“Forward ten paces,” Axe said, his voice raspy and aggrieved.
Her heart raced as she advanced, moving her head to get Axe in her sights through the slits in her hood. The hall was dark and shadowy, the only light the flicker of Axe’s torch. She made her way through the second door and he closed and locked it behind her.
“Your friends…” Coughing fit, “OK?” He took the key to the third door.
“They’re fine. Are you OK?” Milly said.
She stood waiting for him to take her arm, lead her to the first door and out of the armory. His breaths came in ragged bursts, and through her hood slits she saw he had his hands on his knees and leaned against the wall. There would never be a better time, yet she hesitated.
“I’m fine,” he said. He took her arm, and they started out.
He walked beside her, a foot away, his attention forward. The torch splashed light off the walls, but the passageway ended in blackness. She let the coiled garrote slip from her sleeve into her hand.
“I don’t know what I would have done all these years without you,” Axe said. He was half a step in front of her. “Soon I’ll need you more than ever, Adaline, my sweet. You’re going to have a great life.”
“Isn’t it time for me to start that life, daddy?” she said.
He jerked her elbow and pulled her close. “What did you say?”
All she had to do was flip the wire over his head and pull until it hurt. When she didn’t respond, he twisted her arm and Milly screamed.
“Oy, what’s this?” He’d found her garrote.
Milly threw herself on him, and they hit the wall and fell tangled to the floor. She wailed on him, Peter’s voice urging her on. The memory of Peter’s warm blood on her face, and the white pieces of brain she’d found on her shirt enraged her, but ten seconds too late. She punched and kicked, yelling and pounding with years of frustration, fear, and anger.
Even in his dilapidated state, Axe was stronger than her. He flipped her over, reclaimed her arm and bent it backward until it snapped. Milly wailed with pain, drool dripping from her mouth, shock freezing her legs. He spun her around and punched her in the face. The blow tagged Milly on the nose and sent her sprawling onto the floor, blood splattering the wall. Then he kicked her, and the white fury that had saved his life would mean the end of hers.
She blacked out.
“Easy, Milly. Easy.”
She came awake with a start. Milly lay on a cot, the blurry image of a person seated beside her. She blinked and Robin came into focus. “Robin? Am I dead?”
Robin snickered. “Not yet, but give it time.”
“Why are you here? Does Axe know?”
“Be still. Rest,” Robin said. Her old friend opened her eyes as wide as she could and flicked her gaze toward the wall and then rubbed her ear.
“OK, Robin,” Milly said. She nodded slightly. Axe watched them.
She lay back as Robin left. Milly’s arm was splinted and bandaged, her ribs wrapped, and her nose was so swollen she had to breathe through her mouth. Her unbroken arm was handcuffed to the brass headboard.
Robin would be back with nourishment, and then she’d find out what happened. Her entire body thumped in rhythm with her heart, and the heat of her wounds gave her hot flashes. She was in an outer chamber of the armory, she could tell because the walls were block and there were no windows, just two rusted out grates of the long-gone HVAC system. Milly chuckled thinking about the time Tye had tried to escape via an air duct. He hadn’t walked for weeks. She dozed off three times before Robin reappeared carrying a tray of food.
“You hungry?”
“Yeah,” Milly said. It hurt to talk. “Am I all right? I don’t feel right.”
“He beat the shit out of you,” Robin whispered. “Keep your voice down.”
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure. He came for me the day after you left and brought me here to tend you. Same shit with the hood and everything. What do you remember?” Robin said. She looked old to Milly, her laugh lines thick with worry, her crow’s-feet dragon claws.
Milly remembered passing through the second door, not being able to do what needed to be done. Axe finding her garrote. Her desperate attack. Blackness. “I tried what we said. He flipped me and the rest you can see.”
“So he knows you were trying to kill him and get the keys?”
Milly nodded.
“To quote you my good friend, we’re screwed.”
They laughed and there was a loud bang in the hall outside the room.
