping us. You learn way too fast. Maybe in another life you were some superhero or something. Usually it takes a while for people to learn how to fight, especially someone who has never been in a fight before,” Trevor says.
“I told you that I have watched a lot of movies and TV, and the movies and shows that I have watched had a lot of fighting scenes in them. I watch them and learn while I watch them. I have watched several karate shows also. I watch them so that if I ever had to protect myself at least I would know the moves and then I know that I just need to adjust to the person’s speed that I am fighting against. So, even though I have never got into a fight with anyone, I do know something when it comes to fighting. I can see all that studying how to fight and defend myself has paid off. Now do we need to continue fighting, or do you think I know enough?” I ask.
“Well, Stella and Anita Kay, what do you think? Does
Hollis need more fighting training? He just put me on the gro
und after just a few training lessons. I think he can handle his own when it comes to fighting. What do you two think?” Trevor asks.
Stella says, “He looks ready to me. He was getting ready to kick your butt. I think he can handle his own.”
“I agree with the both of you. He is ready and can handle his own. Just remember, Hollis, when they are vampires they are superfast. We can’t train you on their speed: all we can do is tell you that they are superfast. Faster than anything you have ever seen before. I know back in the real world that you live in that you see fast cars - well, just think of the fastest car made and then double that in your mind and you might be close to how fast they are. You need to adjust in your mind to that. That’s why we are trying to be helpful with these different skills training so you can pick them up and then you are the one who will have to adjust your skills to their strengths and power,” Anita Kay says.
“Okay, we are done with the fighting part of the training. Now you both probably need to put some ice on your face. So let’s take a lunch break and then we will finish off with mental training. Then tomorrow we will have Sandy come over to tell us how it’s going in the Wasioux village. Then we will have Trevor take you over and introduce you to the Wasioux. I am surprised that none of them have stopped by to meet Hollis yet. Everyone in both villages knows that our cousin is here staying with us. I guess since they have Cody they are not focusing on anyone else. That can be a good thing for us because they will not even be talking about you, or even thinking about you. So let’s go and get some food and take a break,” Stella says. We all agree on food and then we leave the training area and go inside. We all go first towards our rooms. Trevor and I go into our room. “I need to change my shirt because it is a little sweaty,” Trevor says.
HOLLIS MCCALISTER SUMMER CAMP Page 17
