Latasha went to the movies with Wendy and Mini, and she did not ask Keisha if she wanted to come along.  Keisha was not speaking to her.  Somehow, Keisha twisted things to the point where she blamed Latasha for Janet’s death.  If Latasha just let Janet have her boyfriend.  If she did not make Janet feel so guilty into revealing the drug deal in the parking garage.  If Latasha had not become such a righteous ass, thinking she was going to join the police force, Janet would still be alive.

Latasha explained in her most exasperated voice.  “It was the bad guys who killed Janet.  Why do you want to keep me from putting the bad guys in jail?”  But Keisha would not listen, so Latasha went to the movies with Wendy and Mini.

The movies were a safe place.  The girls could talk or just watch the film, depending on how things worked out.  They were not stuck at someone’s house with potentially awkward silences.  Wendy and Mini wanted to see if they could still be friends with Latasha, and Latasha needed to find out the same thing.  It turned out, freshman year off made little difference.  They slipped back into the same relationships and even laughed when they remembered the same jokes they used to laugh at.  It was good.

Of course, all through grade school, Wendy and Mini, Janet, Keisha and Latasha were all friends.  Wendy and Mini only started to back away during middle school when Wendy decided she wanted to be a lawyer and Mini thought she might be an accountant, like her father.  Now that Latasha had some direction and her grades were improving, Wendy and Mini were open to being friends again.  Latasha was glad until on the way out they heard the scream

Latasha ran toward the scream.  Wendy and Mini hardly knew what else to do, so they followed.  It came from around the corner at the dark end of the parking lot.  Latasha found a man, dead.  He was about twenty-eight, dark hair, looked Hispanic, and there were little packets of drugs on the blacktop all around.  Latasha guessed she startled whatever was going down.

When Wendy and Mini arrived, Latasha found her eyes drawn up the side of the building.  Someone, or something appeared to be climbing directly up the brick side of the movie theater.  She could not be sure.  It was all in shadows before the movement topped the building and disappeared.

Latasha got out her phone and called Detective Lisa.  She left a message and called Mitzy at the police station to send a car, and an ambulance to pick up the body.

“We can’t wait around for the police,” Wendy started to back away.

“I thought you wanted to be a lawyer?”  Latasha came right back.

“I do, but—.”

“Then you better get used to the police,” Latasha said and she looked at Mini.

Mini put her hands up.  “Dominica always sticks with her friends.  You don’t mind if I hide behind you when the police show up.”  Latasha did not mind.  Wendy just frowned as a patrol car came roaring in, lights on.

It was officer Dickenson, a young and well-built African-American male who made Wendy and Mini smile and who tied Latasha’s tongue in knots the one time she met him.  “Latasha.”  He recognized her right away, or Mitzy told him.

“Here.”  Latasha pointed at the body.  “I got pictures for Detective Lisa, I mean Detective Schromer.”  She held up her phone.

Dickenson nodded and knelt by the body.  The man was definitely dead.  “I don’t get it,” he stood.  There were cocaine packets all around the body, and money, too.  “A dealer, carrying and it is all just left here.”

“I think we interrupted the deal,” Latasha said.

“Any idea which way the perp. went?”

Latasha pointed up the side of the building while she spoke.  “And I am not sure it was human.”

“You called Schromer?”  Latasha nodded and Dickenson also nodded as he stepped to his car to report in.  “Good, because she deals with all that spooky stuff.”

###

Emily got up extra early.  She was going to drag the ROTC freshman on a five-mile jog.  All she had to remember was to not set as wicked a pace as she did last time.  Last year she nearly killed a couple of poor sophomores.  For her, a five-mile jog, even in full pack was no big deal, but even practically walking, most of the freshmen would come in huffing and puffing and collapse to the dirt.  She imagined Jessica and her team would do well enough.  They had gone early to stretch and get warmed up.

Emily stepped outside when it was still dark.  The walkway lights were on, and she spied two women in jogging outfits no doubt trying to get rid of last night’s supper.  Eat too much and then jog it off was not a good plan, Emily thought.  Fortunately, that was one problem she would probably not have to worry about for some time.  She had the same high metabolism Latasha had, she just did not show it like Latasha in the constant tapping of her toes and drumming of her fingers.

