Page 145 of Chaos

I think about making a joke about Napoleon and decide not to. “Why does Lavinia Hope want me in DC?”

Otillie straightens sharply. “I thought you knew? We just assumed you’d have heard.”

I shake my head.

“She was on the committee that reviewed Sochi, that bunker, the women there, the bullets that went awry.”

Even now, years and an apocalypse later, even after Ben brought it up, it still has my stomach rolling over. “I know that. But why does she want me?”

“She said communications went down. You were the team lead, and down there, everything changed. The plan crumbled. She said you held people together.”

“And?”

“She wants you to do that now. She wants you to help her rebuild a stronger nation.”

“You mean she wants me to lead her army.”

“Yes. People saw you when you escaped over the American Legion Bridge. They’re afraid of you now, but if you were leading them, they wouldn’t be afraid of anything.”

Maybe that explains the soldiers on their trucks who made the sign of crosses when they saw me.

A noise thwacks from my left.

A metallic sound.

Followed by a sharp cry in Frankie’s voice. “No!”

A thump.

Dropping the trio of blood bags, I jog over and grab the sheet, pulling it away.

Against the side of the gurney, Frankie, her naked back to the room, still covered in blood and shrapnel, and Shasta are holding an IV pole pressed down on Misty’s neck.

Misty’s feet kick.

Her face is red.

Frankie is … bleeding everywhere, just fought Duane and Ben for her life, rescued Church and Ephie from a burning building, kept Shane alive, pregnant … and still fighting.

I rip a sheet off the rope that’s holding it, and drape it over her back.

“I got it.” I take the IV pole from her grip.

She moves away, holding the sheet to her chest, and Shasta slowly relinquishes the pole. She’s lost her sunglasses in the melee, her dark eyes unseeing as they swivel around the room.

“She’s crazy,” Misty croaks under me.

“She tried to kill me!” Frankie shouts, as Auden comes in to cuddle against her side. Shane and Ephie and Beast move to stand in a cluster around her.

Misty curls her fingers around the bar. “She’s lying.”

“Find Colleen,” I shout at a couple soldiers standing by the door. “Bring Jacquetta, too, and handcuffs.”

They leave on a waft of cold air.

Ottilie watches this all with interest. Sheila and Alice have come from Kelly’s partition, the latter going to collect the blood bags I dropped.

“She killed Ben,” Misty croaks.