Aurora - Blood Moon Tribute Pt. 10

Yan rose up on her knees. "You take all?"

"Hands up anyone who wants to stay."

"I get the girls." Yan said, and pelted out of the cell.

Alone for the moment, Ally sat on the ground hugging Penny. For a long time they just held each other, Ally's head on a swivel, Penny hiding her face, crying. "Ally..." Penny sniffled after a long, strained silence, "I can't go."

Ally heaved a deep, exasperated sigh. "Jesus Christ, Penny Pennington, you're a pain in the ass. What now?" Penny clung to Ally, trembling, and Ally gave her a shake. "Penny! I'm serious. Stop it."

"I can't go." Penny sniffled, "I can't go."

"You can go!" Ally lilted, "You can go!"

"I... I... I can't walk."

"Then we'll carry you."

"I... I... I..."

Ally rolled her eyes. "And now the fucking record's stuck."

"Alana... I killed someone."

"For the last... fuck... king... time, Penny! They killed themselves!" Penny shook her head in Ally's chest. "Okay," Ally bridled, "let me rephrase that! Some texting rag-head killed himself and took his family with him."

"No." Penny continued shaking her head, as if trying to wear a hole in Ally's mesh vest. "I was only a killer before. Now I'm a murderer."

Ally pushed Penny away. "What the fuck are you on about, girl? Hang on, no! Know what? I don't even care. We're getting out of here. We'll discuss it over champagne. In a hot tub, back in the world."

"I murdered Sonya." Penny said, then let out a sob.

Ally looked at her, blinking. "Penny? What? No! Yan said she died in some sort of riot."

"No," Penny shook her head. "Sonya set Bayo on fire. Then the riot squad came and opened the cells. I had some chord. I was getting ready to hang myself, but the sound of Bayo's screams..." She shuddered. "And when Sonya walked out laughing, I figured, well, I'm never getting out of here, I might as well make it worthwhile."

"You killed Sonya?"

"No," Penny sniffled, "I murdered her. I took her life. Put the chord around her neck and strangled her to death. I'm a murderer, Ally. I'm gonna die here."

Ally wrapped Penny in a tight embrace, partly horrified, partly impressed. She'd never hugged a murderer before. Not that she knew. She pushed her away. "Penny! Penny! Listen to me. That hot tub's still waiting, we can talk about it there."

"I'm a murderer."

"You're a pain in the fuckin' cloaca, Idiot. Come on, up."

"I murdered her, Ally. I mur-"

"For fuck's sake, do you think I'm deaf? I got it, Pen. I got it."

"I'm going to Hell."

"You've already done your time, Sweetheart. Believe me."

"How can I ever walk free? With that on my conscience?"

Ally gripped her bony shoulders and gave her a shake. "So you've got one?" she demanded crossly. "Is that what you're saying? Then guess what? You're forgiven. Because that Russian cunt didn't have one. One plus zero still equals one."

Ally looked up as Yan entered the cell, with Thip, the Thai, and Sophany. The little Cambodian was crying softly, hiccupping through her tears. Ally rose to a crouch, looking around. "Where's Portia? And Ange?"

Sophany buried her face in Thip's shirtfront, shoulders shaking, while Thip sniffed back her anguish. "They gone." Yan said. "Some soldier take them away."

"Took them away? What for?"

"I think you know." Yan said.

Ally looked around for the borrowed assault rifle. "Where's my gun?"

"Ally, no!" Yan admonished. "You can't save them. Not without die."

Teeth clenched, Ally smeared her eyes. "By fuck I hate this country. Someone should do the whole world a favour and just fuckin' nuke the joint."

"What to do now?" Yan asked.

"How about we get the fuck out of here." Ally replied.

"Long way back to city." Yan said. "How do we do?"

Ally stood and shouldered the rifle. "Magic carpet."

Yan exchanged a puzzled glance with Thip.

"Pen?" Ally said, offering her hand, "We gotta go."

"Is this really happening, Ally? Are we really getting out of here?"

"Look, Pen, I don't wanna tell you I told you so. In fact the words 'I told you so' will never pass my lips. To tell you 'I told you so' would be such a cheap shot I would never dream of telling you, 'I told you so'."

"Even knowing what you know now? What I did? How I-"

Ally looked around. "Would somebody stuff a sock in her mouth."

Between Ally and Yan, they hauled Penny to her feet. Her blood pressure slumped and down she went.

Yan bent over her. "Penny! Penny! You stand. You try."

Penny shook her head. "Every time I stand I just pass out. You'll have to go without me."

"Leave you behind?" Ally growled, "After what I've just been through to get here? Fat fuckin' chance. Come on! Up! Up!"

