Severed Ties

by Jo Schneider

  Wendy’s mind clicked back on, and she hit the button. The prompt appeared, and she typed command. But it took her a long time to find the ‘a’, and by the time she hit the ‘d’ Mike said half of her time was gone.

  The next phrase was runas. The n proved to be elusive, and she barely got the second command in and hit enter before Mike said her time was up.

  Wendy ‘s hands shook, and her shoulders were so tight that they were almost all the way up to her ears.

  Hound patted her on the shoulder. “No worries, this is your first day.”

  But Wendy knew that tone. It was the tone that Pelton had used on people who would never really be fighters. Those who might get the basics, but for whom anything more complicated would forever be beyond reach.

  Ire rose up Wendy’s spine. Pelton had never used that tone on her. But Hound just had.

  “Okay, everyone, that’s it for today. Do your running. See you tomorrow morning in the combat rooms.” Mike dismissed them.

  Wendy glared at the computer screen. She could figure this out. She had to.

  Jeff laid a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump.

  “Hey, let’s go.”

  “Sure,” Wendy said. She followed Jeff out.

  The woman with long dark hair smiled. “Good job for your first time.”

  Wendy forced a nod. This was a whole new world. To these guys, she was just a kid. She could see it in their eyes, and she had heard it in Hound’s voice.

  But she wanted Pelton. She would figure this out even if she had to lose sleep for a month.

  Chapter 8

  The next morning, after Wendy had dreamed of trying use a keyboard to type in the word Skinnies to lock the door to the complex and failing, Arie dropped Wendy off in the combat rooms where her new group waited. Wendy noted that only Riggs’ team was there.

  Jeff came to stand by her as soon as she entered. “How are you doing after that run yesterday?” Jeff asked.

  Riggs had had them run through Shelter twice. Wendy had gone up and down more stairs than she thought possible. Her legs would really start to hurt in a few hours. “I’m fine from that, but I had nightmares about typing.”

  “Better than Skinnies.”

  “They were there too.” Wendy took a deep breath. “Do you know everyone’s names?”

  Jeff nodded.

  They still had ten minutes before they were supposed to start. Wendy and Jeff were already in their gray suits. “Who are they?”

  Jeff took a few seconds to give her a name and some info about each person. Hound was there, of course, and she already knew he was a computer expert. And Arie’s dad. Arie had laughed at Wendy’s story about typing. “Yeah, he’s like that,” she had said.

  Janice, the woman with the long, dark hair, was the pilot and a mechanic. She stood out because most people here wore their hair short. Jeff claimed that she could fix anything.

  A tall woman with short, strawberry blonde hair named Neka was the marksman and explosives expert of the group. “I’ve seen her hit moving targets that I would have thought were impossible.” Coming from Jeff, who was a good marksman himself, that was saying something.

  The last person Jeff mentioned was Riggs himself.

  Jeff leaned close. “He’s ex-military. He’s a pilot, and he and Mike have been together since the Starvation started. I don’t think they knew each other before, but they’re totally loyal to one another. Mike consults with him on almost everything.”

  Today turned out to be Riggs’ show. “Five minutes, people.” Riggs said. He went up the stairs at the back of the room and into the control box.

  Wendy raised her eyebrows at Jeff, who shook his head. “Not sure what he’s doing.”

  A moment later, they found out.

  The wall between combat rooms one and two shuddered and rose. Another wall came down to replace it—this one with two doors in it— and locked into place. Wendy took note of the keypads adjacent to each door. A small wall rose four feet high from the floor in combat room two, splitting the room in half with a door on each side.

  Riggs came back down the stairs.

  Wendy noted that only members of this team were in the combat rooms.

  “Okay, people, here’s the drill for the day.” Riggs started pointing. “Room one is where you start. Your goal is to get through the door on the left and into room two. In order to do that, you’ll need to type the code into the keypad within thirty seconds. If you don’t get it in, a fighter will be released into the room with you through the door on the right.”