Emily pushed a hand through her hair as she caught another sight.  There was a guy in his pajamas, barefoot in the cold of December in New Jersey.  Apparently he was not concerned that his fly was wide open, his shirt was torn and he was in danger of losing his pants altogether.  He got in the way of the joggers and grunted.  He grabbed the hair of one and put it to his nose.

“Hey!”  Emily shouted as the women yelled at the guy to leave them alone.  They hurried off as Emily approached.  The guy looked briefly at Emily like a deer caught in headlights, then he took off running into the dark.  Emily wanted to chase him down and ask him what he thought he was doing, but she had to meet the freshman class.  She tried to picture the guy’s face in her mind with the hope of recognizing him again if she saw him, but all she could really remember was the blank and empty stare in the guy’s eyes.  It did not look right.  Emily shivered in the cold.  She had to jog to the gym to warm up.

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

Next Monday, Emily, Latasha and Detective Lisa begin to pull some threads together.  It appears they are dealing with more than one mystery.  Don’t miss the Elect II-10, Green People, and…

Happy reading

The mats were laid out in the gym and the company stood at attention.  Captain Driver walked the room first and eyed each member of the class before he said, “At ease.  Be seated.”  Emily held the clipboard that day.  Hand to hand training required some close quarters and Captain Driver told her he did not want anyone to get hurt, accidentally.

“Sophomore.”  Besides, he had Jessica to pick on that year.  She got up and stood at attention.  She felt ready for whatever the man threw at her.  She had been training with Heinrich for over a year.

“Some of you might think she is just a girl.  What can she possibly do if someone sneaks up and grabs her from behind as a prelude to rape or murder, or in a combat situation.  Let me tell you, properly trained she has nothing to fear.”

Lieutenant Brinkman grabbed Jessica around the middle, though it was not entirely unexpected.  Jessica did what she had to in order to flip him over her shoulder, but he expected that and resisted.

“Not a chance,” he whispered in her ear.  That made her mad.  She hooked her right foot around his right ankle and stepped forward, effectively lifting his ankle off the mat.  Then she twisted enough to make him lose his balance toward his weak side.  They both went to the mat with Jessica on top.  To his credit, Brinkman hung on even when his back slammed against the mat, but Jessica was ready and added the natural motion to her deliberate motion and slammed the back of her head into Brinkman’s face.

“Surrender,” Brinkman let go.  Jessica slipped off, but laid a hand on his chest as she spoke.

“I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

“No.”  Brinkman shook his head, but took a moment to rub his nose.  “I was afraid I might hurt you.

“No, I’m fine,” Jessica scooted up close to Brinkman’s face to examine the man’s nose.  “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” he said.

“I’m fine, too,” Jessica said, and Emily turned to Captain Driver.

“Lost for the session.”  Brinkman and Jessica were both grinning at each other.

Captain driver frowned.  “Exactly why I don’t like women in the ranks.  No offense.”  He turned to the class.  “Pair up.  You women need to pair with each other.”

The class went well after that until two young men called Emily over.  One spoke in a serious tone.  “I don’t get the grab from behind bit,” he said.  “Could you show us?”

Emily set down her clipboard.  The one who asked was her height, hardly the biggest boy in the class, but she understood that he might be having a problem because his partner was a hulk.  He was one that Jessica called a two-hundred and fifty-pounder.

Emily faced the smaller man and told the big one to grab her from behind.  She expected his hands around her middle, but that was not what happened.  Those big hands reached up and grabbed her breasts.  Emily could only imagine the grinning face over her shoulder.  She turned.  He could not stop her.  She broke free, grabbed the big man’s sweatshirt and sweat pants and tossed him eight feet through the air.  He landed beyond the mats and slid across the gym floor another six feet to where he crumpled up against the wall.  Nothing was seriously damaged, except maybe his ego.

Emily turned on the other who quickly took several steps back.  “Does that make it clear?”  the young man nodded, vigorously.

“Hudson.”

“Sir.” Emily came to attention.

Captain Driver stepped over, but his eyes were on the two young men.  “When I told you I did not want anyone accidentally hurt, I left off one part.”

“Sir?”

