AN: And I'm back! Sorry for the bit of a delay, I was at a wedding this past weekend. But now it's time to get back to our unlikely heroes.
Chapter 5: Breathe
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Max's POV
I make my way along the side of the rig until I can walk along the top. I finally feel the last bit of metal give way on the lock holding the muzzle in place. I take the lock out of the clasp and throw it off the side of the rig.
Once I get to the back of the tank, I have to scale down to the bottom to get to the tow hitch. Sure enough the fuel pod has been disconnected and is slowing the rig down. But the link isn't cut or shredded, just disconnected… as if someone did it on purpose. I look back towards the front of the rig and begin to hurry back towards the cab.
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River's POV
She feels their eyes on her. Feels the weight of their questioning glances in her back like daggers. Distrust, contempt, confusion. They hurt all the same.
She pounds her hands against the dash. "Shut up!" She all but screams at them. She whirls at them and pointedly looks them all in the eyes.
"We aren't…" Capable begins to say something before the girl cuts her off.
"You're thinking! It's just as bad."
She feels a click of comprehension in Furiosa's mind, as if one lock pin as been moved in to place. She opens her mouth to say something, but doesn't get the chance when another thought invades her mind… one that's out for blood.
The girl has just enough time to turn back towards the floor hatch and grab the War Boy by the throat and pin him to the seat behind her. The wives scream, but Capable and Toast move to help her restrain him.
"Filth! You traitored him!" He yells in the girl's face.
She feels it spread through the fingertips digging into his jugular, up her arm, and into her brain. Fragmented memories… wandering the Wasteland… loving parents… sickness and sacrifice… small hands hanging on… slipping… up there…Nux. Her eyes start to water. Maybe it was a kinder fate that saved him from the truth, but look at what he's become. Tumor ridden… half-dead… cannon fodder.
Without thinking she puts the gun flush to his head.
"No unnecessary killing!" Angharad yells at her from her left.
"Kill him!" Furiosa yells back as she continues to drive into the canyon. "He wants us dead!"
The girl blinks back her tears and "He's just a kid at the end of his half-life." She says as she takes the gun away from his head. Just a broken kid.
He shakes his head as he disagrees and spits the propaganda vitriol. "No! I live. I die. I live again!"
"Hold him!" She says to Dag and Toast as she begins to bind his hands with the chain of the manacle and one of their wraps. They do as she asks and he struggles against the restraints. It's a good thing Jayne isn't here… he never had any luck tying restraints.
"Throw him out!"
"Chuck him out!"
The wives seem to chant in unison as she climbs back over into the front seat and they hold him in the back. As she sits back into the front seat, the raggedy man appears at the passenger door.
"You got more friends." He says as he motions to the north.
She hadn't been paying attention with all the noise and commotion, and she turns to see he is correct. Furiosa also turns and looks
"Bullet Farmer…They're coming from the Bullet Farm." Furiosa says as they reach the mouth of the canyon.
"Yeah? It's over. You can't defy him." The War Boy says as he leans forward and spits in Furiosa's face. She snarls and spits back at him.
"Just watch us, mate!" Toast says as she slams her elbow into his side and pushes him back against the seat again.
She watches from the front as Nux shakes his head furiously. "No! He is the one...who grabbed the sun." He starts to spout propaganda again.
"Look how slick he's fooled you." Toast says with a laugh.
Dag chimes in. "He's a lying old man."
Nux still shakes his head in disagreement. "By his hand...we'll be lifted up!"
"That's why we have his logo seared on our backs!" Angharad yells.
The other's echo her sentiments. "Breeding Stock!" "Battle Fodder!" "Property!" The others yell at him and begin to push him towards the door to push him out. The girl doesn't stop them.
"No, I am awaited!"
"You're an old man's "Battle Fodder"!" Capable exclaims as she opens the door behind Nux.
"Killing everyone...and everything."
"We're not to blame!" He yells as they dangle him out the door.
It's Angharad that has the final say though. "Then who killed the world?" She screams as she pushes him out and onto the dirt.
They drive in silence. Even their minds are quiet as the enter the canyons and she is thankful for the reprieve.
