Elect

The Elect 7, part 3 of 4: Friends

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Emily and Susan went to the mall Friday afternoon. Susan complained the whole time about Ohio State, even while she praised the school. She did not have much interest in New Jersey State, which she called a poor excuse for a university. “I mean, IA football. What is that? But I suppose they have a good nursing school and that is what you are interested in, right?”

Susan was good most of the time, though as clueless about life as ever. Emily realized that was why she stopped hanging out with Susan after the tenth grade. She gave up all her sports in the ninth grade, except soccer, in order to hang with the popular girls. Of course, she did not fit into the right social set to make the cheerleader squad, and her grades were altogether too good besides, but it was a phase she went through. It was a stupid phase, she thought. She realized by the time ab columbus mall 3eleventh grade started if she stayed with the popular girls what little brains she had would surely leak out on to the floor at some party and she would become as clueless as the rest. She moved into ROTC and on to another set of friends. She imagined if she and Susan had not been close since kindergarten, they would have long since drifted apart.

“So, I’m having a party Saturday night. You will be there,” Susan said.

“What?” Emily was focused on something that looked strange, and it took her a minute to figure it out. “Oh, yes,” she said as she stood up in time to bump a young man to the ground. He lost his grip on the money and it spread all over the floor. The man behind took a swing at her head, but she ducked, grabbed the man by his baggy pants and threw him on top of the first, his pants now around his ankles so he could not get up quickly.

ab columbus mall 2Emily wiped the corner of her mouth and retook her seat. She had a burger and fries to finish. “You were saying, about a party?” Two men rushed up from the burger place, followed by mall security. Emily imagined the police would be there soon enough, and did not give the incident a second thought.

Susan grinned. “I see you have expanded your beating up the boys repertoire.”

“Oh no,” Emily insisted. “I wouldn’t dream of interfering.”

###

By the time Friday evening came, Emily needed a clueless break. She called Molly and met her and Cathy at the bowling alley. They got lane seventeen and talked about something other than accessories. Molly was studying business at the community college. Cathy was working the front desk at her dad’s car dealership. Cathy looked bigger than Emily remembered, but maybe she put on some weight. It was hard to tell since the girl had always been big.ab bowling 4

They were laughing when Emily caught a glimpse of Brad. She tried to hide, but Brad came straight to her like the proverbial moth to the flame. She and Brad broke up senior year after the prom. She had to hurt him, physically, to get him to leave her alone. Obviously, she could not hurt his heart since he did not have one. It was another exercise in stupidity on her part, Emily thought. It was another memory to be ashamed of, to think there was anything she saw in Brad in the first place.

“Hey girls,” Duncan said it. He was right there with Brad and Hoover, as expected. The way Duncan said it, though, was something like middle school. It might have been, “Hey, look! Girls!”

ab bowling 1“Duncan.” Emily acknowledged the boy, and then she paused. She smelled something as the boys came near. It was not zombies, but it was like death. It smelled demonic or something, definitely not normal. She briefly wondered where Amina might be. She imagined Amina could identify it.

“What are you guys up to?” Molly asked.

“Nothin’,” Hoover said, at his verbal best.

“Elected bitch,” Brad looked straight at Emily. “There is nothing special about you. You are just fooling yourself.” Duncan and Hoover both giggled. There was no other word to describe it.

“What?” Cathy spouted, though she was normally quiet when boys were around. “Get rude much?” Emily felt grateful for the defense, but wondered how Brad could know anything about her being one of the elect. He was certainly no seer. He was a heartless jerk.ab bowling 3

“Go away,” Molly said sharply. “We were having fun before you showed up.”

Brad stared at Emily. “So, beat anyone up at college yet?”

Emily stared right back. “Yeah, one Mister Hilde, two football players and three geeks.” Her eyes took in Duncan and Hoover. “Oh, and three zombies if you must know, but I had to make them dead again.”

Duncan laughed. Hoover did not find it funny. Brad hardly flinched before he spoke again. “So I think you will get your butt kicked soon enough and see how you like it, bitch.” Brad looked once around the bowling alley and waved to the others. “Come on.” They exited out the side door.

“What creeps!” Molly came up beside Emily.

“What got into them?” Cathy asked.

ab bowling 2Emily said nothing. It was her turn. She picked up her bowling ball and heaved it underhand. To be fair it bounced once before it broke through the back wall of the alley. Molly had to go to the desk.

“Chris, return on number seventeen,” the speakers spouted. Emily and Cathy watched as the young man wandered down alley seventeen. When he got close, they heard his words.

“Fuckin’-A”

The Elect 7, part 2 of 4: Family

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Emily went home for Thanksgiving. She flew out on Wednesday and did not have to be back until Sunday night. That gave her four whole days where she did not have to think about anything. Of course she thought about everything that whole time.

Emily hugged her mother, her father, her younger brother and her mother again. She took her bags upstairs but Mother called up before she could unpack a thing. There were messages and Emily was expected to go back down to listen since Mother was not the type to yell.ac emily house 2

“Susan called and asked if you had beaten up anyone at college yet.”

Susan was from the rich, cheerleader side of town. She was a friend, but had a touch of acid in her personality. “I’ll call her later.”

“Brad called and said he wants to see you.”

Brad was the ex-boyfriend. Emily did not have to think. “No.”

“I agree,” Mother said and crumpled that piece of paper. “Molly called to say hi and welcome home.”

Emily smiled. Molly, her best bud, represented the working class side of town. Most families in town were working class, including hers. “Every corner heard from,” Emily said, and she went happily back upstairs, shut her door, plopped down on her bed and cried.

When Thanksgiving Day arrived, and dinner was on the table, Emily’s father started right in with, “so tell us about school.” She hardly knew where to begin. Her mother was against ROTC and everything military. Her father urged her to study something practical like economics, but conceded ac emily thanksthat nursing would be acceptable. Of course, he said there were good nursing schools close to home.

“But I want to have the full college experience,” Emily said. She smiled at her little brother Tyler who had his ear buds hidden up under his long hair. He smiled back and nodded, or bobbed his head to the music and had no idea what anyone was saying. Sadly, he thought he was getting away with it.

