by Brook Wilder
Amy thought about it for a second before she laughed again. “Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said. “Mike Hangly… wow, it feels like ages since I’ve last seen him.”
“That’s because it’s been two years,” Junie said.
“Yeah, two years of not having him around to bore me with all this talk about submarines,” she giggled. “You know, come to think of it, I kind of do miss him.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” Junie said, shaking her head from side to side. “You’re on a mission, keep it professional.”
“I might just professionally kiss him when I see him,” Amy said, her lips curving to a wry smile. Junie shook her head again in disapproval.
“Nu-uh, not a good idea,” she said. “I think you should text him first, just to kind of test the waters… maybe he has a girlfriend.”
“Maybe,” Amy said, that smile plastered to her face still. In her mind she was exploring all the possibilities, all the what-could’ve-beens, but she knew what her priorities were; her life depended on that.
***
“So, guess what?” Amy said.
“What? Wait, no, don’t say over the phone… where are you right now?” Junie said.
“I’m already on my way.”
Junie shot up as soon as she caught a glimpse of her sister pulling over in the driveway. She ran to do the door and swung it open, folding both arms across her chest as Amy skipped up the driveway. “You look content,” she said, shifting her weight to one leg.
“I am content,” she said, a huge smile settling over her face.
“Content with the fact that you just got us insider information or content with the fact that you got laid?” Junie asked.
“Fuck, how did you know?” Amy said, her eyes wide as a set of plates. “Well, both.”
Junie chuckled. “Well, congratulations… I just need to know exactly what it is that you’ve obtained from this visit,” she said, diving for the liquor cabinet again.
“Junie, I’m… concerned about you,” Amy said, peering over her shoulder. She eyed her as Junie grabbed a bottle of wine, unscrewed it open and started pouring it into a jumbo cup.
“You don’t have to be concerned,” she said. “I’ll feel better once we’ve gotten this whole thing over with, when we’re all sure that none of those motherfuckers will ever bother us or our kids ever again.”
“You’re right,” Amy said. “Well anyway, I texted him right after you left… he responded in literally two seconds. Then, he asked me to come over so I did… we flirted for a little while, Junie, it was like we never stopped talking to begin with. And then…”
“Then?”
“Then I got him just a little bit drunk… you know, to get the information out of him.”
“Oh my God, you got him drunk?” Junie asked, her hand flying to her mouth.
“Yep,” Amy said nonchalantly. “Then he started blabbering about being in the Marines again… no surprise there.” She paused for a second, clearing her throat. “But anyway, he ended up telling me where to get those timers… they’re sold at this craftsmen store at the far end of town.”
“Craftsmen store?”
“Yeah, apparently, if you give them just enough money, they can make you a working timer and install in into your bomb,” she said.
“Oh, I’m not sure if this is a good idea,” Junie said, shaking her head. “I think we need to talk to Aiden about his first.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Alright, then,” she said. “You can talk to Aiden, while I talk to the rest of the gang.”
“Amy, they’re not your friends… you know that, right?” Junie asked, leaning in close to her. “I don’t want you getting too comfortable around them.”
“Don’t worry,” Amy said with a smirk on her face. “I’m not stupid. If I was, I wouldn’t have warned you about dealing with those people in the first place… now, I better get going now, but if you have any updates, tell me, okay?”
“Okay.” Junie got up and walked her sister to the door. All that worry, all that anxiety she once thought she had gotten rid of, it was weighing down on her again. It seemed to her that it never went away in the first place. She paced the room back and forth, her hands clasped behind her back. She knew she needed to talk to Aiden, about everything. Suddenly everything was confused in her head; her relationship with Aiden, Amy’s decisions. It was all like clutter, hidden away at the back of her mind, and it was surfacing again.
Amy watched as the fireworks seemed to shoot out from all kinds of different places. It looked to Junie that Jon-Boy was running around, trying to distract the Mercenaries while they look for the source of the explosions. Little did they know, they had an even bigger explosion waiting for them.
“What the actual fuck?” Amy said, her eyes darting back and forth frantically. The fireworks illuminated the sky, and then went on to go off somewhere else. Junie’s face lit up next to her, and then it fell away from that light, sinking into the darkness again. Amy was waiting for Jon-Boy’s signal. A couple of more people rushed out of the headquarters; the building was still swarming with people.
“There are still people in there,” Junie whispered, scanning the place with her eyes. She held onto the iron bars of the fence, searching desperately for Jon-Boy’s signal. But it was not time yet. There were still more people in the building. It was like they were running around in circles; in the darkness, they couldn’t find him. This was all one big game of hide-and-seek, and Jon-Boy was winning. In the distance Junie could hear their whispers, adamant on finding this fire launching ghost.
“Where the fuck is he?” one voice said.
“Who is this sick bastard?”
“I think he went that way.”
