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
