Eighty-six: No underpants

The car drove off and I watched other soldiers run to their predetermined places. There was only a skeleton crew left in the Compound, while the others headed toward the front lines. They'd double back later to join Kiran in closing the trap.

The geeks had taken their computers underground, leaving only a few to monitor the mirror network.

There were butterflies in my stomach and the back of my mind was asking me on repeat what I had done and what I was doing. This would be the biggest plan I had ever put into place.

Was it worth it?

I wasn't sure yet.

Would it work?

I hoped so. It was the fastest way to end the war that I could think of.

I puffed my way over to where we had new plants growing and I lowered myself down to sit amongst them. Tending to my plants, I listened and waited. The tension was killing me. It was hard not to pop my head up and look around at every sound.

It was both frightening and a bit of a relief when there was an explosion from the main and rear gates simultaneously.

I curled into a protective ball with my vest and helmet on while the bullets began to fly. As expected, the firefight didn't last long and I mourned for those soldiers who had volunteered their lives in order for this plan to work.

A gun poked me in the back and I raised my hands in surrender, wiping my wet eyes on my dirty arm and peering up at the soldier standing over me.

"Get up," the soldier nudged me and I reached awkwardly to pick up my crutches, sticking my bottom in the air when standing myself up. The soldier's eyes widened and then softened. "Come on," he said gruffly, indicating the direction with his head. "Hurry up. Keep up."

I couldn't keep up with him. He walked too fast. Looking a bit conflicted, he slowed down to escort me better.

My legs still hurt when I walked and I had an awful sense of balance. I didn't get dizzy so easily these days, but I did still tire easily, and I'd already done a lot of walking today. I hoped that my walking would go back to normal eventually. One day. I just had to keep working at it.

Puffing, panting and dripping sweat, I just about collapsed on the ground with the other Bosky soldiers who hadn't been killed, but had been taken prisoner instead. The dead were being carried and placed in rows nearby us. The Bosky soldiers looked at my condition with a bit of strained concern, not daring to move, because they knew they'd be shot the moment they took their hands off their heads.

This was everyone who survived? I looked at the number of other dead soldiers and couldn't keep the tears from rolling off my chin while I counted them. Some kind person draped a blanket around my shivering shoulders and I took my helmet off, feeling my fingers shake so much that it took me several attempts to loosen the buckle.

"That's everyone we could find," a soldier said eventually. "There was only that one woman with crutches in the whole place. The rest are men. Don't make her get up again. She doesn't have any undies."

"Bastards," a soldier with droopy eyes spat.

"No, no," I waved an arm at them, unable to stop my voice from quivering. "They - they never hurt me. Nobody's touched me. It's just nothing they had was the right size for me. I'm a bit… small."

"You don't say," Droopy Eyes looked me up and down. "And who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I was one of the people that used to live in there," I pointed at the remains of the toilet block. "The roof fell in when the Boskies took over, but they were nice enough to patch me up a bit before I bled out."

"Are you one of the original solitaries?" Droopy Eyes barked with a strange expression.

"Yes sir," I said, wiping sweat and snot and tears from my face with the back of my still trembling arm.

"Might be the last one alive. We should have her name somewhere then," Droopy Eyes told his sidekick. "What's your name, Miss?"

"Jean Wallace," I supplied, hunching my shoulders at what I expected them to find.

"Civilian. Unconfirmed traitor," read Sidekick from his screen. "Looks like they're still updating her file. We have to report her in to the big honchos. They've been looking for her."

"Put her somewhere separate from the Boskies," said Droopy Eyes with a frown, skim reading the screen. He looked at me. "Are you actually one of them?" he thumbed at the Bosky soldiers.

"I don't know, sir," I said in genuine uncertainty, "but they say it's in my blood."

"They've been saying that about a damn lot of people," he said, a bit distracted. "Anyone they've ever caught. Take it with a grain of salt, Miss Wallace."

"Yes sir."

"There's a lot of stuff in here, Miss."

"I daresay there would be," I replied. "A lot of things happened and most of them beyond my control."

"Hmm," he said, giving the tablet back to Sidekick and shouting. "Okay, get these sorry bastards out of my sight. Find the girl a safe room."

I stood slowly with my hands on the ground and bottom in the air, fumbling to pick up my crutches and accidentally flashed him, while another soldier helped me stand up. Dr Eisor hadn't exactly had a lot of material to work with when he had made the dress. Maybe he'd made it short on purpose. I wouldn't have put it past him.

Droopy Eyes and Sidekick clapped their hands over their eyes and half turned away, having turned quite red, while Droopy Eyes roared at no one in particular, "And someone find the poor girl a pair of underpants!"