Free The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison Page B

the party?” He was watching her very closely.
    Secure. Totally secure. A little selfish.
    “No, fuck them. I don’t want a gang bang.”
    “Why don’t you ditch them and come with us, then. We could use another armed man. And we’ve got two girls. You’re a good search man, obviously. You’ve got medical skills? His eyebrows went up.
    “Army medic. Iraq. Four years.”
    “See? You’d be a good member of our team.”
    “Where you headed?” She knew the answer.  
    “South. We heard there was almost no plague death in Central America. Lots more women down there.”
    Lots of women. Also milk and honey and the streets are paved with gold.
    “Yeah, I heard that too. I like my group though. Thanks.”
    “Suit yourself. So where’s this ton of drugs?”
    “Back at camp. I’d have to go get it and come back and meet you here. Take me maybe an hour.”
    “Alright. See you when you get back.”
    She walked away slowly, not wanting to turn her back on them. They were silent while she left. She walked until she knew they couldn’t see her, then ran. She ran around blocks and zigzagged until she almost got lost. She found the saloon again and stood panting, gulping water. She went down into the cellar where she had stowed her pack. She had caught her breath and filled up a bag with a handful of everything. When she came up the ladder, the five men were there, with another guy she hadn’t seen.
    Damn it.
      Aaron looked at her like the devil with a soul to collect. “This is Archie. Our spotter. He was up on a rooftop when you split. Looks like you’re all alone after all.”
    She stared him down. “They’re all out raiding,” she said.
    Breathe slow, talk low. Don’t look around, stare right at Aaron. I can still get through this.
    “Sure they are. So we’re gonna take what we want and then be on our way.”
    A few beats of silence while she thought about it. Manny and Archie had guns drawn on her, but the two of them stood almost together and not ten feet away. Nobody else had shown a gun. If she let them get close to her, she knew what would happen. They’d take her guns and pat her down. They’d realize what she was and she’d end up on a leash. They wouldn’t kill her as long as they figured it out first. She held that thought up to the light and examined it.
    Nope.
    She dropped the bag to the floor and the sound was an anticlimactic thud. On the other side of the bar, inches away, Aaron pulled his machete. She drew both guns and fired, not really seeing, toward where the two armed men had been. She shot Aaron in the face, close up, as he tried to bring the machete down. She flinched back from the spray of blood, stumbling. She missed Chuck and hit his baseball bat, he dropped what was left of it and ran. She fired again and again, making holes in people, aiming without eyes. She hit one of them in the thigh and he went down, screaming. She winged and grazed and cut them up more than anything. Kept it up until nothing moved. The two who had guns had shot at her and missed, but she never knew it. Her ears rang. She went outside, deaf and still holding her guns up. Chuck was out there, trying to drag both women toward a bicycle, but they were both fighting him. He had his back to the door.
    “Drop it.”
    He looked over his shoulder at her, still holding both leashes. Up closer, she could see they were made of heavy chain with padlocks at the neck. The women looked chafed and sore where the chain rubbed. There was no way they’d get out of them.
    “Fuck you.”
    “I’m holding the gun, asshole. Drop it.” She cocked back the hammer on her revolver for good measure. Her hands were shaking. It was a punk line. She didn’t know why she said that, why she cocked it. She was going to kill him anyway. She drew it out for no reason.
    He turned around and tensed up, to run or pull them in to shield him. She couldn’t tell what his plan was. She shot him in the back of the head with the newer gun. His