“It’s good to have you here,” Milly said. “You remember when we were kids? Running on the beach and watching the fire guards at the Womb and Spyglass Station?”
“It seems another lifetime,” Robin said.
“How long was I out?” Milly said.
“Eight days.”
“Does Tye and the rest know I’m alive?”
“He hasn’t let me see them since he took me.”
“He hurt you?”
Robin shook her head no, but tears leaked down her face.
“You’ve seen the compound?”
Robin’s eyes shifted to the floor. “Yes. The skulls, the human skin stretched in the tree limbs, the wall of blood. How did you live with it all these years? I’d rather be in the prison.”
“I’m basically his servant, and he talked at me a lot, but I couldn’t speak,” Milly said.
“Why?”
“My voice sounds nothing like Adaline’s and he’d get confused and beat me.”
“Confused?”
“He say why he didn’t kill me?”
Robin nodded.
“And?”
“Axe said killing your own blood isn’t right, no matter what cause you might have. It’s an abomination against nature.”
Milly chuckled. “There’s one I haven’t heard a thousand times.”
The door flew back on its hinges. Gunfire erupted, and she saw Axe’s twisted face in the glow of the muzzle flash as he squeezed the trigger again and again. Shattered brick and concrete sprayed the room, and shell casings rang as they hit the floor.
Lost in his rage, Axe pulled the trigger even after the gun was empty. Relief filled Milly when she found Robin unharmed. Her friend stood and snatched the pistol from Axe’s hand. “You crazy fuck. We could have been hurt.”
“I was aiming at the ceiling. Wait, what did you…”
Robin kneed him in the balls and Axe collapsed, all fight gone. Then she kicked him in the head and balls, her leg a blur of fury. Axe coughed up a wad of blood, and his eyes rolled back in his head, but Robin kept kicking like she was stomping a cockroach into oblivion.
When finally she stopped, Robin wept as she stared at the blood on her boots. This started Milly crying and soon the women were trembling and hugging each other. “We did it,” Robin said. Her crying turned to laughter and Milly’s to horror.
“We don’t have the keys. And I don’t see the shock-box,” Milly said.
Robin wiped her face and said, “That shit does mean shit.” She smiled. “We’ll figure something out. We’re free, Milly.”
“Have you forgotten about the virals?”
Milly judged by the look on Robin’s face she had. “We’re all right. They won’t attack us if we act cool.”
“Bullcrap.” Milly used the term now that she’d actually seen a bull and smelled its crap. “If they see Axe isn’t with us, they’ll attack. Bet on that.”
“You’re right, but what if he was with me?” Robin said. She took Axe’s keyring, but the three door keys weren’t on it. Robin unlocked the handcuffs and freed Milly, and the two women stripped off Axe’s clothes. Thankfully he’d worn his nasty old hunting cap with the earflaps and a heavy jacket. Milly pulled on his pants, heavy socks, and boots with great effort. Her ribs were killing her, her arm and nose throbbed, and she had a headache worthy of Respite’s wine.
Milly knelt and rubbed her hands on the filthy floor. Then she smeared
her face with dirt and put on the hat, earflaps pulled down, hair tucked underneath. The shirt and buttoned coat completed the disguise. She picked up the empty gun and held it in a trembling hand.
“Follow my lead and we’ll go to the compound. Walk slow and easy across the yard, but there will be virals. Just stay cool. If they try to communicate or approach us, I’ll point the gun at them. That usually scares them,” Milly said. There was no ammo left in the gun and they had no other weapons.
Robin snuffed out the torch and Milly eased into the hallway. Sunlight spilled into the corridor through an open door and they headed for it. The day outside was bright, the air crisp and dry, and Milly’s eyes hurt as they adjusted to the light.
A twelve-foot brick wall surrounded the armory complex and Axe’s compound occupied the northeast corner where the base captain had lived. To get there they had to cross two hundred yards of open grass and hardpan. Virals patrolled the walls, and several marched around the polygon-shaped armory building.