All pitching in, Ally, Yan, Thip and Sophany hauled Penny to her feet. When she teetered and almost fell, Yan bent over, then shrugged the English girl onto her back. "What are you doing?" Penny protested. "You can't carry me."

"No problem." Yan huffed, "Next time you carry me."

Ally stood back, watching the performance. "You right there, Yanny? We've got a way to go."

"She no heavy. I think her cloth weigh more."

Ally snorted with laughter in spite of herself. Placing the oversized Kevlar pot on her head, she buckled the chinstrap, then threw the rifle over her shoulder and crept to the gate. The block was steeped in unnatural, unsettling silence, any inmate not busy raiding the kitchen cowering in their cell, or hiding out, terrified, in ablution blocks. Penny touched her arm. "Ally. Thanks. For coming back. For keeping your promise."

Ally hefted a shoulder. "Well, I said I would, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did." Penny nodded. "And I think it's very decent of you."

"For coming back? That's not decent, it's fucking awesome."

"No. For not saying I told you so."

The long concrete walkway seemed to stretch to infinity. Ally led the way, fighting the urge to run, treading on eggshells in her big, clumsy boots. Faces peered out of the depths of the cells as they passed, wide-eyed and frightened. Twenty meters short of the stairway to freedom, Ally turned to speak to Yan, when a figure emerged out of the stairwell in front of them.

Thip and Sophany squealed in alarm, huddling behind the tall Chinese girl and her burden, while Ally stared, aghast, at the apparition. A young woman in the uniform of a prison guard. Wearing a utility vest. Brandishing an assault rifle. Hijab draped like a scarf around her neck. Luxuriant, jet-black hair, lots of it, and Ally could just make out the lunate crescents of big, delicate ears. "Aisha?"

The woman shouldered her rifle. "GET DOWN!"

Ally tipped her helmet back. "Aisha? It's me."

"ON THE FLOOR! GET DOWN!"

Aisha fired into ceiling, a deafening 'boom' that echoed through the cell block. Thip and Sophany threw themselves down, screaming, as chips of concrete pitter-pattered onto the floor, while Yan got to her knees and rolled Penny off her back. Treating Aisha to a withering scowl, Ally did likewise, then lay, belly down, propped up on her elbows.

She fired again, and Ally heard a voice behind her let out a yell. She looked over her shoulder. There, in the walkway at their backs, she found four young men. Paramilitaries, members of Rashiid's cut-lunch revolutionaries- rich kids mainly, raised on the internet, followers of the blogger, 'SuperQ', conspiracist, dissident and critic of the king. The youths were only in it for the action, and the bragging rights of course, and the promise of a big, fat reward when the fighting was done. They'd seen Yan and the other girls enter the block, and followed them down, intent on helping themselves to another fringe benefit.

Aisha loosed off another round. One of the brats hit the ground, screaming, shot through the leg, while the others threw their weapons down and lay, hands on heads, flat on the floor. Ally looked around as Aisha hurried over and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. "Miss Ally?" she huffed, pulling her upright. "You come back?"

"Heard you were having a party." Ally panted, reaching for Yan's hand.

Aisha looked past them and bellowed some more loaded threats, while the wounded trooper rolled around, clutching his thigh, blood pouring out through his fingers. At Aisha's command, two of his pals rose to their knees, patting themselves down in search of a tourniquet.

"You come to bring Miss Penny?" Aisha said. "Many times I try feeding her. Bring many delicious foods from my home. I worry she die."

Yan shouldered her burden once more, assisted by the two smaller girls. "Yeah?" Ally replied. "Well I told the silly bitch it's not in the contract. Aisha? Honey? Will you help us get out of here?"

Aisha looked around, as if weighing her options. "Where to go?"

"Outside. To the water tanks."

"Then what?"

Ally looked around nervously, not wanting to get anyone's hopes up. "There's a helicopter." she said.

A quick exchange of glances, then Aisha twirled her finger. "You come by helicopter?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"How can this be?"

"It's a long story, Aisha. What do you say? Will you help us get out of here?"

Aisha's eyes darted here and there as she grappled with conflicting impulses. "Come!" she said, "I know a way."

Leaving the squad with a few parting warnings, Aisha turned and led the way back up the stairway. Ally followed, with Yan behind her, then Thip and Sophany, their arms linked under Penny's behind taking much of the weight. They stopped at ground level for a quick breather while Yan adjusted the load, then set off up another set of stairs.

The route out was much the same as the route in. Nearing the hospital, they came across a stretcher on the blood-streaked floor of the corridor, with a blood-stained body bag onboard, bulked out by the remains inside. Aisha snapped her fingers. "I think I have a idea."

