by Alpesco
Who can stop Alicia?
Alicia had decided that we were all to take a trip. The tall, twenty year-old administrator of the Greendale facility told us that all eight male residents, along with Linda the cook, George the handyman, and me, were to be packed and ready by 8 am the next morning.
I was Alicia's new co-worker at the Greendale hostel - a facility for adults who needed full-time residential support. Well, officially I was co-worker. In reality the tall twenty year-old had been in complete control of the facility for months before my arrival. I was a man, and nearly twice her age, but she had seniority. The officials at the capitol were not interested in staff squabbles so long as the place ran smoothly and to budget. And Alicia had been careful to ensure that it did.
As I got up from the kitchen table Alicia stood as well. At once I felt overshadowed. I stood five feet ten inches tall, but Alicia stood fully six feet five inches in her stockinged feet - and she had exceptionally long limbs, even for her height. Like many tall young women she was also slim and willowy, as if she weighed next to nothing. She generally wore flat shoes, a short black miniskirt and a sleeveless black top. Her long brunette hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail.
As Alicia walked toward the main lounge, two male residents who had been quarreling all day, blundered past her. First came nineteen year-old Cody. He was pursued by an annoyed twenty eight year-old Frank. I didn't know what their squabble was, but Alicia simply stretched out her long arms and grabbed each firmly by the wrist. Freezing her arms, she forced both of them to a halt.
Angry, they struggled to tear themselves free of her grip. But Alicia's long fingers were startlingly strong, maintaining an iron grasp on the two men's wrists. Having asserted her control, she purposefully spread her long arms wide, dragging the two men ever farther apart as she maintained her steely grip. Within seconds each was being held at the far extension of her arms, their bodies ten feet apart, and well out of each other's reach. In a way they looked ridiculous. Seven and nine inches shorter than their youthful captor, they squirmed impotently in the grip of her enormously long arms.
The thing about Alicia's arms, as I had discovered to my cost, was that although they looked long and slender, they actually had amazing strength. Very little could resist them. The two now struggled even harder, fighting so fiercely that I thought Alicia might not be able to hold them. But the slim muscles tautened along her slender arms - which refused to bend by as much as a quarter inch.
"Stop that!" Her voice was a warning.
Normally the two would have heeded it. Alicia had both the residents and staff well conditioned to obeying her. I was surprised how much control someone so young had over this facility. But the two residents were very angry with each other - and at the unexpected restraint that had been so suddenly applied to them, and they ignored her, continuing to writhe and struggle.
At once her long fingers released the two men's wrists, quickly relocating to circle the upper arm of each of her two prisoners before they could pull away. Her hands gripped securely, eliciting twin gasps of pain from the two young men. Then her long arms began to draw together once more, demonstrating their oppressive strength as they dragged the two men back together in front of her. The two squealed and struggled, fighting to tear their trapped arms free, but they seemed completely unable to resist the power of Alicia's long, slender-looking arms. It was astonishing to see these two adult men struggling to resist the one tall twenty year-old. They tried to pull away, but simply couldn't do it. I watched their heels scraping against the wooden floor as Alicia's amazingly powerful arms forced the two young men back together against their will.
Ouuuff! They grunted as she continued to apply pressure, moving them until they were directly in front of her, pinned firmly back to back. Then her hands squeezed again, this time with a lot more force.
"Owwwwww!" Both men cried out in pain.
Alicia seemed quite unsurprised by their dismay. It was clear that she had intended this to hurt. Both men squirmed painfully in her grip, fighting to tear themselves free. But they were firmly in the six feet five inch tall young woman's grasp. Totally unable to pull away, they continued to yelp in pain.
"Owww-oooowww!" Cody writhed. "You can't do this. You're hurting!"
"I'm restraining you," Alicia said flatly. "Stop trying to resist and I'll ease the pressure a little. Keep struggling and it will hurt a whole lot more. There's nothing either of you can do about it. Just do exactly as I say."
Still moaning in pain, they stopped struggling, looking sullenly up at their captor. There were two of them, but the pain of Alicia's fierce grip seemed to be crushing all their resistance. I was shocked by how quickly Alicia's power was subduing them both. Cody stood five feet ten and Frank was a bulky five feet nine. But neither was near as tall as Alicia, or apparently, as strong, though I would have thought that both weighed more than she did.
"Now kneel," Alicia ordered, not raising her voice, but keeping her grip painfully tight.
Both obeyed the command at once, falling heavily to their knees.
