by Nye, Cedric
The woman abruptly stepped toward Jango. He tensed and began to raise his stick. The woman stopped in her tracks, fear etched plainly on her beautiful face. The knife she still held fell from her nerveless fingers. She raised her hands up to hip level, and turned her palms toward him. “I don't want to hurt you, honey,” the woman said. “Not ever, not in a million years.”
Then, as if he had been told out loud, Jango knew that the woman was one of his own. He knew she wasn’t as broken, or as volatile as him, but with the unerring instinct of the outcast, he knew that she was one of his own. Someone had hurt her badly at some point in her life, and she had been just as shocked that Jango had come to her aid as he had been at her expression of gratitude.
“My name’s Vanessa, sugar, what's your name?” The woman asked as she looked at him with her large, liquid looking brown eyes that appeared completely free of guile or deceit.
Jango looked at Vanessa for a moment and thought about some of the hard roads that he had traveled in his lifetime. He imagined what it must have been like for Vanessa to walk down some of the same roads that he had travelled. After a moment of silence, he answered her. “My name is Jango, and it’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”
Vanessa smiled as Jango spoke, and she replied. “So what do you do besides running over scoundrels with your car, and rescuing damsels in distress?” Her smile grew, and she said, “You are like a modern-day knight of the Round Table, honey!”
He smiled back at her, and then asked, “What are you doing here in Black Canyon City? I mean, you shouldn’t be out driving around by yourself like there’s nothing to fear! It's been over two months since Z-Day, and you should be hiding out somewhere safe. See, now the human zombies are starting to come out to hunt and they are just as bad, hell, maybe even worse, than the goddamn goobers.”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears, and she looked down at her shoes. “I was in Camp Verde, and I was nice and safe there. One of my friends has, I mean, had a cabin with solar power, a well, and even a creek nearby. Everything was great, but then one of my friends turned into one of those things and started tearing my friends to pieces! I just ran. I didn’t know what else to do, I just got in my car and ran away. That was two weeks ago. I have been kind of hiding out in campgrounds, and keeping my head down. But I ran out of my medication about five days ago, and I need that medication, because I'll get sick if I don't have it.”
“What kind of medication?” He asked her.
Vanessa continued looking at her feet, as she said in a small voice that dripped with pain. “I take hormones, and androgen blockers.” Then she looked up at Jango and added, “I was born a female, I just didn't have the body to match, yet. The medicine I take helps me have the right body for who I am.”
The woman snorted bitterly as she anticipated disgust or rejection from Jango, and said, “Do you know how hard it is to not be able to be yourself? To never feel whole, and sometimes not even feel alive? I've always known I was in the wrong body, the wrong place, and sometimes even the wrong world. Do you know what those men said when they saw my, my…” She cleared her throat of the pain that had welled up and threatened to drag her into oblivion as she whispered, “They said, “No problem, just flip it over and get that ass.”
Tears fell from her eyes as she whispered. “I feel so alone sometimes that I think I could die just from the pain of that loneliness.”
He knew exactly what it was like to not feel whole, and to not feel alive. He also knew what it was like to not be able to be himself. He knew exactly how it felt to live hidden behind a false smile. He would smile on the outside, while inwardly he screamed and tore at the flesh of his own soul. Jango's song, the song of his life, was the same sad tune as Vanessa's own song; it just had different words to it.
“So you're looking for some pills, and that's why you came here,” Jango said. “Well, did you find any?”
Vanessa sniffled, and looked up at him. “No, the pharmacies here have been completely ransacked.”
Jango looked at Vanessa, at her slight frame, almond shaped eyes, honey-colored skin, and long flowing brown hair. He just knew that if he walked away from her she would be dead before the week was out.
He turned his face up to the sky, as if he sought an answer there, but, since no answers appeared in the uncaring sky, Jango turned his face back toward Vanessa and said, “I'm headed to Phoenix. You can probably find your pills there.” Then he quickly added, “I mean, if you want to ride with me, that is.”