“All fine and well,” her mother said. “Just make sure your studies come first. We would hate to pay all that money for nothing.”   Father looked at her and she could read his mind.

“And for God’s sake, don’t get pregnant and not finish.”

Emily looked at her plate. “I’m getting mostly Bs and Cs. It’s not like high school.” At least she hoped she would get a C in biology. She was not sure.ac emily thanks 2

“Ah?” Mother let out her signature sound. She was not happy to hear that. “My straight A student?”

Emily repeated herself. “It’s not like high school. The competition is a lot stiffer.”

“Honey, you just need to apply yourself.”

True. Emily had not applied herself to her classes. She had not been able to do that what with everything else going on. Right at the moment, she felt like applying herself to her turkey so she could escape before the questions got into details.

Fortunately, her big brother David chose that moment to arrive. He was in a National Guard unit that had deployed overseas. He was the one who got her thinking about ROTC in the first place. His outfit was told they would be home for Thanksgiving, but he told the family not to expect him ac emily bro 1before Saturday.

While everyone shouted and ran for hugs and welcome words, Emily ran upstairs and grabbed the top of her ROTC uniform. She dragged it downstairs to show her brother. Captain Driver had given her corporal stripes for when she was with the sophomore class. They matched her brother’s stripes.

“Ah,” he made the sound mother would have made. “But you are going to be an officer. Do I salute you now or do I have to wait?” He came to attention and so did she. He saluted and she returned his salute as an officer should. Then they laughed and hugged, and noticed that mother had gone back to the table to sit. She wanted no part of that military stuff.

The Elect 7, Thanksgiving: part 1 of 4

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Pierce drove Emily to the airport. She was glad to be going home. She needed a break. But at the same time, she did not want to leave. Pierce did not want her to leave, either. He could not follow her down to her gate, so they just stood there in front of all those people and said stupid stuff.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”a trenton air kissing

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Don’t forget me.”

“Never.”

Mostly they did not speak. They just kissed, and ignored the comments around them. At last, Emily said it.

a trenton air 2“I love you.”

“I love you,” Pierce responded without a breath of hesitation. Then Emily had to run to her plane.

************************

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and you are looking forward to a happy new year.

a a mc and hny

Thus far:

Emily has had a hard time finding a safe space to be merry at school, and might not know any happiness if she was not involved with Pierce. She and Detective Lisa struggled, but they no sooner solved one mystery, the adrenaline murders, and they got confronted with another, the cut-up murders, and the zombies they are apparently producing.

Going home to Columbus for a break sounded like a good idea, but Emily knows things at home are not likely to be restful, either. Back home she has to explain college and freshman year to her family, and ROTC to her mother. She has to catch up with friends who may have gone their own ways, and be around people she would rather put behind her. And, well, life is complicated.

The Elect, chapter 7, like all chapters in this serialized novel, will post over 4 days: Today, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. If you wait until Thursday or the weekend, all 4 posts will be easy to read at one sitting, with clickable links under “recent posts” on the blog. If you are starting late, click on the archives button and select November 2015. That is the month where this story began, and from there you can catch up to the present.

As a special wish for this holiday season, I say, Happy Reading…

a a happy reading 4

The Elect 6, part 4 of 4: Shopping for Answers

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“Detective Lisa thinks it was another test,” Emily explained over dinner.

“Detective Lisa?” Pierce asked.

“Maria’s term. There is a Melissa Morrison being assigned to her room for next semester. Melissa is currently rooming with a Lisa who is dropping out of school. Apparently, Melissa’s first roommate was an Abby, but Abby threw her out after a week. Curious that Abby is the one Melissa talks about all the time. Anyway, Maria started saying Detective Lisa just to distinguish her from Melissa’s current roommate. Of course, Maria was hoping for a single, but she says now that Owen is gone it hardly matters.” Emily quieted. She imagined she was babbling.ab hive 4

Pierce understood. “You know, I don’t think Owen went along with Professor Hilde’s use of his work, especially after the murders started.”

“The suck face murders,” Emily said and added, “Jessica’s term.”

“I think Owen did not know how to stop it without being implicated and getting blamed with the rest,” Pierce finished.

Emily nodded. “That is what we all think and Maria has found some comfort in that.”

“I’m glad,” Pierce said and then he paused as if being glad was something special that he needed to think about. Emily waited and nibbled, but in the end, Pierce just brought them back to topic.

“So it was a test. What kind of test?”

Emily swallowed. “They were sent in to navigate a crowded place. They were probably instructed to kill someone, or at least to defend themselves and let nothing get in their way. And they were instructed to fetch something. Jessica pointed out that it had to be something easily broken to see if they could fetch it without breaking it.”

ab hive 7“But you happened to be there.”

“Purely by chance. They would have had no problem otherwise. It was a well planned operation.”

“I’m not so sure it was by chance,” Pierce mused. “They may have waited to go when they knew you were at the mall. That may have been part of the test.”

Emily paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. She looked all around the room. “You mean like I am being watched?” she whispered.

“That seems possible,” Pierce said. Emily thought, great! by which she meant terrible. Now she was going to be paranoid for sure.

Pierce got her attention. “I want to show you something.” He looked around to see if it was safe before he pulled out a long, sharp knife. “I’ve been practicing with it. Zombies, you know.”

“Pierce.” Emily thought it sweet, but she would hate to see him get hurt.ab pierce knife

“I figure if I am going to be with you, I need to learn to defend myself.”

“But Pierce—”

“Not that I could hope to defend you, but I consider Karyn my inspiration. She did not hold back at the firing range or the frat house, or at the end, I believe. I ought to be able to do no less.” He put the knife back in the inner pocket of his jacket.

What could Emily say? The Undead started their set and it was too loud to speak in any case.

They finished dinner at the Hive but before they left the restaurant, Pierce’s phone rang. He did not say much other than “Hello. Yes,” and, “I’ll be right over.”

When they got to the entranceway where they could talk, Emily spoke first. “Not another emergency.” She frowned and folded her arms as Pierce tried to hug her.

Pierce pulled back to study the situation. “Important, but not an emergency,” he said. “Why did you say it like that?”

