Marie (Teumessian Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

              Bruce kept his word. He knew if it came out that he had a taste for little girls he would lose his status in the company or worse. Michael kept his mouth shut and Bruce stayed away from Marie. A silent peace developed between the two of them. To Bruce it was a mutual respect for strength, to Michael it was survival. It was a skill that he stressed with the rest of his peers, especially Marie. She became attached to Michael almost at the hip. He always stood between her and Bruce if only to remind Bruce he could ruin him, all while the time fearing that Bruce would give up caring and kill him.

Chapter 5

By the age of sixteen, the seven had grown into imposing figures. Michael, Justin, Austin, Samuel, Ethan, David, and Marie; they were the pictures of physical perfection. Seven had remained and seven had thrived. Michael, the strongest, his six foot four frame an imposing figure for any to behold, with green eyes and light blonde hair any girl would swoon over. They had all bonded, they were a family or at least what they saw as a family. They trained day in and day out. Bruce and Kenneth were proud of what they had accomplished so far. Bruce and Kenneth tended to watch the group from the overlook, a very elaborate set up. Bruce had planned it out himself. The open floor was where they trained the most, a padded floor for martial arts and weapon training. To the back of it was a range for gun practice and for Michael to practice with his bow and arrow. Michael was the only one who enjoyed the bow and arrow, but he could talk Marie into practicing with him. The range wasn’t elaborate just five lanes with marks for fifty, one hundred, and two hundred yards. If they wanted to shoot further they would go outside to the long range, but that was only for sniper practicing and only Austin spent a lot of time out there. The obstacle course was very simple but was to the point, three climbing ropes, a tire set for running through, inverted monkey bars, a salmon ladder, and various tunnels and mats for practicing various maneuvers for agility.  

“I think we should test them.” Bruce said to Kenneth.

“Test them? Like throw them out in the field?” Kenneth replied.

“No they aren’t quite ready for that, but we need to see who the leader is.” Bruce responded.

“Michael. Duh I can, see that I thought you were smart.” Kenneth laughed.

“Thanks for that, yes in the gym and in the ‘nursery’ as they call it yes but in a real situation will he take lead and actually be able to hold it in a test is what I want to find out.” Bruce replied.

“Ok so what we create a situation here for them to get out of?” Kenneth asked.

“Yes only we can’t have them think it is training. We have to make it so they think it is real.” Bruce replied.

“So we are going to potentially have to bury bodies afterwards?” Kenneth hated dealing with dead bodies. He didn’t mind making them, but cleaning up wasn’t his thing.

“It’s possible we may lose a few guards thrown into the mix, but the plan is not to lose any of them. I really would hate to have to explain that.” Bruce replied.

“Yah, that would be fun.” Kenneth laughed.

Kenneth and Bruce were overlooking the training center below are all seven of them. Today was Bo practice and Justin was leading, since it was his specialty. Nobody could spin the staff like Justin, he was so graceful and powerful with it.

“Now today I will be learning you some new shit.” Justin said with a laugh.

“It’s, ‘I will teach you.’” Samuel replied, always trying to make sure everyone’s pronunciation was correct, he was always proper like that, uniform always in order black hair in place and always clean shaved.

“Keep it up and we won’t let you lead any exercises anymore.” Michael responded.

“Oh you would have to stop me and with this bad boy none of you stand a chance.” Justin said with a laugh. His eyes lit up when he laughed. They were the brightest of blue and just shone when he laughed which was most of the time. Justin spun his bo, “So who wants to be embarrassed first? Oh I think ladies first.” Justin said pointing his bo towards Marie.

Marie stepped up, “Ok let’s do this.” She said as she picked up her bo.

              Marie and Justin squared up, tapped the bos and held their stances. Marie attacked first but Justin was prepared and struck back, Marie blocked his attack but opened herself up to another. Justin capitalized on that and knocked her to the ground. She landed with a loud thud on her back.

