Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

only giving me a very small measure of pleasure and no outlet for my rage. Someone was going to get her ass kicked tonight. Maybe a few of them. But I had to wait for my moment. I stood up straight again, shooting her death lasers with my eyes for a couple seconds before looking back at Rainbow Vom Girl.
    She finished talking to her informer and slowly descended the stairs like a queen, moving in our direction, finally stopping in front of me. She was weaponless, and her eyes never left mine.
    “Who are you?” she asked simply.
    The fire was to my left and her right, making it possible for me to see one side of her face very clearly. She was blond, and if the light wasn’t fooling me, blue-eyed. She could have graced the cover of a Vogue magazine she was so beautiful, with her high cheekbones, aquiline nose, full lips, and aristocratic air. I could totally see her in shiny, brown leather riding boots and tweed.
    “I’m Bryn.” I motioned with my head towards the column. “And that’s my boyfriend up there. I’ve come to get him.”
    Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of the baby’s crying. I turned around to see Winky gently bouncing it, and shushing it in a quiet voice while talking nonsense.
    “Boongy, boongy, baby headsies, no more crying, no more pooping, nozies, nozies, noziiieeees …”
    The painted girl spoke again. “That her baby?”
    “Uhhhh, kind of.”
    “She crazy?”
    I was confused for a second before I realized she was still talking about Winky. “No. She’s perfectly sane.” Her goofy baby-talk made it a hard sell, but the girl just frowned at me, switching topics.
    “What were you doing outside our gates?” Her eyes were scanning me from top to bottom, as if making some crude assessment. It made me nervous.
    I looked around me, at all the faces staring at us. The talking and laughing had stopped. Every girl there stood still, wary, looking every inch the Amazon warriors I had pictured in my mind. They weren’t all necessarily tall, but they were beautiful, tough-looking, and totally confident in themselves. Their body language spoke volumes. Should I tell her the truth or make something up? My mind was drawing a blank about what to say, so I went with the truth. It was easier.
    “We were spying on you to try and figure out how to get Bodo back.”
    Bodo’s head popped up. “She luffs me, you know! I triedt to tell you dat, but you don’t listen to Bodo. Dat’s a problem, you know, dat you don’t listen!” His head flopped down and he roared, lifting it up again with effort. “Aaarrraaahhh!! Get me off of dis thingk, now! I need to go take care of my girlfriend. You know she iss helpless without me. She thinks she is soooo bigk and tough, but I know bedder. Insite she’s chust a … ahh … fluffy white thing … dat thing … argh! Honigsuker! I don’t know what you call dat thing. But it’s very soft and like sweetness of da sugar.”
    “A marshmallow!” yelled the guy next to him, sounding way more sober than Bodo did.
    Bodo’s head snapped to the side, acknowledging his tied-up partner. “Yes! Dat’s what it is! Thank you, Alejandro!” He looked back to us. “Bryn is chust a marshmallow so she needts me a lot.”
    I shook my head. That boy is so far gone. He honestly believes that about me. Idiot.
    “So you’re the one we’ve been hearing about non-stop for days,” she said, no expression on her face.
    One of the other warriors snorted.
    “I guess so,” I said. This whole thing was freaking me out. I saw no good end here and no way to take them all down without feeling the slick blade of a weapon that could cut entire branches off trees with one quick swipe. The fact that Bodo talked about me while he was gone was flattering, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to appreciate it now. That would come later, hopefully, if I could get our butts out of this mess somehow.
    Her gaze flicked over to Rob. “Bring him to me,” she ordered.
    Two of the girls moved in and shoved Rob forward, using their machetes as threats to keep him from doing anything stupid. He stepped up, stopping next to me and casting nervous glances my way.
    “We need a guy to complete our ritual.” She jerked her chin up at him. “He’ll do. I’ll trade you the German one for this one.”
    Rob choked and started coughing. “Gahh!”
    I patted him on the back awkwardly. “Uhhh, that’ll be a definite no ,” I said, fighting back the urge to scoff at her