Chapter Thirteen: Two Skeletons
The rifle breech was hot. Lori had just had a shootout with Natasha, and now it was as if nothing had happened. Lori just sat on a tree stump a kilometer from the scene of the shooting, with her Karabiner 31 in her right hand and her destroyed cell phone in her left. Lori was still angry. She remembered exactly when she had Natasha in her sights and there could be a direct hit, just click and she was out of ammo. Lori opened the bolt and a cartridge case flew out. That surprised Lori. In fact, she was out of ammo. She picked up the rifle cartridge and looked at it. The rifle cartridge was sharp and shiny, fresh from the factory, ready to be fired. Lori loaded it into her Karabiner 31 and slid the slide shut. She put the K31 to her shoulder, aimed it at a tree, and pulled the trigger. There was a bang and Lori felt the typically strong kickback of the K31. The cartridge was sharp. And if that had worked in the shooting, the situation would be very different.
"Why didn't it work at the right moment?" Lori said angrily.
She opened the bolt and the cartridge case flew out. Lori put the K31 on her back with the leather strap and walked through the woods to her car. There she unlocked it, put the carbine 31 in her gun holster, got in, and drove home. Lori arrived home. She took the gun case and went into the house. There were Leni, Luna, and Lincoln in the living room. The three noticed that something was wrong.
"Is everything alright Lori?" Leni asked.
"No, it's not! I had a fight with Natasha!"
Lincoln now offered his help.
"If we can help you, I would..."
"I don't want your goddamn help!" yelled Lori, and went to her room.
In her room she went to the closet, and took out one of the white ammunition boxes. There was only one left, and that contained only six shots. That was enough to fully load the magazine. Lori took out the magazine and loaded it. When it was full, she put it back in the rifle. But Lori left the rifle bolt open. She put the carbine 31 back in the closet. She slowly realized that she and Natasha shot each other with live ammunition. Lori lay down on her bed and cried into her pillow.
Shortly before six o'clock in the morning, Natasha reached her home. Carrying her assault rifle 90 on her back, she slowly walked toward the house. She took out her key and entered. Natasha went to the kitchen and looked in the fridge. There was a chocolate cake. Natasha took it and started eating at the table. Her assault rifle was lying next to the cake. Her gaze fell on it again and again. Then she spoke to the assault rifle in a low voice.
"We should have shot better." Natasha continued to eat.
"Don't worry. I'll clean you afterwards. So that you're nice and clean again."
Natasha had eaten half the cake.
"Too bad I don't have any more ammunition. But don't worry, I'll get some."
Natasha now reached the last piece of the cake. She ate that too.
"You shoot beautifully in full auto. You are not just a gun. You are my gun."
Natasha heard footsteps. It was Mike.
"Why are you home so late? How did it go?"
"Good. It went well."
"I don't believe you Natasha."
"Fine. I had a fight with Lori." Mike didn't answer.
He went to the assault rifle and took out the empty magazine. He looked at the magazine. Now he got angry and approached Natasha.
"Tell me why is this magazine empty!" yelled Mike.
"We just made noise."
"Say the truth!"
"Fine! We shot at each other."
Mike grabbed Natasha by the collar and yelled at her.
"What's your malfunction?"
Natasha was immediately intimidated.
"Is Lori okay?" shouted Mike.
Natasha was frozen. Mike shook her.
"I said is Lori alright?"
"Yes." said Natasha.
"That is the truth?"
"Yes." whimpered Natasha.
Mike released her.
"I believe you. But I promise you, if Lori's hurt in any way, you've got a problem, Natasha Kira Stevenson."
Natasha nodded. When her father said Natasha's full name, he got really angry.
"Go to the bathroom and get the first aid kit."
"Why?"
"Because you have a graze wound on your neck."
Natasha clutched the left side of her neck. It hurt when she touched her neck. Natasha looked at her fingers. They were bloody. Natasha went into the bathroom and looked at her neck. There was a laceration on the left side from a bullet. There was a trail of blood running down her neck and there was blood all over the fabric of her T-shirt on the shoulder.
"We'll never be friends again, Lori."
Lori slept badly. She lay in bed for three hours, all the time thinking about the shootout with Natasha. When Lori finally fell asleep, it wasn't any better. She dreamed of two skeletons who were in a forest and shot at each other. One skeleton had an assault rifle 90. The other had a Karabiner 31. The two shot at each other. And when the skeleton tried to shoot the assault rifle again, the skeleton shot the other skeleton with the carbine. The skeleton was hit backwards and the skull was crushed. The skeleton with the Karabiner 31 opened the bolt, the rifle casing flew out, and the skeleton closed the bolt. Then it aimed the carbine at Lori, and fired. Lori startled and woke up. She rubbed her eyes. Lori could only think about the shooting all morning. It was no different in Vanzilla. And at school by the lockers, Lori was no better. Lori closed her locker and turned to Leni, Luna and Luan.