“And once again I have proven I am the master.” Justin announced to the group with a sense of pride in his speech.

“My turn.” Michael said with a smile. He stepped up extending a hand to Marie who was sitting on the floor. He helped her to her feet. Michael pointed his bo at Justin, “Ok I’m up for a lesson.” Michael squared up to Justin.

“Oh I’m going to bring the hurt.” Justin said with a laugh. Justin attacked first but Michael was patient. Michael blocked blow after blow.

Michael held his composure, “I’m still waiting for this lesson.”

Justin got flustered, “Come on fight back. This is no fun if you just keep blocking me. You have to attack at some point.”

“Patience is key. You never learned that,” Michael responded.                           

“Wait, what?” Justin lowered his bo. “I’m hella patient.” Michael quickly swung his bo under Justin’s legs and knocked him to the floor.

“See I win.” Michael said with a smile.

“That’s not fair! That’s cheating!” Justin protested.

“No it’s called playing smarter not

harder.” Michael replied, dropping his bo and walking away

“Oh look who got schooled.”

David added. David was always playing come lately adding in after everyone was done. David was the smartest, incredible with technology. David could wire anything, but he always felt the need to put in his two cents, even if he had no part in the conversation. Physically David was up to the level of the others but he was always disheveled, probably because he was thinking faster than he was doing things, getting ahead of himself. The ‘management’ kept David’s brown hair short because he wouldn’t take care of it otherwise. Style was not his specialty.

“Shut up, David, nobody asked you,” Justin replied

“Oh nobody had to ask, it totally just happened and had to be pointed out.” David replied laughing. Justin was still sitting on the floor, Austin walked over and offered him a hand up.

“I got this,” Justin replied standing up.

“Fine, don’t say I never offered you anything,” Austin replied.

“Don’t be a smart ass. Its poor manners.” Samuel said to Austin.

Austin just hung his head. Austin wanted to be like Samuel but he just couldn’t be that smooth. Austin tried to dress like Samuel, styled his hair like his, and tried to stay in line with everything Samuel did. Austin was smaller than most of the rest of them but was Samuel’s ally so he, like Marie, had protection. 

              “Fine, I don’t want to hang out with any of you anyways, you are all no fun.” Justin called to the group. “Ethan, you want to hang right? They are all party poopers but you’re cool.” Ethan said nothing, he just stood there, like always he had nothing to say, he never did. It was hard to know what Ethan was thinking since his expression rarely changed. Ethan talked more as a child but as he grew his vocabulary shrunk or at least it appeared that way. He never really spoke but followed orders. It was best he didn’t respond it made it easier to not question his orders. “And that’s a no from Ethan yet again.” Justin laughed. Ethan walked away.

              “Quit being mean to him,” Marie said to Justin.

              “Oh, stop, he has a good sense of humor, or at least I think he does.” Justin laughed.

              “You’re such a bully sometimes, you know that?” Marie responded.

              “Stop. Marie, come on, you need to lighten up and have some fun. He isn’t a little kid and neither are you.” Justin replied tapping her on the head with his bo.

              “Stop it!” Marie yelled swatting the bo from her face.

              “This is over. This is not productive. Nobody is learning anything.” Michael ordered.

              “I agree,” Samuel added.

              Bruce and Kenneth had been watching the whole thing. Bruce turned to Kenneth, “Ok, time to test them out.” Bruce said to Kenneth.

“Full blown killer fun or just playing around?” Kenneth asked

“Let’s just play today. They’re just kids after all” Bruce said as he patted Kenneth on the shoulder and walked down the stairs from the metal overlook of the training floor. Kenneth followed. “Line up!” Bruce ordered to the group. Quickly they all moved to line up. “Gentlemen and lady we have a project for you that we need done by the end of the day. Can you handle it?” Bruce asked.

              “Yes sir” they all replied in unison.

