Without Law, page 15
“Yeah,” Anna said, and both Paige and Bailey nodded.
“So pair up again. Practice stepping on the other person’s foot while grabbing their elbow and then cutting them on the face. Do it like this so you aren’t punching each other.” I took the foam knife from Tara and then brushed it across her face quickly. “Not with enough force to hurt each other. I just want you all to get used to the movements. It will hurt them plenty when you do it with a real knife.”
The women split up into pairs again, and I paced between them for fifteen minutes while I corrected their movements. When I thought they all had the hang of it, I told them to line up again and I moved back in front of them.
“If you can’t get to the face, the inner thigh is a good place to get them. You can actually start it with the same movement of stepping on their foot. Bailey, can you come up here?
“Sure,” she said as she smiled shyly at me and walked forward.
“I’m going to show you what to do really slowly and gently, but then you are going to do it to me full force,” I said as I took her practice knife. “First, I’ll step on your right foot with my left, then I’ll push on your shoulder like this.”
I did as I said, and the motion forced her to gasp and step back with her left foot.
“Notice how she couldn’t step back with both feet?” I asked everyone else. “That’s because I’m stepping on her foot. Now look at the way she’s kind of lunging back. See how her inner thigh of her right leg is exposed?”
“Yeah,” Paige said. “That’s where her femoral artery is.”
“You got that right, smarty pants,” I laughed. “That’s a major artery, so you just stab there and…” my voice trailed off as I stabbed the foam into Bailey’s inner thigh. “...yank down. This will cut the artery, and a bunch of nerves, and they will faint in half a minute. Then die in another few minutes if they don’t get medical attention.”
“Damn,” Tara said. “That’s fucking serious.”
“Yep,” I said as I passed the foam pipe insulation back to Bailey. “Try it on me.”
“Uhh, okay,” Bailey said, and then she gently stepped on my foot, and nudged me on the shoulder.
“No,” I laughed. “A bit harder. Press forward with your foot and push more.”
“I don’t want to hur--”
“I’m a big boy,” I laughed. “I’ll be fine. I want you all to practice on me because these gang member assholes are big men. So you all need to get used to throwing your smaller weight at them. Go for it.”
“Okay,” she said, and then she leaned forward more on my foot and pushed me hard enough to make me stagger back.
“Now stab me in the inner thigh. High as you can get.”
“Eeeee.” This was totally out of the flower-child’s wheelhouse, but she still slammed the foam tube into my leg in the right spot.
“Good!” I said. “Try it again from the start.”
“Okay,” Bailey said, and then she took her foot off mine, stepped back a bit, and then stepped on my foot once more, shoved me with her shoulder, and then stabbed me in the inner thigh.
“Again,” I said, and she did so.
After Bailey had gone ten times. I told the women to all take a turn with me. Each one made ten attempts, before I switched to the next one, and we repeated the set three times before I thought they all had a good grasp of the movement.
“You all are doing great,” I said.
“Are we going to talk about the third rule of knife fighting now?” Anna asked.
“Yep,” I said. “Third rule is that you switch hands.”
The four women looked at me with confusion, and I laughed before I gestured for Paige to step up to me.
“Hold the knife in your left hand,” I said as I pointed at her hands.
“Okay?” Paige asked as she switched from right to left.
“Now hold it in your right,” I instructed.
“Yeah?” she asked as she raised a pretty eyebrow in confusion.
“Switch again,” I said, and she did so.
“I don’t get it,” she said.
“Keep switching until I say so,” I said, and I let her do it a few more times.
“When do I sto--”
“That’s good,” I said as I motioned for her to stop. “Now I want you to try to stab me, and I’m going to try to stop you. If I manage to grab your wrist, or your arm, or anything, just switch hands and then cut my arm, or, hand, or wrist that is holding you, or cut my face if you get a chance. Understand?”
“I think so,” she said with a nod.
“Don’t forget to switch hands. Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” she squeaked.
“Don’t hold back,” I said. “Really go for it. You aren’t going to hurt me. Go!”
Paige shuffled forward and thrust her practice knife out into my stomach. She wasn’t trained for combat, of course, so her movement was slow and telegraphed. I managed to step back out of the way, and she took another step forward to try to stab me again. This time I reached down to grab her wrist, but she had expected the movement, so she lifted her practice knife up at the last second to try to smack it against me. I moved my hand away, but she took another step to close the distance before she stabbed at me again.
In reality, I could have just slugged her across the face to end the fight, but I had years of combat training, and I could ignore a knife in someone’s hand and focus on the larger objective of taking them down first. However, plenty of men and women I’d served with weren’t Rangers, and they tended to tunnel vision on the danger of a knife or a gun barrel. They wouldn’t know what to do if someone came at them with a knife besides try to stop the blade from stabbing them. I’d seen hundreds of knife defense moves, and everyone but the most elite of warriors tended to get distracted by a knife, and they all did the same thing: they tried to address the blade instead of the threat of their enemy.
Most people would try to grab the arm with the knife, and that’s why the best knife fighters in the world all knew to switch hands.
