His balaclava’s off, and he’s young.Younger than she’d thought.Maybe only a year or two older than her.Got him, says Dakota.We stand for freedom!Tegan lifts up his head by his hair and jolts him again, just under the ear, a painful place.But he doesn’t answer.Jos, says Dakota, show him we mean business.Jocelyn doesn’t know where the other two women have gone.You can’t do it, can you?The boy’s cowering on the floor.Tegan says, Has he got a skein?Yeah, they mutter, that’s what she likes.Weird men, deformed men.Disgusting, strange, repulsive men.That’s what she likes.Anyway, she’s not what they think.She’s normal now, completely normal.What would a normal girl do now?Jocelyn pushes Dakota out of the way and leans down and gives him a jolt in his head.Just to teach him what he’s got coming if he messes with them.She’s emotional, though.Her trainer’s told her to watch out for that.There are surges going through her body.Hormones and electrolytes mess with everything.She can feel as it leaves her body that it’s too much.She tries to hold it back, but it’s too late.His scalp crisps under her hand.Inside his skull, liquid is cooking.Delicate parts are fusing and congealing.The lines of power are scarring him, faster than thought.She can’t hold it back.It’s not a good way to go.She didn’t mean to do it.There’s a smell of burned hair and flesh.They must have rigged up a light from a backup generator.Jocelyn’s mind is working very quickly, even though her body is slow.Her hand is still on the boy’s head.There’s a faint wisp of smoke at her fingertips.Johnny says, Jesus.Esther says, Were there more?The girl said there were three.Dakota’s still staring at the boy.Jocelyn peels her fingers off him one by one and she doesn’t think about it at all.She takes her fingers off, not thinking about it, and she pulls her sticky palm up, not thinking about it, and the body tumbles forward, face first into the dirt.Now.Johnny’s staring at the body, too.He makes a little laugh, and says, Medic?Esther says, Now.His eyes flick to Jocelyn, Tegan, Esther.When he catches Esther’s eye, he nods swiftly.Backs up a few paces.Turns and runs, out of the circle of the arc light and into the dark.Esther looks round the circle.
Men's Fashion
Esther uncurls the boy's fingers and wraps them around the holster of the pistol.
Esther uncurls the boy's fingers and wraps them around the holster of the pistol.