  Even to Wendy, who’s heart stopped a little at the announcement that she had to use the keypad, the challenge didn’t sound very hard.

  “Every thirty seconds another fighter will be put through unless you get the code in.”

  No one looked concerned.

  A vicious grin spread across Riggs’ face. “Did I mention that there will be two fighters in there before you start?”

  That brought a lot of hopeful expressions down to scowls.

  Wendy took a breath. Fighting she could do. Typing, not so much. Still, she should be able to keep them off her for thirty seconds.

  “How long is the code?” Someone asked.

  “Just five digits.”

  Plus the enter key. Six keys. Wendy flexed her fingers. She could do this. She had to make up for the total failure she’d suffered yesterday.

  “Janice, you’re up first.” Riggs pointed. “You two in there now. You six on the other side of room two. One of you goes in each time the door opens. Your goal is to keep her from entering the code. No picking up and moving anyone.” Riggs’ eyes flickered to Wendy. “And obviously, use some control. But don’t go easy.”

  Wendy and Jeff weren’t in either group, so they got to watch the first round.

  Janice and the first two entered room one. The others piled into room two.

  “So the most you can be fighting against is eight?” Wendy asked. More to herself than anyone else.

  “Eight?” Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Four is more than most people can handle. If you end up with that many in there, you’ll never get the code in.”

  “Not without actually hurting them.” Wendy said.

  Jeff looked down at her. “No injuries.”

  “I’m not going to injure anyone.”

  “And call halt if you have a flash. Don’t rip anyone’s arm off.”

  The glint in his eye reminded Wendy of Kev whenever he made fun of her.

  “I hope you’re one of my opponents.”

  “No you don’t.”

  At that point, Wendy realized that she’d never really seen Jeff fight. This might be interesting. He did train with Matt, who was amazing.

  Janice stood in the middle of room one, with each of her opponents standing in front of a door. The keypad was between them. She gave Riggs a thumbs-up. He waved his hand above his head, and the blat of the start alarm sounded.

  Janice fought like a man fifty pounds heavier than she actually was. She didn’t move her feet much and liked to protect the bit of ground she was on. But, given the opportunity, she would overrun her opponents. Which she did after about fifteen seconds. She barreled into one guy and tripped him between her and the second guy. She jumped to the keypad and started to punch the code in.

  Before she got the last digit and the enter button pressed, the first guy was pulling her to the ground. A moment later, they were in a wrestling match.

  Wendy made a mental note not to give anyone the chance to grab her. It would take too much time to get away without hurting anyone.

  Janice managed to get out and back on her feet, but not before the door opened and Hound came in.

  Wendy carefully watched the style of each fighter. Some were flighty, darting in to annoy then jumping back out of the fray. Others stood in the middle like a rock, while others slipped around the edges, waiting for just the right moment.

  “She’s only got a few seconds,” Jeff said.

 
; Wendy had been counting in her head. Ten seconds before another person came in.

  Janice finally got a hold of one of the guys and tossed him over her hip. He flew and landed hard. She attacked Hound, and he backed up toward the door. She let him, and waited until the third guy was about to grab her before she turned on him, snatched his hands out of the air and used his own momentum to crash him and Hound against the wall.

  The window of opportunity was small, but Janice went for it. She got to the keypad and punched all five numbers as well as the enter button before any of her opponents got to her. She flung herself through the door and into the next room.

  Applause and whoops accompanied her triumph. The woman smiled, but Wendy could see the lines of concern in her face. She knew that, while she’d used some good skill to get away, it had been a clumsy victory.

  Riggs pointed at those waiting on the opposite side of the right hand door. “The three of you stay in there. Zac, you’re up next.”

  The clock reset, and the whole thing started again.

