Chapter 374: Forgetting Something Important
No one made a sound, looking instead at the body on the ground without a head. The man had been drugged and therefore didn’t struggle, something Laz has suggested to make this slightly less traumatic. Afterall, when you can look at something as less than human, it makes the task of killing it easier. And since the man was drugged and couldn’t talk, that was a big help overall.
"Is this really the answer?" Celes asked and she and the others gathered around the now foot shorter body.
"The answer?" Laz asked back.
"This person... even if he was who you said he was..."
"He was."
"Even if he was, is this really the only way?" Celes looked like she wanted to cry but luckily she held back the tears.
"How do you feel?" Laz said with a sigh and started wiping the blood splatter from his hands. While the blade remained clean and stain free, the rest of him wasn’t so lucky.
"I feel... I don’t know. I feel like...."
"Like this isn’t real? Like he didn’t just go from living to not living with a swing of my sword?" Laz asked.
"Yeah..."
"And the rest of you?" Laz looked around at the other 31 women.
"Yeah."
"The same."
"That’s how I feel."
Most nodded but some commented.
"This is normal, very normal. When people talk about murder or killing someone else, a lot of the times the things they say are only what they want to feel, not how they actually feel. But there is a simple truth in all this..." Laz said, thinking how he should word this.
"And that is?" Celes asked, wanted to grasp on to whatever word or comfort Laz could offer.
"It makes you realize just how worthless life is..." Laz closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"How... how can you say that?" Celes asked, clearly shocked by Laz’s words.
’Now’s the time to say something uplifting... Not this...’ Celes thought.
Laz looked around before waving over Gia and her people. They slowly dragged themselves out of the range of the statue and stood near Laz, looking down at the body. They had all been paying attention to what Laz was doing, but even Gia, who is not stranger to blood on her hands, felt like Laz was entirely too emotionless with this display.
"I’m sure you all wanted some uplifting words or supreme wisdom from me about this, but that would be meaningless. Instead, look down at this former piece of human garbage and ask yourself this question,
"If I die, will I be any different than him? Kind of a hard question to ask yourself, isn’t it? He lived his life without caring who he hurt but in the end, all that was waiting for him was multiple stab wounds and a hair cut that too way to much off the top," Laz said, pointing to his own head.
Although he got a little chuckle out of some of the ladies for this statement, even that died off quickly.
"In the end, this is what you will become. But don’t let that be a reason to fear. Instead of that, make the most of what you have now. And defend it, defend it to the death. Look around at those next to you and hold the thought close to your heart that if you don’t want them to end up like this... this worthless nothing, then you must be strong enough to stop it."
Laz raised his hand over the body of the man and summoned his black flame. Then, before everyone’s astounded eyes, he let loose the flame onto the body, burning it to ashes withing moments.
"We are all just ashes and dust...." With this, Laz started walking away. While he had the intention of doing more with them, there was no way to order them to do it after this. In fact, it might take a couple days until everyone was up to the work out again.
’But that’s ok too. Everyone will have to get over this hurtle eventually. Until now, very few of them had to deal with death and here I go throwing it in their faces. Maybe I went overboard? But all the same, a little bit of bleeding now will save them a whole lot of heart break later,’ Laz thought to himself.
Just as he was about to walk off the field, he turned back to judge the reactions of the women. If anything, he wanted to judge just how much he had scared them. To his surprise though, no one was there. Using his sense, he realized that all of them were doing a joint jog, keeping as one big group and going around the outside of the field. Celes was in the front, trying her best to lead the pack while Gia and her group stayed in the back, almost like a wall pushing even the slowest to keep up.
But seeing the determination on everyone’s faces, Laz felt like they didn’t need that anymore.
"This..." Gretchen couldn’t help but cough a bit at her own embarrassment. She had convinced herself that the girls weren’t that tough and couldn’t handle something like this. But since she had trusted Laz and told him she would listen to him, she followed his directions for the day. And in the end, Laz had been correct.
"This is what they need. At least now, there is a spark." Laz looked over at Nix who was running close behind Celes. They hadn’t said a word to each other after the previous shower event, but Laz knew her eyes were on him the entire time. And even more than that, she ate up every word he had said, just like the couple of others who had been there that night. After seeing the way he acted today, their respect for him grew even more.
"The other one for the afternoon group... he isn’t nearly as horrible as that first guy was. How are you going to work them into a frenzy like this morning?" Wilma asked.
"I’ll lie. Its not like he doesn’t deserve this too. It’s just when compared to the first guy, he is lacking. So I’ll just make up some of the details as we go," Laz said without a hint of shame on his face.
"And what if they question you about him?" Gretchen asked. Although she understood the point, it still left a bad taste in her mouth.
"Then I’ll still lie. If I’m going to be guilty of one sin, what’s a few more on top of that?" And with that, Laz walked off. It was still too early for lunch, but he hadn’t even bothered with breakfast yet so he was kind of hungry.