"That's better." Alicia said softly, as if she had never expected anything other than complete obedience from the two of them. At last her fingers eased their grip, to the clear relief of the two men. "You're both fairly new here," she continued. "But you do not fight in this facility. You also do everything that I say, exactly as I order, and as soon as I say it." She maintained her hold on their upper arms. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes, miss."
"Good. Now don't disobey my orders again." Both nodded.
"You're very strong, Miss Grammond!" Cody gasped.
"Strong enough." Alicia's hand released Frank as she altered her grip on Cody to to grasp him beneath both arms. Her long fingers tightened their grip once more, and suddenly her arms pressed upward. To Cody's shock, and to my surprise, the one hundred and forty pound nineteen-year-old went up with them!
I gasped as Alicia's slender arms simply lifted this guy three feet into the air in front of her! He was even more shocked, suddenly finding himself suspended so far off the ground in the twenty year-old's surprisingly strong arms. He looked down at her in disbelief as she spoke softly and without any obvious strain. "I may not look that strong," she said, "but that is very misleading. I excel in a lot of sports. and as you can see, I've got a lot more strength than some people think. So don't try anything with me. Do you understand?"
He nodded. He could hardly believe what was happening to him - his feet dangling three feet off the floor as his whole weight was held by the tall young warden's long, slender-looking arms.
After a moment, she lowered him gently back to the floor once more, and released him. Grimacing, he rubbed beneath his arms where her hands had supported him. "Oww!" He winced. "Your hands are like iron!"
Alicia smiled and turned away.
I was continually surprised at how much in charge Alicia was here. Everyone here, even 35 year-old Linda, forty year-old George, and the part-time cleaners, knew that they had to do exactly as Alicia said. She set the daily routine, made the rules and decided everything; from what and when we ate to what exercises and other activities were undertaken. She was in charge of the management and discipline of residents as well as staff. I was the only employee she couldn't fire, but she had proved she had many other ways of forcing people to comply with her wishes.
It was nine the next morning when Alicia ordered the computers that monitored the residential home to lock up and activate the alarm systems. As the eight male residents and three staff got seated in the bus, she got into the drivers seat and took us away.
"Why are we going at such short notice?" I asked.
"Because there's a vacant week at the county's hostel in the mountains, and I felt like a change. There's exercise, hiking and swimming facilities. It'll be fine." Only Alicia knew where we were going, but she handled the big bus expertly. The residents grew more excited as we climbed into the hills.
"Don't leave your seats," Alicia ordered as she swung the bus around a tight bend. "We'll soon be there."
The hostel was a three storey building high up on the tree line, with a steep rocky slope rising behind it. Deep patches of snow still lay on the ground. We pulled in at about three pm. There were four resident orderlies who showed us to our rooms. I found myself sharing with the gruff handyman, George. Only Alicia had a room to herself
"Isn't there a single room I can have?" I asked Alicia.
She shook her head. "I've made arrangements. I'm not altering them now. We all stay together on one floor."
"I don't mind being downstairs.."
"Well I do..." she began. Then she fell silent as we both heard a loud crash followed by shouting. I followed her as she strode toward the source of the noise in the lounge area. Six of the eight residents were gathered there, shouting, pushing and shoving. Someone had knocked over a water cooler, a table of glassware had fallen on some hand luggage. Walter was lying on the carpet, and there was mess everywhere. The six continued arguing, growing more and more heated.
"Stop NOW!" Alicia's voice was startlingly loud and powerful. It cracked in my ears and rang around the large room, echoing back loudly off the walls. For a single moment it seemed louder than everyone else in the room all shouting at once.
All the men fell silent, turning to look at the slim but commanding figure who towered over them. Her voice was really powerful when she wanted it to be, powerful enough on its own to shock them and impose a sense of order. Alicia looked stern. "Sit down," she ordered. Her voice was still very loud even though she wasn't actually shouting. The residents, Linda and even George, who had just come in, obeyed her at once.
"I will have no more of this behavior!" Alicia said. "What do you do if anyone has an accident?"
"Stay calm and call a senior member of staff," one of the residents said.
"That's right," Alicia scowled. "I'm thinking seriously about punishing all of you for this. If anything of this sort happens again, I'll confine you all to your rooms and put you on ten days special work duties..."
"Oh no!" "Please!" The men pleaded. "We're sorry!"
"I'll determine that," Alicia said. "What punishment I decide to impose will depend a lot on how quickly you put things right. "You three," she gestured to three of the residents. "Go into the kitchen, get a mop, some brushes and a bucket. The rest of you, get started cleaning up!"