  Wendy and Jeff watched as each fighter tackled the exercise. Half of them got out. Three of those did it in less than thirty seconds. One of those was Hound. He could fight, Wendy noticed. His style was similar to hers, and she recognized some of the moves she often used.

  Of those that ended up with four or more opponents, only Janice and one other guy won.

  Wendy finally got put into the rotation. She used her stint as an opponent to warm up her body and mind. The skill of the fighters here exceeded that of her training group by a great deal. Some of their styles took Wendy by surprise, but she was still faster than everyone she came up against. Her stature combined with her speed kept two of the fighters from getting out. Most of them eyed her with newfound respect.

  “Wendy,” Riggs’ voice came through the glass. “You’re up.”

  Wendy nodded, and resisted the urge to wipe her palms on her pants. Her arm throbbed, as it often did when she was about to do something that scared her.

  “Ready, go.”

  Her opponents were Jeff and the woman, Neka.

  Neither Jeff nor Neka would underestimate her. They knew she was fast, and she planned to use that to her advantage.

  First thing was first; she put Jeff between her and Neka.

  Jeff hit like a charging horse. Wendy dodged most of his blows, as she circled trying to get her back to the keypad, but took a few to the ribs, which would most definitely be leaving bruises. Each time Neka tried to get around her, she would use Jeff as a pivot point and keep the other woman at bay.

  Twenty seconds gone.

  It was now or never. Wendy moved in on Jeff, driving him back into Neka. Wendy got her right foot behind his left ankle, lifted and used her hand to slam him in the upper chest. Jeff stumbled and fell back, taking Neka with him.

  Wendy didn’t wait to see who ended up where. She darted to the keypad and started pressing numbers.

  She’d been going over it in her mind since they’d started. 51924 plus the enter key. 5 was in the middle. Then 1 in the lower corner.

  She heard Jeff getting to his feet behind her.

  9 up at the top.

  Heavy breathing getting closer.

  2. Where was the 2? Wendy’s mind froze, her fingers trembled, and in the second she had left before Jeff got there, her plan slipped away.

  A hand landed on her shoulder.

  It went downhill from there. Another fighter came in. This one faster than either Jeff or Neka. Wendy tried to lead them away from the keypad, but they wouldn’t budge.

  She fought them off and could have kept it up for a while, but she only got three numbers typed in the next time. Four opponents. She got four numbers again before she was dragged away. Then five, then six.

  Fighting six opponents wasn’t any harder than fighting three or four, not with walls to put people up against. Wendy was holding her own, barely, when the buzzer sounded.

  “Time’s up,” Riggs said through the intercom.

  The fighters put their hands down. Wendy did the same. Sweat poured off her face. Her back was wet. Everyone else looked just as tired. Riggs’ voice came again. “Well, Wendy, you can fight. I’ll give you that. But you need to work on that keypad.”

  A blush of anger rose, and Wendy was glad she was already flushed from fighting. She almost let out a smart remark in her defense, something Kev would have said, but refrained. Instead, she went out the now open door and let Jeff have his turn.

  The act of punching a few buttons in the middle of a fight shouldn’t be that hard, but for some reason Wendy’s mind couldn’t translate her discipline or her skill to it.

  Hound walked up next to her. “Better luck next time.”

  Wendy looked up at him. “Pretty sure luck has nothing to do with it.”

  He shrugged.

  Janice joined them. “You’ll get it. You seem like the type that doesn’t give up.”

  “Hitting people is easier than that stupid little keypad.”

  “I agree, but sometimes we have to adapt.”

  “Yeah.” Wendy watched as Jeff fought. Jeff wasn’t a small man, and he struck like a ram, but he also darted around like a cat. His defense was stronger than his offense. Wendy could see Matt’s influence on his straightforward attacks.

  Jeff’s first attempt at the keypad failed miserably with both of his opponents dragging him away into a wrestling match. Number three came in, but Jeff managed to disentangle himself from the fray and get out the door before a fourth entered. His face positively glowed when he came out.