A silence fell over the place. It lingered in the air like death, and suddenly Junie could hear every movement, every breath around her. She looked over to Amy, her features almost drowned out by the darkness of the night. She looked up and all she saw were stars, but now wasn’t the right time to be looking up. “Amy, Amy, look!” she said. Jon-Boy’s flashlight shone against the night sky; that was their signal to get moving. They rose to their feet, Aiden squeezing Junie’s hand before he started marching towards the building. They walked to the main entrance; a wrought iron gate that was left ajar when the men ran outside.
“Now, we’re going to have to be very, very quiet,” Tom said, the whites of his eyes the only thing visible in the blue dark. Junie nodded, knowing full well he couldn’t see her. All four of them climbed a few steps, Tom shouldering his way through the inched open door. “Don’t touch it, it might creak,” he hissed. Junie nodded again and shouldered her way through. Every now and again, she would turn to look over at Amy, who gave her a thumbs up.
Amy had the bomb. Jon-Boy had left it with her; it was her responsibility now. She cradled it in her arms like a child, occasionally looking down at her feet to make sure she wouldn’t trip over anything. One wrong move and they were all dead. The building was messy on the inside; what kind of a place was that? Amy couldn’t quite make out the structure of the two story house, she couldn’t even make out if there was any furniture in there or not. They thought about flicking the lights on, but what if the Mercenaries were to come back? No, it was too big of a risk.
“Let’s go down to the basement,” Amy said. She noticed a black gap, blacker than the area around it, and when she strained her eyes a bit trying to figure out what it was, she realized it was the start of a downward flight of stairs. Tom led the way, walking swiftly down the stairs and motioning for the rest to follow. Amy held onto the railing, trying to watch her step as she made her way downstairs. Suddenly she felt the weight of the box being lifted off her arms as Aiden took the bomb from her.
“Here, just let me hold it,” he said. Amy let out a sigh. A part of her was relieved that this wasn’t her responsibility anymore. “Alright, let’s set it up over here,” Aiden hissed, pointing to a seemingly bare patch of carpeted floor. All four
of them tiptoed to the center of the basement, crouching down in a circle with the box placed in the middle. Aiden took the lid off carefully. “Alright, Amy, did Jon-Boy teach you how to do this?” he asked, clenching his jaw. It appeared to Amy he was more nervous than she thought.
“Of course, he did,” she whispered, digging her hand into her pocket and pulling out her cell phone. She turned on the flashlight and pointed it in the direction of the bomb. “There’s our little present,” she said with a sinister smile on her face. As nervous as she was, she couldn’t wait for that moment, that victory. She couldn’t wait to see that building go up in flames, collapse into rubble. And she was going to do everything in her power to make sure that it happened.
“Alright… I know a thing or two about bombs, myself,” Aiden said, his eyes fixated on Amy’s fingers as they danced around the wires. “I’ll be telling you exactly what to do.”
“I know what I should do, don’t worry,” Amy said, not taking her eyes off the yellow and red wires. Suddenly she heard a noise that made her jump.
“What the hell was that?” Aiden whispered, looking around him.
“I thought I heard snoring,” Junie said, peering over his shoulder. “Oh my God, Aiden,” she said again. “Look over there.” Aiden turned around, only to find Lee asleep in the back.
“What the fuck?” he said, shaking his head. His jaw dropped; he could barely even speak. “He’s been in here this entire time?”
“Clearly, yes,” Amy said, averting her gaze back to the bomb. She held a pair of tweezers in her hand; all she wanted to do was to get this over with. “Should we just ignore him?” she asked, her eyes darting from Aiden, to Junie, to Tom.
“I think so,” Tom said, rather coldly. “I think it would be best if we just took him down with the rest of this building.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that,” Amy said, shaking her head. Suddenly she felt the hair on her neck stand up. Were they just going to leave Lee in there to turn into ash with the rest of the building? Ironic as it was, Amy hadn’t really thought about that. Or at least, she didn’t think she was actually capable of killing someone. Right now, the option was staring her right in the face, except it was less of an option, and more of a command. She could feel the room around her spinning; she could barely even take her breath.
“What do you mean?” Aiden hissed, his nostrils flared. “It’s not like we have another choice.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think we would actually end up killing someone! That’s mad, Aiden!”
“You know what’s mad? Going around terrorizing little kids. We need to teach those people a lesson, a lesson they’ll never forget.”
“And what better lesson than to kill off their boss, their most valuable team member?” Tom asked, his lips curving to a smile. Amy and Junie exchanged worried glances. They knew they had no other choice but to get onboard with the plan. Aiden was counting on them, and so was Tom. Jon-Boy was probably still out there trying to take that goose-chase as far as he possibly could. Amy hated not being granted the choice, but then again, who would’ve thought they’d even end up in this situation to begin with? Amy closed her eyes and braced herself.