The residents, Linda and George began to do as she had ordered, but Walter was very slow in getting up.
"I think I twisted my knee." Walter said, standing bent-over and limping. "Owww!" He propped himself up aainst an armchair. At twenty eight, he stood five feet eight inches tall.
"Go and sit on the couch." Alicia pointed to one of the heavy couches across the room. "I'll take a look at it."
Walter took another step and gave a moan of pain. "It hurts!"
"Okay."
Alicia took a stride across to where he stood. Then she bent and
simply scooped the limping figure up in her arms. Again I was surprised at how easily the lanky twenty year-old could simply pick grown men up. Her long arms had swept the five foot eight inch, 140 pound guy off his feet as if he were a rag doll. And now they carried him like a baby. Walter just lay there passively in her arms as if he realized that he could do nothing to stop Alicia doing as she wished.
"Don't stop work," Alicia said to the others. "Get on with clearing up this mess. Then tidy up and finish your unpacking. Supper is in an hour. I want everything clean, neat and packed away well before then. I'm still not at all happy with you, so you will work in complete silence."
The tall twenty year-old watched as we obeyed her orders. The silence was absolute. Not one person dared speak. The only voice to be heard was Alicia, giving occasional instructions to individuals on what to do next. In the end, she made the residents repeat the mopping three times before she was satisfied that it had been done properly. I righted the fallen water-cooler, and three of the residents went to wash out the mops and buckets. The others went to set up the beds.
"What about me, miss?" Walter's voice came suddenly.
Alicia looked down, seeming surprised to see him still cradled in her arms. "You were so quiet, I forgot that I was carrying you," She smiled.
"You ordered us not to say anything. Can we all talk now?"
"No," Alicia said. "People may speak if they have something urgently necessary to say. But no chit-chat. As for you, you must only weigh about 140 pounds." She hefted him higher in her arms as if she were estimating his weight, raising his body almost to the height of her face. "No. I'd say 143," she added easily, showing no strain at all from the maneuver.
"That's exactly what I weigh!" he said in surprise.
"I'm good at estimating weights," she said. "I lift in the gym nearly every day, and I can judge the weight of a bar to within one pound." She raised him a few inches higher. "Now let's have a look at your leg." She laid him on a nearby couch. "Take off your shoes and jeans."
"Here?"
"Of course." He undid his belt as Alicia pulled off his shoes and pants. Then she examined his leg. "There's nothing serious," she said after a moment. "You twisted it, that's all."
"But it still hurts!"
"That's okay." Alicia scooped him back up off the couch as if he weighed nothing. "I'll put you to bed. It should feel better by morning."
"You really didn't notice you were carrying me?" Walter asked.
"No." She shook her head. "You're not that heavy. I can carry you with just one arm if I want to. Look!" She moved her right arm toward the middle of his back. Then she simply let her left arm fall away from beneath him, continuing to support all of Walter's weight with her right. Simultaneously she stretched out her left arm and raised it at her side in a flex. Several of the other residents stared, open-mouthed, as Alicia turned a full circle holding Walter cradled in her long right arm.
"Wow!" Brian said as Alicia continued to support Walter's whole weight in just her long and startlingly strong right arm.
"I told you, my arms are a lot stronger than they look - and they're getting stronger all the time," she said, turning back around toward where I stood. And, far from weakening, her right arm tightened its grip, raising the horizontal Walter six inches higher.
"How long can you do that!" Linda asked.
"I'm not sure," Alicia said thoughtfully. "I've never given it a proper test." She still showed no sign of tiring or of needing any help with Walter's weight from her free left arm. "I might just try it out now." She turned to the watching residents. "All right. All of you, get on with the work I've assigned you. I'll hang on to Walter."
The other residents reluctantly shuffled back to their rooms as Alicia continued to support her burden with just her bare right arm.
A minute passed, then two, and then three...
"Oww!" Walter protested as five minutes passed. "It's starting to hurt!"
"Have a little patience," Alicia said, the long bicep in her right arm clearly visible now as it swelled hard and taut. She shifted her grip slightly to ease the strain on his back, then she went over to the main window, checking the locks before using her free left hand to draw the blinds. Still supporting Walter's entire body weight in her right arm, she walked across to the room heating thermostat and adjusted that. Then she took a slow stroll up the long corridor, inspecting each of the residents' rooms and issuing instructions as she passed. I watched as the residents continued to work in subdued silence. George made up his bed quietly, not meeting Alicia's eye. By the time she had reached the far end of the accommodation block it had been over fifteen minutes since she had first taken Walter's weight on her lone right arm.
