“I want you to shoot that woman walking across the street. Put one right in the back of her pretty head. We don’t need her to talk to the Police, ...ll we have to say is on that little recorder in her hand.”Twin cold waves flashed through Lois’s body. The first caused by the notion that she could’ve been the woman out there in the street, unaware that she had just been selected to die to make a point. The second from the knowledge that there was no way she was just going to stand there and let it. Months went by and 36 girls and women indeed progressed through seemingly normal pregnancies. The town handled the religious outcry regarding underage girls waddling around in middle and high school. The industrious and self-sufficient westerners kept up with demands of clothing the young mothers. The town adapted as it waited.The local doctor's office did not have the sophisticated tools of a big city, but an internal ultrasound machine was enough to know that all 36 pregnancies were female.. I mean, two guys with a common interest, that’s one thing, but a guy and a girl, and there’s some physical attraction between them, that’s another set of issues.”She shook her head. “I don’t want there to be issues, Jay,” she told me softly, “But ... L-word.”“I’ll say it, Lena. Love. Okay?”“Me?”“Yeah. Tragic, ain’t it?”“Tragic?” she gasped.“Mmm-hmm. I made you cry. Not exactly what I was going for.”“Jay, truth, okay? Were you going for this when you started?”“This what?”“This ‘get Lena in a. " A seemingly infinitesimal pause. "Zero."Multiple energy whirlpools coalesced ahead of the battle groups, burrowingthrough the permeable fabric of space and time separating timelines 0549 and0579. The microscopic-sized, multi-colored whirlpools didn't remain that sizefor long, growing by leaps and bounds in less than the blink of an eye,turning blindingly white as their intensity strengthened. In less than sevenseconds, breakthrough was achieved and the maws of ravening energy settleddown into.