"Aren't you feeling better? We're worried about you." asked Luna.
"No."
"What happened anyway?" Leni asked.
"I do not want to talk about it."
Out of the corner of her eye, Lori saw a figure. She turned around, and at that very moment, she realized that Natasha grabbed her collar and was pushing against the lockers. Natasha looked tired and angry.
"Natasha! What the hell is wrong with you?" Lori asked aggressively.
"You ask me that? I got a gunshot wound on my neck because of you. And you left me in the woods. 12 fucking kilometers, over two hills I had to walk. It took me hours to get home. I have not slept , but I'm awake enough."
"I'm sorry. Really."
"Forget it Lori Loud. You lost a friend yesterday. I will never accept your apology."
Natasha let go of Lori and walked down the hallway to the classroom.
"Everything okay with you?" Luan asked.
"No."
"What happened that Natasha is so hostile to you anyway?" asked Luna.
"I don't want to talk about it. But it's my fault."
In Lori's class, which also included Carol, Fiona, Miguel, Jackie, Mandee, Becky, Dana, and Whitney, no one noticed that Lori was fighting with Natasha. The only thing that stood out was that Natasha kept mumbling something that sounded like AZ-5. When the teacher entered the classroom, he seemed excited.
"Very well dear students. I can solemnly announce that our camp for next week will be in the mountain woods of West Virginia." The class cheered.
"I was hoping it would be West Virginia. Whitney, you owe me ten bucks." said Carol maliciously.
"You'll get them later." replied Whitney.
"But don't forget to bring your luggage. In case you somehow get lost."
"Oh, nobody gets lost here." said Jackie.
At the Royal Woods Nuclear Power Plant, Mike entered block one, and walked down the corridor to the control room. Halfway through, however, he was intercepted by Claire.
"What are you doing in block one, Claire?" Mike asked confused.
"Hello to you too. Miller gave me sick leave. But that's beside the point. You have to come to the emergency control room immediately."
Mike nodded.
Mike took every request to enter the emergency control room seriously. In the emergency control room of block one it was restless. The displays flashed and Miller was on the phone.
"Equipment is booting up. We'll take control in two minutes."
"What's going on here?" asked Mike.
"Rivera and Chevalier have gone a bit too far. We have to placate them both." said Claire.
"And how do you want to do that?" "Program thirteen."
"Huh?"
"This is a simulation program that you can't solve. Control room one can also function as a simulator. As soon as program thirteen starts, the simulation is heading for a core meltdown. And you can't prevent it."
"And do you want to achieve that?"
"We designed the rosters so there's only two of Chevalier and Rivera in control room one. Think of it like, 'Oh no, the reactor core is going to melt.' 'Celeste I love you.' 'I love you too.' And then hopefully there will be a kiss."
"Was that your idea?" Mike asked confused.
"Yes."
"That was my idea too." Said Miller, just hanging up the phone.
"And my." said a worker.
"And who else had the idea?"
Then all fifteen workers responded in the emergency control room.
"We all!"
Mike put his hand on his face.
"I work with crazy people."
An acoustic signal sounded. Now control of the reactor core in an emergency was the control room. The normal control room has been set to simulator. A loudspeaker heard what was being said in the main control room. Mike listened. Rivera entered the control room.
"Why are there only two people here?" Rivera asked.
Sven from the morning shift answered.
"We're short staffed. Stevenson is ill and the rest isn't feeling well either. Chevalier was sent here by Principal Carlson."
"When is Chevalier coming?"
"Every moment."
After a few minutes, Chevalier entered the control room.
"Good morning. Why are there so few people here?"
"Failures. The backup team is coming soon." answered Sven.
"Morning shift end." said a worker.
Sven and the worker left the control room. Rivera and Chevalier were now completely alone in the control room. The silence was uncomfortable. They hardly looked at each other. It was obvious that the two were extremely shy. Half an hour later signals and alarms went off.
"What's going on there?" Rivera asked.
Chevalier went to the LED display. When Chevalier looked at it, her skin turned white.
"Cooling Leak! Cooling Leak! SCRAM!"