“Sneaking off again to meet Zimmer and get another box loaded in the trunk in an alley behind some old warehouse?” Pierce put it together in his mind. “I went for a walk after you left. I saw you,” Emily admitted.

ab hive entrance 2“Why didn’t you come up and say something?”

“Men with guns?”

“Oh, right. Regular army.”

Emily threw her hands down to plead with him. “What were you doing there?”

Pierce thought before he spoke. “I’m not supposed to talk about it, but since you saw, I will tell you. You have to promise not to say anything to anyone.”

Emily folded her arms again and nodded slightly, but did not actually promise in case she had to say something.

Pierce accepted that. “Genetically altered grain that will grow in marginal, even arid conditions to be tested. Imagine huge sections of the Sahara growing wheat. Doctor Zimmer is testing the genetic stability. Others, in other labs, are testing the nutrition and fiber content and whether or not it may go wild and predatory. The government wants to be sure it is stable and safe.”

“But the men with guns?”ab hive entrance 1

“Oh, they don’t want the Chinese or anyone else to get their hands on it. The army was asked to escort the various samples around the country and you know army overkill. I can’t imagine Chinese spies in the back streets of Trenton, New Jersey, but you never know.”

This time Emily thought about it. She decided. “Okay.” She threw her hands around Pierce because she wanted some kisses. After all, he said important, but not an emergency.

###

Just before Thanksgiving, Henry Schultz walked into the gas-mart by the university campus to buy some 9 X 12 manila envelopes. He foolishly tried to strike up a friendly conversation with the clerk. “I need to send reports and the safest way is still the old fashioned way. Handwritten letters cannot be hacked, or even read when they are written in linear A.”

The clerk just stared dumbly and said, “Five-nineteen.”

ab robberyWhile Henry reached for his money, a young punk came in with a gun. He pointed it at the clerk and demanded the cash from the register. He shrieked the words nervously, and Henry knew the young man was on crack or something. Henry did nothing until the punk turned the gun on him. “You, too. Give me your money.” Henry felt more than willing to do that.

A knife spun out from the aisle and sank deep into the crack-head’s upper arm. He howled as Emily came running to the front. Henry moved fast, like a blur of motion. He knocked down the man’s hand which sent the gun to the floor. He punched and the man went sprawling back into a coke display. Then he swung as Emily arrived. She could not avoid the punch. He hit her right in the jaw. She flew back ten feet into an end cap, buckled the shelves, knocked three shelves completely off the rack and knocked everything off the shelves to scatter across the floor. Emily went out cold, and did not wake up until officer Rob Parker arrived to help her up.

Emily found a manila envelope in her lap when she woke. Her knife had been put inside and a note appeared scribbled on the outside in a kind-of gothic script. It said, “Emily, you dropped this toy and always clean your weapons.” A symbol of some sort had been drawn beside the writing, a simple cross with an asterisk above it.

“Can you take me to the police station? I need to see Lisa.”a trenton police a1

“Dick?” Rob looked up at his partner. Dick nodded.

“I’ll be here a while. The ambulance will be along, shortly and this guy isn’t going anywhere.”

“This has to be quick,” Rob told her. He wanted to run the lights and weave through traffic.

When they got in the car, Emily turned to the policeman. “Robert, isn’t it?”

The man nodded but said nothing as he took off, grinning.

Lisa took one look at the note and turned pale. Emily, Ashish and Latasha who was visiting all saw something in the woman’s face they had never seen before. If it was not fear, it was a close cousin. Lisa turned to look at Emily.

“Your sword dealer?”

“Henry Schultz,” Emily nodded.

ac lisa a2Lisa stood and signaled for everyone to be quiet. Latasha could not hold her tongue, but she was kind enough to whisper. “He knocked you out with one punch?” Emily could only nod.

“Edna told me about a Heinrich Schultz, but she met him way back in the First World War.” Lisa thought aloud. “You said he was old?”

“He couldn’t be that old,” Emily said. “That would make him over a hundred, even if he was just a baby back then.”

Lisa said nothing for the moment. She turned on Emily and her face and words were very stern. “What were you thinking?” Another scolding. Emily got a lot of that lately. “I half-expected Latasha might try to take out some drug dealer in her neighborhood. I didn’t expect this from you.”

“He was being robbed,” Emily meekly defended herself. “I was in a position to help. Can’t I do that?”

“No.” Lisa surprised her. “To begin with, and I know this will sound strange considering the impact ac lisa 2you have had on campus, but who and what you are is best kept secret if at all possible. My own husband does not know exactly who and what I am, at least not all the details. The only reason I told Ashish some details is because it comes up so often in our work. Otherwise, warrior women have gone down in history as remarkable individuals, unsung heroes or not even noticed at all. The world does not need to know there are a bunch of us at any given time, even if it is a very small bunch. The rule is, without provocation, we do not interfere with the normal course of human events. Our place is more like disaster prevention and that is all. Is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Emily said and Latasha echoed the words.

“And more important, your place is not to take the law into your own hands. You were not elected to be a vigilante. That can get you into big trouble.” Lisa glanced at the manila envelope.

“But what if the thief shot that nice old man?”

“I’ll get you a pair of handcuffs!” Lisa put her hands on the table and leaned over to stare hard at Emily. “I have had to call in favors and apply a lot of pressure to the thief’s lawyer to keep you from being sued.” Lisa put her hand to her head. “That’s it. I have a headache.” Lisa told them to get out, and without another word about the old man, the envelope or the symbol on the back. Emily took Latasha out with her having judged it to be the only safe thing to do. They would ask questions later.

ac lisa a3As soon as they were out of the door, Lisa turned to Ashish. “We have to go talk to a sword seller.”

“I bet he is already gone,” Ashish said.

“No bet. You are probably right.”

************************

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The Elect 6, part 3 of 4: To the Mall

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By four-thirty, the mall had plenty of very early Christmas shoppers. The decorations were going up everywhere. Emily once remarked, “Whatever happened to Thanksgiving?” but the others did not respond.

For the most part, Emily spent the time trying hard not to spend any money. She stopped at one kiosk in the hall that had mostly funky T-shirts but one section of decorative swords that hung behind the counter. The glass counter in front of the swords was full of wicked looking knives. Emily, still in her ROTC uniform, realized she left her knife home.