“Unless they deserve it.”  Captain Driver turned to the class who had stopped to stare in any case.  “Don’t you people understand?  This is not just a class.  This is your team.  These are the people you will have to depend on when the going gets rough.  You will respect your team members at all times.  If you cannot do that, there is no room for you in this program.  Am I clear?”

“Sir, yes sir.”

“Hit the showers.”  He turned to the two young men, one standing still and the other staggering back from the wall.  “You two need to give me a reason why you should remain in this class.  And I saw the whole thing so if you lie to me that will be instant dismissal.”

Emily changed, and as she did she felt sorry for the boys.  She said nothing to Jessica, but Jessica could tell.  “Pent up frustrations,” Jessica said.  “You need a date.”

“Look who’s talking?”

“He asked me out and I said yes.”

“He is your superior officer.”

“So we will have to go undercover.”  Jessica paused while Hilde and Natasha giggled.  “I did not mean that the way it sounded.”  She tried again.  “You outrank me too, your majesty, but it doesn’t keep me from telling you to turn your light out when I’m ready to go to bed.  Wait.  That’s not helping.”

###

“Hey, wait up!”  Emily turned her head.  It was Joel from Anatomy and from the library study group.  “Something I have to ask you.”  He was puffing a little from the run, like he followed her half-way across campus.  “Emily.”  He acknowledged her and smiled.  It was a nice smile.

Emily never thought about dating until Jessica brought it up.  She did not imagine she could date, after Pierce.  But Joel was nice.  She could easily smile for him.

“I want a date,” Joel said.

“What?”  That was a bit sudden.

“Oh?  No, no.  Not what you think.”  Joel’s smile widened.  “I was talking about Amina.”

“Oh?  I see.”  Emily felt a pang of something, but she was not sure what she was panging about.  “Why are you talking to me about Amina?”  she started to walk again and Joel kept up.

“I asked her out.  She wants to go out.  Maybe supper and a movie, nothing special.  But she said I had to get your permission first.”

Emily stopped walking.  No way.  Amina was a big girl who could make her own decisions.  Emily was not going to get stuck with approving something that turned out wrong.  “If you respect her and care about her, I don’t see anything wrong with the idea.”

“I think she’s great,” Joel said, and Emily could see he meant it.  “I mean, you don’t mind?”

“You do know she has not dated much, or at all as the case may be.”

“I know.  We talked about that.  It seems our families are very similar, considering.”

“Considering?”

“Considering she is Catholic and I am Jewish.”

Emily sighed and nodded.  It wouldn’t be the first time.  “Okay with me,” she said, but planned to have a long talk with that girl.  Emily had no business making those sorts of decisions.  If Amina insisted they be Amazons, then Amina would have to start acting like one and make her own decisions about boys or men.”

“Thank you,” Joel said sincerely, and he ran off to celebrate, or to find Amina, or to do both.

Emily shook her head as she walked up the steps of the administration building.  It was one flight up to find the President’s office.  She was ushered right in when she arrived, and the door shut behind her.

“Come in.  Sit down.”  President Batiste seemed cordial and that made Emily’s intuition flare into the red zone.  “Captain Gouldos tells me you lead the raid on Morgan Granger’s house., but you neglected to call security first like we asked.”

Emily practiced this line.  “It was a police matter, sir.  It was not a matter for campus security.”

“Are you a trained and educated expert in these matters?”  The President spoke with every ounce of restraint he could muster.  He was clearly ticked.  “My security people are knowledgeable about what requires outsiders and what is best kept in house.  That is what we pay them for, to make those determinations.  Let them.”  He underlined the last part and Emily thought it wise to keep her mouth shut.

“You are a dangerous woman,” Batiste said, though he said it with a smile returned to his face, his anger temporarily abated.  “But there is a reason we have rules and regulations at this university.  I am not saying you have broken any rules, but you have failed to keep some.  A sin of omission, I believe.  I don’t know why you seem to attract trouble, but next time please do the right thing.  Call Captain Gouldos.  He is not a bad man and may even help you with whatever Boogyman you might be facing.”

“Hopefully there won’t be a next time,” Emily said and stood.  She had enough.  President Batiste looked at her with his mouth forming around a word, but then he swallowed whatever it was.

*

“Hopefully,” he agreed and waved her out.