Rivera ran to a button cover that said SCRAM in red letters. The cover was secured with a red wax seal. Rivera removed the cover, exposing the rotary switch. He turned the switch 90 degrees. An indicator lit up. This glowed red and it said SCRAM on it. Then a lot of alarms went off. Two indicators flashed, which no reactor operator wants to see. Both are red, and located next to the SCRAM indicator. The two displays read ATWS, and the second read CONTROL RODS STUCK. Rivera and Chevalier took two steps back. The control rod indicators lit red. More alarms went off. Chevalier looked at the pressure gauge. 72 bar was the maximum in operation. Now the pressure was at 104 bar, and it continued to rise. Reactor power continued to increase. The maximum of 3600 megawatts was exceeded. The reactor core released more than energy. Chevalier took Rivera's hand. The power increased to 5794 megawatts.
"I love you Frank."
The power increased to 12748 megawatts.
"I love you Celeste."
The pressure reached 209 bar. And when the power reached 16748 megawatts, all the lights went out. The displays, which were supplied with emergency power, all showed the same thing. 0000 megawatts. 0000 bar pressure. It was immediately clear to Rivera and Chevalier that disaster was now afoot. Chevalier hugged Rivera and cried.
"No! No! That can't be true." sobbed Chevalier.
"We must evacuate immediately." Rivera said.
"We must start at the turbine hall."
Rivera nodded.
Before the two left the control room, Chevalier said something she had been wanting to say for a long time.
"Frank. If I survive this I want to marry you."
"Me too Celeste."
As the two left the control room, Miller, Mike, Claire, Sven, Walter from the warehouse and many other people from the nuclear plant stood in front of the two and clapped.
"You needed a catastrophe for you to tell each other." Miller said.
Rivera and Chevalier looked at each other. Then the two realized what was going on.
"Program thirteen." the two said at the same time.
"Come on. You two go to the canteen and we'll go back to normal here." said Sven.
Rivera and Chevalier nodded and walked down the hall to the canteen in the main building. Mike and Claire looked after the two and noticed how the two were holding hands.
"I want something like that too." said Claire.
"You slept in my bed. You already have more than both of them." said Mike.
Claire took Mike's hand.
"And yet I hold your hand now."
Mike looked at Claire.
"And I don't mind."
The two hugged and entered control room one to put it back into normal operation. Mike looked around. It was hard to believe that this room was simulating the worst that could ever happen.
By mid-afternoon, Lori and her sisters were leaving high school. Carol approached her on the way to the parking lot.
"Lori! The police found a body in the woods."
"How do you mean?"
"See for yourself."
Carol gave Lori her cell phone and Lori started reading the report.
"On Monday morning, a passer-by found a body. The man was identified as Josef M. The police suspect that it was an ambush. The police found several gunshot wounds in his body. The caliber is still being determined, experts suspect that it the caliber is 7.62 39 mm or 7.5 55 mm Swiss. Josef M. was a father and leaves behind a wife and three children."
Lori saw Josef M.'s passport photo and shuddered. That was the man who met Lori and Natasha in the woods. She handed the phone back to Carol. She tried to appear calm. 7.555mm Swiss was the caliber that Lori shot with. During the shooting with Natasha, a bullet may have gone through the woods and hit the man. Lori stayed calm until she was home in her room and the door closed. Lori ran around her room in a panic.
"I killed him! I killed him!"
Lori didn't know what to do. She threw herself onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. Leni came into the room at the worst possible time.
"OMG Lori! You alright?"
"No!" Lori said annoyed.
"Did Bobby break up with you?"
"No Leni!"
Lori remembered now that she hadn't called Bobby since her cell phone was destroyed. Lori stood up.
"Leni, you are a genius."
Lori took some money out of her piggy bank, her old SIM card, which was intact, and went outside to her car.
Natasha entered her home. In her backpack was a suitcase with a new Glock 17. She was still mad at Lori. Natasha kept thinking about the situation in the forest when she saw Lori through the diopter. In the living room, Mike and Claire were sitting on the couch.
"Hi Tasha." said Mike.
"Hi Natasha." said Claire.
"Don't talk to me Claire." said Natasha, and went to her room.
Natasha took out the case with the Glock 17, put it in her pants pocket where the pistol was not visible, and tried to pull it out and pull the trigger as quickly as possible. Natasha looked in one of her mirrors to see if she was doing it right. Natasha noticed that she gained weight. She changed her clothes to black pants, and a white sweater with pink sleeves. Natasha looked at herself. Her stomach hung slightly over her belt and her sweater didn't cover a small part. Natasha pulled the sweater down.
