Renegade World: Future Past (21 page)

Naami watched Erica lift the bar off the rack, steady it,
then slowly lower it to her chest and push it back up until her arms were
straight. As Erica continued to do reps, Rebeka Lee watched her to see if she
needed help. On the tenth rep, Erica struggled, and Rebeka Lee put her fingers
under the bar, not quite touching it. “Come on! You've got it!” With one more
push, Erica straightened her arms, and Rebeka Lee helped guide the bar back onto
the rack.

Erica got up, and they pulled the 10-pound plates off the
bar, put 25-pound plates on each end, and then put the 10-pound plates back on.
Abraham, Erica lifted 155 pounds, and Rebeka Lee is lifting 205 pounds.
Can't I try more than 60 pounds?

Erica lifted near her body weight. Rebeka Lee is lifting
more than her body weight, but she isn't still growing, and her muscles and
tendons can handle the weight. Stick near your body weight.

Naami watched Rebeka Lee do a set of ten while Erica
spotted her. When Rebeka Lee got up, they took all of the plates off. Naami
looked at Rebeka Lee. “I'd like a 10-pound plate and a 5-pound plate on each
side, please.”

“Are you sure?”

Naami nodded and lay down on the bench. Unlike the other
two, she bent her knees and put her feet on the bench instead of putting them
on the floor. She scooted back until her chest was almost below the bar. “I'm
ready.” She grabbed the bar as Rebeka Lee handed it down. She steadied the bar
and then did twelve reps. “Piece of cake,” she said as Rebeka Lee took the bar
and put it back on the rack. They took turns until all three of them had done
three sets.

 “Next, we’re going to do one-arm dumbbell rows.” Rebeka Lee
walked over, picked up a 75-pound dumbbell, and put it down next to the bench.
She placed her left knee on the bench, bent over, and put her left hand on the
bench. After grabbing the dumbbell with her right hand, she pulled it up until it
just touched her side and
then lowered it again. After doing ten reps, she switched sides and did ten
with her left arm.

They all took turns doing three sets of the dumbbell rows.
Erica used 45-pound dumbbells, and Naami used 30-pound ones.

“Now comes my favorite, the clean and jerk.” Rebeka Lee
took two 65-pound dumbbells and set them down in the middle of a six-foot-by-six-foot
rubber mat. “Watch.” She bent her knees, keeping her back flat and face
forward. The weights were lined up almost in front of her feet with the handles
turned diagonally. She grabbed the weights and brought them up slowly for the
first few inches, but then as she quickly straightened her legs and back, she
snapped the weights up to her shoulders.  With the weights at shoulder level, she bent her knees, and as she thrust her legs straight, she jerked
the weights up until she locked her arms straight. “Slow and controlled on the
way down.” She lowered the weights to her shoulders and then back down to the
starting position on the floor. She did this fourteen more times, breathing
heavily by the time she finished.

Erica grabbed a pair of 45-pounders and did her first set
of clean and jerks. She was gasping after her last rep.

Naami walked over to the weight rack and grabbed a pair of
30-pound dumbbells. She brought them over to the mat and did a set of fifteen
with perfect form. Unlike the other two, she wasn't breathing hard.

Erica rolled her eyes behind Naami's back. “Feel free to do
twenty reps if it’s too easy.” They each did two more sets. Erica and Rebeka
Lee were sweating and panting. In spite of doing twenty reps, Naami wasn't
breathing nearly as hard.

Rebeka Lee patted both of them on the shoulder. “That’s
enough for today. Good job both of you.”

Abraham, call Camila to come pick us up.

There is no signal down here. You’ll have to go up.

That’s weird.
“I'm going to go up and let Camila
know to come pick us up.” She scooted out the door and ran upstairs.

Erica laughed. “If I keep working out real hard, I might
stay ahead of her for two or three years.”

“Nah, you've probably got at least five years.” Rebeka Lee
paused. “But only if she keeps the weights down to her body weight. I'd bet
that she could bench press 80 or 90 pounds right now, but I would discourage
it.”

Rebeka Lee saw Naami run back in. “Naami, I was wondering,
have you ever done a handstand push up?”

