“Prize?” I perked my brow.
“Right now it’s just the namesake, but if I win the annual, I get a big plaque.”
“Wow back to the days when people actually wanted trophies. How nostalgic? What do the competitions involve?”
“Every month is different. I did hand to hand combat. First, I fought one guy just to get a base ranking. Next, I fought three grim to get my score and then I fought the guy I tied with and I won.”
“You got a lucky hit.” Haden mumbled.
“You’re just sore because you didn’t even make it past the first round.”
“Those women were huge. I’m doing the sharp shooting tournament next month. We’ll see if I’m not competing with you in the finale after all.” Haden tipped her brow at him. He offered her a wolfish grin that made me blush more than Haden.
“Once a month a different study then?” I asked trying to break them up before I had to start fanning myself.
“Yes,” Devin started counting them off on his fingers. “Freestyle hand to hand, martial arts, sharp shooting, swordplay, strength, speed and endurance, creative warfare—that ought to be interesting—balance and agility, mental concentration, staff fighting, spear throwing, and archery.”
Devin said the last part with a hint of excitement and finale. He raised his brow expecting me to mirror his enthusiasm. I glared at him and looked back at August. She shrugged.
“Don’t look at me, this is all him.” She said reaching into my hand to play a card for me.
I laughed. “No.” I said without any more thought than it might take me to consider going through the last three months again. Devin’s face cringed with shocked disappointment. I shook my head to reiterate my point before taking a swig of my beer.
“What? Oh, come on! I saw how quick you laid out those grim the other day. You’re defensive skills aren’t the only skills Garrett improved for you.”
A stray thought entered my mind and I choked on my beer. Sputtering over my misdirected beverage I blushed with embarrassment. August patted my back in assistance.
“What?” I croaked.
“You could win that tournament, and what’s more all four of us could compete in the finale. We can’t lose.”
I looked back at August. She tipped her head in a why not way.
“What are you competing in?” I asked thinking that she could compete in at least half of those categories.
“Swordplay.” She smiled.
“Are you sure this isn’t something you want me to do?”
August’s smile faded. “Why don’t you come with us to Haden’s event in a few weeks? If it appeals to you, you can enter. If not, don’t worry about it.” I could see she was trying to offer me the option instead of forcing me to do it, but I could also see how important it was to her. I had already put myself through hell in the name of this woman. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do anything more for her.
“I’ll think about it.” I said giving her the only answer I could without disappointing her, or myself.
-The Metro-
The Metro. The Big O.
Once the mecca of state commerce, now…still the mecca, but with the added highlight of being a war zone for the fight against the grim. Though I hadn’t seen it myself, I was told that a northern section of town was fenced, barricaded, and heavily guarded to keep the grim consolidated and under control. Unlike the rest of the state that shot first and…went for beer later, the people of the raging Metro took a more lawful approach to things.
On the eve of the city being taken over by the silver saints, the current and still acting mayor, dedicated himself to creating a concentration camp to house the overwhelming infestation. Every crystalline dead—as such inactive—was transported to the quarantined sector where they were barricaded into buildings. The project only took days to achieve since everyone was more than willing to donate their time and energies to keeping themselves safe.
The full on glimmer grim—totally animated—were hunted down by a task force made up of veteran military and police officers. In just under a month, the streets were cleaned up and the remaining population was safe to roam, as long as they stayed away from that part of the city, which was fine, since they were used to that anyway.
When the occasional break out occurred, Jimmy the Card kept everyone up to date. He reported grim movements like his predecessors might have reported the weather or the traffic. As the breakouts increased in frequency and severity, the mayor chose to entertain different ways of getting rid of the grim without an all-out execution—which for some reason really bothered people. Since it took me a good while to get used to killing them, I couldn’t entirely blame them for their prudery.
That was where the tournament idea came from. It was a classic Caesarian misdirection. Hate your life? Hate the grim? Let’s kill two birds with one stone. In this case, the competitors get to kill the grim, while the spectators get to enjoy a good show. Plus there was bound to be hot dogs and beer.
-Shot through the Heart…-
Devin crushed me in a bear hug after he lifted me out of the truck. We had arrived at the Qwest center, newly re-renamed out of disgust for the changed name. The event center was the home of the tournaments, and by the look of the traffic and people in the parking lot, it was a big deal.
The sun had just gone down and the cool night air was chilling me, but it was nothing compared to what it should have been for October.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Devin squeezed. I couldn’t really breathe and I was pretty sure Haden might explode if she had to wait one more second to get checked in. She was competing in the gun specialty. I was there to support, observe, and decide if I wanted to partake myself.
“I haven’t agreed to anything yet.” I said muffled by his shoulder.
“You will.” He released me and pulled me along with his arm wrapped around me.
“Come on!” Haden growled.
Devin wrapped a firm arm around her as he walked by. I could tell she wanted to squirm away, but just like me, she settled into the bathing attentions of our beautiful second sidekick. August paused waiting for us to catch up. She smiled at us linked by our pivotal man.