"Damn. I've gained weight again. And why do I have such horrible clothes?"
She Put the Glock 17 back in the case.
In the electronics store, Lori bought an iPhone 13 Mini in red. She set up the iPhone in her car, inserted the SIM card and called Bobby. Bobby answered the call immediately.
"Hi Lori. Why did you ignore my calls?"
"I didn't boo boo bear but my phone broke.
"It's nice to hear your voice. I miss being with you and your hair."
"You miss my hair but not me?"
"Oh Lori. Of course I miss you. I just like your hair."
"You're weird. I love you."
Lori twisted a strand of hair around her left index finger.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."
"No Bobby. That's my problem. I shouldn't take my anger out on you."
The two said nothing. It was a comfortable silence.
"Bobby, I have something to do. Is it okay if I call you tomorrow?"
"You can call me anytime."
"Thank you. Bye. I love you."
"I love you too."
Lori hung up. She put her iPhone 13 in her pocket and started the engine. Lori drove through Royal Woods with no real destination. At some point she was at the edge of the forest where Hickhok's house stood. Lori remembered how she and Natasha got their guns back then. She got out and went into the garden. Lori saw Hickok shooting at targets like watermelons or filled two-liter bottles with an old rifle. Hickhok lap, and turned to a table where ammunition lay. He saw Lori and took off his hearing protection.
"Hi." said Lori.
"Hi. I was just about to reload. Believe me, this is something great. I'm holding a real German Mauser in my hand. The Mauser 98k, the German WWII rifle. Enough chatter, what brings you here?"
"I accidentally shot the man in the woods."
"Oh stop kidding. It wasn't you."
"Why do you think? I was in the woods and I shot. A bullet could have flown through the woods and hit him."
Lori wiped a tear from her cheek. Hickhok put his Mauser on the table and went to Lori.
"I remember every rifle I've sold. You have a Karabiner 31. And I knew immediately that it must be your first gun. I'm 72 years old, I know my stuff. Where did you shoot?"
"I was two kilometers from the valley at Creek Hill. Below the valley."
"That makes it impossible. The record for the most distant hit with the Karabiner 31 was about a kilometer. My cop colleague told me it was found two valleys up from Creek Hill. That's thirteen kilometers away. He was also shot with a different caliber. The perpetrator used a Russian caliber, which is used by the AK-47. You have an exotic caliber, 7,5 55 mm Swiss with the Gewehrpatrone 11. It wasn't you. Don't panic."
A stone fell from Lori's heart.
"Oh. Gosh. I was so stressed out. Thanks Hickhok."
"No problem. By the way, one of your friends was here. The slightly overweight one."
"Okay. What was she doing here?"
"She had bought a Glock 17, a pistol that is easy to conceal and good for self-defense."
Lori got restless. Natasha was always armed with it. She now had to bring the balance of power back into balance.
"Have you got some boxes of the Gewehrpatrone 11 here?" asked Lori.
"Yes. Wait a minute."
Hickhok disappeared into his house, and shortly afterwards came back with some boxes.
There were twelve.
Lori bought them all and was about to go to her car when she heard Hickhok say something else.
"Hey girl."
Lori turned around.
"Yes?"
"Life is good."
Lori smiled and nodded. She went to her car and put the boxes in the trunk. Then she drove of. Lori reached her home. She packed the boxes of ammo into her backpack and went inside. In the living room were Rita, Leni, Lola and Lana, and Lily. Lily waved at Lori and crawled over to her. Lori picked Lily up and Lily hugged her.
"I love you too Lily."
"Where have you been?" asked Rita.
"I went makeup shopping."
"I see."
Lori went upstairs to her room with Lily. She sat Lily on her bed and put the backpack in front of the closet. Lori sat next to Lily. Lori had been feeling dirty since the night before and she needed to get it off her chest.
"Lily, I have to tell someone what happened. Otherwise my feelings will tear me apart." Lily looked at her questioningly.
"Me and Natasha had a fight yesterday. And that fight ended in a shootout."
Lily looked at her.
"And my phone was destroyed too. I had to buy a new one today. Also, you heard I told Mom I bought makeup. That was a lie. I bought gun ammo."
Lily crawled over to Lori and hugged her.
"Thanks for your support Lily."
Lori rubbed Lily's back. Lori felt a tickle, and the next moment Lily had her iPhone in her hand. Lori took it from Lily, noting that Lily somehow got on the WhatsApp chat with Natasha. Lori saw the last message Natasha had sent about three days ago. It was a link from a youtube video. Natasha had written something on it.