Milly took Robin’s arm, and they walked across the yard, eyes down. Snarls and guttural speech came at them from several of the diseased, but they didn’t come closer. The virals here were less deformed than others she’d seen. They had no gashes, walked normally, and still controlled their eyes, but they were pink and emaciated and senseless. Axe had said an insatiable hunger drove them mad, and the virus hollowed out their brains and took up residence there. Milly thought the shock collars might have something to do with their disposition.
Halfway across the yard three large Uruks blocked their way. They yammered and screamed, jumping up and down like dogs excited to see their master. Milly brought up the gun and yelled in the deepest voice she could muster. “Back on post or I’ll give you a jolt, you godforsaken shitballs.” She’d heard Axe say that a hundred times.
The virals fled like geldings at the sight of a knife, and Milly and Robin crossed the last hundred yards, passing into the thick stand of soldier pines that surrounded the compound’s inner wall. Axe had planted the trees, and she dared not look up for fear of seeing what was strung between the evergreens as a warning to any who approached. The skins of people were stretched above, their shapes unmistakable, and their message as clear as air.
The trees thinned and Milly stepped over the ring of ashes that surrounded the compound and was the first line of defense. Robin followed, and said, “He ever tell you what the ashes thing meant?”
“He told me the diseased are afraid of fire above all else, and ash is fire’s cousin,” Milly said. “I asked a few years ago. After stepping over it a million times.”
They came to a tall, ramshackle wooden gate that stood ten feet and was flanked on both sides by a barricade made of stones, wood, rusted-out cars, and other pieces of the lost world. They paused before the gate as Robin fumbled through the keys. When she found the one she was looking for she let out a sigh of relief, unlocked the gate, and they passed through.
Chapter Twenty-two
Year 2075, Pass Christian Armory, Mississippi
The old brick house sat nestled in the northeast corner of the complex, and a white picket fence surrounded the remnants of a small lawn. Barriers of wood, metal and chain-link fence zigzagged like a maze all around the house. Two rocking chairs sat on the porch, and three dogs rested beneath a pile of scrap metal that formed a crude portcullis. The white picket fence looked freshly painted, and wild flowers and weeds sprang from every crack and patch of dirt. Tall poles were spaced around the house at intervals of ten feet, and skulls rested atop them. To their left the wall of blood baked in the midday heat.
Milly gagged. “I can’t abide that,” she said.
“Hearing his ignorant ass talk about it was worse,” Robin said.
The name of every person Axe had ever killed was finger-painted on the large wooden canvas in blood. If Axe couldn’t find out the deceased’s name, he assigned a number. In the lower right was the notation “1-23 unknown.” Milly traced Peter’s name, and her stomach burned.
Both women knew how to get through the maze and where the traps were. Salt and Pepper, the black and white husky twins, bolted down the steps of the house and through the twisted metal entrance to meet Milly and Robin. They jumped and sniffed, howling and whining. Helga, an old German shepherd, followed. She walked and watched the scene for a few seconds, then turned and headed back to the house like a supervisor who’d seen enough to be satisfied the job was being done.
Inspection complete, the huskies bolted for the house and Milly and Robin followed.
“We’re bringing them with us, right?” Robin said.
“No question. Larry and Turnip also,” Milly said.
“Tester’s going to love that,” Robin said.
They entered the house and barred the doors. Milly could only do so much with one arm, but she could walk OK and her ribs didn’t hurt too badly. She did her best to make no abrupt movements so as not to pull on the healing wounds, but overall she was steadier with each step.
Despite having shared the house with Axe for over six years there were still rooms Milly had never been to. Every door had a lock, and sections of the house had been off-limits to her. Robin flipped through the key ring and opened every door and what they found was unsurprising.
Adaline’s room was untouched. Years of dust lay on every flat surface and time and mice had gnawed away the bedspread and mattress leaving only springs and the metal bedframe. Plastic toys, and doll heads lay on the floor, and faded posters of long-gone rock groups adorned the walls.
