Cat Fight

Chapter Two – Cat Fight

            He twisted around and held the rifle out to shoot.

The instant he laid eyes on her, she saw he deemed her no threat, and returned to what he was doing. Ela realised, she had never actually shot a real human being before. Her kill-record was in the hundreds for all of her simulated missions. Although it wasn’t supposed to feel so, this was different. A real human being. A real bullet.

            She swallowed. “Stop. I will shoot you.” Her grip tightened. The drain was almost open. He was a traitor, a liar, and had put them all in danger. Ela stepped closer, “Stop, now.” She squeezed the trigger, and a round hit his shoulder.

He grimaced, cursed, but didn’t turn around.

“Goddammit, stop!” Ela clenched her teeth hard together, suppressed the fear and urged herself to do it. It had to be done. No excuses.

A round hit him in the back of his head.

A shiver ran through her body; she didn’t squeeze the trigger.

He lay on his stomach. Blood leaking out of his head wound onto the ground.

She turned around.

Gabe lowered his rifle; he was alone. “What were you thinking? You have no suit, not even a vest. Why did you engage him? He could have shot and killed you.”

“He was going to get away,” Ela said.

“So shoot him from the bushes.”

“He was out of range,” she swallowed hard, tension tingling in her jaw.

“Well you don’t start a conversation. He could have killed you.”

“So you’ve said,” Ela fought to keep her anger hidden. This was another mistake she made. Another mistake he could hold against her. They shared a tense stare.

“You guys better get back to the dorms before you’re caught,” he said.

Ela looked back at the traitor, lying still in a pool of dark red blood, and she felt like a failure, again.

When they returned to the dorm, Tana went straight to sleep, but Ela laid awake, going over the scene again and again in her head. Adrenaline still pumped through her veins. If only she walked up and shot him point blank.

The dorm’s A.I. woke them at exactly 0400. An orange glow mimicked a sunrise within their room. Ela was already awake; she didn’t get any sleep.

“Come on, get up,” Ela nudged Tana.

Pulling the sheet up to her neck, Tana rolled over and faced the wall.

“See you downstairs.”

The girls all lined up in the dorm courtyard in six rows of six. Tana eventually joined them all, and the A.I. led them through their morning exercise routine: jumping, skipping, running on the spot, kicking and sparring, stretching and meditation to finish the session.

Ela stepped out of the shower before Tana to take her shots. Tana hated needles. Towel wrapped around her body, Ela switched on the de-steamer to clear the mirror and combat the steam coming from Tana’s shower. She pressed her thumb to the glass, and it displayed her chart. Selecting her daily check-up, Ela moved her face closer to the mirror so her eyes could be scanned, poked her tongue out and said ahh.

On the side of the mirror was a metal mechanism which Ela pricked her finger on, and it analysed her sample in a few seconds. A list popped onto the mirror of all the vitamins and shots she needed to take this morning to get her through the day. Pressing her thumbprint to the first drawer unlocked it, and she emptied half a dozen pills into her palm and swallowed them.

The second drawer was full of syringes. Ela unwrapped three. One was an immune booster, the second was a combative enzyme to slow down cell degeneration, and the third helped assist rapid cell growth. Without them, her degenerative disease would kill her within a couple of months. Only one other student had the same disease, in fact, they were the only two out of three-thousand, two hundred and forty students to suffer any physical ailments. He died when he was only seven years old. Thomas.

She stuck each one in her arm, and then threw the packages into the recycler. Pricking her finger again, the analysis picked up traces of the medicines and her check-up was complete.

Ela swallowed a handful of caffeine concentrates while she waited for the drink machine to fill two cups with a smoothie concoction and seal on caps. She pulled the duffel bag over her shoulder, grabbed the drinks and went outside to meet Trix. They waited for Tana in silence. Neither of them were morning people. Tana eventually left the dorm and met them at the complex gate.

They drank the smoothies on their way to the tram post. A cold breeze swept across the large lake. The bridge across it was a long walk, and since they never usually spoke this early in the morning, Ela couldn’t help but stress inside. She’d need to face Gabe today. He saved her life, she was thankful, but he kept track of how many times he helped her. Tit for tat. She owed him a lot.

All the seats were taken, so they stood at the edge of the platform awaiting a tram. A group of trouble-makers were laser-etching profanities into the platform, and Ela noticed the tension. Though the group claimed they were individuals, they were part of a hierarchy and had a leader. Jensen. He never did any of the work, just came up with the ideas. He was a First Gen like Gabe. Tana didn’t associate with them, but she and the group would exchange hellos. Jensen had been staring at Tana since they arrived at the post.  No hello. No acknowledgement.

