Just as she half-turned around a heavy weight tackled her from behind, crashing on her back like a truck. She felt a hand grab a fistful of her hair and yank back while another arm tried to wrap around her, pinning her elbows.

Jules’ Krav Maga lessons came quickly to mind. Bette drew her knee up and stomped her heel down as hard as she could on what she thought would be the man’s toe area. Surprised by her quick reaction and the force of her stomp on his toe, he yelped in pain and his hold on her hair loosened. Bette hurriedly drew her knee up again and kicked back viciously at what she thought would be the man’s knee.  Again, she knew her aim was dead-center on the target as she felt a satisfying contact with the knee that had weakened slightly after the toe had been stomped on.  I hope I busted you up there you sonavabitch! Cold neurons fired in her brain as the next phase of her training on how to react to an attack like this switched on.

Bette jumped into the man, surprising him again, hiking both knees up to position her feet against the wall, and then pushed off hard against the wall, pretending she’d just executed a racing turn in the swimming pool. The man had already lost some of his balance after Bette had kicked his knee so the force of her push-off from the wall staggered him backward, and he lost his balance even further when he caught his heel on some of the rope that Bette had dropped, and slipped.  The combined force of his own weight and the backward motion of Bette knocked him against the opposite wall.  His head banged hard against a sharp edge of the hard wooden slat jutting out from the wall.

Bette felt the arm wrapped around her like a vise grow slack and his head lolly-gag forward. She squirmed out of his grasp as he began to sway from side to side, dazed.  She flipped the torch she was holding to grasp the torch by the neck and used the metal handle of it as the leading edge of a devastating blow she landed on his temple.  He went down with a thud.