Releasing the assault rifle from the lanyard around her neck, Aisha offered her weapon to Ally. "What do I want with this?" Ally frowned. "I've already got one."

"No, Miss Ally. I must not carry. And we can't leave behind for we might be needing it later. For now I am your prisoner."

Ally screwed her face up. "No you're not."

"Yes, Miss Ally. Trust me, I am." Kneeling, she rolled the body bag and its occupant off the stretcher. "I'm sorry, my brother," she said, "but we need this." Quickly searching for an alternative, she tugged the hijab from her neck and swabbed a puddle of blood off the canvas. "Quickly," she said, "lay Penny down here."

Yan did as she was told, kneeling, and waited while the burden was lifted off her back. "Guys," Penny said, "I'm actually feeling a bit better. I think I can walk."

Aisha raised a hand. "Miss Penny, please. We will carry you. Miss Ally, you walk behind, with the gun. Like we are prisoner. I will get you outside, I know a special way, but we must hurry. Soon Rashiid's soldiers will leave and the prison will be in revision."

"Is that bad?" Sophany asked in a frightened little voice.

Aisha looked at her. "Not good."

Ally slung her own stolen rifle over her back, and hefted Aisha's weapon. "I hope you know what you're doing, Aisha."

Aisha shook her head. "No. I don't. But once upon a time a good friend told me... Have confident. Believe in yourself."

They set off again, Aisha and Yan at the front of the stretcher, Thip and Sophany at the rear, Ally behind them, weapon raised, finger well away from the trigger. Down a set of stairs to an admin floor, offices ransacked, computers smashed, flatscreens strewn all over the floor. They pulled up at a non-descript door, and Aisha fished a bunch of keys from her pocket. "What were you doing down there?" Ally asked, watching her sort through the collection. "Down in the block?"

"They take the lady officers," Aisha said, "make us go to staff-room and lock us inside. Put someone outside to watch us, but didn't know there is another door. So, I'm thinking, I must get back to my block. Take care of my residents, because many bad men walk around the prison." She found the right key, slipped it into the lock and opened the door. Another infernal stairwell, this one more a fire escape than thoroughfare. "This will take us down. There is a long... how do you say... not such an open walkway, more a..." She ransacked her memory but nothing came to mind.

"Tunnel?" Ally asked hopefully.

Aisha snapped her fingers. "Tunnel! I use it often when I come to work. It opens near the toilet, so not many staffs go this way. But we must be quick. When Rashiid's dogs leave the guards will return and then there will be trouble."

Ally cocked her head. "What sort of trouble?"

"The staffs will be angry. Very angry. The kitchens are broken and food has been stolen. Residents are everywhere and many are missing. It is all a big, big mess."

They manoeuvred Penny on the stretcher to the edge of the landing. "Sook... I mean Yan... if you and Aisha go down three or four steps. Put the handles on your shoulders, it might make it easier."

They reorganised and sure enough, the stretcher was more or less stable with a minimum of incline. And down they went, one flight after another, around countless landings, all the way to a big, barred gate at the bottom. The bearers set their burden down, groaning, and spent a few minutes stretching, massaging their backs. Penny rolled over and tried to stand. "You guys," she said, "this is embarrassing. Let me walk."

"Penny," Ally rolled her eyes, "someone has to be the bunny and you're the lightest one. Be a good girl." 'Besides', Ally mentally added, 'we haven't got all night.'

Aisha thumbed a print-reader and the door clanged open. They did, indeed, find themselves in a long, dim tunnel, the walls and ceilings stacked with large-bore steel pipes, marked with arrows, some pointing inwards, some pointing out. The air was musty and bore the unmistakeable stink of raw sewage. To another barred gate, another print reader, and Ally caught a glimpse of a brightly lit cage, an airlock as it turned out, last stop before the outside world.

They stood Penny up and gathered in a huddle, a final group hug within the confines of that hated space. The Naval Prison, where at least one of them was meant to live out her mortality. "Once we open that door, gang..." Ally said.

"We will be fine." Aisha said. "Outside is toilet. No one comes this way."

"What toilet are you talking about?" Ally frowned.

Aisha pointed at a large-calibre pipeline. "Where all the toilets go."

Ally thought about it. "Oh... you mean the shit-farm?"

Aisha tilted her head. "Miss Ally?"

"That's okay, I think I know what you mean. Well, I guess, if we're not already in the shit, we soon will be."

"Can I walk now?" Penny asked. "I feel better, honestly."

Ally pushed her down. "Not till we see what's waiting for us outside. If we do come across some baddies, try and look disabled. Like you're starving or something. Or been in an accident. Be pathetic. We're counting on you."