Trix noticed it too. He gave Ela a look that said, I’ll ask. “Is there a problem?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been holding an empty cup for the last five minutes. Gonna throw it out?”

The recycler was near where Jensen was standing, but lucky for Tana, the hovertram arrived. She stepped on it the second the doors slid open and Ela and Trix followed. The three of them found a seat in the next carriage. Trix took the cup from Tana, and she recoiled in a sort of embarrassment Ela had never seen before.

“Morning.” Von approached them, smiling. He took a seat beside Ela. “You look tired.”

She shrugged.

“What did I interrupt?”

“Nothing,” Tana snapped.

“All right. Steady.” Von lounged back and put his feet up. “So, Ela, I have a demonstration today. You gonna come watch? Will be a blast.”

Ela smiled. “Absolutely.” Von’s major is munitions expert, so he gets to blow a lot of stuff up. Ela was going to major in the same thing, but decided against it at the last minute. Her major is reconnaissance, same as Tana. Her shoulder’s fell ridden with tension the moment Endon entered the carriage. He deliberately avoided eye contact with her.

Endon sat next to Trix, despite the whole carriage being free. “Morning”

Trix acknowledged Endon with a nod.

A few seconds later, the tram glided to a stop. “School Complex. Please exit via the main door.”

The group grabbed their bags and stepped off the tram.

***

The lecture hall was a large space with no windows. Professor Hoth paced the area below the amphitheatre-style seating. His clothes were simple and conservative, like that of a monk, and he never wore shoes. Said they were constricting. “When you analyse the Shenga text, what do you think is the overall message?”

Dakota raised her hand, and Hoth gestured to her to speak. “His writing focuses on society as one entity that practices greediness collectively.”

“Not quite. Anyone else?”

Above the seating area was a large half-sphere projection screen that gave third-dimensions to extinct animals. It changed habitats every five minutes. The orange-coloured Savannah transformed into a bright blue ocean and small fish, sharks and a large whale materialized. Soft ambient music played in the background. A whale song.  Ela listened to whale and dolphin songs at night sometimes to coax her into falling asleep.

Trix nudged her.

“Ela, you with us?” Hoth asked.

“Hmm?”

“Any ideas?”

“About the text? Uh…” She bit her lip. “If you look at it from Shenga’s point of view, and take into consideration his personal moral practices, like not eating animals for example, it demonstrates his level of compassion. Everything he writes tends to stem from that, I think.”

Hoth grinned and pointed at her, “Exactly.” He looked around the room and made eye contact with each student, trying to stress the importance of this lesson with merely a look. “Compassion. Without it, we are nothing more than our sins.”

The class ended and students dispersed.

“Ela, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“I’ll see you later?” Ela asked.

Trix nodded, “I have to be somewhere anyway.”

“I’m meeting Demant.”

Tana and Trix left, and Ela approached Professor Hoth. “Yes, sir?”

“You do extremely well on the exams.”

“Thanks.”

“I notice that you’ve done a lot of further research and reading on Shenga.”

She nodded.

“We read copies of his book in class. I’m going to give you a pass to the Archives.”

“The Archives?” Students aren’t usually allowed inside the Archives until they’re in their final year of study.

“We have an original copy of Shenga’s book. You might gain something from reading it in its original form.” He handed her a pass card.

“Thank you. Have a good day, sir.”

Since Tana and Trix weren’t around and Ela had a free period, she decided to visit the Archives. She left the school complex and caught a hovertram to the south side of campus. The Archives building overlooked the large lake and was rumoured to have about twenty floors underground of hardcopy archives. She approached the entrance and a clerk stopped her.

“Name, please?”

“Ela. Third Gen. I have a pass.” She handed the card to the clerk to scan. They looked real, sounded real, sometimes even displayed emotions, Ela found it hard to think of them as simply robots.

She smiled, handed the card back to Ela. “I just need to check your bag. A precaution.”

Ela handed over the duffel, and the clerk took a few seconds to identify all of its contents, and handed it back. She entered the building. A round desk sat in the middle of the open plan space, and shelves of books spanned out in a semi-circle around it. This was the training campus of the HSCO. No other HSCO location facilitated students, only workers.

When the Cairo Museum was blown to bits and pieces, personnel from another campus went on a looting spree of sorts, gathering up artefacts from museums all over the world before they too were lost forever. At that location was a whole museum of artefacts from our history hidden underground for safe-keeping. This archive was a collection of the world’s last digital and printed books from all over the world. A modern Alexandrian library.

She found Shenga in the Religious/Philosophy texts section. The book was smaller than she expected. Ela read copies of the text on a large screen, but the pages were only about the width of her outstretched hand. The cover art was of a gold snake eating its own tale. ‘The Book of Shenga’ was printed and embossed below that.

