Apocalypsis 02 - Warpaint by Elle Casey Read Free Book Online

attacker blinded. Your next move is to finish him.” I walked over swiftly and heard Bodo say, “Finish him?” in a weak, confused voice, just before I kicked him behind the knee to drop him down and drove three knee thrusts up into his chest. I sent him to the ground with a hammer strike to the upper back.
    He laid motionless on the ground, but I think it was more for effect than anything. I hadn’t really hit him hard at all.
    The girls didn’t seem to notice that I held back a little, though. They just stood there, looking stunned. Even Coli.
    “Holy shit, did you see that?” asked one of the girls.
    “She blinded him,” said another.
    “Man, you aren’t messing around,” said Coli. “I thought you liked that guy.”
    “I do. But this is war, girls. If someone attacks you, anything goes. I didn’t get to show you the nut crusher this time, but we’ll do that in our next session.”
    “No,” moaned Bodo from the ground. “No more. Pleasse. My nuts are all I haff left.”
    Peter came over and helped him up.
    Bodo’s eyes were watering, and he kept wiping them, talking to me as he walked by. “Wow. Dat was very effectiff, dat eye poking thing. It’s better dan a ball kick dough. For me, I prefer dis eye thing. I’ll just do da ball one later. Anudder day, maybe.” He limped away, Peter helping him along.
    I could tell he was totally over-acting, and I seriously appreciated what he was helping me do. Somehow he’d figured out that these girls needed to see me bring down a bigger guy, to show it could be done. And it was good that I had used my friend and not one of theirs as my crash-test dummy, since it left the whole insider-outsider bias off the table. Anyone could kick Peter’s butt -even Buster-so he was a terrible choice for an attacker. Bodo didn’t realize it, but he had just volunteered himself as my new training partner for the girls’ groups. I was hoping he would be as thrilled about it as I was.
    I didn’t have any trouble getting the girls into the training session after the guys left. Before long, I had them eye gouging, nut crushing, palm thrusting, and forward punching, and they were having a ball. Maybe it was the exercise, maybe it was the teamwork - or maybe it was taking charge and not accepting the victim role anymore; but whatever it was, it amped up the energy of our group a hundredfold. I used one last nugget of temptation to push them all the way over to my side.
    “After I get you girls in shape, we’re going to challenge each other to matches, and then eventually, the guys. My goal is to have you taking down guys like Paci, Jeremy, and even Trip and Kowi by the time we’re done here.”
    Coli stopped punching her partner’s palms and said, “How long will that take?” Her face was red and she had sweat pouring down from her temples.
    “About two months. Depends on how focused we can be in our training.”
    She nodded her head and went back to punching her partner, now with what looked like renewed energy.
    I smiled at her form, noticing already that she was a natural. The response from the other girls had me practically glowing. They had taken one look at their leader Coli, one hundred percent focused on landing her punches and using the technique I had taught her, and doubled their efforts. It was poetry in motion, as my dad used to say.
    ***
    After ninety minutes of work, when the girls were ready to collapse from exhaustion, I let them stop, promising them it would be tougher next time when we met again in two days. I ran them through some cool-down stretches and said some brief goodbyes before walking away. Coli went with me back in the direction of my hut, leaving the girls behind.
    “What’s up?” I asked, not wanting to pressure her to talk, but curious why she wasn’t walking in the opposite direction like everyone else.
    “I … well … first I wanted to say thanks. For the training and stuff.”
    “You’re welcome.” I didn’t know if the ‘and