by Craig Zerf
The next ten days were pretty much the same.
They woke early, ate, went to the dojo and then, as far as Emily was concerned, people took turns beating her up.
Except for one morning when she was told to train with Lyle.
It surprised her. She was expecting a morning of sexual innuendo, crass comments and self importance. Instead, Lyle put her through a physical training routine that brought with it a new respect for the fat man. For all of his bravado he obviously worked hard at building his strength and Emily learned a lot about how to train to maximum efficiency, building both power and endurance.
At the end of the session she thanked Lyle and patted him on the back in a show of camaraderie.
‘Oh ho,’ he responded. ‘Look who’s trying to get close up and physical with the big man. Join the cue, girl,’ he continued. ‘But don’t fear, there’s enough of Lyle to go around no matter how many of you there are.’
Emily shook her head. ‘You know, Lyle, you’re a complete half-wit.’
The fat man blew a massive raspberry and left the dojo to look for a snack.
On the last of the ten days, Karl took her to the underground shooting range for her morning training.
The German laid out a selection of firearms on the table in front of the targets. Emily was familiar with most of the usual makes and calibers of handguns but she had to admit that many of the weapons on the table were outside her area of prior knowledge.
Karl pointed as he explained. ‘Desert Eagle, 50 cal auto pistol, Glock 10mm, Thunder Twelve shotgun revolver, Fostech semi-auto shotgun.’ He picked up a handful of mixed ammunition.
‘Note that all of the rounds are silver tipped. Or, in the case of the shotguns, pure silver. You’ll also see that we don’t bother with the smaller caliber weapons, 9mm, 38 specials and the like. If you’re hunting for blood suckers, you need loads of muzzle velocity to take them down.
My preference is the Desert Eagle. You might prefer the Glock.
Slightly smaller handle. Easier fit. Also a bit easier to conceal. The shotguns are a little bulky, even the Thunder Twelve but we only use those if we’re going on an overt mission. Full scale attacks on a headquarters or such. Right,’ he slapped a magazine into one of the Glocks and wracked the slide. ‘Let’s boogie. Show me what you’ve got.’
Emily took the weapon and hefted it a couple of times to get the feel. She knew that Glock had an internal safety, so all she had to do was point and pull. She looked downrange at the man shaped silhouette target, picked the pistol up and squeezed off a round. The slug went through the center of its head.
Quickly she burned off the rest of the rounds, banging off all fifteen in fewer than three seconds. Every shot struck the target in the head. It was exceptional shooting and she couldn’t help but grin with satisfaction as she placed the empty pistol back on the table.
Karl nodded and picked up another two fully loaded Glocks, one in each hand. Then he faced the target and blazed away, pulling the triggers faster than seemed humanly possible. A veritable storm of silver tipped lead tore through the target. As each weapon’s slide racked back he ejected the empty magazines, flipped the pistols into the air, grabbed two more full magazines from the table, rammed the magazines into the pistols as they came down and burned off another thirty rounds in less than two seconds.
The paper target had been totally shredded.
He turned to the flabbergasted Emily. ‘As I said. Blood suckers take a lot of firepower to put down. But don’t worry; we’ll work on your technique.’
That afternoon Emily found herself in the library with Josephine Brady. The small, dark haired girl was showing Emily the computerized archives and setting her up with a password so that she could access them whenever she needed. She also gave her an iPhone. She explained that she had tweaked the phone, adding an extra layer of security, boosting its reception, battery life and storage capacity to around twenty times more than the factory model.
It also came with two hidden features that the Apple Corporation would never have dreamed of. The flashlight setting had been amped up to include a powerful UV light and if you pushed the on button and the bottom of the phone together, a compressed air cylinder shot a silver needle out to a range of twenty feet. Neither of these would be fatal to Vampires but Josephine explained that they would definitely slow them down and give someone time to either escape or to get hold of a better weapon.
By the time that the evening meal came around, Emily felt like her brain had exploded. Due to her new photographic memory she had remembered everything that Josephine had told her but actually understanding it was a different kettle of fish. She simply hoped that her mind would eventually sift through all of the info and make some sense of it over time.
But truth be told, it was with a heavy heart that Emily finally went to bed that evening. It seemed that everyone was better at everything than she was. Her new found strength and speed and mind powers had seemed so awesome only a few days ago. Now she felt like the kid in the playground that always gets chosen last because no one wants the loser on their team.
If she had been a different sort of girl she may have cried herself to sleep. Instead she resolved to try harder.
Then she made sure that the fire was built up and snuggled down for a good night’s rest.
Chapter 8