The outer door opened on the night. The moon was low on the western horizon and the brighter stars were showing themselves in the clear, indigo sky. Yan, Thip and Sophany all gasped- they were seeing the heavens for the first time in years, and for Penny it was no less than a miracle. Notwithstanding the stench of course- sewerage treatment works vying with open-pit garbage dumps. Ally dry-wretched once or twice and wiped her eyes. "I see what you mean."

Aisha looked at her. "Miss Ally?"

"Why nobody comes here." Ally wheezed, fanning herself.

"This way." Aisha said with a jerk of her chin. "Around the next corner we can see the water tanks. I will stay until it is safe."

Loading up again, they set off, but had barely gone fifty meters when a hulking great figure walked out of the dark, heading straight for them. Aisha put her hands on her head and inexplicably began to weep, whining in the local language. Acting the part of a captured jailer, under the gun of diminutive raider.

The tall, handsome male was a career army officer, one of a few professionals sent by Rashiid to babysit the rebels. Cigarette parked in the corner of his mouth, he was still doing up his pants after tending to his bodily needs. He raised a hand, bringing the weird procession to a stop, and glared at Ally past the crying prison guard. "You!" he demanded, "What are you doing here?"

Ally knew by instinct what he was asking, but lacked the wherewithal for a coherent reply. When Aisha tried to speak, the officer turned on her, scowling. "Well? And what are you doing here with your hair out? Harlot! Parading around like some cheap bleacher prostitute. You!" he jerked his chin at Ally. "I said what is going on here?"

Ally raised a hand, and said, "Stop!", one of few words she knew, then, "Danger!", another word often bandied around. Then, in a fit of inspiration, she pointed at Penny. "HIV!"

The officer's eyebrows shot up and he took a step back. "Then what in the Herald's name are you doing with her? Answer me, boy!"

Ally faked a coughing fit, hoping the threat of the plague might buy them some time. She nudged Thip between the shoulder blades with Aisha's gun. "Go!"

The 4 girls set off at random, stumbling out-of-step and almost dropping their load. The officer bellowed, "STOP!", then dipped his head to peer under Ally's black helmet. Straightening, he pulled back a step and drew his 9-mil, then levelled it in Ally's face.

The officer's beret went flying with a dull, meaty 'thwack!' and he crumpled, poleaxed, to the ground. Aisha stood, arm back, baton poised, just in case he needed a top up, while Ally blinked in surprise. She shook her head. "Jesus, girl! You are full of surprises."

Aisha holstered her truncheon. Bending, she picked up the nine-mil, blew the sand from its workings, then jammed it in her belt. "Come! We must hurry."

Penny sat up and slung her legs off the stretcher. "I'm done being carried." she declared, gingerly standing, unsteady on her feet but more or less vertical. She hooked her lank, greasy hair behind an ear. "Shouldn't we be making a move?"

Aisha replied with a toss of her head. "Stay close to the wall. Around the corner we can see the tanks. The helicopter is there?"

"Well that's where I left it." Ally nodded.

They stole through the shadows at the foot of the wall. Rounding the corner, they could see the three concrete tanks on a hillock in the distance, three hundred meters, maybe four, tantalisingly close yet impossibly far away. "There are your water tanks." Aisha whispered.

Yan rose up on tiptoe. "Ally? I see no helicopter."

"Behind the tanks, Yannie. On the flat." Looking herself over, Ally raised a hand. "Hang on. Let's push along the wall for a bit. I have to return these."

The fugitives swapped glances. "Return them?" Aisha frowned. "To whom?"

"You'll see."

The young man was right where she'd left him. While Aisha knelt and put her ear to his chest, Ally threw off the vest, then unbuttoned the shirt. Aisha stood, shaking her head, and Penny pointed. "Did you do that?"

"No..." Ally sighed, stooping to lay the shirt over his torso, "it was Isaac bloody Newton up to his old tricks." She looked up to see a question mark on Penny's pale face. "He got blown off the wall. Not in the nice way, either."

Penny nodded. "Oh."

Sitting, Ally pulled the boots off, and set them neatly beside him, then shucked off the pants, laying them gently over his legs. "There," she said, brushing her hands, "I promised I'd bring 'em back."

"Holding onto the hat?" Penny asked.

"Oh." Ally arched her eyebrows, then un-buckled the chinstrap and propped the black Kevlar pot on top of the boots. She worked the slippers from under the makeshift belt, then winkled her feet into their familiar embrace. "There you go. Promise fulfilled."

They stood for a moment in the shadow of the wall, eager to leave, reluctant to go, but just as Aisha shouldered her weapon, Ally touched her arm. "Aisha. Come with us."