“You mean like this?” Naami put her hands on the floor and
kicked up to a handstand. She held the handstand for a couple of seconds to get
her balance just right. Once she was satisfied, she slowly lowered herself
until her nose almost touched the floor then straightened her arms again. She
did three more before losing her balance and putting her feet down. “I can
usually do seven or eight of them at gymnastics. I must be tired.”

Rebeka Lee laughed. “You should be tired. You did a great
job today.” She turned to Erica. “You too, Erica.” She looked around the room,
walked over to her towel, picked it up, and headed for the door. “Let’s go up
before Camila gets here.”

The three walked out of the room, and as they walked up the
ramp, lights turned off behind them, and doors slid shut.

Rebeka Lee pointed to her house. “I've got some homemade
cheese in the fridge if either of you want some.” Erica and Naami both shook
their head no.

Naami started to say something more but was interrupted by
a loud bray. She looked over her shoulder and saw a donkey standing behind the
fence that was attached to the left side of the barn. This donkey was much
smaller than Tsus and was darker, almost black, with a predominately white
muzzle.

“Her name is Tsina. She is almost two now, and she likes
attention.”

“Will she grow more? Can I pet her? Can I ride her
someday?”

“She’ll keep growing for another year or so. Pet her if you
want. She likes to be petted. Maybe someday you can ride her.”

Naami walked up to the fence and slowly moved her hand toward
Tsina's muzzle. The donkey nuzzled Naami's hand. “You are so cute. Maybe when
you grow up, you'll let me ride you.” She continued talking softly to the donkey
and petting her until she heard a car pull up. “Bye Tsina.” As she walked away,
Tsina brayed softly. Naami looked back and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll come see you
soon.”

Naami skipped over to Rebeka Lee and gave her a hug.
“Thanks for letting me workout with you.” She got into the car as Erica and Rebeka
Lee said their goodbyes.

As the car accelerated, Naami looked out the window and saw
a drone fly over them. Her dad had denied that there were any drones keeping
tabs on her.
Abraham, don’t you think it’s suspicious that there is a drone
out here? Rebeka Lee’s house is the only one for miles.

N
aami made sure she was home when the package from Midway
USA arrived. She answered the door and took the box right down to her workout
room. After she got the box open, she set up the target, shaped like a head
and torso, on a card table.

She took the training pistol over to the other side of the
room and grabbed it with both hands.
Yes. This almost fits my hand.
Pointing
the gun at the middle of the torso, she lined up the three dots and squeezed
the trigger. The laser struck the target an inch right of where she had aimed.

She fired nine more times and noted her score.
Not good
enough. I’m probably going to have to squeeze the trigger thousands of times
before I get strong enough to smooth out my trigger pull.
The trigger pull weight
was listed at six pounds, about the same as the High-Point carbine and a little
more than the CZ 75. She aimed at the reset circle and fired, resetting her
score.

Let’s try it left handed. She grabbed the trainer with her
left hand and wrapped her right hand around it. After ten shots, her score was
one point lower than her previous score, and she noted that she tended to miss
left with her left hand and right with her right hand.

T
wo weeks and twenty thousand trigger pulls later, she
sent the broken trainer back to Midway USA, and they shipped her a replacement
for free.

R
aul clapped his hands together. “Let’s go. If I stay out
here another minute, I’ll get frostbite.”

Naami was trying to teach
him how to skate. “It’s almost closing time anyway.” She towed him off the now
empty rink, and they walked up the wooden ramp into the warming house. Like the
wooden ramp, the benches and table inside were all made from two by fours.

“At last.” The attendant,
hidden within the oversized parka, turned off all of the outside lights. “I’m
out of here. Just pull the door shut behind you, and it will lock. The light’s
on a timer. You’ve got fifteen minutes.”

Naami waved to him as he
walked out the door. “He wasn’t very friendly.”

Raul pulled off his skates
and rubbed his feet. “How long until your mom gets here?”

Abraham?

Eight to twelve minutes.

Naami pulled off her
skates and pulled on her boots. “She’ll be here in about ten minutes.”

“Good. I can’t wait to
feel some real heat.”

She stood up and looked
out the windows. Two figures were creeping along the warming house wall.

Naami, gun. Emergency protocol activated.

