* * * *
He awoke in the night, staring up at the starless sky and feeling his body racked with chills. He groaned, a pain in his stomach making him flinch. That awakened other pains in his body, pains he could not put a reason or a name to. He tried to shift to get more comfortable and to find some warmth. Instead he found someone behind him, someone who had wrapped his or her body onto his and was sharing comfort and warmth with it. Carl knew he should be concerned. He was alone… always. Nobody should be with him, not this close.
“Not safe,” he muttered, trying to turn to face the stranger that held him so tightly.
He heard a hushing noise and felt the warm breath of a woman on his ear and neck. He relaxed a little, not out of relief but because there was something familiar in it, something he could not place, but nevertheless something he knew and was okay with. He settled down and fell asleep again.
* * * *
When Carl’s eyes opened next they blinked at the painful daylight, then became adjusted to it gradually. He saw Tanya sitting next to him, one of his metal bowls in her hand. She stirred it with a spoon and then turned and offered it to him. He sniffed at it and accepted the mouthful of stew. It was bland but edible.
Carefully and slowly, he sat up. His body ached and his foot felt swollen and half dead. His side and back were stiff, but something on his side felt different. It had been bandaged, he realized. “What happened?” he asked, his voice weak but still containing the undertones that meant he was not out of the fight.
“I don’t know,” Tanya said to him, handing him the bowl and spoon. “I saw a stream of water when I came back. It ran down a gully, so I followed it up and found you hanging halfway out of bush. There was a tunnel it looked like you’d crawled out of.”
Carl nodded, caught up in the soup she had given him. She fell silent while he drank it down. “How long was I out?” he asked her after he had wiped the broth from his chin.
“I found you yesterday morning. You’ve been in and out since then.”
Carl grunted, then started to check himself out. He was a mess, his clothing muddy and torn in many places. He had a hunch that some of the brown spots were dried blood, not mud. He slowly stripped off his shirt, ignoring the cool evening air, and gave himself a quick visual examination. Sure enough, there was a bandage on his back on the right side.
“What happened here?” he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she told him. “There was a piece of wood sticking in you. I pulled it out and did what I could to make sure there was nothing left behind.”
Carl frowned. It sounded like an infection waiting to happen. “I went through your house,” Tanya said, seeing his frown. “I found some alcohol and the supplies in your shed.”
He grunted, satisfied he might not die immediately. He would head up and survey the damage later. If she had found that much, the odds were good some of his other supplies had survived as well. He kept examining himself, finding multiple small cuts, scrapes, and bruises, but nothing life threatening. Finished, he stood up carefully, testing his foot and finding that it worked, though it felt as though it was padded with cotton in his boot.
Carl sat back down and untied his boots, then gently removed them, prepared for the worst. His right foot, just below the snake bite, was swollen and a little numb. The relief from the boot caused it to throb, but it improved circulation and soon it began to feel less wooden. He flexed his toes, satisfied, and stood up to remove his pants.
“Okay, do you really need to do that?” Tanya asked, distraught at how Carl was getting naked right in front of her.
He paused and looked at her, his expression unreadable. “Out here the locker room is unisex,” he told her, then dropped his pants and proceeded to check things out.
Carl saw her blush and looked away. He also noticed when she kept glancing back. “Never seen a man naked before?” he asked her as he went about his business.
The gasp and parting of her lips answered for him. She looked away again, more embarrassed than ever. He might have chuckled at another time, but now his mood was anything but mirthful.
Carl sat down and examined his calf. The bite mark was still red and there was dried puss around the injury itself. The lack of any red lines gave him hope though, even though he expected he would have been dead by now had the anti-venom not worked in the first place. Satisfied that he might live long enough to put a bullet in the head of the son of a bitch that had blown up his home, he put his clothes back on but left the boot off his swollen foot.
“So why’d you come back?” he asked her even as he did an inventory of what he still had with him. There was little in his pockets save for some sealed matches, wet paper and his trusty knife.
She shivered a little and her chin trembled. She looked away, then back at him and said, “They took them!”
Carl looked at her, wondering just what exactly she meant.
“I had to pee, so I got up and left the campfire to find some privacy,” she explained, seeing his look. “I heard them come then, three men on horses. There was nothing Jessie or Dusty could do. They beat her and smacked him when he tried to help her.”
“Who was they?” he asked her, trying to think who might have horses nearby.
“I don’t know – I saw it and was going to try and shoot them when Jessie fought back,” Tanya said, tears running down her cheeks. “She grabbed the guy in front of her in the nuts, making him scream and drop to the ground. They backed away, but lowered their guns and were about to shoot her. She talked to them then, called them stupid and asked them if they had any idea what they were doing.”
“What the fuck is wrong with her?” Carl growled, shaking his head.
“No,” Tanya said, shaking her head at him. “It worked! They stopped and looked at her. I think they were surprised at first. Then one of them looked at her and started laughing. Jizzie Banks, he called her. Said he couldn’t believe it, but there she was.”
Carl groaned in spite of himself. What had to happen next was not going to be pretty.
“You know who Jizzie Banks is?” Tanya asked him.
