day 100 something: 41,026 words

(I'm closing in on 50,000!)

“You believe anything! We don’t know what just happened, but I know that he started it. He kicked the first guy, and then knocked them all out, and then he hit the last one, even though he knew what would happen!”

“Wait,” said Zunzhen, staring ahead, turning right, then left, leading the girls over a little wooden bridge over an ornamental creek. Ann noticed how yellow all the apartment lights were, and yet how dim were their surroundings. She noticed how Zunzhen made each turn without hesitation, as if he had been through these paths many times before. “We’ll get to a safer place, then we can talk about this. I’m taking over for Momoko. I’ll get you to your mother, whom I know, and who knows me. Trust me for ten more minutes, okay?”

“Ann, we should run away! If you don’t I will!” Ezi pleaded through the feed to her sister, who along with Zunzhen was the only person she could positively identify, despite that she knew she must be surrounded by hundreds or thousands of others.

“Where would you go? You want to be arrested by a bunch of Medna goons?” Ann’s private tone, over the feed, was more worried and uncertain than she betrayed physically. “Momoko knows him, and I trusted her, didn’t you?”

“Mom told us to find Momoko, not this crazy wushu stooge. Whatever the Mednans do, they won’t hurt us.”

“If he does anything, I have Alvi’s knife.”

Ezi laughed out loud, and wailed, “We’re going to die!”, then silently, “If you can beat him with a pocketknife, then you could beat a hundred peacemen, you stupid pig.”

Ann, still pulling her sister along, stopped short, turned, and kicked Ezi hard in the shin. “Quiet!” she spat. Ezi squealed and shook off her sister’s grip, and tried to kick back, but Zunzhen was there, pushing the two apart. “Come here,” he said. He walked ahead a few steps, to a corner in the path, and stood beneath a dim amber park lamp. He jabbed an index finger at the ground just in front of him. “What’s he going to do?” thought Ezi, glaring at her sister, fists clenched. Ann went and stood a few steps from where he was pointing. Ezi went to stand a few paces again behind her sister.