“Oh, August.” Devin said as we caught up. “Why can’t I have three arms?”
“I could always sit on your shoulders.” She offered walking in stride a step ahead of us.
“That you could.” He smirked. “I do enjoy having your thighs wrapped around my head.”
Haden and I both smacked him. “TMI.” Haden hissed.
“Oh, ladies, you know there’s enough of me to...” Even before he trailed off, Devin released us both and ran ahead to playfully wrestle and noogie some guy he recognized.
Haden and I paused looking at one another like we had both been simultaneously dumped for a better offer, which is kind of what happened.
“Well, that’s just bully.” Haden griped. “I’m going to go get checked in.” She ran off to the entrance where a line was forming for the competitors.
Off to my left I could see the border of the northern containment. The rotating lights, the pacing military men, and the circling helicopters were just about as prison camp as it got. Even from three blocks away, I could see the grim pressed against the fence reaching out to scratch, mar, or just plain rip the throats out of the passing guards.
“What are you thinking about?” August stepped up behind me and I had to resist the urge to lean back and rest my head on her shoulder.
“The grim. Why do they even bother with them? They could bomb the whole section.”
“I couldn’t agree more, but that’s for the mayor to decide.” She said diplomatically.
“Do you suppose the rest of the world is having that same debate? Desecrate your own dead, or struggle with containment.”
“I think so. Some people still believe they are saints. They believe the bodies should be bathed in holy water and buried in the earth.”
“Do you believe that?” I tur
ned around to look at her.
She shook her head somberly and pressed on my back as she started walking. I complied by walking on with her at the casual pace she decided on. “Do you know why we don’t bury the crystalline dead?”
“Because there’s too many of them and they don’t rot anyway so why bother?”
August nodded. “Initially, we didn’t know that though. We thought that they were just like any other bodies.” I got the sense that she was speaking for the entire human race when she said we. “After the apocalypse, we did bury many of them. Do you know what happen?” I shook my head. I loved story time with August. “The ground spit them back out.” She said with merriment.
I laughed, but she paused to look at me like I was the fool of this conversation. “Wait, what do you mean? They…”
“A few weeks after we buried them, regardless of how deep, the bodies rose to the surface, expelled from the graves.”
I shook my head, and she quirked an eyebrow daring me to question her. I parted my lips to ask a thousand questions. Her eyes settled on something behind me, and she smiled. “Garrett, perhaps you can back me up on this?”
My eyes widened and I whipped around.
-…and You’re to Blame-
Garrett was not just behind me, but practically on top of me. He had crept up on me and I hadn’t even noticed. More to the point, August hadn’t even hinted at it. I couldn’t help stepping back into August. She rested her hand on my shoulder. She probably intended it to be consoling, but I took it wrong and pulled away from both of them.
Garrett was impassive as usual. He appeared to be a little uncomfortable by our meeting, which was understandable since he left me the morning after I slept with him. I wasn’t expecting to see him again, let alone this soon. Part of me was overjoyed—probably the part that wanted to sleep with him again, and another part of me was on guard prepared for his attack—probably the part of me that still bore the scars of his “training.”
“Garrett,” I managed to say jumping my eyes between him and August. I didn’t want to reveal anything, but I was concerned that I was revealing everything. The strange thing was I didn’t even know anymore what I was hiding. Did August already know? Had she seen the scars? Did she suspect that I had slept with her brother? Was she okay with that?
“I see you’ve let all my progress go to shit.” Garrett scolded August, while managing to offer me a healthy share of the glare.
“I had her pre-occupied, besides, no one ever hears you coming, you serpentine bastard.”
Garrett leaned in and gave his sister a kiss on the cheek. He glanced at me and I gave him a small smile. Not so big, that he thought me desperate and not too small that he thought I was still mad at him. I should have been mad, but I was just so happy to see him again.
“Are you competing?” Garrett asked turning back to his sister. I felt like a third wheel.
“No, Haden is.”
Garrett scoffed. “You could win this easily.” He said. I looked to August to see if this were true. She averted her eyes. “You and your damned sword.”
“I like my sword.” She defended. “It doesn’t run out of ammunition.”
“But it can run out of power.” He said squeezing her ample biceps.
“Same old argument.” She shook her head. “I take it you’re competing.”
He scratched his head. “Yeah, I think I might have a shot, no pun intended.”
I chuffed at the obscure yet lame joke. No one joined me and Garrett all but rolled his eyes at me. I furrowed my brow at him, baffled that he could be this offish to me after seeing me naked. Wasn’t that supposed to make men happy?
“How is she doing?” He asked looking me over as if I was a car he had recently sold her. The ache in my chest was more than pain; it was outrage. I really couldn’t bare this.
“Lenore…” August pronounced carefully in case her brother forgot my name, which seemed entirely possible at this point. “Is doing…fine?” Garrett tipped his head. “She can run now, and her archery skills—“
“Did you even test her?” His voice pitched with condescension.
