Demicore

Chapter 8

In the end, Erik and Elizabeth promised their children they would not shoot each other no matter how empty the range was when they got there and took off on foot. The grounds, as they were, around the house were beautiful. The colors of the plants were vibrant and the blending aromas of the flowers were almost heavenly. They walked for a while in silence before he noticed anything more than the feint smile on her lips or the way the sunlight caught the highlights in her hair.

"The Garden of Eden must have looked something like this," she commented more to herself than to him.

"Actually, the Garden of Eden would have been both very different and nearly identical," he told her. "Each of these trees, flowers, shrubs, ferns, mosses, and even some of the wildlife were chosen very carefully because they are native to the state of Michigan and because of its compatibility - aesthetically speaking - to the items around it. I would have to imagine that the Garden of Eden, being in a different part of the world altogether would have had completely different life in it but at the same time would have been put together with similar attention to each detail." She was reminded of Spock from Star Trek with a little more inflection.

"Erik, I was making a comparison not asking for a dissertation."

"You did ask me once to build you an Eden for gardens..." he let his voice trail off as the smile crept across her face letting him know she remembered having said it about the garden she wanted in the backyard at their old house so very many years ago. "I'm sorry I couldn't fit it in the yard at the Taylor house," he spouted half sarcastically.

"You always did over do things," she told him teasingly as they arrived at the indoor/outdoor shooting range. The targets were at intervals, not all the same and most of them were not paper, but some sort of almost life-like composite made to resemble the natural wild life they might choose to hunt. The part that threw her off was that each 'target' was in its very own natural habitat. If you wanted to hunt deer, black bear, small game, brown bear, grizzly, elk, antelope, even polar bear, you went into its own habitat just like you would if you were actually hunting it. The difference was you took an air gun that was identical in almost every way to the weapon of your choice.

"They even kick like the real things, Ma'am," one of the staff who introduced himself as Michael told her, "but you might want to get your target practice in on the paper range before you start out here. If you miss you could give a fellow hunter a hell of a bruise."

"A fellow hunter?" she questioned, not quite comprehending what he was telling her.

"Yes," Erik broke in, "as in someone else who is at the range shooting and hunting while we are out there. Another hunter." It seemed obvious to him and as such did not need any further explanation.

"We are at a range. A place where we are supposed to be practicing, not hunting. Why would there be 'other hunters'?" she asked mildly irritated.

Erik still looked like he thought the whole thing made sense just the way it was. Michael's eyes grew large. He stopped what he was doing to take a closer look at her face. She had Sonya's eyes and Katlin's cheekbones. They did say they were bringing back their mother who had been... missing, was it? He looked back at Erik who had introduced her as Elizabeth.

"Erik, you are a fool if you expect her to just know what's going on! I'd be willing to bet money you didn't tell her anything about this place or how you put it together, anything about the poly-materials used to absorb the pellets, how many miles or climates the range covers or the option to go inside and site in your guns with regular paper targets in any which shape you like. I'd be willing to bet more than that you didn't tell her about the helmets that can adjust the distance on the simulated range. And you expect any intelligent person to just absorb and process all of this with no understanding or prior knowledge?" he chastised Erik soundly. "Good God, man! Give her something to work with here!" He then turned to her and started guiding her into the range house and trying to go back to the very basics in his explanations.

As they arrived at the section of the range where her guns awaited her, he was concluding his explanations of how the fake animals absorb the pellets. "We are still working on the smart pellets that will splatter and come back together like a ball of mercury. We think we are getting close to synthesizing it safely - which will make a lot of things a whole lot safer."

"Why would you want to?" she asked completely confused.

"We can get into the ‘whys’ of that one later," Erik broke in as he picked up the .22 and handed it to her, "for now let's get in some target practice."

She picked up the handgun for the first time in what was to her, months. The fingers of her right hand tightened around the grip, trigger finger out so she didn't accidentally pull it. Her left hand wrapped around the butt, steadying her grip. She let out her breath slowly, looking down the site of the gun and turning off the safety. Memories of shooting with her mother before she was killed came flooding back. Tears began to burn her cheeks, the image on the target changed in her mind to the man who had attacked them. She emptied all ten rounds out of the magazine and the one that had been in the chamber into the bulls-eye.

Several staff members came running at the sound of so many rounds being shot at once. Erik dropped his weapon on the table in front of him and ran to her side, flinging his ear muffs off as soon as he was sure she was done. He made the mistake, though, of not announcing himself when running up on an emotionally distressed woman who rather recently in her memory survived severe trauma.

She brought the butt of the gun around into his solar plexus, jammed her foot into the arch of his foot, and rammed the upper side of the gun into his forehead, knocking him unconscious for a few seconds - just long enough for the crew to arrive. One pointed a loaded handgun her way, Michael tackled Elizabeth, and someone else ran to Erik to revive him.

"What just happened here?" Michael demanded when they stopped rolling. Only then did he notice the tears, streaking down her face. Her fighting form went limp in his arms at the sound of his voice.

"My mother's gun..." she began to sob, "...all I could see was the man who attacked us."

Erik started to get to his feet, shaking his head to clear it. Having her attack him like that had been unexpected. Something seemed off, though... she seemed stronger than normal. His mental wanderings were broken by Michael's voice.

"Erik!" Michael raised his voice to his boss's father.

"Huh? Oh! Yes. Liz." He paused trying not to go back onto the what-in-the-world-just-happened tangent, "Are you okay, Hun? You hit me pretty good there; it was almost hard to control my instincts to fight back. We need to get you into martial arts. Your form is terrible but your style, speed and aim leave nothing to be desired."

One of the other guys pulled the target forward and accessed the computer that reported how many hits went into the backdrop and if they were, in fact, in a tight circle or if they were off the target completely. He also activated the retrieval program that fished the spent rounds out of the backdrop and deposited them to the computer to analysis then put them in a queue for recycling. He ran the computer analysis again.

"What's going on Jeremy?" Michael asked.

"She fired too quickly to have put it in this tight a circle."

"Hon, we have got to get you into regular martial arts!" Erik broke in after glancing at the target and the computer screen, "This is phenomenal shooting. Especially considering how long you've been hovering in that portal. I think there may have been something else going on here."