He looked away, embarrassed; sure that Vanessa would reject his offer. His fear turned out to be unfounded.
“I would absolutely love to hitch a ride with you, Mr. Jango!” Vanessa said in delight.
He grinned, and turned to head back toward his car. He looked back over his shoulder, and said, “Go ahead and grab your shit out of your car, there's plenty of room in the trunk of mine.”
When he noticed that she wasn't moving, he turned back to face her. He noticed a troubled expression on her face, so he asked her, “What's the problem?”
Vanessa's face seemed clouded with worry as she looked Jango and said, “You, you know I'm not a, well, I mean, you saw. I'm not exactly what you might call a real woman.” She seemed close to tears again. Her head was hung low, and her shoulders were slumped as if she felt defeated by her life.
Jango looked at her with a deeper understanding of what it was to be human than any Master’s degree, PhD, M.D., or any other alphabet soup graduate of higher education could ever attain. He said, “Real woman? According to who? According to you? Or a bunch of mother-fuckers that can't stand to see you or anybody else be free and happy? Shit, all those shit heels that used to rant and rave at people about what their religion says is wrong are fucking zombies now! So, what? Are you gonna let a bunch of zombies tell you who you can be?” He continued speaking, building momentum as the truth poured out of his mouth. “Look, lady, I am not offering you a ride so I can bang you on a regular basis. I'm offering you a ride because you will die on your own. Or worse. And guess what? I’ll still be alive, and I will always know that I could have saved you. It's us against them, just like it always was, and just like it will always be. Because the zombies have always been here, those humans with that hole they can never fill and that insatiable appetite that is, to me, the most important defining point of the difference between us, and them.” He pointed his finger at the dead men on the ground, and repeated the word, “Them.”
He scrubbed the top of his shaved head with his large, callused hand, and then sighed. “So, do you want the damn ride or not?” He asked her.
Vanessa had begun crying while Jango spoke. She could feel the hard, sharp edge of his truth cut through the chains that had bound the wings of her spirit for her entire life. She cried hard and long. She poured out a lifetime of tears that she suddenly felt able to shed, because for the first time in her life, she knew with one hundred percent certainty that it was okay to be herself.
As her sniffles lessened, she turned her teary eyes to Jango and spoke in barely more than a whisper. “Yes, I would very much like to ride with you to Phoenix.” The words she had spoken carried the weight of a truth that could only have been born between two people who had been outcast from birth.
“All right then, let’s dispense with the touchy-feely drama-rama,” Jango said with his normal lack of tact, “And get our asses in gear. Do you have any shit you need to get out of your car?”
“Just my suitcase,” she said. Her voice sounded stronger, and her eyes had started to shine with the hope of having a chance to survive another day. In the clan with no name, the tribe of children who had survived abuse, the hope of a chance to survive another day was far more precious than any gold or jewels.
He went over to her car, spotted the keys in her ignition and pulled the key from the ignition slot. He looked in the backseat, no suitcase, so he went to the trunk of the car, opened it, and then removed the suitcase that he found there. Jango did not mean his
actions to be brusque; it was his nature to be independent, so rather than ask Vanessa exactly where the suitcase was, he simply found it himself. That fierce independence spoke volumes about the depth of his character, and give a hint of the indomitable will that lay beneath his scarred exterior.
He left the trunk of her car open with the keys dangling from the lock. He walked back to his own car, opened the passenger side door and reached into the glove box to press the switch that would pop the trunk. Jango lifted the lid on the trunk and tossed her suitcase into the dark interior, and then closed it. He then transferred all of his double-barreled shotguns into the backseat of the car. When he had finished, he turned to face Vanessa, and made an "after you" gesture with a sweeping motion of his stick toward the passenger side door. He held the door for her, and when she had climbed in, he closed the door, went around the car, and climbed into his own seat.