“Yes, but…she has not responded to my tests well.” August looked sympathetically at me like she didn’t want to be a tattle-tail, but had no choice. “She won’t defend herself against me.”
Garrett shook his head. “You’re telling me she let you hit her.” He offered me a look that told me I was in trouble if this were true.
“Well, I didn’t actually hit, I just…”
“August! I spent three months training her so you didn’t have to do the hard labor. Of course she won’t defend herself. She knows you’ll never actually hit her!”
“I’m not going to bludgeon her just to see if she learned anything.”
“How do think I trained her?” August’s eyes widened as she tried to rationalize what he was saying. She even opened her mouth to speak on the point, but she couldn’t address the issue while it was still coming to light. “I’ll show you what she can do.” Garrett stalked to me and raised his fist to punch me.
-Stubborn-
It had been decided somewhere along the line that I was in fact, not lazy, but just really, really stubborn. I’m not entirely sure there is a difference, but it does invoke a better image.
When Garrett came at me, I instinctively tensed, set my feet, and shifted my right shoulder forward. If I only wanted to get away, I had the option to duck and back pedal. Those were early lessons though. Garrett had taught me in the later lessons, to block his punch and take the opening for all its worth.
The danger with that option was his sixty-pound advantage, and his meaty fists were likely to only be slowed by my block. That is why the upper cut to the chin is best. The nerve running along the chin is like a shut off switch to the brain. Pain for me; knock out for him.
When he came at me I had already positioned myself to fight back, but between the sour looks he was giving me and the brusque way he addressed me like I wasn’t there, I decided not to give him the pleasure of making me dance any more than I had August. I relaxed my hands, and tensed my neck for the incoming head volley.
His fist fit hard and I knew it would. The gasp I heard from August was priceless. I absorbed the pain as much as I could and looked back at Garrett’s shocked face. His anger reared and he punched me in the stomach to get a response from me. All I could do was tense and hope that I had made my point, whatever it was.
“Garrett stop!” August shouted.
Garrett looked me over settling on my eyes, which were no doubt as angry as they had ever been. He might have recognized it from the moment right before I smashed his face in. “You stubborn little b—” His insult was cut off by a tackle from the side.
-Say it Ain’t so-
It was true that August was always my hero. No matter where I was, what I was doing, if I was in danger, she was magically there. I don’t mean to say that she had super powers—although that could still be debated—but that she was just a very good hero.
In most situations that wouldn’t have changed, but over the last few weeks, Devin had become my number one fan. He was like a brother, a lover (minus the sex), and a loyal puppy all rolled into one. I presumed some of the extra attention was out of guilt for leaving me behind, but also, I think he just missed me.
At this point, it was a toss-up of which one was going to come to my rescue. When it was neither of them, I was a little disappointed, yet pleasantly surprised.
It didn’t take Haden long to wrestle Garrett down and stick her glock nearly up his nose. “Don’t you fucking move!” She shouted at him.
“What’s going on?” Devin’s run came to a halt beside August. He looked over the scene: Haden on top of Garrett, August stunned beyond words, and me, doubled over with a bloody nose.
“This fuck just hit Lenore!” Haden hissed jerking Garrett’s collar. He laid defenselessly on the ground. His gun was out of reach under Haden’s knee as she intended it to be.
>
Devin came at me, but I waved him off me. I didn’t want to be touched at that moment, let alone consoled in front of Garrett—must be strong in front of the man that hits you. What’s the difference between bravery and pride again?
“Lenore! Why didn’t you stop him?” August admonished me. “I saw you shift. You were ready for him. You stopped at the last second. Why?!”
“Because she’s stubborn!” Garrett yelled. Haden shifted her gun to cold cock him and I shook my head in disapproval. She opened herself up. Her first mistake was not tossing his gun right away. Her second mistake was staying on top of him. Her third mistake was moving her barrel away from the target.
Garrett grabbed her hands and flipped her over his head with the help of his strong legs. Before she could recover, he was up and pointing his gun back at her. “Looks like I could teach you a thing or two as well.” He grumbled.
“Garrett!” August scolded and he immediately put away his gun. It took a little longer for Haden, but eventually she holstered it.
“What the hell is going on?” Devin asked again not satisfied with the aftermath display.
“I won’t dance for them, and he’s pouting…with his fists.” I said.
Garrett approached me and Devin stepped in his way. “You don’t touch her again.” Devin snarled.
“Garrett, we didn’t need to test her here.” August objected. “Why did you hit her so hard, I think you broke her nose?”
I instinctively reached for my nose. It felt swollen. “Oh man! I don’t want a bent nose!” Everyone glanced at me like they couldn’t believe that was the only thing I was worried about.
“It’s not that bad.” Garrett said eyeing me from behind the wall of Devin. “If you call off your playboy here, I’ll check it.”
“I’ll take care of it.” August volunteered and came over to look at me. She raised her hand to touch me and I batted her away. “Lenore…”
“Why are you coddling me now? The damage is done.”
Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse (Part 1) Page 14
