THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE STORY

NUMBER SEVENTEEN AND THE DEAD GIRL

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

Karina peeled off the sweat soaked green tee shirt with the number seventeen stamped across the back. She closed her bathroom door and looked into the mirror on the back of it. Most of the world would have saw what Karina saw as the body of an amazingly fit teenage girl with the height and beauty of a world class model. The sad grey eyes would have appeared to be haunting on the cover of any fashion magazine. Her abs and arms were well defined by muscle. Her breast, hidden for the moment beneath a sports bra, were just large enough to call attention to themselves even in the sports bra, but still not too large to get in the way of daily actives. Some of the girls in the compound were in a word gigantic and she did not know how they were able to walk straight with those things jiggling around.

She had expected that the boy watching from the woods to pay attention to them them, but his eyes were always on her. When she did not steal a glance his direction to see where he was and watch he was doing she could still feel his eyes on her. Her seventeen years of life and training had left her afraid of only two things. The unknown that was boys and all that she knew about the enemy that she was born to do battle with.

Karina slipped off her shorts and turned to look at her back. It did not look nearly strong enough to carry the survival of the human race on it. She removed the panties and decided on a shower tonight rather than a bath. She did not feel like relaxing and the bathtub always gave her the urge to soak for an hour. Adding hot water when it began to cool and then going to bed afterwards. There was no chance for sleep early tonight. The routine over the last three weeks had been weapons drills at nine and then a talk from one of the parents about what was expected of them during the days to come. Something was about to happen and there was no way to avoid it. The days of pretending that they were all normal human beings were gone.

Karina stopped by the medicine cabinet long enough to grab a bar of soap. There were two dozen bars stacked neatly inside the cabinet. All, but six of them were generic white bars of soap that had a vague chemical smell to them. The six bars that remained were scented. She picked one that smelled of apples. Apples were her favorite scent on earth. She peeled the wrapper and got into the shower. Sometimes she would turned the water up to the hottest level possible and other times to the coldest just to see how much she could withstand. The end result was that she felt the heat and cold, but it did not hurt her. Even boiling water did not harm her skin and only a test of sticking her hands in a snow bank for almost a half an hour had caused her enough discomfort to force her to stop that experiment.

Karina only paused long enough to bundle her hair up above her head so that she would not have to take the time to dry it later and stepped under the cold stream of water. Cold had been the choice of water flow for the last few days or since she felt the presence of the boy watching from the woods. Being singled out by his eyes made her feel strange inside. The shower of ice cold water eventually made that feeling go away and all that was left was the calm at the center of her being that she knew and trusted.

Twenty minutes later she had dressed in a class uniform that could also be used for the training sessions since her training was not as intense as some of the others. The uniform tonight consisted of a blue blazer, a matching necktie over a white blouse, a blue pleated skirt that ended for most girls at the knees, but for Karina because of her long legs ended half way up her thighs and there were shiny black boots that ended just below her knees. The boots had steel tips and a polish that one could see a reflection in. Those boots made a clicking sound as she crossed the tiled floor of her home’s kitchen.

She took a prepared meal from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave. The kitchen had every appliance that a large family could ask for. The only thing that was missing most of the time was a set of parents. Karina had loved those times when she came home from afternoon training to find the kitchen table set with actual dishes instead of the microwave safe cookware that she was use to. Even though the conversations were almost always about her progress as compared to the others in the project or possible road trips that only actually happened once when she was twelve, she had felt as if they were a real family and perhaps they actually felt something for her.

The microwave beeped and she was laying her meal on the table a few seconds later.

Eat as often as you can. Your body will require tremendous amounts of fuel and food can be a substitute for your primary food source, that was what the doctor who monitored this grand experiment had told them. Of course the evening meal packs contained the designer substitute for what could have been their natural food source.

