Balance (41 page)

Coming
in high,
Rena
bait
s
the
brute
to take a shot at her face. 
He
complies.
A
t the last second
diving
under his outstretched arm,
she leads with an offensive of her own.
The punch,
a power
ful
compact right jab to the groin, caus
es
the big man to lurch, instinctively relaxing his abdominal muscles. 
R
aising upward,
she
immediately follows with a series of
strikes
; a left jab to
the
solar plexus, followed by anoth
er right to the xiphoid process;
the small bone at the crux of the rib cage above the diaphragm, knocking the wind from her opponent, causing him to
stumble
backward.  Still
moving up his large
frame
, she
lands a left
blade
-
hand into the soft of
his
throat, causing his head to
pitch
forwar
d, directly into the final blow;
an open hand
uppercut
to his face. 
F
ast and precise
, the heel of her palm
breaks
the nose
,
sending the bridge into his brain
,
killing him
almost
instantly
.

Without a thought
of the results of her attack
,
she moves onto the
third
man.  Visibly s
tunned by the sight of this tiny woman so effo
rtlessly dispatch his colleague
s
, the huge man remains
frozen
.

Rena knows a
direct frontal attack is not a prudent
option,
she’d already played that
hand,
and
the knee would be dangerous
,
considering she’d used that move as well.
 
Therefore, s
he does the most
unexpected, i
llogical thing she can think of
…
and the mo
st dangerous.
If she miscalculates, he’ll have her.
 
L
eap
ing
directly into the man,
her hands find
his broad shoulders,
at the same time
she plants
her
right
foot on his
left
knee
and launch
es
up
ward
.
Leading with her left
leg
, she
bring
s
her
right knee up
and across
as hard as she can
. 
She feels the
impact
on
the jaw,
meeting
momentary resistance, before it gives way, shattering
the mandible
under the power
of the blow
.

The ‘roider falls
backward
as
she
tumbles
over him, out of control.

U
s
ing
her momentum,
Rena
roll
s
across the floor, regaining her
base like
a
cat thrown from a toppled perch
.  She pauses
for a second
to resurvey
.

T
he momentary
hesitation
is
all it t
akes.
T
he last ‘roide
r, still bleeding profusely
from his arm,
grab
s
her with his good hand and
throw
s
her like a
sack of flour
at
an
overturned table. 
Colliding
with the table
top
head first,
Rena
crumbl
es
like
a
ragdoll
to the floor
.

She
maintains consciousness just long enough to see the
‘roider
,
in a blind rage
,
advance on her. 
S
omething move
s rapidly
into her
frame of vision from the side
,
toward
the ‘roider
,
before all goes black.
  Her last thought …
Michael.

Rena opens her eyes slowly.
A throbbing headache,
her
vision
blur
red
and t
he room
too well lit, makes
holding her eyes open
difficult
.  Final
ly
relenti
ng, she closes them
.

H
er first
thought,
make sure all
her
body parts are still working.
Cautiously, with effort, she
mov
es her feet, arms and hands,
e
verything
feels
to be in working order. 
Laying
still and quiet,
Rena
reach
es
out with her se
nses.
S
he can fee
l sheets,
without blankets and
as f
ar as she can
tell
, s
he’s st
ill wearing her workout clothes
.  There are sounds of movement;
several feet walking on a bare
floor, she can hear machines; small machines,
humming, chirping, beeping, pulsating.  Her sense of sm
ell,
iodine and alcohol
, confirm what she suspected,
she’s
in the infirmary.
S
he drifts back to sleep, knowing she’s alive and
for the most part,
whole.

V
oices
,
whispering,
wake her from her deep troubled sleep,
too many
voices
to be
discreet
.
 
“Do you mind, some people are trying to get so
me rest here.  Not to mention I ha
ve the mother of all headaches.”
She
reprimands.

“Rena, you
’
r
e
awake.
”

Michael
’s
voice,
music to her ears.  Even now, laying in this bed, her fears immediately
fade.

“
Y
oung lady, what exactly are we going to do with you?”

The new voice, unexpected
, fear returns.  S
he opens her eye
s
with a start,
finding
Takad
a and Michael standing over her
, concern visible on both of their faces
. 
“What?
” She
replies, concern
ed
repercussion
s
are in
order
for interrupting a tryout
.

“Well, I was referring to the fact that I’m going to have to give you your own dining facilities, Commander Still can’t keep losing sold
i
ers to you in the
dinner
hall.  It’s getting embarrassing.” Takada laughs.

“What happened?
” She
moans
.

“
S
ince I wasn’t there, you might want to ask someone who was.”  Michael states
, his tone
wounded
.

A third figure
,
a young girl
,
no more than
eighteen
, steps into view. 
S
lender, a little shorter then herself, cute growing into attracti
v
e with dark hair and dark eyes. 
Rena smiles warmly.
“Hi.
  I’m glad
you’re alright.
  I was worried.
” Pausing to think,
“
Wait, Michael you weren’t ther
e?”
Redirecting her gaze at him,
recalling
his comment
.

“No… I’m sorry, I left for
our
qu
arters.  I didn’t get word till you were here.”
He
confesses,
obvi
ously deeply upse
t
.

“Then
,
how am I still alive?
I saw … well
,
I don’t know what the hell I saw.”
She
realizes
.

“Maybe your
new friend can shed some light
.”
Takada interjects
.

The girl,
visibly
nervous
, looks at Takada and Michael
before turning a thankful smile at Rena.
 
“Well
,
those two big guys came to the table, took Ryan and Adam out right
away.  I thought Adam was dead
and Ryan was turning blue.
” She hesitates, worried she’d done something wrong, “
I just reacted, stickin’ the first guy in the arm. 
Then
the other three came at me.  I was scared,
really scared,
thought they were going to kill me
…
or worse.”  She pauses, collecting herself, tears filling her eyes
.

Rena
,
k
now
ing
the feeling all to
o
well, regards her with affection
, willing her strength,
hoping to allay the young girl
’
s fear.

After a moment, she continues,
“Then you ca
me outta
nowhere.
Y
ou hit that first
guy so fast, taking him out,
the other two forg
o
t me
all together
, sa
ying something like ‘the bitch is
alone’.  Well, I don’t know what
hell
they were thinking
,
because you killed that
second
guy like he was a speed bump on the way to a drag race
.  Alone or not …
yo
u’re
one wicked
piece of work.  I
think the third guy might have been thinking the same thing, because he looked really c
onfused.  I don’t think he even knew what was going on until
you
broke
his jaw. 
Then
the biggest one, he went all
frickin’
crazy-nuts.  Guy was bleeding all over the place, didn’t even ca
re.  He got hold of you
.
” The girl
takes a deep breath, collecting herself, her emotions rising, “
I thought he killed you for sure when he threw you against that table.  Geez, you look
ed
like a cat thrown a
t a
wall.  I knew you weren’t going to get up.  Knew he was going to kill you, all because you tried to help me.
” voice cracking, her sobs become more intense, “
I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to do something.
  You were going to die … because you helped me.
”

T
he girl
’s
distress becoming too much,
Rena turns to Takada.

“The young girl saved your life.
She did the right thing.  She dispatched
the assailant.”
Takada explains
.