One in Ten Ch. 11

"Device!" I screeched. "Something to write on!"

The door swung open. I barely noted the person entering the room as they did so at a low crouch, so from the bed I could barely make out the top of their head. Carpi was scrambling to my left. Kuiko lurched toward me, caught herself in that dangerous action and recoiled.

Capri shoved an ancient magazine and pen into my hands. I began writing with shaky hands.

'(AMSA) C50H73N15O11', went down on the corner of some article about the comeback of wood-particle furniture.

"What is going on?" It was Scar Moore.

"Israel had a nightmare," Kuiko answered for me.

"I remembered something the Aurora Slasher gave me when she was giving me the Carabolix 37," I shivered. I was bathed in sweat and now that I was sitting up, the cool air was stealing away my heat. "I recall intense pain ... especially ... down there," which sounded so child-like and lame.

"Frank had a nightmare," Scar murmured into her communication gear then. "Let me see."

She had no better luck than me, or Capri.

"Let's show this to Brandi," Scar grinned my way. "Rest easy, Frank. You are doing your part." I noticed it was already passed 6 a.m. Getting anymore sleep wasn't going to happen. Scar left the room. I began crawling over Capri.

"Where do you think you are going, Mister?" she teased.

"I need to think," I mumbled. "Run ... on the treadmill."

"I'll come with you," Kuiko volunteered.

"It only has room for one," I pointed out.

"I will keep the other girls at bay," she smiled. "So you can think in peace."

"I'd appreciate that," I gave in.

"Have fun," Capri groaned. She flopped back on her pillow, then took mine and put it over her head to cancel out the minimal light already in the room. Kuiko and I dressed, leaving her in silence. I had barely started the machine on a pre-recorded 5 km run when Brandi, Roni and Paisley found me. Kuiko tried to intercept them, but she was too small and they were too determined.

"Israel, are you sure about this first part?" Brandi pointed at my notation -- the (AMSA). I screwed up my thoughts, trying to grapple with that elusive dream fragment.

"I think so," I shrugged. "Those memories were pretty thoroughly suppressed in therapy. I can only imagine ... this place reminds me a tiny bit of her place as in was old and had an old smell to it. She was a neat-freak."

"Her?" Paisley frowned.

"The Aurora Slasher," Brandi whispered. "He's the one who survived."

"Oh," Paisley gave me the normal female look of surprise girls gave me when the realized I'd gone through something 'bad' without understanding how bad it really was.

"Okay," Brandi screwed her 'thinking cap' on. "Israel, what can you tell us about this medication. What effects did you feel after she gave it to you? Was it given orally, or injected? If injected, where did she inject it?"

"Give him a break," Kuiko grew fierce. "It hurts him to remember this." I nearly fell off the treadmill. Kuiko had come through yet again. She got it. She knew. I felt so justified in loving her. I also felt I needed to push harder.

"Thank you, Kuiko," I sighed. To Brandi, "It was injected ... in my penis shaft and scrotum -- the artery leading in, I believe. I ... I think it was ... relief. Not immediate ... but definitely something I associated with the injection ... say anything between five and thirty minutes," I struggled along. Running actually helped going back into the darkness. "The pain didn't go away ... it lessened. Does that help?"

"Describe the pain. How did it lessen?" she kept at it. I could only shrug.

"Well C50H73N15O11 is an ACE inhibitor -- it lowers blood pressure by enlarging blood vessels," Roni added to the discussion.

"If it was BSA," Paisley snickered, "we'd know what that is."

Brandi's head turned and regarded her as did Roni's.

"What is BSA?" Kuiko asked.

"Bovine Serum Albumin," Brandi stated in an off-handed manner.

"It is used to stabilize DNA," Roni added.

"Ummm ... if 'SA' is Serum Albumin and 'B' is for Bovine then what is 'AM'?" I wondered out loud.

"It is two letters of the alphabet. It could be anything," Roni shook her head.

"No," Brandi corrected her. "It had to be something which had been researched at St. Jerome's as well."

"They didn't advertise altering the Gender Plague so they may not have advertised this concoction either," I showered them with reason.

"You can lie about the research, but not the researchers," Brandi sent a devilish smirk my way. "All I need to do is access St. Jerome's records and find out who has done research there in the past 40 years then cross-reference that list with 'AM' and see what pops up."

"Aren't those classified?" Paisley questioned. How adorable. It seemed the full effect of the hateful world spinning out of control around her last night hadn't fully impacted on her yet.

"A little -- I'm with the government," Brandi consoled the college student. "I'll go talk to Jen." Brandi left as did Paisley. After a bit I realized Roni was staring at me.

"Yes?"

"Oh," she blushed. "I apologize. It has been a while." She meant her and sex.

"I'm doing the best I can," was my best excuse.

"I know."

"You know if we had left last night we wouldn't be with the Vanishers now," Roni prodded. She meant had I abandoned the others over Roni's moral qualms I wouldn't be in the Vanishers' 'custody' now.

"Correct. We wouldn't have three extra men for the rest of you to romance, twelve highly-trained women to protect us, an exit route over the Mississippi and a plan to get us to the Rocky Mountains undetected. Yeah," I didn't look her way. "We'd be out there, somewhere, making up our survival plans as we went along until far better funded, equipped and trained agencies hunted us down, killed you, Angel and Venus and enslaved me -- Roni. Yeah. I know precisely what's going on."

Lacking an adequate comeback, she left.