Axe’s room was plain and unadorned: a bed, a dresser, and a table with a lamp, but nothing remained of the lampshade except the metal frame, and there was no bulb. “Axe kept Peter’s… axe,” Milly said. She laughed, and for an instant she was renewed. The axe rested in a corner and she hefted it, bouncing it up and down in her hand. “We got him, Peter. We got him.” A tear leaked from an eye and Milly slapped it away.
They found a radio room with a box that had two rows of buttons and a signal screen. Headphones hung from a wall peg, and batteries were stacked like bricks on a steel rack. Wire trailed from the batteries to the radio and up the wall and through the ceiling.
“Should I try?” Milly said. “The ON button is clear enough and I can tune in the frequency, though it isn’t the agreed upon time of day based on the sun.” Their synchronized watch was long gone.
“Axe and Gerall said it doesn’t matter. They most likely won’t hear us. As to the time of day, that doesn’t matter either. Our message could bounce around the ionosphere for hours. Tye said even longer,” Robin said.
Milly put on the headphones, flipped the ON switch, and a burst of static made her jump. She adjusted the frequency knobs until the unit was tuned into 419.6mhz, which matched the Ear. The radio hummed and buzzed and the room smelt of burning rubber, oil and metal. She turned to Robin and said, “What should I say?”
Robin shrugged. “Tell them we’re OK and that we love them.”
Milly nodded. She lifted the microphone and pressed the talk button. The design was much like the ear except bigger and much older. “Respite. Respite. This is Milly Hendricks, and I’m here with Robin Hampton, and…” She released the talk button and the channel closed with a burst of static.
“What is it?” Robin said.
“This isn’t the way Tris and Hazel should learn about Peter. If I don’t mention him, they’ll suspect something is wrong,” Milly said.
“You’re over thinking this. Just tell them where we are, what we’re doing, and that we’ll call again when we can.”
Milly nodded and tried again. “Respite. Respite. This is Milly Hendricks. The date is April 24th, 2075, and the fellowship is heading north to a guidestone where it’s said we’ll find a clue to a new city. A place where the old world is being rebuilt. We’ll call again when we can. I love you Randy. Milly Hendricks out.”
“Do it a few more times. Don’t forget Curso,” Robin said.
Her husband. He’d
become a distant memory. She thought more of Peter, as if he were her deceased partner. In many ways he was. What that meant for her and Curso she didn’t know, but she didn’t add his name to her sign-off. Milly recited the message into the void twenty times, each time waiting for a reply. No response came, and she hung up the headphones and powered down the radio for what would probably be the last time.
They found Larry in the kitchen perched on a chair back. He squawked and screeched as they entered and Turnip inched out from under the table. Larry was a white crow missing an eye and Turnip was a huge gray shorthair cat with golden eyes that looked part mountain lion. The animal watched them as cats do and sat down.
They were packing up food when Robin said, “When we were unlocking all the doors before, I had an idea. You remember the armory courtyard?”
“How could I forget?”
“We only used one door, but do you remember how many other doors there were?”
“Four. Each courtyard wall had one, except for the south end which had two. They’re same as ours. Large and thick with bands of steel crisscrossing the wood. We tried to pick the locks. We pounded on them, and once Tester pried one open.”
Milly remembered. “It opened into the viral’s space.”
“Tye and Tester think they all do. So do I. The way Axe led you in was through the viral’s space. They were around us all the time, watching,” Robin said.
Milly raised the keyring, which held at least fifty keys. “We haven’t used a bunch of these. We should be able to unlock different doors and get to the courtyard. Then we don’t need the three keys he hid.”
“We’ll have to go through viral territory,” Robin said.
“I’ll find a zapper box, and his guns. We’ll fight through if we have to. Tye and our friends must be starving by now. We have to get to them,” Milly said.
Larry squawked.
“Why didn’t Axe have the shock-box on him when he came for us?” Robin said.
Milly said nothing because her answer wasn’t good. If Axe had meant to end it, and them, he’d probably tossed the zapper over the wall or otherwise destroyed it. Milly hoped they could find a spare.
Keepers of the Flame Page 15