“Military knives are down here.” A white haired, long bearded man behind the counter caught her attention and pointed.ac heinrich a4

“I assume they are all fake.” Emily pointed at the swords.   “For decoration. You know, fall apart if you ever try to use it.” The man raised a bushy white eyebrow. “You know, like to defend your home or something.”

The man nodded and smiled a little beneath the facial hair as if he understood. “No, they are all real, and very sharp. That is why we keep them behind the counter and out of reach.” He eyed her to judge his customer before he pulled down a straight sword that was as long as Emily’s arm. He pulled it slowly from its sheath to let her get a good look at the gleaming metal. “You can use these, though I can’t imagine what you might use them for these days.”

“May I?” Emily reached for it. The man hesitated and looked at her closely before he nodded. She pulled it all the way out from its leather covering, slowly. She lifted it. It was heavy and for all she knew it felt real enough.

“I would not try to swing it,” the old man said. Emily nodded and looked once around. The mall before Thanksgiving already felt too crowded, but she did not need to swing the sword. She just wanted to feel it and get a sense of what it was like to hold such a weapon. It was sharp. Somehow, Emily felt she could use it, and with some instruction might even be good with it, but she wondered where and when she might need such a thing. Besides, it was not the kind of weapon she could sew into a trench coat like Lisa’s twin knives. She put it back.

ab trenton mall 3“Guaranteed not to fall apart at first use?” Emily finally returned the man’s smile.

“Guaranteed,” the man said as he hung it back on his center wall.

Jessica and Maria came out of the dress shop and grabbed Emily by the arms.

“You need to give it a rest and think about other things,” Maria said.

“You’re a girl,” Jessica reminded her, and Emily responded by running a hand through her hair, which was still short but not as short as it had been. She thought she might not get it cut again until after Christmas break.

The sun went down by six-thirty and the three found themselves in the food court in search of something edible. Maria and Jessica talked about a dress they found while Emily focused on her classic iced tea, burger and fries. They had a fun afternoon turned into evening, but Emily was just thinking they ought to be getting back when they heard a commotion down the hall. People were shouting and running, and soon enough, there were screams.

Emily ran against the stream of fleeing and panicked customers. She rudely pushed her way through ab trenton mall 4the crowd. Jessica and Maria did their best to keep up, but they had to duck into a storefront to keep from being trampled. Emily smelled what it was by the time she reached the kiosk with the knives. The old man just sat there calmly watching everything, unfazed even when Emily leapt over the counter to grab that sword. He said nothing as she ran toward the exit.

Three zombies, two men and a woman were leaving the mall, clutching something in their rotting hands. Emily managed to tackle the last by the ankle from behind, but lost the grip on her sword in the process. She rolled and grabbed it, expecting the thing to be on her. She was only mildly surprised when it got back up and headed again for the door. Still, she was close enough. One swipe took off the head. The body spun. She stabbed, and then shot back five feet when the electrical discharge from the pacemaker shot straight up the handle of the sword.

Emily crawled back to the now unmoving corpse and saw a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses in the zombie’s hand. The sunglasses remained uncrushed, though she supposed the retailer would have a hard time selling that pair.

Maria arrived and Emily turned to her. “Is my hair all frizzed and sticking out?” To Maria’s dumb look, she added, “I got electrocuted by the artificial heart.”

“No,” Maria shook her head. She did not exactly follow what Emily was saying. “We need to look at this. Maybe we can do some good.” She helped Emily to her feet.

ab trenton mall 5There were bodies out in front of the sunglasses store. One woman had her neck broken. A toddler was unrecognizable. Emily imagined one of the zombies held it by the legs and smashed its face into the tile floor, repeatedly. The toddler’s head was all but severed from the body. One man had a broken arm. One had a broken leg and cried like a baby. Emily could help them. Inside the sunglasses store, the clerk had nearly all of her ribs cracked or broken. Maria did what she could.

While Emily yelled at some gawkers to fetch some blankets to cover the men against shock, Jessica came running up from the door. “I saw them get into the back of a van.” When Emily looked confused, Jessica explained. “While you were doing your super girl imitation, I followed the others to the door, just to look. There was a van parked outside by the curb. The other two dead people crawled into the back and it took off. Here,” she held up a sliver of paper. “I wrote down the license plate.”

“I’m impressed.” Emily praised her. “Save the plate number for Lisa when she gets here and go tell mister broken leg over there to shut up, but be nice.”

A moment later, the blankets arrived along with someone who surprised Emily. It was the bushy headed man with the great white whiskers. Emily smiled because the man had a bit of a Santa Claus look, though without the fat. She was going to say, “Thank you,” but the man spoke first.

“You can’t leave a weapon sticking out of that poor stiff with no one to watch it. God rest the man’s soul, but what is to prevent your sword from being stolen?” The old man yelled at her in a strong voice, heedless of the spectators. “And you must always clean your weapon right away. I admire your wanting to help these people, but always clean your weapon first.” He did so on one of the blankets. “Hasn’t that military of yours taught you anything?” He turned to stomp off as Emily squinted from the sting of her scolding.

“I’d like to buy the sword.” Emily decided.ac heinrich 7

The man stopped and turned around. “One hundred dollars,” he said.

Emily reached into her pocket and found $7.96 change out of the twenty from her burger and fries. She looked up, but felt a thump in her shoulder. It was Jessica’s purse. There were several hundred-dollar bills inside. She held one out, and the man took it. He handed her the sword in its sheath. She was surprised. She did not know he had the metal trimmed leather sheath with him and did not see him return the sword to it.

“This sheath has a loop so you can wear the sword on your belt if you want,” the man said, and showed her. “I almost imagined you for the ninja sword. It is all the rage these days, but this straight sword suits you better and it is stronger and better overall quality. Learn to keep it sharp and always clean it first.” He shook his finger at her. “Henry Schultz.” The man gave his name.

“Emily Hudson,” Emily answered in kind and watched as the man walked off. She noticed that it was a rather quick pace for such an old man.

