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

“So where is he giving his speech?” I asked.

“Pepsi Center,” June Mai said. “They are pulling in the troops from the perimeter so they can all hear President Jack talk.”

I shook my head, frowning. “All of that firepower. Getting to him is going to be tough.”

“No,” June Mai said, “it’s going to be impossible. But that’s what we do, right? We do the impossible.”

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah we do.” I might not like her, but June Mai was a part of the family now.

Then I came up with a plan. ’Cause that’s what I do.

No one liked it much ’cause it required a whole bunch of work and luck and seemed destined to fail.

Problem was, no one would come up with anything better.

And June Mai, over and over, warned that there was a good chance President Jack would have no idea where the ARK’s secret research facility was.

If he didn’t? We’d make him find out. President Jack’s rise to power corresponded with Tibbs Hoyt’s, and both had made billions. No, they were business partners if not best jackering friends. But why would President Jack agree to a visit in the war zone?

I finally had to get out of that jackering basement. No way would I be sleeping underground. I wanted the sky as close as possible. Even the houses seemed like cages. I went to the hollowed-out storage units, to where the Marilyn stood. The snow reflected light giving the world a hushed glow.

In the cockpit of my favorite Stanley, I curled up in an Avalon Comfort sleeping bag. It felt good to be in a familiar place. I fell asleep watching the snow falling, praying Wren was all right, which seemed like the only prayer I’d stuck to for my entire life. Over and over again, let Wren be okay. Prayed it when I was ten. Prayed it then.

The nightmares came. I was back underground, under the Burlington Police Station, in the drainage pipe. But this time, spiders crept into my face, in my mouth, and something pulled on my leg, pulled me out.

It was Crete, her face shot off, and her rotted brains spilling down her dress like chocolate pudding.

I couldn’t shriek. My voice lay trapped deep inside me. I had to suffer the horror in silence. ’Cause I knew if I started screaming, I’d never stop.

I mumbled my fright instead of yowling.

Hands had me, shaking me, and I opened my eyes, but I didn’t see Pilate. I saw Alice.

Time seemed to break. Was I still wounded and coming down from the Rocky Mountains? Were my sisters dead along with Rachel and Dutch?

Someone was in the shed with us—Crete—come back from the grave to drag me to hell. I let out a shriek and tried to get my gun ’cause you kill zombies with headshots.

But Alice had me, gripping my wrists, while I thrashed and howled.

“Cavatica! They’ll hear. The ARK will hear. You have to be quiet.” That voice wasn’t Alice’s or Crete’s. It was Sharlotte’s.

“You alive, Shar?” I asked.

“I reckon I am, more than ever, if you want to know the truth.”

I blinked at the Gamma holding me. It wasn’t Alice, but Wren, her eyes sad. Sharlotte lit a candle but stuck it behind Marilyn’s legs, so it wouldn’t be seen by the prying eyes of the ARK zeppelins.

Outside, the snow continued to fall in sparkles across a white ground. Safe. I was safe for a minute.

I scratched at my ears, to see if they were filled with spiders. They weren’t, but I itched, all over, every part of me, covered in bugs.

But I was back to where time worked. My mind, my poor mind, seemed broken. I’d never be okay.

“It’s why Wren always went off alone,” I said. “The nightmares.”

Wren nodded. It felt good to look on her. She’d come back, and she seemed calmer, but I knew the craziness could come and go. Just hoped it would leave her alone for a bit.

“I came out to check on you when Wren showed up,” Sharlotte said. “You know, it’s kind of embarrassing my sisters won’t sleep inside, not with their own troops. Everyone sees you as generals.”

Wren chuckled for a long time at that one. As for me? I was a general all right. It was my plan, however stupid.

I sighed and went over the scheme again in my head.

Thankfully, June Mai had some spies working for the U.S. Some of the old warhorses from the Sino were working as consultants for the military in Denver. And of course, the ties among soldiers run deep.

So we knew President Jack would be flown in the morning of March 17th on a zeppelin called The Battle of Evermore to give his speech at the Pepsi Center. At the same time, the U.S. peacekeepers would leave their perimeter to hear him speak. If we could trap them in the Pepsi Center, we wouldn’t have to fight them once we grabbed the former president.

The Pepsi Center was near Confluence Park, where the South Platte and Cherry Creek come together. Since the Yellowstone Knockout, both rivers had turned wild to run over their banks. I figured many of the bridges along Cherry Creek might have been destroyed by the flooding. If we could make sure, then all we’d have to do is blow up the I-25 bridge to the west and Speer Avenue to the north. If we then fenced off Colfax Avenue, south of the Pepsi Center near the old Denver Metro Auraria College campus, we’d create a triangular prison for the American soldier girls. We’d not only create a fence, but we’d mine it, so if the peacekeepers tried to cross, they’d find themselves talking to Jesus.

We’d use Baptista to get into the area, since she was still officially a U.S. sergeant and could look the part. They’d be looking for her body in Burlington still, after the destruction of the Moby Dick. Normally, communication issues in the