Jango pulled his door shut and put the still idling vehicle into gear. He took a look at his gas gauge, and saw that he was down to a quarter of a tank of fuel. For two months he had frequently used gasoline liberally to rid the world of his enemies, the zombies, but had figured out that he tended not to notice when the fuel level was low. He found it both ironic and humorous that he had used thousands of gallons of gasoline, and burned down acres and acres of buildings, yet he couldn't seem to keep track of how much fuel was in his vehicle's fuel tank. Chuckling to himself, he looked around to see if he could spot the telltale sign of filling station in the area. He didn't spot one, so he climbed back out of the car and said to Vanessa, “Would you mind pressing the button in the glove box to pop the trunk for me?” Jango walked back around to the trunk of the car, and reopened it. He pulled out a five gallon gas can and an eight foot length of hose. He climbed back in the car, and put it into gear.
Jango backed the car up and then turned the wheels so that he would be able to pull in alongside a large Suburban that he assumed must have belonged to the would-be rapists who were, at present, dead and rotting on the ground. As he thought about the men, he reminded himself to pop their skulls before he left. “The easiest way to kill a zombie is to kill them before they’re a zombie,” he said out loud with a chuckle.
Vanessa surprised Jango when she laughed at his quip. He looked at her to see if she had been making fun of him, and saw that her laugh was genuine. He shook his head, and got the big car rolling.
He carefully guided the sedan so that the caps for both the fuel tank on his car, and the suburban were facing each other. He positioned the car so that the vehicles were only about three feet apart. Jango climbed out of the car, reached down into the foot-well, and flipped the small lever that would pop the cover open on the fuel tank. He then went over to the Suburban, punched the small door that covered the fuel cap, and tore the dented cover open. He unscrewed the gas cap on the large vehicle, and then turned around and unscrewed the gas cap on his own car. Then, with a swiftness that spoke of long practice, he inserted the hose into the fuel tank of the large Suburban. When he heard the soft sound of the hose as it hit the bottom of the fuel tank, he withdrew the hose a little less than an inch. Then he took a deep breath, let it all the way out, and then sucked as hard as he could on the hose. When his lungs were full of air, he put his thumb over the end of the hose, let out his breath, and repeated his actions. The harsh fumes hit his throat first, and then the first splash of gasoline hit his lips. He spat out the fuel, put his thumb over the hole, and quickly inserted the hose into his own fuel tank making sure to keep the hose end lower than the fuel cap on the Suburban. Waiting, he listened to the muted splashing of the fuel going from the Suburban into his own car.
After several minutes, he heard the sound of splashing begin to grow louder. He quickly uncapped the large gas can, pulled the hose from his own fuel tank, and inserted it into the five-gallon gas can.
The gas can completely filled in a couple of minutes, and he withdrew his hose from the Suburban, put the cap back on the gas can, and recapped the fuel tank on his vehicle. He picked up the fuel can and his hose, and walked back to the trunk of his car.
Snapping the length of hose like a bullwhip several times to clear any excess fuel from its length, he then loosely coiled it and tossed it in the trunk. He double checked the cap on the large gas can to make sure that it was tight, and then placed it in the trunk alongside Vanessa's suitcase.
Before he climbed back in his car, he went around and snapped each of the men’s necks, making sure to jerk their heads to make sure the job was done right.
As he climbed back into the car, he smiled over at Vanessa and said, “You know, Hollywood never does show you all the messed up shit you have to do when the zombies come to town!”
Vanessa looked queasy as he chuckled, put the vehicle into gear, and then motored slowly to the ramp that would take them back onto the I-17 S. Back to the road that would take them to Phoenix, and whatever the zombie apocalypse might hold in store for them.
Chapter 9:
One Night in New River
After less than twenty minutes in the car with Vanessa, Jango had begun to seriously reconsider his decision to give her a ride to Phoenix. He had an unusual level of comfort with silence, but the opposite seemed to hold true for Vanessa. Since the moment he had put the car in gear, she had blathered endlessly about people whom, not only did he not know, but he wouldn't have given a shit about even if he had known them.