              Bruce grinned, “In the basement of this facility is the storage room where I have hidden the key.” They all looked confused,

              “The key to what?” Michael asked.

              Bruce waved his hand and four guards stepped up and handcuffed them to each other; Justin to Austin to Samuel to David to Michael to Ethan to Marie.

              “You are all connected now so you have to move together. You are only as strong or as weak as you are as a team. Figure it out. I want you out of those handcuffs and I mean I don’t want any of you and back here, oh I say in two hours or you will get to spend the evening cleaning your dorms with your toothbrushes.” Bruce ordered.

              “I thought we had till the end of the day?” David replied.

              Bruce shot him a dirty look.

              “What? You said by the end of the day!” David protested.

              “You now have one hour, anyone else got anything to say?” Bruce asked. Everyone was silent. “Ok, then, your time starts now.” Bruce said walking out of the room. He didn’t have to stay to watch. He was only interested in the outcome.

              “Nice going cutting our time down by an hour,” Justin sneered at David.

              “What, I had a valid point. He changed the rules,” David responded.

              “You two are wasting time. We need to figure out where the key is and get out of these.” Samuel said.

              “We could just figure out a way to break out of the cuffs. He only said we had to be out of them. He never said we had to use the key he hid,” Michael responded.

              “Why would he have talked about the key if we didn’t need to retrieve it?” Samuel asked.

              “I agree with Samuel. We need to find the key and get out with it.” Austin added.

              “I’m with Michael. We can find a way to get out of these without a key. It will take too much time to try to find it.” Marie responded.

              “Of course you’re with Michael.” David added.

              “Shut up David. Look, let’s just try to get out without the key, then, if we can’t in like thirty minutes, we go for the key. Is everyone ok with that?” Michael replied.

              “Fine with me. What’s your plan?” Samuel responded.

              “We could pick the locks!” David exclaimed.

              “Yes! David where’s your kit?” Michael responded

              “I don’t need it I need paperclips.” David said looking around the room.

              “Sargent’s desk probably has a paperclip or two.” Marie added pointing to Kenneth’s mess of a desk at the far corner of the practice floor. Kenneth didn’t even get an actual office, just a desk in the training room. It wasn’t like he needed it. He wasn’t there for his brains. The desk was covered in paper, water bottles, and various office supplies.

              “Yes!” David exclaimed running towards the desk almost pulling everyone else down as they rushed to keep up so they didn’t fall.

              As soon as they got to the desk Samuel threw up his hands, “Hold up if we mess with his desk we might be bringing down the wrath of Sergeant.”

              “Agreed. We have to look without touching until we find a paperclip then make sure they get back.” Michael ordered.

              “David don’t touch. You will make it a mess. Small hands only; Marie, you do it.” Samuel replied.              

Marie hesitated; Kenneth was never very nice to her and always looked at her ‘funny’ as she would always say. She didn’t want to upset him and potentially take the hurt for it.

              “Oh come on seriously? I want out of these.” Justin said moving to the desk and starting to move the papers around.

              “It was Marie who was supposed to do it, you were not instructed to do it, stop!” Samuel ordered.

              “Instruct this,” Justin said flipping Samuel off.

              “Justin just be careful.” Michael replied.

              “You’re not going to back me up on this?” Samuel shot back at Michael.

              “Look, it’s getting done, it doesn’t matter who does it.” Michael responded.

              “Found one!” Justin exclaimed as he held up a large red paperclip.

              Marie just kept looking at the even more disheveled desk.

              “Relax. It’s always a mess. He will never know we even touched it. He probably didn’t even know he had a paperclip,” Justin assured her. Justin handed the paperclip to David who instantly started working on his right hand cuff.

              “No, get Ethan out first,” Michael told him, David looked up. “Just do it,” Michael ordered. David maneuvered so that he could reach Ethan. “Get him unattached from me,” Michael ordered. David didn’t question him, but Austin did.