"Aren't you tiring yet?" I asked.
Alicia shook her head, raising her free left arm to adjust her brown ponytail. "No. Not at all. Walter doesn't weigh enough to really stress my arm muscles." She tightened the grip of her right arm, raising her burden three inches higher. "So long as I can shift the burden an inch or two every so often, I feel like I could carry him for as long as I want."
Walter began to squirm in Alicia's grip, but her steely arm remained unmoving. "Oww!" He began to howl. "My back! This is really hurting now!"
Alicia studied his face but didn't release him. "I'm still not feeling tired enough to have to put you down."
"Please!" Walter begged.
"Not yet." Alicia said. "But I'll try to make it a little more comfortable for you." She raised her right arm, rolling his body gently on to its side, his legs and upper body arching down to right and left.
"Owwwwwww!" Walter shrieked, arching is back in pain. "That's even worse!"
"Then try this." She lowered her arm a few inches to allow his body to slide downward, then she raised it higher once more, rolling Walter over on to his stomach. His body now hung face down over her arm, which continued to support him. "Is that better?"
"A little," he groaned.
"Good." Alicia gave a nod. "We'll go on."
The tall figure continued to hold the twenty eight year-old male draped over her flexed arm as she studied a large-scale map on the wall. Having nothing further to do here, I went back to my room to unpack. But when I returned to the communal area fifteen minutes later I was surprised to see Alicia still carrying Walter around on her right arm.
"You haven't been carrying him all this time?" My eyes widened.
"Sure I have," Alicia said as if surprised by my question. She raised her arm higher, lifting Walter up with it until she held it almost straight out in front of her. The twenty eight year-old's body was draped over her strong forearm like a loose-rolled quilt.
I checked my watch. "But that's over thirty five minutes!"
"I must be stronger than I thought," Alicia said with a nod of satisfaction. "I didn't think I'd last this long carrying him with just one arm. It's good to know what I can accomplish." She looked at him. "And I could go on a lot longer if I wanted...."
"No!" Walter moaned. "Please let me down!"
"Just relax," Alicia frowned. "I'll decide when I'm done. If I can carry you this long, you should be able to put up with being carried."
"But now my stomach hurts!" Walter gasped. "And it's getting hard to breathe!"
"All right." Alicia sighed. "I guess I won't find out how long I can carry a guy like this, today." Reluctantly she placed her left hand back beneath his upper body, easing the strain on his stomach. Using both arms now, she tossed him up three feet into the air, spinning his body in flight so that when she caught him he was lying on his back. Turning, she carried him along the passage to a bedroom and set him down on the top bunk.
"You're so strong, Alicia," Linda said.
"I'm getting there." Alicia said, stretching her six feet nine inch armspan out to full extension. Her enormous reach was slightly intimidating.
After a subdued evening meal downstairs, Alicia ordered everyone to go to bed early. No one bothered to argue. There was little to do anyway, and Alicia, in her present mood, was unlikely to change her mind. I took the top bunk above an already-snoring George. The bed was uncomfortable, and I had just woken up when a loud roar shattered the silence. I felt the floor move beneath me, and I leapt out of the bed.
"What's happened?" I demanded as one of the staff members ran down the corridor.
"There's been a land-slip! Part of the main building has collapsed!"
I followed him along the main corridor toward the stairway. The building trembled. I and four of the residents ran down six flights of steps to reach the open courtyard in front of the hostel. I looked back and saw Linda and two of the hostel workers follow us out.
Then there was another crashing roar, and the whole staircase area collapsed in a pile of rubble. All of us ran away from the building, turning to look back up to the residential wing, which held the other members of our party. They were all now trapped up there!
Seconds later, Alicia, George, and our other four Greendale residents came out on to the long concrete balcony that ran the length of the residential block. Two hostel staff-members followed them out. They looked down at a drop of thirty feet to the stony courtyard. A small swimming pool lay twenty feet from the building.
"We can't get down!" Nick, one of the hostel orderlies shouted. "The stairway is gone!"
"Has anyone called for a rescue team?" someone yelled.
Mr Elliot the hostel manager looked up. "The rock-slide took out all the phone lines. I've sent Lance to town in the jeep. But help may not get here for hours. You need to wait where you are."
Alicia shook her head. "What's to stop the rest of this block coming down in the meantime? It could collapse at any moment! We'll have to get to ground level somehow. Is there a ladder or some rope?"