  “Nicely done,” Riggs said.

  “Thanks,” Jeff said. He moved to stand next to Wendy.

  “Yeah, nice job,” Wendy said.

  “Thanks.”

  Wendy kept her scowl at bay. She could hear Pelton’s whispering voice in her head.

  “You’re no good at this. You’re a fighter, Wendy, not some button-pusher. You don’t belong on this team.”

  Jeff was obviously good at this. And pretty good at computers. If she didn’t improve, Pelton would be right. She swallowed her pride, looked up at Jeff and asked, “Will you help me learn this keyboard stuff?”

  Jeff blinked. His smile flickered.

  Wendy braced for him to decline, but instead one corner of his lips tugged back up into a grin. “If you’ll teach me that take-down you used to put me on the ground.”

  “Done.”

  Jeff’s smile widened.

  Wendy’s stomach did a little flip-flop. Was she going to regret this?

  Chapter 9

  Jeff had another meeting following the exercise, so he asked Janice to drop Wendy off in the mess hall for dinner.

  Janice didn’t waste time with silence. “How did you learn to fight that many people at once?” Janice’s open face and expressive eyes, not to mention the fact that she was speaking to her as an equal, drew answers from Wendy.

  “Lots of practice,” Wendy said.

  “I can see that. Did you train a lot?”

  “As much as my dad would let me.” Even before her mother had died she had wanted to learn to fight better, and after her mother’s death, her dad hadn’t been willing to tell her no.

  “Who was your teacher?” They went up the stairs and toward the kitchen.

  Wendy paused and thought about how she should answer that. Janice probably didn’t know the whole story, and there was no reason to dredge it all up right now.

  “A guy who used to live in the same compound that I did,” Wendy said as she shoved her hands in her pockets. “His dad was a world class fighter or something, and he started learning when he was like two years old. He always said that the Starvation forced him to learn to fight and not just to spar. He would teach anyone who was willing to learn.”

  “Is this the guy we rescued you from a few weeks back?”

  A bubble of anger burst in Wendy’s head, and she grit her teeth. “That’s him.” They rounded a corner.

  “Well, I can tell yo
u one thing, no one in that room will ever underestimate you again.” Janice laughed. “Watching some of the men’s faces when you threw Jeff on the floor was priceless.”

  That brought a smile to Wendy’s lips. “I don’t love being so tiny, but it does have its advantages.”

  “The best part was that you held your own, even after there were six people on you. You didn’t even look concerned.”

  Wendy snorted. “Fighting is easy, that stupid little keypad is something else.”

  Janice laughed again. “You’ll get it.” The smells of dinner floated down the hall. “Where are you headed after dinner?” Janice asked.

  “Back to the computer room,” Wendy said, trying not to grimace.

  “Already trying to get some practice in, huh?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Well, I’m going back to the machine shop. Signal me when you’re ready and I’ll take you back.”

  They arrived at the mess hall and Arie, who was at the end of the food line, spotted Wendy right away. Arie waved her over. The look on the other girl’s face told Wendy that her day had gone well.

  “She looks excited,” Janice said.

  “She does, doesn’t she.”

  “You’d better get over there before she explodes,” Janice said. “I’ll be over here with those guys.” She pointed to the far end of the room. “Just wave at me when you’re ready to go.”

  “Thanks,” Wendy said. She walked over to Arie. Wendy didn’t even have to ask.

  “You won’t believe what happened.”

  “Then tell me.” Wendy stepped into line with Arie.

  “Hank asked me to be his second assistant.”

  Wendy took the tray Arie handed her. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I get to go to most of the meetings and take notes for him and he says he consults his assistants with some of the decisions they have to make.” All of this tumbled out as if Arie had kept it bottled up for hours.

  Wendy smiled. “That’s good. Just what you wanted, right?”

  “Yes.” Arie bounced on her toes as they scooped up the meager helpings of potatoes and greens.