The Elect 6, part 2 of 4: After All

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Karyn’s body stayed in the morgue Thursday night and flew home to Texas first thing Friday morning. Jessica’s father paid for an afternoon flight for Jessica, Maria, Amina and Emily so Jessica and Emily would not miss freshman English. Her father also paid for two nights in a motel, and a rental car on the condition that Jessica not be allowed to drive the car under any circumstances.

Emily never imagined she would meet Karyn’s parents this way. The hardest part was she could not ab philadelphia airportexplain what happened other than to call it a terrible accident. To be sure, there were too many tears that weekend for much conversation. They flew back to New Jersey State quiet, but somewhat released.

When they got to the hospital and went to Carl’s room, he also stayed quiet. Jessica did most of the talking and showed surprising compassion about it. Carl would never walk well again, but at least he was alive. Nothing was wrong with his tear ducts, however, and the girls cried with him until the nurse shooed them out.

Emily did not feel quite sure how to handle Monday morning. Captain Driver had returned overnight from Washington and got the story. Several of the freshmen actually died along with Karyn. As it turned out, only one police officer died, but a second remained in critical condition. The rest of the freshmen either dropped out of school altogether or were desperately trying to transfer to a different school, preferably one out of state. That left Emily in a class of one.

“Come in Hudson.” Captain Driver sat at his desk.

“Sir?”

“Informal in here. I need to hear what you have to say. I understand you were there.”

ac rotc karyn“Yes, sir. The men were all drugged. It was some combination of adrenaline, growth hormone and several other ingredients. They had no control over what they were doing.” She paused to see if the captain had a more specific question. He only said one word.

“And?”

“And Terrence was free of the drug and pushing them to kill, sir.”

“You know he did not like you.”

“I understand.”

“So you broke his back?”

“Only the shoulder to prevent his escape. He stabbed Carl and was headed out the back door.”

Captain Driver nodded. “And you broke his arm because?”

“I was wrong, sir.” Emily dropped her eyes. “I had no reason to do that.”

“No matter. In your position that is probably the least I would have done.” The captain drew up his notebook and looked at it briefly. “Your current grade in this class is 98.7. That is as good as I have seen for a freshman. It is remarkable, considering everything else you have been involved in. I am giving you an “A” for the semester, and I have two requests.”

“Sir?”

Captain Driver put his hand to his lips before he spoke. “I understand you are thinking of nursing.” Emily nodded. She did not feel surprised that he knew. He probably made it a point to learn whatever he could about his charges, especially the women. “Let me just say, the army can always use good nurses, or anything else you might decide to do. I want you to continue. There will not beac Driver 1 a formal spring semester freshman class, but I would like you to continue with your studies. I have already arranged with the registrar to teach you the course work as an independent study, and you can work out with the sophomore class.” He was not giving an order, but it was a strong suggestion. She decided that might work, and said so.

“And the other thing?”

“Next year. I would like you with the upper classmen—probably where you belong, and I would like you to take Carl’s position with the incoming freshmen.”

“Sir?” Emily stood up a little straighter.

“John Brinkman has agreed to take the lieutenant’s position, the one Carl would have moved into. Company sergeant is generally given to the top junior who has signed up for service after college, but there is no law that says it has to be that way.”

“Sir?”

“The position carries a small stipend, more like a teaching assistant than a work study position.”

“Sir?” Emily’s intuition acted up and she wanted the full story.

ac emily pus“Hell, Hudson.” Captain Driver slapped the papers on his desk. “I have already been informed that there are four women accepted by early admission who are expressing interest. There may be more.”

Emily straightened. “Sir, yes sir. It will be an honor, sir.”

The man’s face visibly relaxed. “Dismissed, soldier. I will be in touch.”

Emily saluted and stepped out. Well, she thought. Won’t her family be impressed? Well, not her mother, perhaps. She could not even handle high school ROTC.

After that, Emily had nothing to do but go to the student center and celebrate by treating herself to a latte, which she was trying to learn to like.

###

Come Tuesday, the reality of classes and school set back in. All that had happened with the attempt on her life and on Swenson’s life, with the ROTC class and Karyn, and then Hilde and finally the quick trip to Texas had her in a fog. But by Tuesday, she was sufficiently out of the fog enough to wonder what might happen to freshman biology.ab lecture hall 2

“I’ve already calculated your grade from what is up on the web. You have a solid “B” in lab and almost a “B” in the course. According to the syllabus, Granger can give you an “F” on the final if she dares and you should still pass the course.” Maria seemed to feel like talking. She had been that way on and off since she lost Owen.

“There are grades up on the web?” Emily felt lost again. There were probably plenty of things at the university she did not know anything about. She had been rather busy.

Maria nodded but said nothing. Ms Granger came in. The woman looked disheveled. Normally she had everything tucked in perfectly, every crease ironed and never a loose hair from her bun. Now, her top was wrinkled, not well tucked, and she had not even bothered to put her hair up. She coughed once and rifled through a mess of papers in her briefcase. Ms Granger’s papers were never a mess.

“Professor Singh, evolutionary biology for those who don’t know, has agreed to oversee the remainder of the semester. We will continue as before.” Emily shifted a little in her seat. Ms Granger’s eyes shot straight to her. “How could you,” she said in her most accusatory voice. “He was a good man, and I don’t care if you have the whole police department and the governor himself protecting you.” Ms Granger never said the word murder, but it was strongly implied. She walked out of the room and stayed gone for a good five minutes. When she came back, she went straight to the board and began to write down information while she talked. She never gave Emily another glance.

ac rotc women 2After class, Emily dressed in her ROTC uniform with the addition of corporal stripes, an honor usually reserved for the most promising sophomore and upper classmen. She got to meet the sophomores before Jessica and Maria came to fetch her. Jessica dragged Emily off in uniform. She prompted them to pay Carl a hospital visit, which they did. They hardly needed much prompting. Then she insisted they stop by the mall.

“Ulterior motive!” Maria teased.

The Elect 6, Vigilante: part 1 of 4

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Ashish turned the car off and Lisa got out slowly, still speaking. “I’m concerned about Latasha. She is not in the best environment. I’m afraid when she gets older and comes into her strength and learns what she is really capable of, she may be tempted in all the wrong directions.”

“We all are,” Ashish said, honestly enough. “But I have seen far worse environments.”