A fantasy about pulling over and asking Vanessa to check the tire for him, and then taking off without her crossed his mind. He even started to plan how he might do it.
He would start by asking her if she had heard a rattling noise coming from the rear tire. Then he would pull over and ask her to take a quick look. When she climbed out of the vehicle to look, he would floor the accelerator and leave her babbling ass on the side of the road to fend for herself.
He couldn’t really leave her on the side of the road, so he just sighed, and settled back into his seat and tried to zone out on the road. As Vanessa endlessly yammered about a bunch of people who Jango figured were mostly zombies by then, he thought of the incongruity between his high threshold for pain and his low tolerance for meaningless chatter.
Suddenly, an ingenious idea occurred to him. He turned to Vanessa with an urgent look on his face. “Did you hear that?” he asked her. “Shhhh! Listen." Vanessa was instantly quiet, as she strained her ears to hear whatever noise had made Jango so anxious.
“Help me keep an eye and an ear out for danger. You never know when they might just come out of nowhere and get you!” Jango said urgently.
Chuckling inwardly, he surreptitiously watched Vanessa as she tried to look in every direction at once. “That should keep her quiet until we get to New River,” he thought to himself.
Jango spotted the sign for New River, and turned on the ramp that would take them to the town. He took the long, curved off-ramp slowly, and he stayed alert for any signs of danger.
The freeway off-ramp turned into New River Road, and then abruptly ended at theI-17 frontage road, which led back to the northbound lanes of the deserted freeway. He mentally flipped a coin, and chose to turn right on the frontage road.
“Did you just use your turn signal?” Vanessa asked him.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“You did, you used your turn signal, and God help me, but that is funny.” Vanessa started laughing like a loon.
Jango just gritted his teeth, and started to drive a little bit faster. A large pair of buildings came into view, and his jaw unclenched.
“Whooo-hoooo!” he whooped at Vanessa as he unconsciously clicked the lever for his turn signal, and made a left turn into a large parking lot.
She burst out laughing again. She started to laugh so hard that she could barely breathe. “You,” she gasped for breath as she tried to speak through her laughter, “You, hee-hee-hee, you used the turn signal again, hee-hee-ha-ha!” She clutched her stomach as she dissolved into fits of laughter.
Jango hit the brakes suddenly, and Vanessa squawked as she was thrown against her seat belt with jarring force.
“Oops!” he said with a grin.
She straightened herself up in the seat, and read the sign on the large building in front of them. “New River Super Storage? What are we doing here?” She asked.
Jango slowly guided the car around to the side of the large, corrugated aluminum building, and pointed to the fenced lot that lay behind it. There was a large lot that was half-full of recreational vehicles, travel trailers, and boats.
“Almost any time you see a storage facility in these smaller towns, there is going to be an RV storage lot behind it. We are going to live in style tonight.”
Jango started doing the wave. His left hand flapped wildly out his window, and his right hand flapped in front of Vanessa’s face in an invitation to join him. She found it difficult not to get caught up in his cheerfulness, and pretty soon she had started doing the wave along with him. Jango whooped at the top of his lungs, let go of her hand, and aimed the car at the gate of the RV storage lot.
He kept the car moving slowly, and let the sheer weight of the car break the chain-link gates open. He slowly motored around the lot until he spotted the biggest fifth-wheel travel trailer he had ever seen.
Jango had stars in his eyes as he came to a stop, and read the gigantic words that were painted on the side of the enormous trailer. “Big Country,” he murmured in awe. He put the car in park and turned off the ignition. He sat staring at the massive travel trailer in silence.
Vanessa broke the spell when she opened her door and said, “Are we going to check it out, or what?”
Shaking his head, he climbed out of the car. He leaned in and grabbed his stick from the floorboard by Vanessa’s feet, and then straightened back up. As an afterthought, Jango put the key in the ignition, and turned it so that he could roll up all the windows. After he had rolled up the windows, he pocketed the keys, and took his pump shotgun from the back seat, clicked the button to lock all the doors, and closed his door.