Gretchen and Wilma just watched his departing back before sighing.
"Do you think he is really that heartless?" Wilma asked her best friend.
"No, I don’t. But then again, I can’t even begin to imagine just how many sins that young man carries on his shoulders already that he could just shrug this off so easily. And in the end, he is doing this for us and for them and not even asking for much in return. If we had met a guy like that when we were younger..." Gretchen laughed with the thought.
"One of us probably wouldn’t be standing here now. Have you considered if maybe he... I don’t know... is gay? I mean, he’s basically surrounded by these girls and free to come and go as he pleases, so why isn’t he... more horny?"
"Who knows? But I’m pretty sure he is straight. I just wonder what the result will be if he does just cut loose and gets involved with one of them..." Wilma voiced her thoughts.
"One? Just one? Yeah... I doubt that. The way they look at him now? Even some of the girls who are in relationships with each other seem to be watching him. And did you hear about what happened in the shower?"
"Uh... don’t remind me. I tried talking to a few of the girls who were there. But all they would say was that Laz fixed them. I mean... fixed them? Really?"
Gretchen and Wilma took off on their own, no longer thinking they had to keep on eye on the girls. As of this moment, the older women knew that the young ones will take care of one another.
...
The afternoon class went about as well as the morning class. No one asked any questions so Laz’s didn’t end up having to lie twice. While the first one killed was a piece of trash, the second one really wasn’t as bad. He had just killed a few people after he had got his abilities and made money off of hunting other infected. In Laz’s description however, the victims were changed around a bit to garner more sympathy. The things he told were neither a full lie nor the full truth. But either way, aided in with Laz’s personal charisma, the man still came off being a monster who butchers in cold blood.
By the time everything was done and Laz’s pretty speeches were finished, the second group, just like the first, took it upon themselves to start training without needing to be force. This was what Laz wanted to see.
"So what are you going to do next?" Gretchen asked, knowing that this was just the beginning.
"Combat training. Forty on one sounds pretty good, don’t you think?" Laz said with a smirk.
"Boy. Even if what they are saying about your dick is true, I’m not sure you could handle forty at once..." Wilma said with a laugh.
"Hey... Hold on. What are they saying about my dick now?"
"So no bragging about actually being able to handle forth girls at once?" Gretchen asked with a grin.
"Yeah. No. I know my limit is thirty tops... maybe thirty one if i catch my second wind..."
"HA Ha ha ha ha," they both laughed as they walked away from the field.
"So anyway. I agreed to let that doctor check my blood. Where might I find her?" Laz asked the two women.
"Oh. Nora... yes. We heard about that. Listen meat stick. I’m not so sure that’s a good idea." Gretchen said while hesitating.
"Why not? It’s just some blood..." Laz asked, confused.
"Yes. Well. The problem stems from her experimentation. She... has a gift that’s also a curse. She likes to see just what our different bloods can do and even I’ll admit, it’s amazing..."
"And so there is a problem with that?"
"Well... let’s just say that when she finds someone with blood that can be used for something, she goes off the rails on testing it. For example. She found out that one of the girl’s blood was actually explosive. Once she knew that, she tried to almost drain her to the last drop just to see how big of a bomb she could make," Gretchen explained.
"Or that one girl who’s blood was like a hallucinogenic? Remember how she tried to measure the effects of different amounts by spiking everyone’s dinner that one time?" Wilma mentioned.
"Hmm... Well. I’m not sure my blood is really good for anything but if it makes her happy, then so be it. After all, I want to check out that seal more anyway so its going to have to be give and take," Laz responded back.
"Yeah. It’s pretty rare for someone’s blood to actually have an effect. There were only like four out of all of us so I’m sure there is nothing to worry about," Gretchen concluded, shaking her head.
"You’d think she would be more interested in classifying just what the decrease is as opposed to doing science experiments, but that’s just how she is."
"It’s like what a great cat once said, ’We’re all a little mad here."
"We are both going to pretend you didn’t say that. Here’s her lab," Gretchen stopped and pointing to a two story building that seemed more like a house than a medical facility.
"This place?" Laz asked.
"She used to be in the medical wing of the main compound, until her bomb making resulted in the initial loss of said wing. Now she is out here, where she can blow herself up and not the rest of us," Gretchen grumbled, thinking of how expensive it was to rebuild and how troublesome since they had to do it themselves. It’s not like they could bring in contractors after all. Just securing the materials to do the work was a headache. Luckily, one member of the order used to be a structural engineer and loved to have something to do for a change.
"Fair enough. See you both tomorrow."
"Don’t let her cut your dick off. She will make a lot of girls very sad..." Gretchen said, walking off.
"She would make me very sad too," Laz said with a laugh before wondering just how serious Gretchen had been.
’Blood huh? Hmm... I feel like I’m forgetting something.... Ah well. Must not be too important,’ Laz thought as he opened up the front door and walked in.