Lisa shook her head. “We need to keep her close for a while.”a trenton police 7

“I think I can understand how you feel, but I was wondering how you women did it in the old days, you know, before cell phones and cars and planes.”

“Young ones sometimes ran into older ones who could teach them. I met Edna Brownbecker when I went to Duke. I was eighteen. She was really old. Maybe the goddesses set it up that way. The stories and information got passed on from old to young, though maybe it is all apocryphal by this late date, like I keep saying. Mostly, though, I think up until the twentieth century, women had a different place in society. They did not play sports or join the army or go to college much. We couldn’t even vote. I think in history, and even today in big sections of the world, the idea of getting into things where warrior women might give themselves away, if you know what I mean, was not really an issue.”

“So are you afraid she might reveal your secret or maybe turn criminal?”

“Both.” Lisa let out her frown. “The world does not need to know about us. That much is rooted in my psyche. I did not need to be taught that. I think it comes with the package, and I think Latasha realized that when she backed out of basketball. But as for the temptations either to go criminal or go vigilante, she needs a solid foundation of family and friend to keep her pointed in the right direction.”

ac ashish 3“So, we can be her friends,” Ashish said with a genuine smile.

“What she really needs is a father figure.”

“Oh,” Ashish lost his smile. “I just remembered. I forgot to stop at the donut shop.” He scurried back to the car.

************************

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The Elect 5, part 4 of 4: Doctor Hyde

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The science building was not far, and when they arrived, they found the incident out front had all been cleaned up, though no one would be using that lab room for some time.

Emily judged the time by the sun and decided it was about two-thirty, no later than three. At that time, of course, the building stayed open even if some professors were gone for the day. They had no trouble reaching the second floor.a science hall 1

“Jack L. Hide.” Latasha misread the sign outside the door. “Sounds like the book we are reading in English, Jekyll and Hyde.”

Lisa and Emily looked at each other. That sounded exactly right. They kicked the door in.

A simply enormous man stood on the other side of the desk by the window. He had to be six-feet, six and was more than well built. His back was turned toward them as he looked out the window, but he spoke when they burst in, so they paused to listen.

“Proportion is everything. It can even relieve the pain, but adrenaline and testosterone burn, as I am sure you know. The growth hormone is in many ways the key to youth and vitality.” The man turned and Emily caught her breath.

“Professor Hilde.” She saw the crutches tossed aside just before they heard a moan in the corner. Owen was there, crumpled like a discarded rag doll. Clearly, most of his bones were broken and he would not live long. Pierce went straight to him and knelt beside him to see what he could do so the women could focus on Hilde.

ac hilde 4“I tried to clean up some loose ends, but you survived.” He looked at Emily and turned to Lisa. “Your medical examiner was not home.” He turned to Latasha. “And I assume my little test soldiers are gone, and I can see why. There are three of you.”

Lisa responded. “To be fair, we had guns.” Her hand reached slowly to her back as she spoke.

“Yes, the money the government offered for the competition would have been nice.”

“What?” Latasha interrupted. “So you could build an army and take over the world?”

Hilde laughed, and it was a genuine laugh. “I assure you, my motives in all this were purely selfish. Now, if you will excuse me.” He crashed through the window and dropped two stories to the ground. The glass that shattered and the screen on the window proved no barrier. Lisa just got her hand to her gun when she cursed.

“Damn!” She leaped over the desk and followed the man out the window. Latasha and Emily looked at each other, but only briefly before Emily and then Latasha tried the same stunt.

Two stories were not that hard, Emily decided. She knew how to use her knees and roll when she hit the ground. Latasha had no such training and got up to look at her palms, which she skinned on the brick walkway, like a younger girl might skin her palms falling off a bicycle.ac latasha 1a

“Ouch,” Latasha mouthed, but quickly picked up the Billy club and chased after Emily.

Emily pointed to the other side of a row of bushes as she ran. Latasha got the message and went the other way. When they came around the corner, Emily ran right past the tussle and yelled “Back up!” because Latasha looked ready to get in the middle of what was already over.

Lisa had jumped over the hedge and caught Hilde by the ankle, effectively tripping him. He shook her off fairly easily, but Lisa held on long enough to give Emily and Latasha a chance to get between him and escape. When he stood, he was surrounded.

He eyed his opponents first and said nothing. Emily was in military training. Lisa was police trained. He went for Latasha who was both the youngest and least trained. Latasha managed to hit him in the face with her Billy club. Lisa and Emily rushed up and both hit him hard in the lower back. He growled and threw his hands back, which made Lisa leap back and knocked Emily to the ground. He was incredibly fast, and strong.

ac Hilde 3Latasha hit him again in the face and he grabbed the Billy club and wrenched it out of her hand. Latasha shrieked and backed up. That gave Lisa a chance to land another blow to the same spot on Hilde’s back. Emily saw a better opening. She kicked Hilde’s knee so his two knees crashed together.

Hilde howled and staggered for a second. They were drawing a crowd. Hilde needed to get out soon, or not at all. He turned on Emily and swung his fists at her face, three times. Emily bobbed and ducked, but each blow grazed her face and jaw and she felt like she was being hammered. He hit hard enough that any such blow landed squarely on a normal face would have been a killing blow. Then Hilde kicked at her knees. Though his foot only scraped her legs, the force was enough to both hurt her and knock her to the ground.

Lisa got two more blows in the same spot on the man’s lower back. They began to take a toll. Latasha had watched and kicked the man’s knees again, just before he dove at Emily. It disrupted Hilde’s timing so Emily could roll out from under before he landed, and he did not reach for her. He needed the hand to put briefly to the spot where Lisa had been pounding. He growled at her, but the women were thinking how they might finish this.ac pierce 5

Pierce arrived, rushed past Lisa and leapt at the man with enough force and weight to push him to his back. Pierce briefly struggled to put something in Hilde’s mouth before Hilde shoved Pierce away. Pierce flew ten feet and landed hard on the ground, but he got shoved, not hit, so he did not get seriously injured.

Emily rushed to him, but Pierce smiled and held up a small vial. “From Owen,” he said, and Emily turned her head as Hilde began to scream. He put his hands to his head, and Lisa held back Latasha as they all watched.