Connect Raul.
She put her
finger to her lips as she pushed Raul back against the wall.
Raul, two
people, one for sure has a gun, approaching the door.
She pushed the door shut with her foot as Raul turned over the large
table, and they crouched behind it.

The door handle rattled. A
male voice growled, “Shoot the damn lock.”

Eyes wide, Raul tensed. A
shot exploded into the door, near the handle. Naami threw her skate at the bare
bulb above the door.

“I can’t see anything,
Naami.”

Stay cool, Raul. Help will be here soon.

Naami peered between two
boards as the handle rattled again.

“You…dimwitted boy! You
missed.” Glass exploded into the room as an elbow stuck the door’s window. The
same voice growled, “No spawn of Satan will escape me.”

A gloved hand punched out
remaining shards of glass while Naami inched around the table. As soon as she
saw the hand reach through, she side kicked it against the door. The man
screamed and pulled his hand away. “God, give me strength. Shoot the damn door
again.” Three more shots struck the door. The door handle rattled and fell off,
but the lock held. “Give me the damn gun.” Three more shots disintegrated the
door around the lock. One of them kicked the door open, and they pulled the
table down.

Naami found herself staring
into the barrel of a gun, her backpack and clothing all that stood between her
and a bullet. She sniffed deeply. The man reeked of tequila and the boy of fear.
Both of them hid behind ski masks.

The man laughed wickedly
as he turned on a flashlight. “This is a righteous execution. The world must be
cleansed of Satan’s spawn. God himself has commanded me, his servant, to kill
you.”

Raul, I’m going to try to delay them until help gets here.
She noticed the gun wavering in the boy’s hand.
Looking heavenward, she implored, “God, speak to your faithful servant again so
that I may hear and rejoice in your words.”

“No! God will not speak to
you. You are not worthy.”

She smiled at the boy with
the gun. “Tell me. Does God speak to you too? Surely, you can tell me.”

He shook his head.

“No, you can’t tell me, or
no, he hasn’t talked to you?”

The man said, “Don’t
answer her. Shoot her.”

The gun wavered. She
readied herself, retreating until she was against the wall. “You really don’t
want to shoot me. He’s lying to you.”

“Shoot her!”

He wavered. “Sorry,” he
whispered, “I don’t want to shoot you.” She saw the fear in his eyes,
and she knew. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger. The impact of the
bullet slammed her into the wall. He turned and pointed the gun at Raul who was
charging him. He pulled the trigger, but there was just a hollow click as Raul
slammed into him, knocking the boy’s head into the wall.

The man grabbed Raul around
the neck and lifted him off the ground. “Die now!”

Raul heard sirens as he
flailed with his fists and feet to no avail, his face turning redder and redder.
Just as he had given up hope, one of the man’s knees buckled, and he lost his
grip as he struggled for balance. Raul gasped for air as he struggled to break
completely free. “No, you don’t.” Grabbing Raul’s coat, he threw Raul through
the window and turned to finish off Naami. “What the”— a strike to the side of
his head knocked him unconscious.

“Naami, are you OK?”

“Yes. Go help Raul. I just had the
wind knocked out of me.” She followed her mom outside and knelt before Raul’s
unconscious body. “Is he OK?”

“Hold this here while I
bind the other two cuts. He’s unconscious and bleeding pretty badly, but I’m
sure he’ll be OK.” As an officer ran up, she turned and said, “I’m a doctor. Get
a bench to carry him to the street so we can get him into the ambulance as soon
as it arrives.”

As they reached the
street, an ambulance pulled up, and the EMTs transferred him to their
stretcher. The driver asked, “Your clinic or the hospital, Dr. Schmidt?”

As they lifted Raul into
the ambulance, she said, “My clinic.” She climbed in and offered Naami her hand.
“We’ll ride with you.”

“Officers, I’ll give you
my statement later. There’s another ambulance on the way for the attackers.”

“B
illy, I’m Investigator Jack Bear. I understand that you
do not want either of your parents here. Is that correct?”

Through red, teary eyes, Billy looked up at the stocky,
black-haired investigator. He nodded and sniffled. “Yes. They—“

“Stop! North Dakota requires that counsel be provided for
any child in custody if he is not represented by his parents, guardian, or
custodian. A public defender should be here in a few minutes. Do you want water
or a soda while you wait?”