Elodie couldn’t keep her lips from peeling back in a revolted grimace.“Actually,” she gingerly set the gun down on the table.Her hands snapped back to her sides as soon as they were free.“I think I’m going to sit this oneout.”
“That’s probably for the best.”His chest puffed and he waggled his left brow.“You’ll want to watch the master at work for a little bit.Really get a feel for how it should be done.”He picked up the gun and fit the curved box magazine into the receiver.“We might want to start you off with something a little smaller.You can’t handle this badboy.”
Rhett unhooked a pair of earmuffs from under the table and handed them to her before tugging on his own.Elodie’s smile was more a baring of teeth as she waved, slid the ear covers on, and backed away to the empty stool behind the yellow line of safety.
Rhett hunched around the gun and began shooting.Each bang of gunfire and hollow clink of empty shells made Elodie’s stomach squeeze tighter and her bones rattle within her flesh.Seconds lasted an eternity as he loaded clip after clip, shredding paper humans.
“Fuck yeah!”he whooped when he had finally run out of ammo and magazines piled on the table like steel skeletons.“Whoo!What a rush!”He tugged his earmuffs down around his neck and dropped the gun onto thetable.
Elodie followed his lead and slid her ear protectors off and dropped them into her lap.
“AKs are great, but nothing quite compares to the Fujimoto Fury.Wish Tuff’s could get clearance to have one of those out here.”He cracked his knuckles.“The Fury doesn’t look like much, but it is a monster.A total beast.You slide your hand into this cannister, and it—” He held his left arm out straight, trying to demonstrate the weapon with sweeping gestures from his right.“I don’t know, practically grows around it and morphs into this intense fire demon.”
Astrid had talked about the Fury.It was one of the biotech weapons her father had created for the Key as a way to fund the civilian outreach projects he was most passionate about.Astrid had even hauled Elodie to a prototype demonstration.And what Rhett said was accurate.The way the fire had eaten up the mannequin, reducing it to ash in mere seconds, was something that fit right at home with the evil demon mythos.
She hadn’t told Rhett about having witnessed it for the very reason that now stared her down.She didn’t want this version of her fiancé.The man who pined after a machine that’s purpose was annihilation.She wanted a different version of Rhett.One she had yet to discover.
“It does a perfect job of lighting up those Zone Seven abominations,” he continued.“Turns ’em real crispy.”
Elodie fidgeted in her seat.“Why do you have to go out there?”she asked, changing the subject.“Why can’t whatever’s in Zone Seven be left alone?The Zone barriers are protected.Nothing has gotten into the city in—”
“Nothing has gotten into the city because my team and others like us go out there and make sure thosethingsaren’t breeding and growing in numbers.”
She frowned.Breeding was such a gross word.She’d learned about the process in her Preinfection World Studies class.It was all moisture and blood flow and thrusting.So messy and invasive.It was much better now.Eggs were harvested, fertilized, and the developing embryo was cared for in the lab until the fetus was ready to be harvested from the gestation bot and delivered to its parents with a caretaker bot that would stay with the family until the child’s fourth birthday.All otherurgesthat had encircled procreation were taken care of in sterile Release Pods at the MediCenter.Elodie hadneverused one.
She swung her legs as she sat on the stool.“But there hasn’t been an attack in, like, a decade.”
“Thanks to yours truly.”Rhett gave a mock bow.
“You weren’t even old enough to go out to Zone Seven when that attack happened.At least a few other people have had a hand in keeping the city monsterfree.”
“Yeah, well,” he blustered, “up until recently.But for the past three years or so, it’s been all me.And they’re not even the immediate threat.Eos, andEcho—”
“Echo?”Elodie asked.
“Don’t worry.I got ’em both handled.Ask anyone.”Rhett’s chest puffed.
Elodie blinked long and slow to keep from rolling her eyes.How many times would she have to tell him how great he was?
“Andguess who was hand chosen by Fujimoto himself to take Fury on its Zone Seven maiden voyage?”Rhett was so full of hot air, he might take flight.
“You were.”Elodie meant to sound more excited, but the words spilled out flat andglum.
“Damn fucking right, I was!”He slapped his chest so hard Elodie winced.“And they’re going to have a team out there filming to show the big guys at Key Corp.Key News might even be out there too.”He sucked his teeth and rocked back onto his heels.“Your man could get pretty famous offthis.”
Elodie’s feet stopped swinging.“Off killing?”
“My favorite thing to do.”He winked.“Now, get over here and let me show you how to be a lean, mean,monster-killingmachine.”
Elodie slid off the stool, but her feet stayed glued to the pavement.
“I put in a request for unlimited ammo to go along with the Glock.It’s lighter.Way easier to handle.We can stay here until you hit the target.”
She crept forward, twisting theplastic-bandedearmuffs between her clammyhands.
“El, can you imagine if we were out in Zone Seven together?Lighting shit up and wreaking havoc?”Rhett’s eyes glazed for a moment before he blinked himself back to the present.“Controlled havoc, of course.Even someone as high up the chain as I am has his orders.Too bad, though.My team and I would destroy some shit real nice if I was in complete control.”
Elodie was tired of listening.Tired of guns and death and destruction and who this brick of a man kept revealing himselfto be.