“Are you allowed to be in here?”

“I have a pass.” Ela’s throat constricted when she looked up. His face was pale, and he had dark hair. A Warfare Watch Centre worker. They worked sixteen-hour shifts in darkness, collecting and organising mountains of data on the war as it was happening. The mole was a co-worker of his.

“The best texts to read are those written by Shenga’s opposition.”

“There’s–”

“Too many, I know.” He smiled. “Hang on.” He returned about twenty seconds later with a book. “Profile: Omnism. It’s part of a series of books in the Psychology section. Each book profiles a religion. Each one is rather demonised, except for, you know the ones.”

Ela nodded and took the book. “Thanks.”

“Well, I have a shift. Nice meeting you…?”

“Ela,” she reached her hand out.

“Richard.” He shook her hand.

Ela’s time in the Archives ran through her lunch break, and she was running late for training. She ran into the gym, past the pools and into the locker room to change. When she came out in her bathing suit, the coach began yelling.

“Hurry up. You’re twenty minutes late.”

She twirled her long hair into flattened bun, pulled on a cap, and jumped into the last unoccupied lane of the pool.  

Her hand touched the wall, and Ela surfaced for air. The time board showed that her time elapsed the second last score by ten seconds. For each second elapsed for the slowest swimmer was a ten lap penalty. That was fifty laps. Before the coach started screaming out her penalty for everyone to hear, Ela drew in a deep breath and dove back into the water.

By time she finally finished the fiftieth lap her lungs were aching. Cardio never was her strong suit. Ela swam over to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. Terra, Shana and a few other girls sitting on a seat adjacent the pool started laughing. Always at Ela. She removed the cap from her head, shook her hair loose, and kept her eyes down as she walked towards the locker room.

Ela lifted her gaze once she passed the group of girls. Gabe approached her. His build was impeccable; perfect muscle definition and size, lean but strong, and heavy, wide set shoulders. He had been swimming laps, and beads of water ran down along the curves of his chest and abdominal muscles. His tight black swim shorts, that left nothing to the imagination, were what Terra had stuck around for. She liked laughing at Ela, but loved ogling Gabe. 

He was a walking demonstration of the pinnacle of HSCO Regiment training, and his leadership skills were highly revered, even by his archrival Bryn. The annoying thing was, he knew all that. They stood about a metre apart, staring at each other. Ela wasn’t going to say hello first, and when he realised that, Gabe bit his ego.

“How’s our day been?”

“I don’t have time for small talk.”

“You’re still angry at me?”

No. He was right. She shouldn’t have engaged the enemy without at least a vest. And in what world do you announce your position so the enemy can shoot first? The situation got the better of her and she could have died. She hates it when he was right though, because he was so often. And the few times he’s completely wrong, he would never admit it.

“No. I just don’t have time for small talk.”

Terra must’ve said something really nasty about Ela, because the group began laughing so hard that two girls fell off the seat.

“You shouldn’t let them get to you,” Gabe said.

“Easier said than done.”

“A lot of things are.”

“Hey, Gabe,” Terra said, right on cue. “I heard about what went down this morning, how you eliminated the traitor. Must have been amazing.”

“Not really,” Gabe ran a hand through his hair, something Ela knew he did when he was uncomfortable.

“Give yourself credit where it’s due, Gabe.” Terra touched his arm.

Ela refrained from rolling her eyes. Just the way Terra said his name made her sick to her stomach. She couldn’t be any more obvious. Usually, Ela would start an argument with Terra to distract her while Gabe kept walking, but she didn’t feel like doing that this time. He never shut up when he had a bone to pick with Ela, but he couldn’t find the guts to tell Terra to get lost.

“It was nothing less than spectacular.” She sidestepped them both and headed for the showers.

Ela entered the arena, a large gym equipped with heavy-bags, weights, training dummies, a simulation chamber and a number of fighting rings. Opposite the entrance were the locker rooms and Ela entered the girls’. She was startled by a couple making out in the corner, but if they noticed her come in, they didn’t care. Ela found a spare locker.

“Get out. I have to change in here, perv.” Tana approached Ela and took the locked opposite her.

The guy finally left.

Ela took off her clothes, and pulled on black tights, over that a pair of shorts, and a cropped training top. She sat down on the seat in the middle of the aisle of lockers and taped up her feet, and then her hands.

“You’re not worried are you?” Tana pulled the tie in her hair tight and smoothed out any stray hairs with her hands.

Ela shook her head, “No. Just need more caffeine. I’m good.”

Every second week they were given opponents and demonstrated their learned skills in a ring. The best way for them to learn was through making mistakes and then being shown how to correct them. Today her opponent was Terra.