The River (Clemerva)

Chapter Eighteen: Crime

The clock on the wall ticked deafeningly in the silence of the hallway.
Minnie and Lilly sat next to each other in separate chairs, waiting outside the office. Neither of them said a word to each other or to the guard standing across the hall. He eyed Minnie cautiously, keeping his rifle in his hands.
She ignored him, instead touching two fingers underneath her nose. They came back clean, meaning the blood had dried. She could still feel a lot of it caked on all over her face. There was no opportunity to see herself in the mirror, but she knew she was probably a mess. Getting punched in the head tended to do that to a person.
The redhead cast a sideways glance at Lilly, who sat with her arms crossed glaring at the wall.
Obviously she was mad. Minnie didn't blame her, everything had gotten so wildly out of control, and it was all her fault.
The office door opened and an older man in military fatigues with a neatly trimmed grey moustache stood in the doorway. He had a nasty scar on the right side of his face, Minnie guessed from experience that it was from grenade shrapnel. His right eye was milky and scratched.

General Reagan.

"In my office, now." He said sternly, snapping his fingers.

Minnie and Lilly both got up in sync and entered the room, taking a seat in the two leather chairs opposite the desk.
Reagan shut and locked the door before sitting behind the large mahogany desk.

"Frankly, I can't believe I'm having this meeting with the two of you. Leigh, I thought you had a good head on your shoulders, but apparently I was mistaken."

He shuffled around paperwork on his desk, flipping a few pages to read the contents.
His silence was disconcerting, Minnie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. On and on the shuffling went, until she felt she had to say something, if only to break the silence.

"Sir-" Minnie started.

"You'll get a chance to speak, but it is not your turn right now." Reagan snapped, "You falsified official documents, forged the signature of a superior officer, tried to make an unauthorized arrest and you shot someone. Can you explain to me what in the hell possessed you to take these actions?"

Minnie swallowed nervously.
When it was put that way, it sounded much worse than it actually was.
Sure, she had broken some rules, but the shooting wasn't her fault.
This would take some explaining.

Earlier that day.

Minnie's eyes shot open and she flailed her arm out, reaching for the alarm that was now screaming at her. Failing to grab it, she instead slapped it off the nightstand and onto the floorboards.
The thing landed with a crash and kept on ringing.
She sighed, stretching and turning it of.
Clementine shifted next to her in the bed.

"Mmph... Is everything okay?" Clem asked groggily.

Minnie simply held up the alarm clock before putting it on the nightstand.

"Ah. Does that mean we need to get up?"

"I wish it didn't, but yeah."

Clementine yawned and turned over on her side, facing away from the wall.

"I'll get up in a minute. Your bed is way too comfortable." She smirked.

"Alright, just a minute, then we both have to go. If you're late they'll be pissed at you, then at me because I was technically meant to be 'supervising' you."