Karina pulled the plastic lid off of the plastic plate. There was a turkey sandwich with mustard instead of mayo. A side of mash potatoes and spinach, a single oatmeal cookie and a pint side juice pack that contained a clear liquid. During the two meals that she had shared with invited guest, both times it had been dinner with numbers three and four, she had served pizza and the clear packs. Three and four or as she liked to call them Anna and her brother Andie were the only two deep relationships that she had been able in seventeen years to develop with those who lived and trained here. Karina spoke to numbers six and eight from time to time, but her relationship with those girls were more like a rivalry than a friendship. Anna and Andie had sat at the table trying, like she had, to figure out the proper way to eat pizza since their parents had not taught them this and they had not seen how it was done except on television. Anna ate her pizza by peeling the cheese off, eating it first and then the crust. Andy, always pretending to be the cool and in control guy, ate his pizza with a knife and fork while Karina picked it up and ate each slice by hand. The problem with that, she discovered later, was that she was suppose to eat it by the tip of the triangle first rather than the base, but she was still proud that she had come closest to doing it the right way.

Karina looked down at her meal and discovered that she had been eating on autopilot. Everything was gone except for the mash potatoes and the pouch. Karina picked up the pouch, considered the straw for a moment and then discarded it. She felt the need to drain it directly as she had been taught. Karina thoughts turned to the boy watching from the woods. Had he done more than just admire her with his eyes? Had he been undressing her with his eyes? Considering her flesh, the scent of her sweat, the sound of her heart racing and of course the rushing sound that her blood made as it flowed through her?

Karina’s eyes narrowed as her pupils expanded like those of a cat marking its prey. She opened her mouth as her canine teeth extended to needle pointed fangs and she sank them into the pouch while imagining that the clear liquid inside that tasted like blood was the real thing.

CHAPTER THREE

A hour of walking the length of the fence told Nick that the compound in the woods was massive and almost all of what lay inside was hidden by trees. Instead of cutting them down to make room for whatever had been built on the other side of this fencing the trees had been left in place to hide it. That was as strange as the fact that the GPS in his phone told him that he was one minute in the middle of China and the next minute the heart of Hollywood. Nick would have stopped the trek and headed back the way that he had come if not for a rhythmic sound up ahead.

At first it sounded like a steady tapping.

Then when he got close her recognized it for what it was. Chopping. Someone was chopping wood.

Nick reach the top of a short slope and could see beyond the gate in a clearing a thin hooded figure chopping away at a massive fallen tree with an ax. The impression that he got from the keds, black jeans and grey hoodie was that of a guy around his own age. Nick took a step toward the fencing and broke a branch underfoot which cause the one with the ax to whip around and look in his direction. The face that look at Nick with a totally blank expression was as thin as the body and not unattractive for a guy. On the right shoulder of the hoodie was printed the number four. The numbers one through four were numbers that he had never seen on the athletic field. Perhaps those numbers belonged the boys present. Having guys there, but of course not allowed to mix with the girls without supervision made perfect sense. On the athletic field there had been no guards or even adults to supervise the activities there. Who ever came up with the idea of this place had to be a man after Nick’s own heart. Have the guys do handy work and landscaping while the girls strolled around in tee shirts and tight little shorts. If there was a swimming pool hidden somewhere on the grounds then it would have been perfect.

Nick took an involuntary step backwards and number four took three steps forward. The wind kicked up and blew back the hood to reveal golden blonde hair that was cut military style. That made sense too. Shave the guy’s hair like in the army was what a lot of institutions did. It was part of that team building exercise while if you cut a girl’s hair she might get suicidal. Nick considered running for it, but if he was ever going to find out something about this place it was going to have to come from someone on the inside. He needed answers and if you wanted to know about a prison did you asked the information desk or did you talk to the inmates?

Nick held his ground and the boy did a slow march toward him stopping when they were separated by ten feet and the fence.

“Hey.”Nick said.

“Hello.”The boy responded. “You are lost in the woods?”The voice was raspy. Coming from a girl it would have been hot, but coming from a guy it could become irritating.

“Not lost. Just exploring.”Nick paused. “What is this place?”

“Shiloh.”He responded.

“I know the name of the town, but what is the name of this whatever it is behind this chain link?”

“Shiloh. We call this place Shiloh. This is the northeast edge. Section 115.”He said.

Naming the place after the town that it occupied was kind of clever, Nick thought. “I guess that we should be introduced. I’m Nick and right now I guess that I am the captain of curiosity.”

“Nick?”He said as if trying the name out. “Well Nick, I am Andie.”