Children of Steel by John Van Stry

and her legs in
a scissors lock.
    She struggled for a few seconds, then the
glazed look left her eyes.
    "Finished?" I asked.
    "One of these days I'm going to get you." she
replied with a snarl.
    "Probably, but why don't you wait till you're
stronger and know how?"
    "Let me up, please?"
    "Truce?"
    "Only if you keep your hands to yourself."
she was still kind of snarling the words.
    "Hey, I kept to my side!"
    "How do I know you didn't pull me over?"
    "Easy, what contagious skin condition is all
over your back?"
    Her eyes widened as I finished, "and now my
chest?" I got up and helped her to her feet. "And another thing,
when you've got a good grip like that, you shouldn't let go." I
looked at my wrist, it was bleeding but not too bad.
    "I'm sorry, I just thought that you were
going to try something," came a very soft reply.
    "Let's make a deal, I won't try to screw you,
and you don't try to kill me. Okay?" I said while licking the blood
off my wrist and looking for something to wrap it with.
    "Okay, but I'm still going to get you just on
general principles alone," she said with a faint smile.
    "Fine, just as long as it isn't crippling, I
won't complain. Wait here and I'll go see if your uniform came back
from the laundry."
    I grabbed my robe and went out to the laundry
area, and got my bag. It was clean and on the way back to the room
I ran into Kate.
    "Good morning Raj."
    "Ah Kate, you're a life saver, come on
in."
    "You didn't waste anytime did you Raj?" she
said giving me a sly look outside the door.
    "Listen," I said showing her my wrist, "I got
this just for getting too close last night."
    "Let me see that a sec," she took my wrist
and looked at it, "umm, nice bite. Bleeding's stopped. Hurt
much?"
    "Like you wouldn't believe. But I'm hoping we
may have reached a temporary truce. Come on in." I opened the door
and showed her in.
    "Terease, I believe you know Kate?"
    "Hi Kate," came a very quiet reply.
    "Hello Terease. Well let’s see the damage,"
she set down her bag and took out a portable lamp. "You want to get
the lights Raj?"
    "Sure what's that?" I asked as I turned down
the room lights.
    "Fluorescent light, here watch."
    She turned it on and played it over Terease's
body. You could see large yellow splotches all over.
    "The fungus is fluorescent," she pulled a
spray canister out of her bag. "Close your eyes Terease." She then
went around spraying all of the glowing areas on her body.
    "Okay Raj, your turn." She pointed the light
at me and I looked down. My chest and arms were glowing.
    "Ah hell, how bad is it?"
    "Close your eyes," I did and she started
spraying. "Well you only just got it, so you won't lose too much
fur. It'll just get a little thin. Week or so and nobody will
notice."
    "Is that all that has to be done?" asked
Terease
    "No, here take these," she handed each of us
a small plastic bottle. "Anti-fungal, take one a day in the morning
for a week. The spray should kill most of the fungus in a couple of
minutes. The pills will get the rest of it. Here look."
    She played the light over Terease's body
again, and the patches were rapidly breaking up and shrinking.
    "Thanks Kate, I owe you one," I said.
    "No problem Raj, give that spray a few more
minutes to work before you get dressed, and you young lady had
better start taking a little better care of yourself. I'll see you
two later." With that she dropped her stuff back in her bag and got
up to go.
    "Thank you Kate.”
    "You're welcome Terease. Bye."
    I showed her out of the room, and turned the
lights back up.
    "Well, let’s go get some breakfast.
Okay?"
    "Sure," she said with a shy smile,
"Okay."
    We gave the spray a few more minutes, then
put on our uniform coveralls and went down to the mess.
    It was busy down at the mess, and we both had
to wait in line. I again presumed to pick for both of us, but she
didn't seem to mind. I made sure I took a lot of food this time, I
was pretty hungry too.
    We carried our trays over to a table in the
corner, and fell to