Part 5
Private Network
-Mother
-Griffen
-Tiffany
Guns, guns, and more guns, all real and at a range she hadn't expected. Griff grinned, and Tiff waved them along.
"I have my own. None of this stuff." Tiff said with a pride Kate hadn't expected.
They entered a long dimly lit passage turning into a warm, and luscious open room, like a private booth to a theatre, but instead of a stage, it was a section of the city. There were three massive cages. Each the size of a small park. One had a rocky appeal and the other had the look of a snow mountain both on the rooves of large office spaces.
Kate eyed the booth, the sleek black suede walls with a warm cushy feel. Kate turned back to Tiff, who opened a trunk by the wall and pulled up a massive suitcase, multiple drones buzzed overhead.
She opened the case to reveal a rifle the length of Griff's body. And as thick as her leg. The length of the barrel could have fit her fist but Tiff switched it to a barrel that could barely fit a pencil. It was handed to Kate.
"This is my baby, raised her up myself. She used to be plastic when I was five."
"I get it! Your mom bought you the sniper program gun set!" Griff said, jumping.
Tiffany grinned.
"Even better. I got the full training program. We're talking, more gun types than you can imagine."
Tiffany crossed her arms with a smile.
"For our mother, it was too tough for her to accept. She needed the money but couldn't hold the idea of any of her kids signing up. So the best we did was the artillery program. More dangerous, but pays super well, and as long as there's no drafts, we should be good.
"Oh." Tiff said, rubbing her chin. "That's very clever, super clever. Risky but clever. So, you can't shoot."
The dismissive toxicity in her tone was radioactive.
Kate smirked and lifted the rifle, it was heavier than expected, most metals were borderline hollow in how light they were. Tiff's baby had meat to it, despite the thin barrel. The last thing in the world she wanted was to look awkward and all over the place. So she held her pose, breathing contained and she sat, legs parted wide like she was about to give birth. Then rested the barrel on the rail.
It clanged.
Kate looked through the sights, which were stunningly thin, she couldn't look at Tiff. It must have been like watching someone slamming door of your favourite car.
Tiff said nothing. Which was a brow raiser.
"What we playing?" Spot the Oddy?" Kate asked.
"Boring. Play One Shot." Griff inputted, because of course.
"I really doubt ya'll actua'lay wanna show off with One Shawt. We play 'Bets'" Tiff said.
"You two are made for each other." Kate said with a laugh.
So, she looked through the scope and aimed at the ice and there was rock outcrop, a handful of boulders and unique shrubs. She focused her sights and she could see a moth floating towards a LED lamp before it vanished.
"Ooh, that's something." Griff said.
There must have been a visual connected to scope on the wall.
"We got guesses?" Tiff said.
"It's caged so it can't be anything bigger than a stage 4 Oddy." Griff said.
"Look at the size of the cage. It could easily be as high as a stage 5." Tiff argued.
"The one we're looking at is a three, but the door is a 6." Kate said.
"The door?" Tiff said. "I don't even see it."
"That's my bet. Take it or take it." Kate said.
Tiffany purred sweetly. "Blow my mynd."
Beyond the missing moth was a door leading down a stairway, there was an LED light above showing a path leading down to infinite darkness. The light even had the nerve to flicker. She angled the target back to where the moth had been.
"Oddy, a bet I kill two with two bullets." Kate said.
"Oh sis, you win." Griff said, throwing up his hands.
"Bet what?" Tiff asked.
"Anything I want, you'll owe it to me." Kate said.
"Deal and a half."
After aiming for a solid ten minutes, her breathing slowly, her chest expanding and shrinking. The world outside was loud, but inside? An electric silence, her beating heart pulled into the void. Then her finger creaked and crackled like rusted iron as Kate pulled the trigger,
Green blood burst up from a collection of rocks.
A creature the size of an elephant, but as wide as a tennis court screeched. What had been rock and ice rose, expanding like a balloon before it rolled backwards where the entire side of the wall and a part of the roof split from the wall in the shape of the monster, before it engulfed the whole creature. What followed was a massive struggle. A second blizzard formed as snow on ledges and edges, fell from the roof.
Brown and red blood gushed like a sprinkler system. Rifle in hand, she waited as the creature struggled. Then, finally, Kate pulled the trigger.
The world fell silent, the blast of gunfire echoing in the silence then someone clapped. The blast of gunfire echoing in the silence then someone clapped.
Applause rose from inside the booth, expanding outwards into clapping from other booths. Kate ducked when people tried people tried to peak inside.
"You're gonna hafta take credit for that." Kate said simply. "Mother will breaking my hands if she found out."
"Sure, um, first, le's go outside a sec. And I like that bit of accen' that slipped out." Tiff said, stepping out and holding the door open.
There was an awkward, confused moment as Tiffany eyed the passage, waiting and, when confident they were alone…
"Okay Kate, enlighten me. What am I missing about you?"
Kate quirked a smile.
"Honestly, less than you think. What about me were you aiming for?"
"Well, after all that stuff about your brother. I couldn't' look him up, underage, but I could look you up. And well, yor all over the place. There's the blockade of course. But a vlog name search ain't do much."
"You have to tell me. What's with the people obsession this side? Why look me up at all? What am I missing?"
Kate's stare tried to dig deep into Tifany's eyes. But it proved meaningless against the penetrating stare Tiff was pulling off with a joy and eagerness people paid for.
It made Kate want to step back.
"Well, okay, let me see if I caint make sense of it. Yor American, right? Nawt an alien, or some Russian spy?"
Kate rolled her eyes.
"I'm from this state. I'm more from here than you."
"So you say," Tiffany said with a nod. Then she got serious about how eager she was. People as wanted as Kate in that moment normally came with a bounty. "Well, Kay'te beyon' tha armies and the travels there's age, tyme. Which we ran out of. The galaxy uses it up. Firs' they grow us, age us like wyne. Then usin thah system they eats us up. We kids go away, and before ya know it ya ge' lef' wit a lot' of kids te raise. Then they grow and they ge' eaten up too. That means this time is the freist tyme in yor lyf. None can pressure ya one wany or another. It's against the law. You'll get the most fun in yor life now. So ya'll have te make the best of it. An' choosin yor schoolin' system is how ya do et. En like the army, kids like us, mus' recruit."
"To recruit… to what cause?"
Tiffany stepped up and held Kate's hands, pinning their bodies together after another conspiratorial look. The laws of physicals entered the equation and Kate was stuck staring at the tall woman's neck. At least until Tiff lifted her chin and they were eye to eye.
"You see Kayte we're all bein' watched, stared at until we age out en git ate up. An the ol', the food… Well they watch us coz they knew tha' we're lookin' fir somethin' they missed when they had a chaynce."
Tiffany's moment of madness was like a wildfire and Kate was burning up.
"What?"
"The God at the Peak. The Zenith."