Emily went, but kept looking back as the door slowly closed.  She bumped into an older man.  “Careful, young woman,” the man said and smiled for her as he put his hands to her shoulders and helped her step aside.  “My youngest daughter is the same way.  She loses track of where she is going, and that is not a good thing when she is driving.”  He showed a gold cap on a tooth as his smile came out.

Emily returned the smile, but her intuition was still flagging her.  She took a careful look.  The man was fifty-something, salt and pepper hair and he had a left eye that looked a bit to the left when he was looking straight ahead.

“Mister Franco.  Ferdinand.  Come right in.”  President Batiste reached out for the man, and Emily thought it best to disappear.

Back on the Administration building front steps, she tried to put together what she just experienced and saw.  Why was she dangerous?  She posed no danger to President Batiste as far as she knew.  She probably saved the university last year from any number of law suits.  And why was he so determined to have her call security?  So they could sit on what was obviously a police matter?  Lisa said the men guarding Granger’s house were drug men.  For all she knew it might have been a federal matter, but not something campus cops were designed for.  What was he trying to keep “in house,” as he called it?  Was she a threat to that, whatever it was?

Emily hardly had time for another thought when she looked up and saw a familiar figure down the path.  “Pierce?”  She called, though she knew that was impossible.  The young man looked up and she saw his face.  “Pierce!”  The young man took off running.  Emily chased him.

Emily had the strength in her legs to outrun a deer, but she could not catch this young man.  That confirmed in her mind who she was chasing.  Pierce said he had a younger brother.  This had to be him, and he looked to be about sixteen, not quite old enough for college whereas Pierce masqueraded as a graduate student.  He masqueraded, she remembered, because he was a person created in a lab by Doctor Zimmer, only something did not go right.  Pierce aged at twice the normal rate, which meant in real time Pierce was only twelve or thirteen-years-old.  If the same was true of this one, she figured she was chasing an eight-year-old, but she could not catch him.

Emily rounded the building and came into a parking lot.  It was full of cars of commuters and some faculty and staff.  Pierce’s brother was nowhere to be seen.  He might have raced into the building, but she imagined he was out there among the cars.  As long as he kept low, he could easily work his way to the back of the lot and disappear among the trees without her ever finding him.  “Needle in a haystack,” she said to herself, and then had a thought in case the young man could still hear her.

“I need to talk to you.  I want to tell you about your brother.  Find me when you are ready.”  She turned to go back to her dorm to mope.

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

Monday.  Everyone has them, but figuring them out… Be sure to visit the blog Money for the Elect II–6 Secrets.

and Happy Reading

Emily had no word from Pierce, and Amina could not locate him.  Latasha was home and healing rapidly.  Lisa was all but healed, and it looked like she would be scar free.  It also looked like Maria’s hair was going to grow back after all.  It had only been shaved.  And Jessica was down to a simple cast on her arm while Mindy was able to take a long, hot, soak in the tub.  She still felt the sting in a few places from the soap, but she was determined.

Melissa was back home in Vermont.  They told her parents that the cult kidnapped her, but the police shut them down so they would no longer be a threat.  They said Melissa would be perfectly safe at the school for summer classes.  Detective Lisa gave her personal guarantee.  And still there was no word from Pierce.

It was Thursday late afternoon when Jessica sat on the library steps and looked out on the world.  Emily sat on the same library steps but she pouted in her own mind and had no room in her thoughts for the world.  She could not concentrate on her school work, either.  What started out as a straight A semester was rapidly becoming Bs and Cs.  She might even end up having to take a summer class herself if that Earth Science whacko messed with her grade.

“At least I’m doing well in Modern European History, thanks to Amina,” Emily said.

“I’m getting Bs,” Jessica said.  “My father is happy.”

“Business major,” Emily said grumpily.

“Yeah.”  Jessica did not sound much happier about it.  “Amina is studying history and philosophy.  Maria is going to be a doctor.  Mindy is into antiquities, all those folktales, myths and legends, and languages.  Melissa is the real geek.  She wants to study physics.”

“I want to be a nurse,” Emily said a bit defensively.

Jessica frowned.  “I’m studying business because my father wants me to study business.”

Emily nodded, but had to ask.  “What would you study if you could pick whatever you wanted?”

