Mandatory Motherhood: Short Stories

Western

Over the intercoms of the base, a classical piece of music played. Anyone who had watched old western movies and TV shows would instantly recognize the dun dun dun and accompanied whistle tune. It was the classic music that played whenever two or more people were about to have a shootout.

In the front courtyard of the base, Chris and Mia stood flank to flank, nerf guns holstered to the sides. They both wore cheesy Western movie outfits, Mia had gotten a creative urge and had stayed up all night. Once everyone had woken up Mia showed off her creations and challenged Chris to a duel. Everyone stared at Mia until she pulled out Nerf guns, everyone thought she had meant real guns at first.

Each mare began taking slow steps away from the other, each step was counted out by Colgate who watched from a plastic excased booth. At the count of fifty steps, the mares swung around and aimed. Everyone knew how Chris would draw and wield her guns but everyone hadn’t thought about how Mia would wield her guns. When Mia had turned around she had something in her mouth that she bit on, and from her side prung out a plastic folding arm holding the Nerf gun.

As the two mares began trading fire it was apparent that that the arm shifted its aim by a pulley system and responded to the neck movement of Mia. Chris would have been very intrigued with this creation if she wasn’t hopping around dodging the darts from the gun. It wasn’t very accurate but it kept Chris moving.

When Mia’s gun ran out of ammo, she took off for a stack of crates. Chris took off after lining up her shot almost getting Mia as she dove behind the crates. Chris stopped as she heard the sound of something electrical charging up and a motor warming up. Her eyes shot open and she dove behind a statue Mia propped a Nerf Gatling gun up on the crate and opened fire on her.

Colgate could see Chris’s eyes turn white as Mia peppered the statue with darts cackling out loud evilly. Eventually, the toy Gatling gun ran out of ammo and Mia seemed to make a snarky remark about the statue would have been pulverized if it was a real Gatling gun. She took off running around the side of the building as Chris bolted out after her. Colgate’s mouth fell open as she watched more Nerf guns floating out of all sorts of hiding places around the area and float behind Chris as she gave chase.

Several screens lit up next to Colgate from drones also watching the match. One showed Mia get what looked to be a rocket launcher-like Nerf gun with a giant foam dart from a box in an alleyway. She cackled like a maniac when Chris entered the alleyway and fired the giant dart at her. Chris grabbed it in her magic flipped it around and tossed it back flying behind Mia making her jump and duck onto the ground.

When Mia opened her eyes, She saw Chris Smiling at her and all the Nerf guns she had hidden floating around and aimed right at her. Colgate’s eyes shrank to pinpicks and she mumbled “Fudge brownies” as Chris said “Looks like I’m the Good guy, you are the Bad guy, and you just found yourself in The Ugly situation.

Mia screamed “No fair!” and covered her eyes as all the Nerf guns shot her at once.

A voice mumbled from the drone wondering if a unicorn could do this with real firearms.