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# <center> Up Close and Personal </center>
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Everyone turned to look at the pony. Except for me and Bubba. I thought of the black panther kitten as Bubba in my mind. He was a Cyber-cat. The little horse was a Cyber-pony. I had a ThumBrain. The two cyber-animals were linked together via wifi and so was I. The pony had dropped an info-dump on Bubba just before it died. I knew this because, oddly enough the ThumBrain hanging from the torque around my neck picked it up too, and squirted it right into my brain.
Bubba-cat shot out the door like a tomahawk missile. I was right behind him. I was trying, and against all expectations, I was succeeding, in keeping up. A normal house cat can run over thirty miles per hour if it’s in a hurry. Bubba wasn’t normal, he can run MUCH faster and he was in a BIG hurry. No way in HELL could I run that fast…but I was. It had to be those damn bionic legs that had been giving me so much trouble lately. Something was really strange but I didn’t have time to worry about it just then. We had a young girl to save.
That cat passed Trog in a flash, just as he launched a swarm of drones. I was right there with the kitten. Little did I know it at the time but every damn customer from the restaurant was a galloping after us…they were pretty far back, and not going NEAR as fast. Me and that cat, we was hauling ass.
I tuned in automagically to the drone flight. My thumbrain streamed video from them. A mile or so ahead of us, just over the next hill, was a mob of Jihadis. I had no idea what flavor they were. They had a young girl, the pony's rider, one of Rosetta’s grand chillen,bent over the tailgate of a pickup. They were raping her, some were even standing in line waiting their turn.
I found out later that the little girl had been out riding her pony and they had ambushed her, before she could get off a shot. The fact that a young girl should be out enjoying herself with no male supervision had enraged them, like as not. That she had a weapon caused them to go berserk. They weren’t just rapeing her they were beating her too, looked like they were intent on killing her.
We had to stop em.
The drones got there first...barely. They were just surveillance drones with no weapons. Still..they packed a punch when they plowed into a head at top speed. The raps on the heads distracted the Jihadis until Bubba ripped right into them full bore. He caught them completely by surprise. He literally caught many of them with their pants down. Too bad for them. They tried to shoot him. Shooting each other often as not. Bubba was a hard cat to catch, much less hold, in the cross hairs. The jihadis didn’t even USE cross hairs or any other kind of sights. They didn’t aim, they’d just spray and pray. Bubba didn’t stay still for an instant, just slash and dash.
I was right there with him. This was up close and personal time. Just perfect for a battle-ax, and that’s what I had, gotta love that smoke pole’s ability to transform. The fog around the end of the diamond core flattened out and grew edges. It became a double bitted one handed ax. A really damn sharp one too and electrified with lethal voltage.
In the other hand I had a pistol. Here come ‘da JUDGE. Raging Judge that is, loaded with .454 Casull, wielded by a raging trucker.
I had the element of surprise, and I was lightly armored. I started chopping. I’d save the pistol for special needs. It had a limited number of bullets and I damn sure wasn’t going to be able to reload. The axe, however, wasn’t so constrained.
I wasn’t wearing my duster, it was much too warm for that. I did, however, have on a poncho. I’d had Trog modify it for cooling. It was also ballistic protection, much the same way as the duster only lighter weight. It was protecting me, mostly, but this was pretty much point blank range. It’s damn hard to stop a bullet when it’s fired from close up. I was getting hammered but the bullets had lost much of their punch. They were hitting me…but they weren’t killing me...right a way.
I kept chopping.
I could hear em yelling at the top of their lungs. We’d demoralized them. They were screaming to boost their courage.
Aloha SnackBar! Aloha SnackBar!
Over and Over. So that identified them. They weren’t Radical Feminists. They was also screaming something about evil devil women from hell..or some silly thing. The onliest female I saw was Rosetta’s great granddaughter..and she didn’t look too well. Actually she looked kinda dead. It looked like the Jihadis had raped her to death.
Never give up hope.
I had to save her if I could. She might only look dead. She might still be alive. I ignored the bullets and kept choppin’. The Jihadis kept shooting and one out of ten, maybe, hit me. I felt like I was being repeatedly hit by a baseball bats but I kept on.
Me and that cat hit them Jihadis like avenging angels or the wrath of God…or rather…since I am an agnostic…their ass was grass and we were lawn mowers. I used that ax like a meat cleaver. My clawed feet gave me really good traction (_I had clawed feet? I didn’t used to have clawed feet...I did NOW! They looked like fighting rooster feet with spurs!_) and I put some force behind those swings. If anyone pointed a gun at me I shot em in the face.
I waded into them swinging right and left, kicking, slashing and shooting. There is no such thing as fighting dirty. The only way to fight is to fight to win. It’s a binary solution set…win or die.
I tried really hard not to die. I was right in the middle of them. It was a target rich environment. I could shoot, stomp, slash or chop in any direction and get one or more of them. All I had to do was look out for the kitten. That cat didn’t take much looking out for, he could look out for himself. He didn’t look much like a Jihadi either, it was easy to tell them apart. He was purtier and didn’t smell half as bad. So that part was pretty easy. They, on the other hand, shot each other about half the time. There was, however, a great many of them. We must have surprised an army or something.
Deja Vu all over again…this was worse than Chile. The claws on my feet and the ax in my hand didn’t need any ammo. The Judge did. When it ran dry I just dropped it. It made a poor club and I definitely didn’t have time to reload.
I reconfigured the axe, and got a firm grip with both hands. The handle was longer, I got some SERIOUS force multiplication and range. I proceeded to do some serious chopping. I’m a big old boy. Those claws on my feet gave me good traction. I put my heart and soul into those swings. Arms, legs, even heads went flying. Who ever I hit with that diamond sharp axe went to pieces.
A swarm of lions and tigers arrived about then…Bubba’s kinfolk had come to the party. Bubba was no longer the only big cat tearing the Jihadis throats out with his teeth, while ripping their guts out with his claws.
About that time my luck run out. Suddenly, with no recollection of what happened, I was flat on my back. Bubba was standing over me screaming his battle cry. We was looking up the barrel of an AK-47 that a terrorist was pointing at us.
The terrorist grinned, then his head exploded.
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## <center> ***To Be Continued*** </center>
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<center> I hope you are enjoying this
[Yarn]( https://classteaching.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/spinning-a-pedagogical-yarn-the-role-of-storytelling-in-the-classroom/)
http://public-domain.zorger.com/samantha-at-the-worlds-fair/three-hobos-in-rags-bums-chat-story-teller-friends-bff-three-of-a-kind.png
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If you are just now discovering this story and want to read it from the start
it begins [here](https://steemit.com/writing/@everittdmickey/ride-the-lightning-episode-1)
Perhaps you might also enjoy
[Other Books](https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00DXISW74)
that I have written.
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***AND***
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Follow me @everittdmickey
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So Come on Down!
Sit a spell.
I got the Coffee on.
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__Disclaimer__
All Images and GIFs are hot-linked to the sites where google found them.
I assume that they are posted on the internet to be looked at.
If the owners don’t want them to be looked at
they shouldn’t put them on display.
There’s an old saying:
_Bare it and we’ll all share it_
So we are.
They can take them down any time.
I’m just providing links...I didn’t copy the images.
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The Badges are graciously provided by @elyaque
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