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

Everyone got communion, saltine crackers, and Welch’s grape juice on the verge of going bad. Even our Eucharist was iffy.

Wren wasn’t there, and yet, that felt right. If there was a Holy Spirit, always around keeping us safe, that was my gunslinging sister.

At the end of the service, it was Sharlotte who said, “Mass has ended. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

The irony of that went deep. We might be serving God with our war, but I didn’t love Her, and we were howling hounds of war with no peace in us.

And it seemed God didn’t, either.

By the time the Battle of Denver was over, She’d wipe the city clean off the face of the Earth with Her capricious wrath.

(v)

After Mass, none of us left ’cause we waited for Sharlotte’s speech.

I sat on folding chairs next to Aunt Bea, Nikki Breeze, Kasey Romero, Allie Chambers, and our dogs. Baptista sat near us, and we exchanged glances. Not sure if she was Catholic, but there she was.

Nikki leaned in close. “You okay, Cavatica?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

But her eyes hit me like everyone else’s. Dang women had raised me. Now that I was growing up, they were all worried ’cause I was growing up bent. Wren might have had to rebel against Mama, but I had to do the same thing with just about every mother I had.

Aunt Bea joined in on the mothering. “You know, mija, with everything and all, your mama never wanted this for you. She really wanted you behind a desk and safe.”

“No,” I said. “Mama wanted for us to win the war. She thought me learning electrical engineering would do it. Back then it was a war with Howerter and Mavis, but now? It’s a war for us all and for everyone. We’re fighting it with bullets not spreadsheets, but it’s just another battle. Mama would want me here. She’d want me like I am.”

Aunt Bea and Nikki exchanged glances and they couldn’t say anything more. ’Cause I’d said the truth. Mama needed warriors, and she made them out of her children. Sad, maybe, but we were soldiers and our cause was righteous. We could’ve turned out worse.

Sharlotte got up in front of everyone, our people, the Gammas, June Mai’s outlaws, Nichola Nichols’ refugees from Glenwood Springs, out of their Stanleys. Shar had asked me if I wanted to talk, and I’d refused. Nothing to say.

The crowd quieted. Pilate stood off to the side, looking wan and worried. His arm was out of the sling. Doctor Jan had whipped up a splint for his leg, which helped him walk. He gave me a long, frowning look. Add a father to my mob of mothers.

Sharlotte took in a deep breath. “Tonight, we’re going to do the impossible. Folks say that word around us a lot, but we don’t listen. They like to warn us. They like to tell us we’re foolish. Folks like to believe in limits. It’s comforting.”

An uncomfortable laugh burbled around the hall.

“So, the Wellers do the impossible. We took our headcount to Nevada. We escaped the ARK in Wendover and ran across the desert and didn’t get captured. We freed Glenwood Springs.”

A howl lifted the hall.

“And we took the cure to the Sterility Epidemic out into the world. Got it through the ARK’s worst troops and we did the impossible again.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head, remembering Micaiah’s betrayal.

Other folks cheered though they shouldn’t have.

“Tonight,” Sharlotte said, “we’re going to build a fence, and we’re going to do our best to hide. And tomorrow morning, we’re going to kidnap the most famous man in the world. We’re going for President Jack ’cause he knows where we can find the cure to the Sterility Epidemic. And hopefully, we’ll find a way to help our Gamma sisters. You with me?”

Another round of yelling.

“But the impossible comes with a price. Not all of us here tonight are going to be around tomorrow. But our deaths will mean something. By God, every name will be recorded, and we will erect a monument, so the world never forgets what we did here. As women, we came together to save the world and every soul counts. And in Heaven, when we are seated at the right hand of the Father, we will know peace at last. Are you with me?”

“We are with you! We are with you! We are with you!” and the chanting continued. All around me, women chanted it, Gammas chanted it, and the room swelled.

Sharlotte lifted her hands and chanted along with them.

We were together.

We were one voice. One mind.

But I didn’t chant. ’Cause all these impossible quests had sapped my shakti. Sharlotte’s speech was good, but it was only words, and inside me, words were as cheap as doll plastic.

And I was contrary. Always so contrary. They wanted to revel in their courage and coming glory, and I wanted to tell them they were all full of bullcrap.

Being difficult went to my DNA—Wren had it, I had it, and Mama was a cantankerous bear on most days.

I left and climbed the stairs to the roof of the building. I stood in the snowfall, shivering, holding myself in my arms for warmth. The sky was a closed set of stormy curtains, but I knew Mama could hear me.

“Mama,” I said to the clouds. “I’m here. I’m fighting the war. But I need help. You’ll help me, won’t you?”

In Heaven, Mama rolled her eyes. Of course, she would.

“So that’s settled,” I said. “I’ll do the next job in front of me, but I’m telling you, so you can tell God, I can’t do much more. My shakti is low and I’m tired in my heart. Can you ask Her to take it easy on us? Can you?”

And the answer was no, she couldn’t. God would do what God would do.

Mama’s words, though, swirled from the past. A twist of memory curled into my mind.

When we cleaned the house,