"I love you," Kuiko said out of nowhere. Yet another point for Kuiko. She was lauding me for my mind and eloquence, not my physique.

"I love you too, Kuiko," I smiled at her. I had a sudden desire for nipples. Kuiko read my mind, stood up and came my way. I was still jogging. We could make this work.

"Crazy-K, the Vanishers want to give us some basic firearms training," Venus intruded. She took in the two of us. "That means -- everybody."

"Fiddle-sticks," Kuiko pouted and snapped her fingers. I ramped down the machine, stepping off as it wound down. Firearms training ... what could go wrong?

{ZARA}

Firearms training; each one of us who needed help had an aide. Flame and the Vanishers Ballard, Ross and Wilson kept watch over the premises while Jethro and Angel were coopted as trainers. Casper 'explained' to Angel why she couldn't train me. Of all the people they had to 'bring up to speed', I was the one they couldn't lose so it made sense they put the most reliable trainer with me -- Zara.

Thankfully, Angel took Kuiko. Jethro ended up with Lowry -- that poor, stupid Sonofabitch. He must have thought the Old Man would take it easy on him -- being old and a man. Scar, whose name was actually code for Oscar, doubled up with Aniqua and Lavender. Scar/Oscar was a qualified Drill Instructor and they deemed Aniqua and Samantha the 'most trainable' from their preliminary background check.

Back to me, a gun in my hand and a woman wrapping her body around me ...

"Now aim carefully, squeeze the trigger with a steady pull and the bullet will go right where you want it to go," Zara instructed.

"I hope it goes out the barrel," I muttered. Zara gave me this look. "I mean, it would be bad if it stayed in the barrel, right?" I got another look. "Okay, aim, pull trigger, try to put it on target."

"No, Israel," Zara explained patiently. "Losers try -- winners do." I stopped joking around and griping. If I couldn't defend myself with some level of competence, someone would have to put their lives in danger to protect mine.

"I'll do my best," I sighed.

"I know you will Israel," Zara gave a wisp of a smile. "You will surprised how good your best is."

"I'm glad one of us has faith in me," I joked feebly.

"You've done so much already, Israel," she soothed me with her grace and kindness, so unlooked for. "You don't need to rush things."

If there was any consolation, I wasn't the worst. I wasn't even the worst guy. The worst were Kuiko, who was the lightest weight, and Barabbas, who had an aversion to loud noises. Our weapons had sound suppressors ~ Jethro's neighbors were some distance away, but we opted to not tempt fate ~ so I was worried what he'd do when we found ourselves in a real fire-fight because I clearly recalled guns being very loud.

"Squeeze, don't jerk, be smooth, take a breath, let it out, squeeze the trigger, the gun will fire itself ... sight picture, sight alignment ... you fire between breaths. Now, I'm going to place a coin on the front sight. You squeeze the trigger until the hammer falls ... did the coin stay on the front sight?" It didn't.

"Let's try again ... you do this until the gun doesn't move, even with the lightest ... then you load the weapon and do it again, and again, and again, and again ..."

We did that until we were called in for breakfast. It didn't take a first-year sociology student to realize the Vanishers were dividing us up into mentor-student duos and working at keeping us that way. It also meant at any given instant they knew precisely were most of us where.

"What's next -- once I've mastered lesson #1?" I asked Zara.

"Next you learn to draw and fire," she continued. "Empty weapon holstered ... face a mirror, reach down, draw the weapon ... assume your stance ... I use a two-handed hold. Rest your hands in front of your belt ... draw the weapon while at the same time you bring your support hand up to grasp your gun hand."

"Your gun-hand is glued to the weapon, it does not move once you have got your grip ... finger out of the trigger until you have a clear target ... your support-hand cradles your gun-hand. The support-hand can move if you are using a revolver. Use your support-hand to cock the weapon ... with practice you can draw and fire quickly and smoothly."

"I've been timed at 1.2 seconds to draw and fire six rounds ... all were hits on the target and were close enough together to be covered by a silver dollar. I don't expect you to be that level for some time. It is something for you to aim for. I believe in you. You'll get there because you need to have that skill and proficiency."

"That sounds incredibly fast," I gulped.

"It won't seem that way when you become that good," she assured me in a way which really made me think I might, one day in the distant future, make her prediction a reality.

"What if I can't shoot somebody? I mean point, aim, shoot and attempt to end another person's life with malice of forethought," I elaborated.

"It is not a matter of courage, Israel," Zara spoke softly. "I think you are brave. Bravery is not a factor. Plenty of cowards kill. You possess the clear perception the person you are shooting at needs to be killed so that people you care for will live. When the time comes, your understanding of that principle will remove all other complications and morality. Your clarity is what separates you from a murderer."

"Like Flame?"

"Yes, and Mr. MacFarlane," she stated.

"He was fighting for a cause too," I defended his choices long ago.

"He could not win, Israel. All those deaths were for nothing. Had he killed 100? 500? What would it have changed?" Zara challenged me.

"I don't blame him for being angry about what was done to him and his Generation. I simply don't accept his actions could have had any other action except failure. He had neither the numbers nor organization to overthrow the Federation. Failing to do that, what purpose did killing those women have?" she continued. I gave her words serious thought.

"No," I mused several rather successful rounds later. "Sometimes you must resist, regardless of the outcome. Surrendering to tyranny was as much a mistake forty years ago as it is now. The only difference was how many boys grew up not knowing the difference."

And Zara smiled.