Gunpowder

Nothing.

That was all Axis saw as she woke from the depths of unconsciousness. The pain in her shoulder seemed to have faded, though it may have just been the adrenaline rushing through her veins telling her that.

The policewoman’s instincts kicked in, and she began to think like an animal. She knew that there was no light to see anything, so she would have to rely on her other senses to tell her where she was.

The only noise was a slight rumble and the occasional clanging of metal. It reeked of feces and mold, which made Axis wrinkle her nose in disgust. The ground beneath her was cold, and had a few distinct ruts in it. It was most likely made of a sort of metal, probably steel.

There was a constant pressure at one of her wrists, making her believe that she was handcuffed to something, which would explain the metal clanging noises, which resembled that of chains.

“Is anyone there?” came a small voice, followed by the sound of someone’s hand fumbling across the ground.

“Poppy?” Axis inquired, hope rising in her heart that her friend was alright.

“Yeah! Yeah! Axis, you’re alive!”

“Of course, I wouldn’t die on you,”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad you’re alright,”

“Not exactly, I got shot too,”

“Oh, um, sorry about that. Whoever brought us here, they seemed to have bandaged our wounds.”

“Guess so. They want us alive for whatever reason. They could have just killed us back there and been done with it,”

“Yeah, sound like something they would do,”

“Wait, you know them?”

“You could say that,”

A low growl escaped Axis’s throat. How could Poppy have betrayed her like this!?

“What do you mean, ’you could say that?”

“Axis, I’ve met a lot of people in my life. And they aren’t nice. To them, we’re traitors, and they want justice for that,”

“Are you saying you want to go back there?”

“It’s confusing.... I was born there, my family lived there. I just, feel like I have some sort of loyalty to them,”

“I was born there too, my family lived there too, but that doesn’t mean I still want to work for them!”

“Wait, you were a loyal-born?”

“Yes, I was. It’s a long story,”

“Well, it seems like we have time. You never really did tell me where you came from,”

Axis gritted her teeth, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I’ve heard a lot of stuff, trust me. I don’t think anything you can tell me can scare me,”

“I was a rape-baby, okay?”

“Wait, what?”

“My mom was an impoverished janitor for this big company, I forget its name. She was... attacked by one of her male coworkers. She was going to be forced to have an abortion, but she want to keep the baby, she wanted to keep me. So, well, she left in the middle of the night and was found by a rebel patrol. They took her in, and she opened up her own little shop, and settled down with a man who she loved, and they had all my brothers and sisters,”

“Woah.. I, I didn’t know... I’m sorry. If you don’t mind me asking, where are they now?”

“They both died when the city was attacked, years ago. I was raised by my oldest brother, along with the rest of my siblings. I joined the police academy when I was only sixteen, and I rarely see them now,”

“I-I never knew,”

“It’s war, Poppy. It’s not a land of sunshine and rainbows,”

“I know. But it’s a land we’ll survive,”

“Now, we have to get out of here,”

“Agreed,”

“Where do you think we are?”

“A truck, back of one. A semi,”

“They still have those?”

“Yeah. I’m assuming this one used to be used to cart pigs to the slaughterhouse, just based on the, er, smell.”

“Well, I’m cuffed to something. You?”

“I am as well.”

“Can’t you break out?”

“I could break out of the medical, leather ones, those are easy. The metal kind.. not so much. But I could try.”

“No harm in trying.”

“Well.. here. Let me try this.”

Axis heard a loud CLANG as Poppy slammed her wrist against the metal wall of the trailer.

“Any luck?”

“Surprisingly, yes. These seem to be pretty cheap, pretty breakable. Just slam the lock into the wall until it shatters.”

Axis gave a grunt of determination and did as she was told. In one swift movement, the lock slammed into the wall, and the cuff snapped. She rubbed her wrist, which had lost some circulation due to the tightness of the metal around it.

It took Poppy a few more tries to break the cuff, as she was much weaker than her counterpart, but she managed to get it off eventually.

“Now, lets get out of here!”

“Not so fast,” Poppy responded. Axis’s face paled, expecting her to say something like, “I’m leave, but you’re not.” Instead, she stated, “We both seem to be in cages of some sort.”

“Separate cages?”

“Yes. The bars seem to be, lasers of some sort. They don’t give off light though,”

“Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Do you still have that anklet on?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. It has a feature that’s supposed to prevent the wearer from using technology, but I think that it might be useful right about now.”

“Awesome! How do I turn it on?”

“Okay, just say to it in a firm voice, “engage.”

Poppy nodded and did as she was told. The anklet buzzed for a moment, which tickled her leg slightly, and then beeped for just a second. The cell, which was truly just an area enclosed by several lines of lasers, hummed for a moment too. The lasers turned a glaring red, lighting up the semi trailer, before turning off all together.

“Great! Now help me out!”

Poppy nodded and scampered over to the enclosure Axis was trapped in. The bars went down in mere seconds, and she jumped to her feet.

“Let’s get out of here!”

Poppy shifted from foot to foot nervously. She wasn’t entirely sure that she even wanted to escape. The loyals had raised her, they were her birth home.

She made a split second decision in that moment: The rebellion was her home now.

“Let’s do i-” she began to shout, but was cut off by a giant bounce from the ground below. The truck must have lurched at least a feet off the ground, throwing the two people inside onto the ground. Then, the truck stopped completely. A sound resembling that of nails scraping across a chalkboard resounded through the air as wheels gripped onto asphalt.

“We need a plan,” Axis whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re gonna come back here and open the doors, I bet. We need to be ready.”

“Alright, what do you suggest?”

“Hm... Running is probably a safer bet then fighting. We don’t know how many people will be coming through those doors.”

“You’re right. So, what do we do?”

And so Axis explained her plan to the woman. They both nodded in agreement, and stood to their feet, ready for whatever was about to come through that door.