Travis felt more than heard the answer. “No, I ain’t getting you any J, or nothin’.” He could feel her fear, and her rapidly failing determination. She wanted to stay out of the drug trade. She didn’t want to be here at all. She was scared. The girl looked big enough to hurt her, and the other two behind her, bookend twins if Travis was right, looked as if they’d done time. Their eyes were, to him, empty of any emotion. Their faces didn’t twitch even a little when they smiled. The big woman looked hard at the ‘boss’, her smile thinning as her eyes hardened.

The two behind the big girl caught the change and leaned forward almost imperceptibly, like attack dogs straining at the leash. “That was the wrong answer, meat. TC, Mar, make her understand ‘no’.”

The girls stepped forward past the big girl, and moved towards Travis’ point of view. Oh man, we’re gonna get our ass beat. Okay, can we run, no I’m too f…can she run? No, not here. There’s no place to go, we gotta fight. How would I handle this? Fake a charge at one, then hit the other one. If they’re mean as they look, a hard kick to the knee’d be best. As he watched, the two closed in. “Come on girl, step at the one on the right, then kick the knee of the one on the left.” He’d hoped that she’d listen. I don’t know how this works, but the first time it was like she heard me. The perspective changed as his view lunged at the right girl, who took a step to the side. The screen whirled as the view turned at the other girl. The view jumped as a foot lashed out from the low corner of the screen and caught the girl on the side of the knee, dropping her. The view started to turn again when the screen rocked sideways and the whole room lurched.

Travis hung on to the poles for dear life as both he and the screen toppled sideways. the view showed dry earth on the left side as a foot at the end of an orange leg roared into view then passed low. The room lurched again. The foot retreated, then came forward again, and again, and again. A second foot joined the first, then a larger, third foot. There was a fuzzy screaming sound and women in blue jackets, holding spray cans that were directed at the girls looming over her. The lurching was constant as the blue pushed the orange-clothed girls away. The screen faded as one of the corrections officers kneeled close in the screen.

‘That didn’t go like you thought, did it?’ scrolled in bright blue letters across the now grey screen.

“I was trying to get out of it. You heard her. She didn’t want to have anything to do with smuggling marijuana into those bitches!”