The manager shook his head. "Everything we have is under the rubble." He pointed. "There's no way down from there. It's a thirty foot fall to solid concrete."
"There's the swimming pool." Alicia pointed. "If we could jump across to that...".
"It's twenty feet from the building!" Elliot shouted back. "You would never make it!"
"Perhaps I could..." Alicia studied the distance to the pool. "I broke the junior long-jump record four years running. But I don't think any of the others could make it."
"Then you'll have to stay up there..."
Suddenly there was another loud rumble. Voices cried out in alarm as a ten foot section of the balcony fell away.
"That does it!" Alicia said. "I'm going to try something." She went back inside the building, emerging a few moments later with a massive couch from the lounge area balanced on her left shoulder. The couch was huge - at least eight feet long and three and a half feet high. The heavy sofa seemed to dwarf the tall but slender figure that carried it.
"What are you doing?" Mr Elliot gasped.
"This weighs about the right amount," the tall administrator said, walking to the end of the balcony nearest to the swimming pool.
"That's far too heavy to be moved!" Maurice, one of the two hostel workers on the balcony, tried to stop her.
"It's not too heavy for me," Alicia strode past him with the groaning couch still balanced across her shoulder. It was so heavy that the ends sagged nearly six inches lower than the center. It creaked and groaned as she moved, as if about to break apart under its own weight. "I can lift more than this if I have to.".
"What are you going to do?" Linda shouted up.
"This sofa weighs about the same as Henry," Alicia nodded toward one of her charges standing nearby. "I'm going to try something."
"What?"
"Just watch."
With that Alicia's right hand took a firm grip on the back of the upturned sofa. Her left hand fastened on to the edge of the seat. She turned to face the swimming pool. Then her long arms simply pressed the one hundred and forty pound sofa straight up - extending smoothly to full stretch to hold it three feet above her head.
All of us gasped at the startling display of strength provided by Alicia's slender arms.
"What are you doing?" Nick, the larger of the two orderlies marooned on the balcony, yelled beside her.
"This." With a sharp sweep of her arms, the six foot five inch tall figure simply hurled the giant sofa forward - straight out over the balcony. It flew directly toward the outdoor swimming pool thirty feet below. However it seemed that Alicia had not been strong enough, or else had misjudged her throw. For the creaking sofa fell three feet short, crashing into the hard concrete skirting of the pool. It broke apart in an explosion of shattered timber and flying shards. Metal castors bounced across the courtyard.
"I told you it wouldn't work," the resort manager shouted up.
Alicia said nothing. She simply turned and walked back inside the building, emerging moments later with a second huge couch, identical to the first, balanced across her shoulder.
"What are you playing at?" the manager shouted.
"I'm finding the right range," Alicia said as her long arms pressed upward once more - and the huge couch rose with them. Even after having seen her perform the lift the first time, the second time her arms raised the impossibly heavy sofa to nearly ten feet above the balcony floor, the feat seemed just as unbelievable. The powerful, slender, black-clad figure stood facing the pool, looking incredibly calm.
"I expected to miss on the first shot," she said. "I just have to use the right amount of power..."
With that she let her arms sway back, bending them a fraction. Then, with a soft grunt of effort, she hurled the eight foot long sofa out across the balcony railing. The massive couch arced outward, falling like a lump of rock to crash noisily into the middle of the pool. It was like a small boulder landing in a bathtub. The impact created a fountain of spray as a minor tidal wave surged out of the pool.
"That did it!" she said with an edge of satisfaction. "Now get all that debris out of the pool!"
"I still don't understand!" Linda shouted up. "What are you trying to do?"
"Now that I know the right amount of strength to use," Alicia began, "I can throw the others down into the pool.!
"Throw the others? You mean throw PEOPLE?" I said. "That's not possible!"
"It's possible," Alicia said. "And that's exactly what I'm going to do."
"No!" Sol, one of the residents standing beside her, shook his head. "It's too far!" At five feet ten tall, he was one of the larger of our charges. Henry, Cody and Brian also looked nervous, and began to back away.
"Stay right where you are!" Alicia ordered. Again, just the power of her voice halted them in their tracks. "You don't have a choice in this. You'll do exactly as I say. You'll be quite safe with anything that I choose to do."
"It's a long way down..." Cody said nervously.
"You'll just have to trust me." Alicia said. "You just saw me hit the pool with that great big couch. Putting you in will be a lot easier - and it's far better than waiting here for the building to collapse."
The four still did not look too convinced, but the combination of Alicia's authority and her strong, steady gaze seemed to be crushing their resistance. Alicia was browbeating them into complying with her plan.
