Gunpowder
Chapter Twenty

Someone was screaming.

Her instincts taking over, Axis jumped from her bed, racing through her door. She didn’t care how much noise she was making. It didn’t matter. Someone was in trouble. Someone needed help.

The soldier’s ears pricked. The sound was coming from... Poppy’s room? Her mind immediately jumped to the worst possible thing that could happen.

She thought her house guest was dying of her injuries.

The door wasn’t able to be locked, she knew that much. It had been a subconscious decision, but she was glad she had made it.

Axis swung open the door, slamming it against the wall with a bang.

The screaming stopped.

Poppy was laying on her bed, still-backed and shaking. She was biting her lip so hard that it looked like it was bleeding.

“She’s having a heart attack OH GOD, SHES HAVING A HEART ATTACK!” Axis screamed in panic, flailing around a bit. Like the lion cub in some vintage movie she had seen once, the police officer lunged forward and shook the shaking woman.

She wasn’t sure what she expected, but she sure as heck didn’t expect her to just... wake up.

Poppy gasped in a huge breath of air as she bolted upright in her bed. She looked like a vampire; Her face was pale, blood seeped from her lower lip, and here eyes were so wide they looked as if they might just fall out of their sockets.

The first thing Poppy did was cry. Tears welled in her eyes and streaked down her face and wet her chin. She hardly even seemed to notice Axis’s presence.

The policewoman truly didn’t know what to do. She thought quickly and grabbed a spare napkin from her pocket, wiping away all the blood draining from her friend’s lip. She then applied pressure to the thin paper in an attempt to cease the bleeding.

Axis was no medic, but she had been trained in basic medical procedures, in case no medics were available.

“Are you having a heart attack?! Are you choking!?” She had been told to ask said questions before taking any medical action. It had always seemed a little redundant to her, but redundancy and safety didn’t always align.

“No. Maybe? I don’t know, I don’t know....” The confused ramble spilled out of Poppy’s mouth in response.

Axis felt stupid when she did it. She felt dumb and childish and embarrassed and every emotion that made her blush. But she couldn’t stop herself. Poppy needed her.. Poppy needed her.

Axis hugged Poppy.

And Poppy hugged her back.

The embrace seemed to last for hours. Axis at last let go, though she kept one arm over her friend’s shoulders.

“Alright. Are you okay?” she queried, worry pricking in her tone.

“I’m not dead, I guess,”

“You’re alive. But you may as well not be. What happened?”

“Bad dream. Just a bad dream...”

“A simple nightmare wouldn’t cause this,” Axis gestured to the tooth-shaped indent’s in the woman’s lower lip.

“I mean like a really, really bad dream. I’m okay though,”

“B-But you were screaming. Are you one hundred percent sure that you’re alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’ve just seen some things, been through some stuff,”

“I thought you weren’t a soldier?”

“I’m not. I never have been. But I’ve been in some battles. As a decoy or whatever,”

“Decoy? No wonder you have such bad experiences. That must have been awful,”

“It was, it was Axis. But I’m fine now. Safe... I think,”

“You think? You’re inside city walls, safer than Fort Knox. Nothing can happen to you here.”

“Not here, but when I go back out there, you know?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean... I mean escape,”

Axis sighed heavily, “Look. I know you must be scared, trapped in some city where every basically hates you. But it’s about twelve million times safer than where you were before. You have food and drink and a place to live and a place where you won’t be abused by your teammates. It may not be normal, and it may be scary, but it’s safe.”

“I’m loyal to my boss. I have been since birth. I’ve been under their rule my whole life. It’s all I’ve known, and I can’t leave it. I’m a technician. I’m not some burden of a prisoner,”

“Prisoner?! What could you possibly mean? This is a home for you. You may be an enemy, but you are no prisoner,”

Poppy looked away and raised her leg up onto the bed. Rolling up her long sweatpants, she revealed the house arrest ankle bracelet that was attached quite loosely to her lower shin.

Axis hesitated, then looked away, “You may be a prisoner in their eyes, but not to me. You’re a person, not a prisoner, at least to me,”

“You mean it?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t lie about such a thing,”

“Thanks. Truly, it means a lot. That-That’s really the first time anyone said anything like that to me,”

“You seem to have a lot of firsts, huh?”

“I guess so..”

“I-I’m sorry, you know.”

“Sorry for what? None of this is your fault,”

“I fell responsible, though. I’m the one who found you, after all,”

“And I’m glad you did. I’m alive because of you. And I’d much rather be alive than dead,”

“I guess you’re right. And I’m glad you’re alive as well,”

Poppy hugged Axis once more, resting her head on her shoulder. The policewoman’s back ached from the tight squeeze, but she leaned into the embrace, finding it feel quite pleasant. She felt a warm sensation start to run down her back as the woman began to cry and shake slightly. After what felt like hours, she pulled away, her gaze locked onto Axis’s.

“Thank you, truly,”

“Want to get a cat?” Axis mumbled, a blush spreading across her face. She laughed at herself silently for saying something so stupid. A giggle escaped her lips as she saw Poppy’s head cock to the side like she was a puppy.

“What?” she asked, laughing a bit.

“D-Do you like cats?”

“I’ve met few. In experiments, sometimes. But they are cute,”

“Experiments? We keep them as pets here. They’re very nice,”

“You have a cat?”

“No, not now at least. I did when I was a child.”

“And you are suggesting that we get one?”

“Precisely,”

“Well, I don’t see why not,”

“But not now. You just moved in. We’ll make that decision, together,”

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