“Jessie,” he confirmed.
“But do you know who she is?” the gymnast persisted.
Carl shrugged. “Told me she was an actress. That was the name she went by. Sounds like a porn star to me.”
Tanya nodded, looking miserable. “Why didn’t you tell us?” she asked in a whisper.
Carl shrugged. “None of my business, none of yours.”
“I think she made it our business!” Tanya spat out, looking like she wanted to punch him.
Carl just looked at her, then after the moment passed and she looked away he said, “What happened next?”
“She lied to them. It came smooth and natural, just like when she talked to us,” Tanya said, her voice suddenly tired and flat. “She said Dustin was her brother, they were out scouting a new place and new ideas for a new movie.”
“They buy it?”
Tanya shivered. “I don’t know. She said it was a sci-fi story about a girl who was stranded in the badlands with some friends, then her friends got kidnapped by some mutants. The girl escaped and had to try and find a way to save her friends. She said she was going to play the girl, but they were looking for a place to shoot and maybe some local talent.”
“She lied,” Carl said, his voice betraying a grudge of respect for the porn queen. “You were the girl playing the role.”
Tanya nodded, fresh tears falling. “I know,” she whispered.
“So what happened to them?”
She took a deep breath to center herself, then said, “They took them with them. Said maybe they could help, maybe not. Either way, Eddie would want to meet her. They told her that if she played her cards right, her and her brother just might have a chance to make that movie after all.”
“Eddie?” Carl asked, finally having a name he had heard before.
Tanya nodded, sniffing back her tears. “That was two days ago.
God knows what’s happened since then.”
“I know who Eddie is. He used to run an army surplus up just this side of the Nevada border. He made more money smuggling Mexicans, guns, or drugs than he ever did running the PX though,” he said. “After the war, he found himself a clean stretch of land with some water and set himself up his own little kingdom.”
“Drugs and guns?” Tanya asked rhetorically, her voice squeaking a little. “How can I get Dusty and Jessie back?”
Carl reached down and began to work his boot back onto his foot. It required some grimacing and stretching, but he finally managed to stuff it back in. “We’ll figure it out,” he said.
“Wait… you’re going to help?” She asked, hopeful but frightened.
Carl stared at her for a moment, trying to decide what to tell her. Right now the only thing he had left was a thirst for some serious payback. The ticket to finding the assholes that had blown his home up was sitting in front of him: Tanya and her brother. They were still hoping to find their way back to their dear daddy though, so telling her that daddy was trying to cash her in for a paycheck was not in his best interests.
“Yeah, I’ll help,” he said, leaving it at that. He stood up and started up the ravine. The mud had dried, but it had loosened up the rocks and dirt and made it a treacherous hike. Tanya followed behind him, silent and filled with thoughts and hopes of her own.
The climb loosened up his abused muscles somewhat, but the crawl through the tunnel was more difficult than ever. Small puddles along the way made it even more unpleasant, but in time Carl made his way through it. Tanya, much to his surprise, emerged closely behind him without a single word of complaint. Carl found the switch and tested it. Sure enough, the room lit up again.
He studied the analog meter on his batteries and was surprised to see they were still charged fully. Apparently the chopper that had cut his home to shreds had not bothered to take out the wind or solar farms he had set up to the north of his house. Not that having power did him much good; his house had been shot to hell and back.
The ladder was ruined, some of the rungs smashed by rocks and falling debris. The top was covered over completely, by what, Carl had no idea since it was too dark to see anything up there. He growled and turned away, then picked up his M4 out of the inch or so of water that was standing on the floor of the room. He let it drain, then found his M24, which still leaned against the wall where he had left it. He handed that to Tanya after checking to make sure the safety was on.
Carl opened up the cabinet and rooted around in it, wondering if there was anything he could use in it. The spare wiring, a few light bulbs, and other electrical equipment all seemed pointless to him though, so he closed it behind him and headed back out the crawlspace to the desert outside.
Obediently and silently, Tanya followed. Carl wondered how her back was healing, but given that she did not complain and seemed to be moving without any difficulties, he figured she was doing fine. She left him to his own thoughts until they circled around the rocky ledge and approached his ruined home from the front.
“Who did this?” Tanya asked, staring through the deepening twilight at the remains of the place she had just spent time feeling safe in. She hugged her arms around her, chilled by more than the night air.
“Another group of assholes looking for you,” Carl told her, crouching down to look through the wreckage.
She saw one of the fallen soldiers and looked away quickly. From the look on her face Carl knew that her stomach was threatening to show the world its contents. “I don’t get it,” she said, trying to catch her breath and dispel the stink of the bodies left rotting. “Why fight you? Why not just look for us?”
“They thought I was hiding you or something,” Carl said, figuring it was for her own good. Right now he had no idea what she might have done had she known the truth.
“Hiding me? Us?” Tanya said woodenly. Carl saw her look around at the wreckage some more, her eyes returning to the piles of gore remaining of the Maelstrom soldiers. Her eyes widened, seeing the largely intact body of the man in the closet.
“I… I’ll be outside,” she whispered, turning and rushing out of the wreckage.