Not so for Nick and Maurice, however. The two hostel employees looked at her, outraged. "That's the most stupid idea I ever heard!" Maurice yelled. "Do you think we're gonna stand here and let you try to toss us off the balcony?"
"That's your decision." Alicia said. "But everyone else up here is under my authority, and they're going into the pool."
"You're crazy!" Nick forced himself between Alicia and her four adult charges. "You're not throwing anyone off this balcony. You're going back inside!"
He reached forward. Both of the hostel workers were right in front of Alicia now. And although they were five inches shorter than her, they looked a lot more heavily built.
"Don't even try to touch me." Alicia warned, taking a step backward.
"Grab her, she's nuts!" Nick ordered, as both men made a sharp lunge toward her.
I saw Alicia take another step backward as her long right arm drew back. I watched as Alicia's long, delicate-looking, hand curled into a surprisingly large, blocky fist.
The fist hung poised for a moment as the two men lurched toward her. Then her arm hurtled forward at eye-blurring speed. At a long-limbed six feet five inches tall, Alicia's reach was enormous. The five foot eleven inch figure of Nick was still not within striking distance of her when her blow launched. Unfortunately for him, he was already right in the middle of Alicia's hitting zone. He didn't even have time to shut his eyes in the split-second that it took Alicia's squared fist to travel through nearly six feet from its starting position to its point of impact.
KRRACCKKKKKK! The twenty year-old's fist met the base of Nick's jaw with appalling force. The bulky hostel-worker seemed totally unprepared for a punch of that sort of power. Alicia's lanky figure just didn't look anything like as strong as it actually was. Nick's head was driven brutally upward and back like a rubber punchball as his whole body was spun right around. The astonishing power of Alicia's blow twisted his neck violently to one side. His eyes went blank. He staggered drunkenly backward for a pace and a half. Then he just collapsed, falling in a heap - like a giant puppet after someone had cut off all its strings.
Alicia, however, was no longer even concerned with Nick. As her right fist completed its devastating journey, she had already turned her head to focus on the shocked and disbelieving Maurice. She squinted slightly as her equally dangerous left fist came searing inward to home in on the right side of Maurice's head. Before the hostel worker even had time to even take in what had happened to his partner, Alicia's second huge blow impacted.
KERUNNCCKKK! The sound of the second blow was harder and deeper than the first, but the effect was no different. Alicia's power sent a shiver running through me as Maurice was hurled backward and sideways, his whole body twisted around a full turn and a half. The stunning impact of the six foot five inch young woman's blow almost lifted him off his feet. He gave a shocked cry of pain and anguish, then crashed to the floor like a falling tree. The crump as he hit the concrete balcony floor was heavy and loud. Then there was silence.
I gasped. The two men had hit the floor within five seconds of each other. Alicia's sudden brief storm of violence was over, but its effects remained. Her two antagonists now lay sprawled across the balcony floor, completely motionless.
"She's knocked them both out!" Mr Elliot said in disbelief. Both men remained completely still on the floor, dead to the world. I'd never seen a double-knockout like that before, and certainly not one achieved with such awesome speed. Nick's jaw looked badly mis-shapen as if it had been broken. A trail of blood ran from his lips. Maurice was showing extensive loud bruising on the whole side of his face. Alicia was completely untouched, her fists still clenched and seeming capable of launching a similar assault again, any time she chose.
Alicia drew a breath and glanced down at the two big men with an air of contempt. "Those two didn't give me much trouble," she breathed. Pulling back her right sleeve, she examined the arm that had done so much damage.
She looked back up at her four charges and a nervous-looking George.
"Okay," she said. "Those two guys just lost it. They panicked, tried to negate my authority, and threatened the safety of the group. If I have to, I'll do the same to anyone who threatens group safety. Do you understand?"
The four residents and George looked shocked. They all nodded. Alicia's sudden devastating display of power had sobered everyone up.
"Good," Alicia said. "Now get ready. I'm going to lift all of you, one by one."
"You can't!"
"Do you think I'm not strong enough?""
"Those guys are both still out cold!" Cody stared. "Their faces look real bad, and they're not even moving! Are they okay?"
"They'll live," Alicia said. "I hit them pretty hard. They'll be in a lot of pain once they come round. But the important thing is that we get you all down from here quickly."
"What if we don't want to go down that way?" Brian asked.
"I told you - there's no choice. I've made my decision. Just do exactly as I say, and you'll be fine. Have I made myself clear?"