Jessica sat in silence for a long time before she answered softly.  “Business,” she said.  “But I think at this point I might join you in ROTC.  Is that weird or what?”

Emily never thought of Jessica that way.  It was weird, but she did not say it.

Jessica continued.  “It was never like this before.  I had dreams of modeling and marrying some rich guy and doing lots of rich things.  You have ruined me.  Holly, my new roommate and I have sworn off boys for a while.  I never did that before.”

“No more Larry?”

“Please.  That was three boyfriends ago.  No, I mean with all that happened last semester, and now with the gang, the tribe as Amina insists, and with all that working out and learning self-defense.”  Jessica stopped in mid sentence.

“What?”  Emily had to prompt her.

“I honestly never felt better in my whole life.  I never felt better about myself, either.  I think I had a low opinion of myself and low expectations without realizing it.  Now I feel like I can conquer the world.  I don’t need to marry a rich guy.  I can get rich all by myself, thank you very much.”

“I’m happy for you, I think.”

“Maybe I should change to a psychology major.  I should fit right in with all those crazy people at this point, don’t you think?”

Emily was thinking.  She was wondering what happened to the girl with the French nails who never opened a book and wanted to date the football team.  This was a different woman.  “But ROTC?”

“I think I would be good at it.  What do you think?”

“I think you would too,” Emily admitted.  “Of course, I wouldn’t be able to go easy on you.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Jessica said.

Emily was ready to try to talk Jessica out of it when her phone buzzed.  She had a text message.  It was from Pierce.  It said she should meet him on the roof of the science building.  He had something important to tell her, but she had to come alone or she would never find him.

“I have to go,” Emily said.  Her hand touched her knife without any conscious thought about it, and she took off running across the green at top speed.  At the same time, Amina ran up, yelling.

“Emily!  Emily!”  Emily did not hear or she did not answer, and Amina had to drop her hands to her knees at that point to breathe.

“What is it?”  Jessica stood, a worried look on her face.

“He is going to kill her,” Amina gasped for air.  “He is going to try, and if he does we are all dead.”

Jessica wanted to run after Emily, but she knew that even she could not catch her and she was not sure where Emily had gone.

“Explain,” Jessica said as she spied Maria and Mindy catching up.

Amina waved off Jessica’s questions and concerns.  She had her phone out and was dialing furiously.

Heinrich walked the campus to get acclimated.  He wanted a good feel for the environment before he set down roots.  He knew his presence made the elect nervous, but he had felt out the three and found Lisa, young Emily and even Latasha, young as she was, were serious about the work.  He had no qualms there and thought he might even help them now and then.  True, the influx of so many elect disturbed him.  Some felt off color, but not terribly so, and he knew this was just a temporary thing.  He hoped being around so many good sisters, as they called themselves, it might encourage the off color ones to straighten up.

Heinrich laughed to think of these women all running around like headless chickens, brandishing their weapons, waiting nervously for the main event.  Centuries of experience had taught him to relax and wait, and not to worry so much about weapons.  Weapons could be found.  When the time came, he was his own best weapon, even if he had nothing in his hands.

Heinrich stopped.  He heard a noise by the old gymnasium that stood beside the parade ground.  There were soldiers gathering there—no, young men.  Emily’s ROTC men, and they were getting into the back of a truck.  He lifted his nose and took a big whiff of air.  He decided he must be getting old.  He ran faster than any ordinary man toward the library.

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

There are in fact three elect in Trenton, NJ.  Emily is a freshman at the university, Latasha is a high school freshman, and Detective Lisa and the Trenton police are having to deal with things at the university that are, to say the least, not normal.  Now, Heinrich, a member of the mysterious council has shown up, along with twenty-six more elect gathered from all over North America.  The zombies have already gone after Latasha’s house (chapter 9).  It is only a matter of time before they are let loose on the university campus.

The Elect, Freshman Year began in November of 2015.  You can begin the story by clicking on the archives button and selecting November of 2015, or just enjoy it from this point…  Every chapter (episode, like a television show) is posted in 4 easily digestible parts over a single week.  So after today, you will find parts 2, 3, and 4 of chapter 10 on T, W, and Th of this week.  Enjoy.  It is free, and Happy Reading.