Bitter Waters Suite

Chapter Two

Karina peeled off the sweat soaked green tee shirt with the number seventeen stamped across the back. She closed her bathroom door and looked into the mirror on the back of it. Most of the world would have seen what Karina saw as the body of an amazingly fit teenage girl with the height and beauty of a world class model. The sad grey eyes would have appeared to be haunting on the cover of any fashion magazine. Her abs and arms were well defined by muscle. Her breast, hidden for the moment beneath a sports bra, were just large enough to call attention to themselves even in the sports bra, but still not too large to get in the way of daily actives. Some of the girls in the compound were in a word gigantic and she did not know how they were able to walk straight with those things jiggling around.

She had expected that the boy watching from the woods to pay attention to them them, but his eyes were always on her. When she did not steal a glance his direction to see where he was and watch he was doing she could still feel his eyes on her. Her sixteen years of life and training had left her afraid of only two things. The unknown that was boys and all that she knew about the enemy that she was born to do battle with.

Karina slipped off her shorts and turned to look at her back. It did not look nearly strong enough to carry the survival of the human race on it. She removed the panties and decided on a shower tonight rather than a bath. She did not feel like relaxing and the bathtub always gave her the urge to soak for an hour. Adding hot water when it began to cool and then going to bed afterwards. There was no chance for sleep early tonight. The routine over the last three weeks had been weapons drills at nine and then a talk from one of the parents about what was expected of them during the days to come. Something was about to happen and there was no way to avoid it. The days of pretending that they were all normal human beings were gone.

Karina stopped by the medicine cabinet long enough to grab a bar of soap. There were two dozen bars stacked neatly inside the cabinet. All, but six of them were generic white bars of soap that had a vague chemical smell to them. The six bars that remained were scented. She picked one that smelled of apples. Apples were her favorite scent on earth. She peeled the wrapper and got into the shower. Sometimes she would turn the water up to the hottest level possible and other times to the coldest just to see how much she could withstand. The end result was that she felt the heat and cold, but it did not hurt her. Even boiling water did not harm her skin and only a test of sticking her hands in a snow bank for almost a half an hour had caused her enough discomfort to force her to stop the experiment.

Karina only paused long enough to bundle her hair up above her head so that she would not have to take the time to dry it later and stepped under the cold stream of water. Cold had been the choice of water flow for the last few days or since she felt the presence of the boy watching from the woods. Being singled out by his eyes made her feel strange inside. The shower of ice cold water eventually made that feeling go away and all that was left was the calm at the center of her being that she knew and trusted.

Twenty minutes later she had dressed in a class uniform that could also be used for the training sessions since her training was not as intense as some of the others. The uniform tonight consisted of a blue blazer, a matching necktie over a white blouse, a blue pleated skirt that ended for most girls at the knees, but for Karina because of her long legs ended half way up her thighs and there were shiny black boots that ended just below her knees. The boots had steel tips and a polish that one could see a reflection in. Those boots made a clicking sound as she crossed the tiled floor of her home's kitchen.

She took a prepared meal from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave. The kitchen had every appliance that a large family could ask for. The only thing that was missing most of the time was a set of parents. Karina had loved those times when she came home from afternoon training to find the kitchen table set with actual dishes instead of the microwave safe cookware that she was use to. Even though the conversations were almost always about her progress as compared to the others in the project or possible road trips that only actually happened once when she was twelve, she had felt as if they were a real family and perhaps they actually felt something for her.

The microwave beeped and she was laying her meal on the table a few seconds later.

Eat as often as you can. Your body will require tremendous amounts of fuel and food can be a substitute for your primary food source that was what the doctor who monitored this grand experiment had told them. Of course the evening meal packs contained a designer substitute for that primary food source for the few who did not want to include it in their everyday diet.

Karina pulled the plastic lid off of the plastic plate. There was a turkey sandwich with mustard instead of mayo. A side of mash potatoes and spinach, a single oatmeal cookie and a pint side juice pack that contained a clear liquid. During the two meals that she had shared with invited guest, both times it had been dinner with numbers three and four; she had served pizza and the clear packs. Three and four or as she liked to call them Anna and her brother Andy were the only two relationships that she had been able in sixteen years to develop with those who lived and trained there. Karina spoke to number eight from time to time, but her relationship with that girl was more like a rivalry than a friendship. Anna and Andy had sat at the table trying, like she had, to figure out the proper way to eat pizza since their parents had not taught them this and they had not seen how it was done except on television. Anna ate her pizza by peeling the cheese off, eating it first and then the crust. Andy, always pretending to be the cool and in control guy, ate his pizza with a knife and fork while Karina picked it up and ate each slice by hand. The problem with that, she discovered later, was that she was suppose to eat it by the tip of the triangle first rather than the base, but she was still proud that she had come closest to doing it the right way.

Karina looked down at her meal and discovered that she had been eating on autopilot. Everything was gone except for the mash potatoes and the pouch. Karina picked up the pouch, considered the straw for a moment and then discarded it. She felt the need to drain it directly as she had been taught. Karina thoughts turned to the boy watching from the woods. Had he done more than just admire her with his eyes? Had he been undressing her with his eyes? Considering her flesh, the scent of her sweat, the sound of her heart racing and of course the rushing sound that her blood made as it flowed through her?

Karina's eyes narrowed as her pupils expanded like those of a cat marking its prey. She opened her mouth as her canine teeth extended to needle pointed fangs and she sank them into the pouch while imagining that the clear liquid inside that tasted like blood was the real thing.