"It's a short film from BBC Worldwide in 1997."
The video was titled, The Goiânia Incident Disaster (old).
"Yes. We were both friends then." Lori stood up.
"I'm going to take a quick shower. I'll be right back."
Lori walked out of her room with her sleepwear in hand. Lily crawled over to Lori's phone and started tapping the screen. Then Lily opened Natasha's link and the video started. A man sat on a chair and told something. But Lily didn't understand the language. The language sounded strange to her. She saw two men stealing something from an old house. Lily kept looking. At some point, Lily saw a girl playing with a powder that glowed blue. Then the girl got sick. Towards the end of the video, footage of a funeral was shown. Lily became confused and sad. At the end of the video she saw yellow containers with a red icon on them. There was ominous music playing. As Lily watched the credits, Lori walked into her room freshly showered in her nightwear. She saw Lily on her bed and went to her. Lori took out her phone and looked at what Lily was looking at.
"Goiania accident. Lily you shouldn't watch that stuff! I haven't even watched it myself!"
Lily pointed to Lori's phone.
"Shall I watch the video?"
Lily nodded. Lori sat down next to Lily on her bed and was about to start the video when Leni walked in. Leni immediately noticed that Lori wanted to look at something and became curious.
"Oh. Movie night. What are you two watching?" Leni asked happily.
"Lily was watching a video. I'm going to watch it now."
"May I as well?"
Lori nodded. Leni lay down next to Lori and the three watched the video. Lori read the subtitle for Lily. A man came, sitting on a chair and talking something in Portuguese. Then the scene changed. The subtitle said, "Goiânia, Brazil, 1987." In the beginning, two burglars stole a gray metal container. Lori noticed that it was obviously about the glowing blue powder from the container. In one scene, a man gave the powder to his daughter during dinner, and the daughter played with the powder and continued to eat. As the film progressed, more and more people got sick. Then one of the burglars was in the hospital. And the other burglar got sick too. Then the girl got sick. She had a large gray spot on her chest.
"What happens there?" Leni asked.
"I don't know. But that can't possibly have happened in real life." said Lori.
Toward the end, the scrap dealer's wife took the container to a doctor, and said, "It's killing my family".
Then scientists appeared. Lori realized that the blue glowing powder was highly radioactive. The girl had played with it, not washed her hands, and then eaten. Then came footage of a funeral. Lori and Leni started to sob. An ominous music played. More footage was shown. Of people in hazmat suits collecting samples from the ground. As the credits roll, the ominous music played and yellow containers with the radioactive warning sign on them could be seen. Lori and Leni had seen many sad films, but this was the saddest.
"Why did she have to go like that? She was only six." Leni Said while crying.
"And the poor girl had really seen it."
Lily was crying too. The story of the two burglars and the scrap dealer's family was real. Lori noted the girl's name. Leide das Neves Ferreira. Lori and Leni hugged Lily.
"That won't happen to you." said Lori.
Lily stopped crying.
"I hope Lily doesn't get nightmares from this." said Leni.
"I hope so too. Lily, are you scared?" Lily nodded.
"Are you very scared?"
Lily shook her head.
"Luckily you're not too scared."
Lily yawned.
"I'll put her to bed." said Lori, and went to her room with Lily.
She put Lily in her crib and covered her up.
"Lily, if you're having trouble sleeping, call me." Lily nodded.
"Good night Lily. Lori stroked Lily's cheek and walked out of the room, leaving the door ajar. Lily snuggled into her purple blanket and fell asleep after a few minutes. She had, although she had seen the film about the Goiania incident, Nice dreams.
Natasha played Horizon Zero Dawn on her Playstation 4. Natasha played aggressively and slaughtered all the machines. She paused the game.
"Even that doesn't bring me down."
Natasha got up and walked in a circle.
"Even though I'm at loggerheads with Lori, I don't think she killed that man. Besides, she doesn't have a Russian caliber. There's someone else involved."
There was a knock on Natasha's door and Claire looked inside.
"Hey, I'm going home now and wanted to say goodbye to you." said Claire.
"Oh. Thanks I guess."
Claire was about to leave, but Natasha said something else.
"If you weren't my father's girlfriend, we'd probably be good friends."
"Probably yes."
Claire left Natasha's room and closed the door. Natasha sat down on her bed. She thought about Lori again, and the day they met. Natasha started talking to herself again.
"Actually, I should have known that you were hurting me. I should have known. Friends, no way. I should have learned all these years before that no one wants me around. It's my own fault."
End of Chapter thirteen