“Too much.” That was the only word Hilde said before his body burst into a ball of flame. When it was over, there would be even less of him than there was of Karyn.

Emily stood. Pierce got up more slowly, though he looked fine. Lisa brought Latasha over and spoke.

ac hilde end“He said they were having a competition. Someone is still working,” Lisa pointed out.

“On this?” Latasha pointed at the burning corpse.

“Zombies,” Emily reminded her, and glanced at Pierce. She wonder again what he was doing that night in the alley.

“Oh, I should have remembered the zombies. That’s like back home in New Orleans.”

“Happy Halloween,” Lisa said.

************************

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The Elect 5, part 3 of 4: Freshman Battle

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Karyn felt her body changing, and screamed from the pain. A fire raged in her mind and in her lower parts. Her muscles expanded, like inflating balloons, but it was all mass and muscle, not air. Every ounce of fat was converted and her insides, her organs, began to shrink to be converted to muscle mass as well. Her clothes shredded. Her breasts disappeared into her massive chest. She soon had a forearm that was bigger than Jessica’s waist. She became a male body builder in size and shape, and grew the hair to go with it. Hair sprouted all over her arms, legs and face. She continued to scream from the pain, even when her voice dropped from a feminine timbre to a deep bass. She began to shrivel up on the inside and could not stop it.

. Carl watched, horrified. Terrence watched the change and laughed even when Karyn screamed the words, “Help me! Help me!” There was nothing Carl could do. Karyn lashed out with a fist. Terrence stopped laughing and sprawled back against the bench. He got back up, slowly. Meanwhile, Karyn found a name in the thick fog of pain that had replaced her mind. “Carl, help me!” But there was nothing he could do.ac Karyn end

Karyn’s body was not built for this, for these steroids and this testosterone. It would surely kill her. Her pelvis began to wiggle front to back as if looking for something that did not exist.

Emily ran in. She had to look away, even when Karyn spoke a word of clarity. “Emily, kill me.” Karyn immediately caught on fire, from the inside. She burst into flames and the screaming stopped all at once. They heard a moment of laughter as the body began to shrink again, turned black, and collapsed into a charred ruin.

“Too bad you weren’t here,” Terrence spoke to Emily. “We could have killed two birds with one stone.” Before Emily could pounce, Terrence yelled. “Soldiers, front and ready.” The freshman class came in, but this was not Emily’s freshman class. They were all hulking brutes and when she saw the glazed eyes, she knew they were also mindless. They had all been juiced. Every one of them had a weapon – a club or pipe or whatever blunt thing came to hand. A few had knives, but not many. ac ROTC freshmanEmily recalled that Captain Driver went to Washington and had locked up all the firearms before he left. It did not matter. These mindless brutes would surely kill her, but she was too angry to think about running away.

“Kill her,” Terence finished his thought even as Carl jumped him. Carl would likely lose that fight, but it would be close.

As Emily stood there waiting for the boys to charge, she found people at her back. Lisa, Latasha, Pierce and Tom were all there along with a good half-dozen police officers. Lisa surprised her when she instructed the police officers.

“You have to shoot them like rabid dogs,” she yelled as she pulled and fired her own weapon. A few of the police concurred and several of the hulking, mindless boys went down. But they charged and the two sides met in the middle.

Emily fought like a tigress, like a lioness, like a she-bear defending her cub. She would not let one of the boys near Karyn’s corpse. As the numbers on both sides diminished, Emily took a good look around. Four police officers were down along with Tom and Carl whom she guessed was dead. Carl had a knife in his chest. Terrence was headed for the back door. Rob Parker was on the floor, gasping, but got her attention. He wanted to toss her his gun, but she shook her head and ran. She caught Terrence with his hand on the doorknob and hit him hard enough in the back to crack his shoulder blade. When he spun around to face her, she grabbed his left arm. She bent that back the wrong way at the elbow. She crushed it against a pipe, and Terrence slid to the ground from the pain.ac terrance end

“Enough!” Lisa’s word came over her shoulder and it was sharp. “That is not how we do things!”

Emily said nothing. She just turned and cried into the woman’s shoulder and the woman offered all the comfort she could muster.

Maria and Amina arrived after it was all over. Amina came to hold Maria. Maria wept bitterly. Jessica came in and spied Tom shaking his head in the attempt to sit up. Tom had been knocked unconscious early on in the fight and Emily feared he might be dead. He almost certainly would have been killed if he had not been knocked out. Two of the police officers looked dead and the others groaned on the floor, including Rob Parker. By contrast, Pierce did not appear to have a scratch on him. He fought hard. Emily noticed at several points in the mêlée. She noticed out of fear for his life, but need not have worried. Emily felt glad for that, but hardly had time to ask how he escaped injury as Maria struggled to find her.

With Maria and Emily both in tears, Lisa had to ask Amina. Latasha came up with one of the police Billy clubs in her hand to wait. She looked very solemn.

“Owen,” Amina spoke. “He wrote the endocrine paper that started the research. Professor Hilde is the one.” With that told, Maria collapsed to the floor and wailed. Emily gladly went to the floor and ac amina 3wailed with her until Lisa forced her back to her feet. The ambulances were arriving and more police cars, including some state troopers. It was going to get messy and with Latasha in tow, they had some more work to do.

“His office,” Amina said one last word to the detective before she turned to comfort Maria. Lisa paused to stare at the girl. Emily had to get her moving again with the word, “Later.”

The women went out the back door, right past Terrence who had passed out from his pain. Pierce followed. They ignored him. Lisa only had to show her badge once to get them out of the closing circle of the law, and then she turned to Emily with a question.

“Where?” Lisa needed confirmation.

Emily had long since learned where all the professors lived, as had the detective of course, but that was not what she was being asked. “His office.” Emily did not doubt what Amina knew. Her own guts confirmed it. “He will probably be waiting for Terrence to report back on how his super soldiers made out.”

Lisa agreed and looked at Latasha. “Makes sense to me,” Latasha said, but when Lisa gave her a hard look Latasha paused before she amended her statement. “It feels right.”