The four residents nodded. No one seemed to have the courage to oppose Alicia now.
"Okay." She turned and pointed to the wall. "Now all of you stand in line, side by side, over there."
Slowly and without enthusiasm the five men obeyed the tall twenty year-old. Apart from Cody, she was the youngest of the group, but she was now in complete command.
"All of you kneel," she ordered. The four residents did so. "You too, George."
"Why do we have to kneel?" the gardener asked.
"Because I don't want any distractions. No one is to move or speak until I tell them to - and that includes you." Alicia fixed him with a steady gaze. "Now do as I say."
George knelt.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I shouted up, in a last ditch attempt to get Alicia to halt her plan.
"Do you have a better idea - that doesn't involve standing here until the building collapses?" Alicia said.
I was silent.
"I thought so. Now I want all of you down there to stand back and be prepared to pull people out of the water quickly!"
Turning back to face the five men, she beckoned Sol forward. He hesitated. "That's an order," she said firmly.
Sol stepped forward until he stood directly in front of the tall twenty year-old. Bending slightly, she fastened one long hand about his upper thigh, and the other just below his upper arm. "Don't be frightened," she said. "I'm more than strong enough to do this. Now keep your body as stiff as possible while I lift. When I drop you, curl up in a ball and wait till you hit the water."
With a slight wrench of her arms Alicia just picked the five foot ten inch figure of Sol right off his feet, swinging him up until she held him horizontally in front of her at chest height. "You're the heaviest," she said, "and you're easy. Now I'm going to press you right up overhead. You can close your eyes if you like." With that, Alicia began to extend her long arms as they pressed the 180 pound figure slowly overhead. It was just like what had happened with sofa, Alicia's arms looked too thin and weak to lift such a solid weight, but incredibly, they pressed the heavy figure up and up! She continued pressing until she had stretched her arms high above her head. And Sol was suspended there, petrified, nine feet up.
"Okay." her voice was firm. "I'm going to throw you now!"
"Noooo!" Sol began, but his protest echoed off into a scream as Alicia's steely arms launched him forward. I heard the grunt of effort from Alicia as she hurled him out over the barrier. All of us held our breath as Sol's curled-up body arced down to make a perfect landing in the middle of the pool.
"You next." Alicia beckoned Cody forward.
"No. please!" He stood and stepped forward, but began to wriggle in her grasp.
"Keep still," Alicia warned, "or you'll get badly hurt! I'm going to lift you now."
Up the nineteen year-old went, faster than Sol, partly due to Alicia's determination. Partly becase he weighed a lot less. Within a second he was suspended high above Alicia's head. He squirmed slightly, but he was entirely helpless to do anything about his fate. His life was literally in Alicia's hands. Frowning, Alicia stepped toward the edge. She bent her arms almost imperceptibly, and then tossed him over. He gave a muffled cry as he arced down to land quite far out in the swimming pool. Some of the resort staff pulled him out.
The process was the same with Henry and Brian, the last two residents. Alicia was more confident now, and she seemed easily strong enough to toss the 150 pound residents around like tailors' dummies. She lifted both nearly ten feet high and then tossed them safely into the pool.
"Now you, George." She turned to the five foot eight tall handyman.
He stood up, but backed away and shook his head. "I'd rather wait here."
"That's not going to happen." Her long legs stepped easily over the fallen bodies of Nick and Maurice. "This has got to be done."
"I won't go!" George said. "You can fire me if you like!"
"I'm not going to fire you just because you're afraid," Alicia said. "But you do have to do what I say. I'm not giving you a choice."
"You gave them a choice!" the handyman pointed at the two motionless bodies behind Alicia.
"They were not my responsibility. You are. I'm not changing my mind. You're going over, like it or not. Just accept it."
"I won't go!" George stumbled backward. "I'll hit the ground! You don't have the right to risk my life! You're crazy!"
I glimpsed Alicia's right hand gather into a fist at her side.
CRACKK! The blow was so fast I didn't see more than a blur. I'd bet that George saw even less. He slammed back into the wall and then crumpled like a bag of bones.
"Shit!" Mr Elliot said as Alicia caught George's unconscious body before it hit the ground. She swept it up into her fearsomely strong arms. Stretching, she raised the unconscious body to chest height. She turned toward the balcony and held the solid figure for a moment as he groaned, coughed, and began to come round. Looking outward, she moved her long arms again, pressing George smoothly higher until he hung suspended nine feet above the floor.
"You're so powerful," Linda cooed.
