Purgatory

Chapter 13

The group was breathing hard.  They had been training for an hour now.  Anastasia's face looked like a tomato with two green eyes in the middle.  She kept on hacking away at the wooden dummy with her knife like there was no tomorrow.  Kat nodded.  It had been difficult to get her to come out of her shell, but Anastasia was now attacking the wooden dummy like a frenzied animal, so something must have clicked.  Kat walked over a few feet to George.  He was hacking limbs off the dummies as soon as they reappeared.  George never really needed that much training anyway, just some more experience.  He caught Kat's eye and she gave him a nod.  

Kat now moved onto John.  He had pistols in both his hands and was firing rapidly at the targets.  Kat half smiled.  She knew the kid would be a good shot, if he just got over his nerves.  He didn’t even faint at the sound of gunfire anymore.  He didn't even realise that Kat was walking by, his eyes locked on the human body cutout, shooting like there was no tomorrow.  On to Ella.  Well, apparently she wasn't lying when she said that she did archery for 7 years.  She was a good shot, like, really good.  Kat had Ella working on evasive action while firing, but that was getting old fast.  Kat cleared her throat.  The four all looked up, covered in sweat.  Kat smiled evilly, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.  “It’s time to work on hand-to-hand combat.”

George gasped as he hit the ground.  Kat was possibly the best hand-to-hand fighter he’d ever seen.  She moved so quickly and anticipated his every move.  George scowled as he got back up.  She was going down this time.  He moved in quickly, and his leg kicked out at Kat’s knee.  She just grabbed his foot, and twisted his leg around until he fell to the ground.  As he looked around, he saw Ella and Anastasia grappling on the floor.  They both had red faces, and neither appeared to be winning.  Not great for either of them.  Kat walked over to Anastasia and Ella, patting George’s shiny bald head on the way.

“Anastasia, you will be paired up with George, I will work with Ella.  John, take notes on their progress.”  John was asleep in a corner.  He had been dubbed useless only 3 minutes into the combat session.   As Anastasia squared off with George, he sent a slow kick toward the ribs.  Surprisingly, Anastasia grabbed his leg and crushed it between her fingers.   When George looked at her in wonder, she shrugged.  “I’m Russian,” Anastasia shrugged.  “I went easy on Ella so she wouldn’t feel bad, she’s kind of terrible at it.”  George grinned.  Anastasia was someone he could get along with, definately.