The Elect 5, part 2 of 4: Assassins

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“Super soldiers.” Maria pushed her idea while she pushed up her glasses, and Emily knew there was merit in the idea but it did not help them identify the perpetrators.

“Most likely,” Emily said. She sounded like Lisa. She ran a hand through her hair to compensate. “But there is something else going on here, too.”

Then they had to sit up and get quiet. Ms Granger came in the room.ab lecture hall 1

After class, Maria brought the latest notes to Professor Hilde. It outlined the information gathered so far on the two football players. Professor Hilde seemed in a pleasant mood. Emily thought he was always pleasant, and such a nice man. She felt sorry that he was disabled, but she said nothing because she knew he did not need her sympathy. Besides, he never acted or sounded like he had a disability.

“You know,” the professor said as he looked at the two girls. “It must be nice to be young and strong. Do enjoy it while you can.”

“Yes, sir.” Emily smiled.

“We will,” Maria said. “And thanks for your help with this.” Both girls felt good about things as they left, even if they were as much in the dark as ever.

Emily could not help speaking up. “I have a feeling we will be getting some answers very soon.”

Very soon turned out to be Thursday after lunch. Tom, Jessica and Maria were walking Emily over to drop her off at ROTC, a route that took them right past the science building. Amina yelled as she came rushing up to the group.

a science 2“Emily run. Men are seeking to kill you.”

Emily heard a thump by her feet. She instinctively shoved everyone back into the bushes even as Owen ran up.

“Emily. They are going to kill you.”

Emily’s first thought was to separate from her friends to put them out of danger. The only way she could reasonably do that was to make a dash for the science building. A half-dozen shots hit the ground around her as she ran, but she could outrun the average runner. The door slowed her down. While she yanked on it, a bullet creased her leg. She dove into the building and ran into the first classroom. The lab room had front windows.

Her second thought was how did Owen know? She might be starting to understand Amina. The girl had a very special gift, but Owen?

She found a white lab coat and tore it in a long strip to wrap her leg. Her eyes peered out at the lawn. Students walked by, unaware of what was happening because the gunmen had silencers. She could not tell that anything was happening by looking, until she spied four older men dressed like students talking and staring at the building. One of the men pointed to the building and two began to walk casually in her direction.

Emily wasted no time. She took three lighters used to light Bunsen burners and quickly taped them a science lab 1to the floor where the door would open and make them spark. She shut the door and opened every gas line in the lab room, wide. She kicked the screen from the side window and closed the window behind her on her way out.

By the time the men arrived, some alarm had started going off. Emily ignored it. She was already sneaking through the bushes and did not even flinch when there was an explosion in that room. The two men that were still outside looked up, surprised. Emily got to surprise them more.

Disarming them seemed easy enough. The close one held his gun loosely. She managed to knock it to the ground and knock him away. The other still had his gun holstered. She had to tackle him and rip the gun free. It ended up flying into the bushes, but then since she sat on top she had the leverage to give him one good punch.

She rolled off and clawed at the gun that was in the dirt, but the other man had gotten up and began to go after the same thing. They fought on their knees and with their shoulders until Emily managed to push forward. Her fingers touched the weapon, but she found herself grabbed from behind and it stopped her forward progress. She yelled for strength. Owen, Maria, Amina and Jessica tried to pull the man off her while Tom landed his football best on the one she had punched. The man let Emily go, but Maria got a fist, Amina ducked, Owen ended up in the bushes and Jessica found her rump in the mud. The one Tom flattened put up a struggle.

ac jessica 8“Eew!” Jessica complained about the mud.

Emily grabbed the gun even as the man turned to run and the other man got to his feet to run as well, having violently pushed Tom off. Emily fired twice. Both men went down when the bullets struck their legs. One stayed on the ground, but the other got up and tried to limp off so Tom had to tackle him again.

Pierce came up at that point and Emily tossed him the gun. She felt determined to get some answers this time before the police or firefighters or Bernie the campus cop arrived and took over. She completely forgot about the two in the building.

Pierce saw them. One staggered, but the other went for his weapon. Pierce fired first. It went straight to the heart and the man spun and died on his way to the ground. The other looked up, dropped his gun and threw his hands into the air.

“Pierce!” Emily was surprised.ab surrender 1

Pierce did not waver in holding his gun on the man but spoke to Emily. “I came to tell you someone attacked Professor Swenson.” He took a breath. “She is fine but says she has some information for you.”

“Bernie!” Emily’s voice was full of ROTC leadership. Bernie came up huffing and puffing. She took the gun from Pierce’s hand, put it in Bernie’s hand, and spoke again. “Tom, Owen, beat some truth out of these men before the police get here. Amina and Jessica, listen carefully to what they say. I want to know who hired and sent them. Maria, you’re with me. Oh, we need to find some ice. Looks like you might get a good black eye.” She added the comment before she turned to Pierce. “Lead the way.”

Pierce smiled broadly. “I like it when you get all commanding,” he said. Emily did not know what to say, but she did not have to speak as Pierce turned and trotted off and Maria and Emily had to keep up.

###

ab bench 1They found Swenson on the other side of the science building by the construction mess, sitting on a bench that had not yet been removed. The professor, red faced, needed the air. Doctor Zimmer sat with her and patted her hand. He looked very uncomfortable.

Emily’s first words were, “Are you alright?” but as soon as Professor Swenson nodded Emily added, “What did you find out?”

“Frederick and your young Mister Davis saved my life.” Professor Swenson put her hand to her chest and breathed as deeply as she could.

“The young man who attacked her had a gun,” Doctor Zimmer said between pats, an activity he stopped as soon as Maria sat on Professor Swenson’s other side and took her other hand. Professor Swenson turned her head and smiled at Maria.ab backhoe

“I got lucky,” Pierce volunteered before Emily asked. “It was one of your ROTC freshmen, I believe.”

Emily looked Pierce in the eyes and the first thing that came to her mind was Terrence carefully examining her work on that first night outside the library. He watched when the geeks invaded the TKE house. He also stood around outside the sorority house. He said helping was not his job. And the freshmen answered to Lieutenant Terrence. But murder?

“I have to go,” Emily said suddenly. She backed away. “Take care of her and Maria, get that information.” She ran.