"There's not much that can stop me doing something I've decided to do!" Alicia said, still holding her forty five year-old employee nine feet aloft. "Now George," she added, "keep your body as rigid as possible! You're going.... Now!" With a heave, her long arms pitched him out across the gap in a falling arc toward the waiting pool. George landed with a groan and a large splash.
"That only leaves these two." She turned back to the motionless shapes of the hostel-workers Nick and Maurice.
"Are they still unconscious?" the hostel manager shouted up.
Alicia knelt beside them. "They're both out for the duration." She pinched one of the faces. "Neither shows any sign of coming round - and that presents a problem."
"What problem?"
She drove her arms beneath Maurice and picked him up. He hung limply from her arms like a sack of oatmeal. "They're completely limp. Dead weight, and no rigidity. That makes them a lot harder to throw."
"George is already coming round!" Linda said kneeling beside the spluttering figure on the ground. "Why are those two still out cold?"
"I had time to control the power of the punch I gave George. I made it so the hit would just put him out for a minute or two."
"You can do that?" Linda said.
"Of course I can." Alicia hefted Maurice to shoulder-height. "This fist can break concrete blocks. I've had to learn to control how hard I hit people."
"Then why did you hit my guys so hard?" the manager said.
"They shouldn't have rushed me." Alicia pressed Maurice's limp body overhead. "I had to take both guys down fast, so I didn't hold back."
"That's the sixth guy in a row she's lifted overhead!" Linda said beside me.
I watched as Alicia took a sharp step toward the railing, focussed her gaze on the pool, and threw the motionless figure. The body arced down as the others had done, but somehow the limp body didn't travel as far. It only missed the concrete pool-edge by a couple of inches, dropping with a dull splash into the discolored water.
"Damn!" The tall young woman snorted. "That was far too close! I said it was harder to throw a limp guy. I'm going to have to find another way to get the other one down."
She looked over the edge of the balcony to the two floors below. "I'm going to have to climb down."
Walking across to the unconscious Nick, Alicia, squatted, wrappeed her arms around his middle, and then hauled him upright. Bending her knees, and then straightening, she hoisted his body right up across her left shoulder, his upper body hanging down her back. She raised her left arm to clamp him firmly in position, then, going to the balcony railing, she climbed over it to stand on the edge.
"Can you climb all that way down?" Linda asked.
"Sure," Alicia said. "Being tall has its advantages." Her strong hands clamped on the iron rails. Each moved downward in turn as she she lowered herself and her burden slowly down from the upper balcony. Reaching the bottom of the railings, she was able to transfer her grip to the concrete balcony edge. For long moments her legs dangled in the air, over twenty feet above the courtyard. Then her feet finally found the top of the railing of the balcony below, and she was able to maneuver herself onto the second floor balcony. With a sigh, she stood straight, adjusting the limp body of Nick, still slung over her shoulder.
As we watched, she repeated the same tortuous process to get down to the next level. She drew a breath, then two minutes later she was safely on the ground, and laying the unconscious Nick out on the floor beside the still-wet Maurice.
Alicia stood up straight and stretched. She still looked strong and unhurt. Nick and Maurice looked like hell. Neither showed any sign of coming round, and both looked like they had been in a major auto accident. Their faces were misshapen and bleeding, with dark, weeping bruises and badly distorted features that spoke of broken bones beneath. It was hard to believe that Alicia had hit each of them only once.
"My punches are pretty effective." Alicia glanced down at them, wrinkling her nose. "They've done a hell of a lot of damage!"
George and the other Greendale residents were shocked, shivering, but basically unhurt. There had been seven men trapped on the top balcony with Alicia. None of them had wanted to come down the outside of the building. But they were down now, like it or not. Alicia had managed to impose her will on them all.
"That was amazing!" Linda said, running up to hug Alicia. "I never thought..."
Just then, with a fearsome roar, the main part of the hostel wing collapsed behind us.
"Damn!" I said. I was furious. The bitch had been proved right yet again! She could so easily have killed someone with her hare-brained escape-plan. But, against all the odds, it had worked out - and now she was the hero! She always seemed to hold all the cards. I was no match for her. She was horribly strong, arrogant as hell, and always right! The two guys who had tried to oppose her were both facing a long spell of hospitalization. And of course she wouldn't now be blamed for beating the crap out of the two of them. She always found a way to come up smelling of roses! I felt sick. George had been humiliated again. Linda and the boys were even more in awe of her. Even the resort staff were obeying her orders like puppies.
Alicia's power over all of us was even greater than it had been before. How would I be able to turn the tables on her now?