Carl watched her go, curious, then turned back to try and salvage what he could. He bit back the anger inside of him, furious at what had happened to his home. In solitude, he gathered what he could, working from the house to the shed. He found what he needed in the shed, swallowing some pills that, though beyond their expiration date, promised some relief from his fears of infection. That accomplished, he turned and left his past behind, seeking out and finding Tanya sitting near a prickly pear cactus with dried tracks of tears running down her cheeks.
“You ready?” Carl asked her, at a loss for anything else to say.
Tanya turned, startled to find him standing so close. She stared up at him from the rock she sat on, fresh moisture threatening to fall from her eyes. “Why do you care?”
Carl blinked, unable to come up with a good response.
“You’re a dead man,” she said, hiccupping back a sob. “Inside, you’re dead. You don’t feel anything, do you? You don’t care about me or Dustin. So why? Why help us?”
Carl just stared at her, then finally spoke when she looked away. “You gonna sit there and whine about how fucked up your life is or are you gonna get up and do something about it? Knowing what makes me tick ain’t going to help you figure your shit out. Sitting there ain’t going to do it either. You want to feel better, then get off your ass and let’s get going.”
Tanya jumped, then stared at him as he rebuked her. The look on her face was shock and outrage. Carl nearly chuckled at how easy it was to read her. She needed only simple goading to get her going. She stood up quickly, angrily, then swayed and had to close her eyes and put her hand to her temple. A small moan of pain escaped her lips even as she sank back to the rock she sat upon.
“What’s wrong?” Carl asked, stepping closer as he saw her sudden shift in behavior.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, her eyes still closed. “These headaches…they come and go. The more tired I am, the more they come.”
Carl cursed under his breath. Just what he needed, a head case.
“It’s my implants,” Tanya explained, now looking at him through squinted eyes. “Feedback or something, the doctors said. It gets easier to deal with over time.”
He grunted, nodding and feeling slightly relieved. “Can you move?”
She nodded. “I can I just… I just need a moment.”
Carl stared at her, then finally grunted and began to lay down the items he had retrieved from the wreckage. By the time he had finished, an impressive pile lay upon the floor of the Sonoran desert. Weapons and ammo, bottles filled with water, rations of packaged foods, and even some other sacks and packs filled with items only Carl could identify. He worked through it, checking the weapons and loading them, and verifying the functionality of everything while he waited for Tanya to rest herself.
“Those men… the men you killed,” Tanya said after several minutes of watching him work silently. “You say they attacked you?”
Carl looked up at her, debating on how best to answer. At long last he said, “I was out and returned to find them raiding my place. Picking through it and destroying my things. I didn’t stop to ask questions.”
“So you attacked them?” she asked, rubbing her temple again.
“Their leader said his boss needed your bodies. Something about an insurance claim.”
Tanya stared at him. “Their leader.… These men, they wore the uniforms of Maelstrom. Those are my dad’s bodyguards.”
“They do a lot more than guard bodies,” Carl said.
“I guess.”
They lapsed into silence. Carl finished inventorying the weapons and, after his check, only one remained tossed off to the side, a standard issue Colt M16A2 with a bent barrel. He added three other working assault rifles to his collection, all using the standard 5.56 millimete
r NATO round supported by the majority of the world. One pistol, the one owned by the dead lieutenant, joined the other firearms as well.
“Here, use this,” Carl said. He offered the other M16 to Tanya.
She took it hesitantly, staring at it as though it were an alien technology from another planet.
“The switch on the side there selects semi-auto, that’s one bullet every time you pull the trigger, or burst fire – three shots with each pull,” he explained, pointing out features of the rifle. “Safety’s here, this is the magazine release, and this is the action to load in a new bullet or clear a jam. Keep it clean, the M16 can get dirty in a sponge bath.”
Tanya nodded, absent-mindedly flipping switches and trying out the items that Carl pointed out. Finally, bored with it, she set it aside and looked at Carl. “You lost everything,” she said, “because of my brother and me. Why keep helping us?”
Carl stared off into the setting sun. “We should get going, find shelter before the sun sets.”
“Fine,” Tanya said, standing up a little unsteadily but quickly regaining her balance. “Let’s go.”
Loaded down with rifles and other gear, he led the way over the terrain with only a slight limp. Tanya followed, struggling to keep pace and strangely quiet. Still far from being in top condition, Carl found himself breathing hard long before he should have. It irritated him, but he kept it to himself and just maintained a slower pace. His justification was that Tanya could keep up more easily this way.
They stopped and set up camp in a stand of juniper trees that were surrounded by tall desert grasses. Carl stalked through it, parting the grass with his M4 as he swept back and forth. He kicked over rocks and fallen logs, making sure no additional snakes, lizards, or insects were in hiding. Carl had no intention of trying to set any snakebite records.
Instructed to do little else, Tanya sat in the area Carl deemed safe while he gathered some firewood and even returned with a handful of red spiny fruit that Tanya did not recognize. He handed them to her then turned and started to arrange a twisted bunch of grasses in a small bowl he had dug out in the ground. He arranged the sticks above it, then started piling rocks on one side of it to create a firewall.
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