{"id":8021,"date":"2019-01-22T15:05:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T22:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=8021"},"modified":"2019-01-22T15:05:36","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T22:05:36","slug":"tag","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/?page_id=8021","title":{"rendered":"Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Munro<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ella tracked the untagged male to Costco. Like everyone else, he pushed a shopping cart, referred to a list and then selected goods. He wore the perfect outfit to blend in — minimal makeup, silk top, long flowing cardigan, soft flared culottes, and espadrilles. She wanted to grab him and holler, but that would expose his recklessness. Males had been torn apart for less, despite how few there were.<\/p>\n

On her left, down past the freeze-dried mozzarella, he reached for a large bag of jerky. Ella palmed her tranquillizer gun and dialled a sedative dose. To camouflage the shot, Ella simultaneously coughed, dropped a box of snack bars and fired. The dart skimmed his bicep. Not surprisingly he spun away, darting back and forth between women bulk-buying for their households. His nimble footwork delighted Ella until she lost sight of him in small appliances. \u2028She dashed along the central aisle, checking left and right.<\/p>\n

The male\u2019s topknot flashed behind a tent display and disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere you are,\u201d she muttered. Wheeling about, Ella lumbered down the camping supplies aisle. No sign of him.<\/p>\n

After several minutes, she turned a corner into the food court. Luck was on her side today. The male sat at a corner table stuffing purchases into his backpack. He looked around him constantly. Skinny but not malnourished, a rarity for the untagged. He\u2019d need training; what male didn\u2019t. But a woman had paid for those clothes and taught him manners, illegally of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d Ella whispered to herself, \u201cthis time make sure it\u2019s a good shot.\u201d She raised the dart gun. The dart glinted in the bright light, clattered to the floor. The male yelped and swung his backpack. Exposed to all, he fled toward the checkouts.<\/p>\n

Women shouted to each other across the low tables and food counters.\u00a0Shoot, shoot! He\u2019s bolting. Get him.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ella rushed, heart soaring at the thrill of the chase. A gang of women matched her pace, stamping, shouting promises.\u00a0Hey\u00a0sweet thing. Come home with us. We\u2019ll do right by you.<\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019d be kind to him, she\u2019d take care of him and protect him. She had to get to him before any of these women remembered how close they were to rows and rows of weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease,\u201d the male cried from somewhere in the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is mine,\u201d Ella bellowed. \u201cI saw him first.\u201d She crashed toward his voice, shoving women and shopping carts out of her way.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s breaking.<\/p>\n

The male burst into a clear space not twenty feet away. He leapt across a closed checkout, spectacular in full sprint, backlit by the waning sun.<\/p>\n

Ella darted him. He flung his arms out wide. Then he twisted and sunk to his knees. Ella hurried over, reached around his shoulders and supported him against her chest. The second dart had struck him dead in the heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you okay?\u201d Ella gently clipped his earlobe, tagging him. The tag winked red, then blue: registered. Legal.<\/p>\n

He blinked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re mine now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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EMMA MUNRO<\/strong> lives in the Blue Mountains of Australia with one wife and two cats. Her stories have appeared in Hashtag Queer LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology Vol. 1<\/em>,\u00a0Hello Horror<\/em>, Pure Slush<\/em>, Cosmos<\/em> and other places. She was born in the year of the Tiger and collects books beyond her ability to read. She\u2019s an avid couch-dreamer, gardener, and bush-walker, and is a sucker for life\u2019s simple pleasures: food, coffee, friends, and reading. She reads for Flash Fiction Online<\/em>. You can find her at www.emmamunro.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma Munro     Ella tracked the untagged male to Costco. Like everyone else, he pushed a shopping cart, referred to a list and then selected goods. He wore the perfect outfit to blend in — minimal makeup, silk top, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":8017,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8021","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P15duy-25n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8035,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8021\/revisions\/8035"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jerseydevilpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}