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Stories from the Verse
Verse Three, Chapter One
Chapter 80: Hastings 28
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 79: Slade 26
Oddly, the week passed in a very routine way. Monday and Wednesday Lauren came home from work, got into her gi, met Raiden for continued lessons, returned home to shower, studied her Bible and practiced some of her psionic techniques, and got back to work. Tuesday and Thursday she came home and went to bed, and got up to return to work. Friday was, of course, payday, and she decided to buy some groceries first and then pick up a few things she might not be able to find elsewhere. She had her recurve bow and a batch of arrows; but they were all home made, and not the best quality. At a sporting goods store she was able to have a compound bow customized for maximum power at her draw, and she also bought four dozen target arrows and eight dozen drill-tipped hunting arrows, all cut to match her draw. She included stabilizers and sights on the bow, which made it heavy and awkward to carry but also added tremendous accuracy to its significant power. She also picked up some camp food, the sort of stuff which comes packaged mostly in dehydrated and preserved forms wrapped in sealed plastic, and two plastic water jugs, two and a half gallons each, which she filled and deposited in her cart when she got them home. Chlorine and iodine tablets seemed a reasonable addition to her supplies; water purification in primitive worlds could be a major problem, and it was best to be prepared.
Friday night she met with Father James to make sure all was ready. It was. Father Michael Pritchard would be joining them, and once the pumper trucks arrived he would be blessing the water as it passed through the pumps onto the fire. Holy water pouring into the bowels of the building would clean out any scum below.
So on Saturday morning Lauren Hastings went to bed, anticipating the biggest battle she had ever fought in her life to date.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with five other sequential chapters of the novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #53: Character Battles. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
