Zero's Return by Sara King

Author:Sara King
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Adventure, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Parasite Publications
Published: 2014-02-11T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18 – Dreams of Women

“What do you think it’s going to be like, getting culled?” Six Two One asked softly as they played with Pizza and Charlie. Pizza liked to grab his treat and run to sit on Charlie’s back to eat it between both his tiny paws. Charlie, who was sitting on the floor between them nibbling on frilly green leaves from a bag that Doctor Molotov had given Six Six Five earlier that day, barely seemed to notice. “They said half,” Six Two One said, watching Pizza with a tiny frown. “That’s like, one out of three.”

Six Six Five grimaced. Tomorrow was when the doctors chose their first batch of ‘culls’, and it all depended on how well they did fighting each other using the martial arts lessons that Sensei Harrington had taught them, where he had been training them for months on how to seek their ‘war-mind’. It was dumb, because basically all he had them do for hours and hours a day was sit there in seiza and think. Half of the time, he let them punch at the wall and kick at padded boards over their heads, but the rest of the time, they were supposed to ‘clear their minds’ and think.

How could they possibly use that to fight?

“Maybe,” Six Two One suggested, “if we lose, they’ll let us be something other than soldiers. Maybe that’s what culls do—maybe Doctor Molotov was a cull.”

Six Six Five considered that, but ultimately decided that Doctor Molotov couldn’t have been a cull because she was almost as important as Colonel Codgson, and whenever the doctors said the word ‘cull,’ it was in the same way Six Two One had said ‘bug’ when she had plucked a fly from her bowl of oatmeal the day before. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good thing to be culled.

“I hope whoever’s name I draw is little,” Six Two One said. “I could beat someone little.”

“I’m little,” Six Six Five reminded her.

Immediately, Six Two One scrunched her face. “You don’t fight like you’re little.”

Six Six Five grunted. “I hope they give me that big bully. Eight Four needs to be kicked in the face.” She was pretty sure it would hurt to be matched with him, but she was also sure it would hurt him more.

Both of Six Two One’s eyebrows went up. “He’s twice your size.”

Six Six Five gave her friend a frown. “So?”

Six Two One considered. “I hope they give me someone little. But not you. Whoever fights you is gonna get culled.”

Six Six Five sniffed, but it was to hide her own anxiety. She had no intention of getting culled, but she was small. Too small. She was acutely aware of that fact at every morning formation.

“Think that if I get culled, they’ll let me come back to visit?” Six Two One asked softly. The only thing they had been able to piece together about the whole affair was that the next day’s culls would mysteriously go away, with no mention of where, or what they would be trained in afterwards.

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