We went to dinner. It was uneventful except Sherri joined us again. She was funny with a dry wit that I liked. We kept it light and danced around a lot of topics without going to deep. I sat back and Zane and I listened. He talked less than I did but just like me he never stopped watching. He was a weird kid in some ways. One moment I would look at him and see a midget Max with a sharp jab of Carol. He was focused, at times he talked like an adult and he was always alert an aware of the world around us. He moved like a ghost when he wanted too and just for a second once or twice I saw his eyes go flat, cold, and dead. I don't know what he was seeing or thinking but I knew that look from his dad. It usually meant he was back in the Marines somewhere or he was about to kill someone. I saw the Carol part when he laughed and acted his age. When he asked me kid questions and trusted me to tell him the truth. Hell, I think he expected only the truth from me and I tried to deliver it.
As we walked back to our quarters after dinner Sherri lagged behind and I fell in step with her. Her room was one of the first ones we passed and I stopped with her as she opened it. I looked down the hall and Zane had stopped about fifteen paces from us and was looking back at me. She took a quick look at him and the quietly told me "I'm the only one in my room if you want to come by later..." I looked at her, smiled, and said "Thanks" and left it at that.
I caught up with Zane and we walked down the hallway to our room. As I opened the door he
said "She likes you."
"Yeah. I know."
"Woof likes me."
I shut the door behind us and told him "He's a dog. He's supposed too."
"Woof isn't just a dog. He's special. You know that too. Are we going to go see him now?"
"No. We need to do something while they have the lights on." We had an hour before the lights went out. They didn't ask anyone. They just turned them off an hour after dinner. They had told us in class it was to conserve energy. I figured it was more to conserve on security and to keep us in our rooms. I expected a protest from him. Something along the line of "You promised!" I didn't get it from him. He accepted it without saying a word. He just looked away.
"I got a plan and I need your help. What we are going to do is sharpen our toothbrush handles." I was going to say more but I saw the smile on his face. "Yeah?"
"I already did." He pulled his toothbrush out of his shirt pocket. "See."
I took it from him, looked at, and handed it back to him. "You need to work on that point."
Polycarbonate makes a mean push dagger. Broken Compact Disc is sharp polycarbonate. Toothbrush plastic is probably pre-fall, with biggest problem being grip. I'd put some knurling along the shaft opposite end from the point. This means gripping bristles end. If used for a pre-planned attack, wrapping tightly with cloth or leather will make a better grip. just like using a .22, placement is everything.
ReplyDeleteSherri sounds like a useful character. Hard to tell if she's gone crazy.
Thanks.
I hope Gardener can get out of the re-education camp without a fuss. Sledge is big and so are his posse. There's a reason that all hand-to-hand combat sports have weight classes: size matters. A lot. When I was a 21 yro bad ass, I could stand toe-to-toe with anyone that weighed 180 lbs. or less. I could have taken down larger men, if they were untrained. That's just the difference between wolf and sheep.
ReplyDeleteBut outside of my weight class going up against trained opponents, well, let's just say the sparring matches left me eating soup for a couple of weeks since I couldn't chew very well. Big guys hit really, really hard. And that was with a mouth guard so I didn't lose any teeth. Bruce Lee could take on anyone... in the movies. In real life, size matters.
Gardener needs better improvised weapons than a short, sharp stick. A heavy pipe or baseball bat would help. But they still have numbers. Superior numbers + bigger guys + people trained in HtH combat= you lose every single time. The best course of action is to avoid the conflict until he gets his firearms back.
Sean Penn is one of my least favorite actors, but the scene in 'Bad Boys' where he improvises a club with a pillowcase and several soda cans stuck, as you can see.
ReplyDeleteBig matters if you are going to wrestle them, Gardener isn't the fair wrestling type though, it's all going to be takedown shutdown moves without any of the ritual pushing and staring once he decides to go for it.
Even giants have weak knees, eye sockets, testicles and jugulars, if you aren't fighting 'dirty' it's just sport.
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ReplyDeletehahah yea, I was on the wrong chapter part too.
ReplyDelete