I reached out to grab Paige’s right arm with my left hand. My movement was successful, but almost before I could react again, she’d switched the knife to her left hand, and then slashed my left wrist. Then I tried to reach her with my other hand, but she’d then stabbed me in the left elbow and the chest when I tried to get close.
“Good!” I said as I stepped back. “See how that worked?”
“Yeah!” Paige gasped as she looked down at her foam tube.
“Knives are really scary up close,” I said. “I’m trained, but I can’t really stop someone with a bit of blade practice that knows how to switch hands.”
“What if they grab both your wrists?” Anna asked.
“That’s part of the reason that you want to slash at their first grabbing arm as soon as you switch, but let’s assume that I grab both your wrists at the same time. Let me show you.”
Paige went back into the line, and Anna came up. She held her knife in her right hand, and I grabbed both of her wrists, and then turned so I could show the other three girls.
“This looks tougher because I outweigh her and have both of her arms under my control, but in reality, you still have the knife and the advantage.”
“So what do I do?” Anna asked.
“Depends on what you make me do,” I laughed. “You have the blade pointed upward in your hand. You can try to force your arm up and cut my forearm. Try it.”
Anna tensed and then tried to force her arm up so that the blade she held could cut into my arm, but even though she was strong, I was way stronger, and her arm didn’t move.
“Uhh that doesn’t work,” the redhead spat as her eyes narrowed at me.
“Nope,” I laughed. “It’s because I’m way stronger than you.”
“No, shit, how about--”
“Try this,” I said. “You want to push the knife up into my arm, but instead of doing that, pull your arms down and away from me first, and then push the knife up into my arm when you feel me fight against you.”
Anna did as I asked, and pulled her arms down, I tried to resist her movement, and I did, but by doing so I pulled up on her arms, and she instantly reversed the tension and was instantly able to bring the knife up so that it slammed into my wrist.
“See?” I asked.
“How did that work?” Tara asked.
“He resisted me by pulling in the opposite direction, but then I just used his momentum to get him,” Anna answered as her pretty lips spread into a smile. “It’s smart.”
“Chances are your opponent will be focusing on the knife,” I said, “and they will forget that you can kick, bite, and move. Be a force of chaos if someone grabs you and don’t forget to switch hands. Chances are you all won’t get into a double wrist hold like this, since you’ll be good at rules number one and number two, but why don’t you all practice with me so you get used to tricking someone with your weight shift.”
The women all took turns with me grabbing both their wrists. It only took them a few tries to get the hang of shifting their body weight to make me over commit to either pulling or pushing them, and then they either managed to stab me, or break out of my hold. Their skills still needed a lot of refinement, and they most definitely couldn’t go toe to toe with someone that had combat training, but they were now way deadlier than they were before we had started the brief training session.
“We are going to practice some stabbing,” I said as I walked over to the red brick wall of the dorm building and pulled a piece of chalk out of my backpack. “I’m going to draw two silhouettes about my size, and you each are going to spend five or ten minutes taking turns getting used to stabbing the vital points. The reason I’m drawing them on the wall is because you have to get used to stabbing or cutting up into a man’s face. It’s not a very natural movement.”
The women watched me trace two crude models on the wall, and then I gestured for Paige to hand me her foam knife. She did so, and then I palmed it against my leg, stepped up to the wall as if it was a person I was trying to keep from seeing the blade, pulled the weapon out, and then stabbed them twice in the face and once in the stomach. The foam tube collapsed each time I stabbed it into the wall, but the tape I had wrapped around it kept the material from getting ruined.
“Understand?” I asked the women, and the four of them nodded as I handed Paige back her training knife.
The women all took turns attacking the wall, and after ten minutes, it really looked like they knew what they were doing. None of them were pulling their stabs at all, and even Bailey looked like she would totally gut anyone who tried to touch her.
I let them go another five minutes, and then I called a rest, and we all gathered around and took a few sips of water.
“Tara, what is the first rule?” I asked.
“Oh shit,” the princess groaned as she bit her lip. “Uhhh, don’t let them see it?”
“Yep,” I said, and she let out a sigh of relief.
“Bailey, what is the second?” I asked the blue eyed hippy.
“Go for the face,” she answered as she scrunched up her nose.
“Yep,” I said. “Paige, what is the third?”
“Switch hands,” the brunette answered as she smiled at me.
“You all did great,” I said as I gestured to the knives they had in their belts. “We don’t need to do it now, but spend some time everyday drawing the knives quickly from the sheaths. Eventually, we’ll all have sidearms, and then rifles, but for now, we just have the blades, so you want to make yourselves really comfortable with them.”
“So,” Anna quizzed. “What if we don’t have our knives? Like we dropped it, or someone wrestled it away?”
“Then fucking fight,” I said.
“Fight?” the redhead asked with a bit of confusion.
“Yep,” I said as I pointed to the ground near me. “Come here. I want you all to fight. Even if you don’t know how. Kick, punch, claw. Whatever.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Have you ever been in a brawl?” I asked her as she took a fighting stance in front of me.
