War Girls (The Juniper Wars Book 5) by Aaron Ritchey (best short novels .TXT) 📕

Nichola took me upstairs. Glad I had my coat ’cause it was freezing. We talked in the darkness of the house, stripped clean, the carpet gone. Only bare board and fractured drywall remained. Why the basement hadn’t been salvaged was anyone’s guess. Or maybe June Mai had her unofficial war room decorated.

“Marisol was my fault,” Nichola said softly. “I should’ve known something was off about her.”

“You couldn’t know,” I said. “She had the perfect cover story. And with how quiet she was? That made her undetectable.”

“Maybe.” Nichola touched my hair. Her breath came out in puffs of white from the cold, but it was warmer in the house than outside.

“You’ve changed, Cavatica,” she said. “I didn’t know you so well, but I can see you’re different, and I don’t mean your shaved head. How are you holding up?”

No, we weren’t going to play this game. Wren might have grown up with Sharlotte as a mother, but by the time I came around, I had at least three mothers getting on me at every turn: Mama, Shar, and Aunt Bea. I wouldn’t tolerate another.

“Ma’am,” I said. “No offense, but you don’t know me at all. And it’s been a rough couple of days. Make that a rough month. Hell, the year has nearly killed me. So, let’s not talk about me. What about you? How come you didn’t run for the border and get back to the World? You’re free now.”

Nichola gave me a long gaze, her eyes bright, her white hair aglow in the dark of the empty house. Below us, June Mai and her soldiers muttered. I hoped they’d believed me about Baptista.

The old woman clicked her tongue. “Well, Cavatica, you and I both know the Juniper is where the action is—it’s where the world will change. How could I leave? I have the Stanleys to maintain. War does make for curious engineering. And now that we’re outgunned? It’s even more interesting. And then there’s the plight of June Mai Angel and her veterans, wrongly imprisoned and cut off from the country they sacrificed so much for. Top it all off, the ARK has the cure for the Sterility Epidemic. The world needs to know. How could I walk away from all that?”

“Sacred duty,” I whispered. “The grand quest. Micaiah warned me, right down the line, that if he told me about his quest I wouldn’t rest until I finished it. He’s right. I won’t stop. I’m dead inside, or the best parts of me are, and I’m still trying to finish the quest.”

Dang, talked about myself with her even though I didn’t mean to.

Nichola felt the pulse on my neck. “No, Cavatica, not dead. You’re alive and the wonder of life? We can renew ourselves even from the most horrible injuries, internal or external. We grow around wounds and become stronger in the process. Machines can’t do that. Organic material can. Until we can’t, but you are years from that. Do you understand me? You are years from death.”

I had to argue that point. “How can you be so sure? If the ARK hits us tonight, I might die.”

Nichola laughed. “Then it won’t matter, will it?”

“Live in faith, not fear,” I murmured. “Pilate said that a whole bunch when we were on the run from the ARK.”

Nichola didn’t respond. She looked at me with kindness and understanding. “You saved my soul in Glenwood Springs. I had given up hope. I lived in fear. And you saved me. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I whispered. “But you forgot one thing on your Juniper to-do list. We have to find a cure for the Gammas. They’ve given up hope as well. Dizzymona is trying to eat herself to death.”

Nichola laughed at the grisly joke. “True enough. I’m not sure we can find a cure for them, Cavatica. Their DNA has been restructured, and it wasn’t in the plans to return it to human. They are a side effect, and in science, especially genetics, changing is easier than fixing.”

“I made a promise. The girl I made it to is dead, but we have to try.” And Alice. I had to make Alice’s death count.

“And we will,” Nichola said. “See? Another reason why I can’t leave the Juniper. We have a lot of work to do. Good work.”

“Chores,” I said, remembering Mama. “I guess we should go down and talk to June Mai Angel. I do like planning. I just never really wanted to do it with her.”

(ii)

In June Mai’s basement war room, we all gathered, everyone except for Wren. She was gone, alone in the night. Like always.

But Pilate showed up, and Sharlotte, Nikki Breeze, Aunt Bea, Kasey Romero, Allie Chambers, all the old guard.

Dr. Jan stood with Nichola Nichols. Jan was there to represent the Gammas while Nichola could answer questions about our heavy arms, the Stanleys.

Sharlotte kissed June Mai before we started. It was a tender display, full of love. Micaiah had kissed me like that. But not for a long time. And prolly never again.

“So,” I said. “What do y’all know about President Jack’s visit?”

June Mai took over. “He’s arriving in four days for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s not just rumor. The U.S. has committed around twenty-five thousand soldiers to the Juniper conflict, more than were lost in the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War.”

“The Battle of Denver is the biggest military operation since the Sino,” Sharlotte added.

June Mai nodded. “President Jack’s visit is to get public support. The news media will take pictures, draw sketches, and write articles. And of course, President Jack will give a big speech.”

“Makes sense. They wouldn’t send Amanda Swain,” I said. “She’s in office, and besides, she doesn’t have the public’s heart. President Jack does. Always will.”

“Who doesn’t love President Jack?” Pilate asked loudly, then coughed a bunch.

I didn’t. He’d given up on the states affected by the Yellowstone Knockout and made them territories. My whole life would’ve been