Chapter 64 064

• On Monday, we started our new exercise regimen. Maine Fitness in the morning for weights. Since it wasn't raining, the weights came after we did a run outside, followed by lunch and Brigitte's new 'Street Defense' class. In addition to the instructor who'd signed up for it, four other students had signed up for the new class, two male, two female. Brunswick Martial Arts had rubber knives and guns we could use for disarming drills. For the first afternoon, that's all anyone practiced, disarming drills with knives. Over and over again until you could do it smoothly and without thinking. Since Simone and I had done some of this work already, we were often paired with one of the new students. Conor was paired with the instructor.
• We didn't go into them yet, but Brigitte and Conor showed some advanced disarming techniques. I had to admit, some of those would probably work better if you healed fast after getting cut, but even then, it was better than dying, survival being key.
• "If someone is good with a knife," Brigitte said, "you're going to get cut. Assume that you will end up cut; anticipate it, think about the pain now. Will your body to overcome it. You can still act, even while bleeding and in pain. The key to survival is will to live. What are you willing to do to survive, or will you just roll over and die. You might be able to survive by taking a cut or stab in some non-lethal areas, in order to carry out your own attack. If that's what you need to do, that's what you should do. By the time this class is over, you should know where to stab someone else where it's lethal, and by extension, where you can be stabbed where it's not.