“I took boxing with my brother for a couple of years,” she informed me, and I lifted a brow in response as she stood with her weight evenly distributed, left arm up protecting her face, and right arm ready to strike.
“This is sort of like that, but the key is disabling your opponent as quickly as possible. So, if I come at you--” I bounced forward and to my surprise Anna took a swing, but I danced out of the way before it could connect.
“Jesus, Anna,” Bailey drawled, impressed by the redhead’s form.
“Not bad,” I said with a smirk. Then I sank into a fighting pose of my own as I squared off with the sporty girl. “Try that again.”
This time, Anna came at me with a forward strike that I deflected with my right hand, but she was quick with a cross hook that narrowly missed my jaw. I pushed her back with a series of fake blows that she effectively blocked, but when she tried for an uppercut, I grabbed her by the wrist, bent her arm around, and spun her around until her back was against my chest. Once in this position, I had her arm wrapped around herself, and she had nowhere to go.
“You’re stuck, what do you do now, Anna?” I whispered in her ear.
The fiery redhead struggled against me and for the first time I felt the strength of that firm, muscled body. Her backside ground against my lower abdomen, and I bit my tongue as a jolt of longing spread through my groin. That’s when she nailed me right in the gut with an elbow, and I released her at once with a strained laugh. She rotated around and tried to sucker punch me, but I backed up and threw my hands up.
“Woah,” I said and laughed again. “Easy there, killer.”
“Sorry.” She shook out her arms, rolled her shoulders, and brushed some of that silken red hair from her face. “Today has me all worked up.”
“The move you did, elbowing me in the gut, that was perfect.” I turned and looked at the others. “If someone attacks you from behind that is a great tactic.”
“That’s was awesome,” Tara said as she admired the redhead with raised brows.
“Paige?” I called out and motioned her to come forward.
The mousy brunette hesitated but then stood up and walked over to where I patiently waited. I stood with my back to her and positioned her arms around me until I was in the same position she had been in earlier.
“If someone ever grabs you like this again, I want you to…” I explained as I pretended to stomp her foot and then slung my right arm backward toward the juncture of her thighs. “You want to disable your attacker, remember that.”
“I think I get it,” she said.
“Just struggle,” I said. “Most people aren’t trained to fight, so go crazy on them. Use your nails on their face. Scream. Punch. Kick. Whatever. Ideally, we’ll all have guns, and you will know how to shoot, but make sure you keep the knives on you all the time. Got it?”
The women all nodded.
“Damn, this day went fast,” I said as I glanced at the setting sun. “I’m going to grab some bear meat. We’ll cook it with the rabbit. You practice the knife stuff a bit more.”
I gave them one last grin and left them to practice before I headed back for the dorms.
We had done a lot in the last few days but this had been truly fun. Perhaps we would work melee practice into our daily routine. It would only help to strengthen what had been taught today and build up the muscle memory that would help in case of a fight.
I gathered the meat, some spices, a can of beans, and a large pan to cook up a simple but filling meal. As I made my way across campus, I let out a groan as I could already feel my muscles grow sore. It had truly been a while since I had really been fully active, and it seemed that it was time to start a new workout routine to get myself back in shape again.
I set the pan on the fire and waited for it to heat before tossing on the meat. I added a liberal amount of garlic salt, cumin, and basil. As the meat started to brown I opened the can of beans and dumped it over the top. I stirred the whole thing together with a spatula to ensure nothing burned.
The smell of the meat as it sizzled in the pan started to draw the others to the fire. The girls all looked as sore and run down as I felt.
“The ground is so far down there. Why haven't we brought out any chairs?” Bailey said with a groan.
“I don’t know, I think I prefer the grass over those stupid plastic chairs,” Paige muttered.
“You know, we could build some chairs out here,” Rolly said as he joined us.
“Can we, like, do it soon?” Tara asked as she splayed out on the ground.
“I don’t see why not,” I said as I stirred the food.
“Ugh, you know what we really need? Weed,” the blond hippie said as she ran a hand through her hair.
“You really just like playing into those stereotypes don’t you?” Paige asked with a smirk.
“What year do you think you’re living in Paige?” Anna asked. “Everyone smokes weed now.”
“She’s right,” Tara chimed in. “I totes enjoy blazing trees, and it would totally make me feel so relaxed right now.”
“It would also impair your decision-making skills,” I pointed out. “As nice as it might feel, especially after a day of hard work and training, it is not a good idea in a survival situation so best left for special occasions.”
“Like, right now?” Tara asked.
“Guess it’s good I’m out then,” Bailey laughed. “Maybe if we find some seeds, we could grow some…”
“Well, it’s no weed but I have another surprise for all of you,” I said with a grin. “Might even help us all relax a bit.”
“Well you are just full of surprises today, aren't you?” Anna asked.
“Yeah, but this one you might like more than the last,” I said before I set down the bottle of vodka.
“No, fucking, way!” She said.
“Omigod yes!” Tara exclaimed.
“Where did you manage to get that?” Paige asked.
“Found some really good stuff when I was in town today,” I said. “This being one of the best.”