“Shit,” she whispered. Her car keys had fallen out of her pocket. Aiden froze. His eyes were darting back and forth frantically, and when he heard a rustling noise at the far end of the basement, he realized what she had done.
“What’s going on here?” Lee yelled from the other side of the room. His jacket rustled as he struggled to get up, and when Aiden heard a clicking noise, he instinctively grabbed Junie’s hand and took off. Gun shots.
“Amy, Amy are you done?! Hurry!” Tom said, ducking down low and watching as Amy’s fingers continued to hover around the wires.
“I’m, I’m almost done,” she said, her voice muffled against the sound of gunfire. She had turned off the flashlight, Lee running around the basement shooting stray bullets like a madman. Amy squinted at the neon yellow wire; her target. She approached it with the tweezers and snapped it in half. Now the timer was set to two minutes, and counting. “Hurry, we need to get out of here,” she said.
“Tom, you bastard!” Lee’s ghastly voice echoed from across the room.
“Go, go!” Tom said, pushing Amy in the direction of the exit. “Go.” Without thinking, Amy scurried up the steps. A few moments later, she found herself dashing across the construction site, searching aimlessly for her sister.
“Amy, Amy, over here!” Junie screeched. “Oh my God, I was going back to get you! Come, take cover!” The two of them dove for the floor, the dust rising up and filling their nostrils. There was no sign of Tom. Amy braced herself; there was a sudden blinding flash followed by a muffled roar, sending a mushroom cloud of fire into the night sky. Aiden grabbed Junie’s hand and squeezed it. Amy shivered at the sight of the flames. It was over, but Tom was nowhere to be found.
CHAPTER 16
Junie woke up wanting to see Aiden. She called him to come over after Matty left for school; he was there in a heartbeat. The minute she opened her eyes, she felt the weight of the world pressing down on her. She didn’t know if talking to him about their last conversation was the right thing to do, she didn’t know anything. But the second she saw him at her doorstep, all was forgotten. She searched for the right words to say, but she didn’t find anything, anything at all. All that was left were fuzzy little fragments of their conversation together, and with Aiden standing right there at her door, all she could do was wrap her arms around him. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered into his ear.
“I’ve missed you, too,” he said with his hands wrapped around her waist. He slammed the door shut, gawking at Junie as she turned around and made a beeline for the liquor cabinet.
“Want some wine?” she asked, crouching down on the floor and searching through the bottles. Aiden walked over to her.
“We don’t need any of that,” he whispered, helping her up. The two of them locked eyes as Junie got up on the balls of her feet. She felt desperate, like she would melt in his arms. She knew she needed to talk to him. “Are you okay?” he asked, running his fingers through her hair.
“I don’t know,” she said, her lips barely moving. “I just feel… burdened.”
“Burdened by what?” he asked. There was silence. “Come on, you can talk to me.”
Junie’s eyes dropped to the floor. She didn’t want to look at him, she didn’t want to tell him what was on her mind. The truth was, she didn’t even know what was on her mind. All she knew was that she was confused, not just about their future together but about her future alone, as an individual. The clutter was slowly building in her brain; she couldn’t take it out, she couldn’t get rid of it. It was always there, multiplying, like little carton boxes being stacked one on top of the other. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to be a nurse, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to pass that exam,” she said finally. “I don’t know anything.”
“Junie, I’ve seen you. You’ve been studying all day and night for that shit; you’re probably as prepared as you’ll ever be.”
“Well I’m not, okay?” she said. “I’ve been doing nothing but running to and from Amy’s house, making sure she doesn’t fuck up, making sure we’ve got all the supplies. I feel like I’m throwing my life away for this, Aiden!”
“That’s why I told you… you don’t have to get involved in this, just let me and the gang handle it,” he said, his hands balled up into fists.
“But I can’t, okay? I feel obligated to help… I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t,” she said. Suddenly it dawned on Aiden how passionate she was about this; he knew he couldn’t take that away from her.
“Alright, you know what?” he said suddenly. “We don’t need to talk about the Mercenaries right now, let’s talk about you, Junie. What do you want to do?”
“I want to pass my fucking nursing exam, I want to be able to function normally, raise my son, without losing my balance,” she said.
/> Aiden stared at her admiringly. “You’re a strong woman, Junie. There’s a reason why I look up to you so much,” he smiled. “It’s because you’re doing what I could never do; you’re piecing your life together, and you’re not letting anyone or anything stop you.”
Junie leaned in and kissed him. “You have no idea how good you make me feel sometimes,” she said.
“Sometimes?” he asked with a smirk on his face.
“Well, all the time,” she whispered against his lips. At the back of her mind she was still thinking about her son, how he would fit into all of this. If she did pass her nursing exam, or even more difficult, if she did get out of this operation alive, how would she be able to balance everything? “You know what I worry about?” she asked, leaning back in her chair.
“Your son?” he asked, tilting his head sideways.