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As the War Rig drives further into the canyon, Furiosa slows to more of a crawl. "I made a deal up ahead. Safe passage. I don't know if it's still any good." She tells everyone in barely a hushed whisper.
"Get back in the hold. Keep the hatch open." She instructs the wives in the back of the cab.
River moves to follow, but Furiosa's had comes up and stops her. "I need you here. You may have to drive the Rig."
River doesn't say anything but nods and gets into the small crawl space in the back. But as Max makes a move to crawl past her into the hatch, Furiosa stops him.
"You stay. You stay there." Furiosa says as she motions to the crawl space too. She doesn't say anything else, but gives him a look that screams 'I don't trust you around them.' He doesn't argue though and stays put next to River.
"Whatever you do, you can't be seen. I'm supposed to be alone." Furiosa says over her shoulder.
A few more minutes go by in silence as they get closer to the choke point. Furiosa drops the rig into a lower gear and continues past the rock archway.
"Hey. What's your name? What do I call you?" Furiosa asks in a whisper.
She's asking River, but she doesn't answer.
"Does it matter?" River asks suspiciously.
Furiosa's annoyed by this. "Fine. When I yell "fool"...you drive out of here as fast as you can." She then begins to touch the kill switches in order. "This is the sequence: One. One, two. One. Red. Black. Go. You have it?"
Both River and Max nod affirmatively.
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Max's POV
There isn't much room in the small crawl space, and I'm wedged up against the ghost, who's hardly a ghost at all. Her bare arm barely rests against mine, as if she's afraid of touching me, but I can still feel the heat radiating from her skin.
She doesn't look much older than the rest, but her eyes give her away. Hardened…aged. Her eyes remind me of her. She could have been her twin. I shake my head and focus on something other than those memories.
The ghost isn't dressed like the others, her edges are sharp… lean. Her skin pale with a slightly sallow tint. She's wearing a tattered dress that could have been blue in a other life. Her arms are uncovered, and there are a few pin pricks along both arms; one of them still looks swollen and red, while the others are scabbed over.
"Blood bag." She says so only I can hear.
I don't say anything, but nod. Explains her color and the marks. But how did she know what I was thinking?
I don't have time to think about it though, because a moment later the rig finally comes to a complete stop. I hear the driver's door open and the one armed woman jumps to the ground.
"It's all here! Three thousand gallons of guzzoline, just like you asked!" I hear her yell into the canyon before her footsteps start to grow fainter as she walks towards the back of the rig. "I'm gonna unhitch the pod. You drop the rocks."
A voice echoes through the canyon. "You said: 'A few vehicles in pursuit. Maybe.' We count three War Parties!"
"Let's do this!" The woman calls back into the canyon.
Everything is silent. The ghost and I both dare not breath. But a moment later I feel her tense, and hear a muffled scream rip through the canyon… from the compartment in the back.
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River's POV
No, no, no. It's too early. It shouldn't have happened for another two weeks! Shouldn't be here. It never goes smooth, why does it never go smooth?
She hears Furiosa yell now. "Fool!" And the next instant the air is filled with gunfire.
"You drive." The girl says as she crawls towards the hidden compartment.
The rig is moving before she gets there, and the wives are hauling Furiosa up through the trap door in the floor. They's almost got her up when a hand snakes up and tries to pull her back down. The wives are losing their grip on her, and the girl crawls as fast as she can to help them.
With one swift yank she's in the compartment, and with one swift bullet the Buzzard falls back through and is crushed underneath the rig's wheels.
"Thanks." Furiosa says before she and the girl both turn towards a blood curdling scream, the same source of the scream earlier.
"It's coming… the baby." Angharad says between pained breaths.
"You go, she can take care of this." She says to Furiosa, who nods and moves back towards the front of the rig.
"You two come with me." Furiosa says to Dag and Toast. Capable and Cheedo were at Angharad's side, holding her hands and whispering to her to try and calm her.
The girl close the trap door and then moves to sit in front of Angharad. She thanks her lucky stars that she was present for Petaline's birth. She takes a breath and reminds herself she can get Angharad through this.
"She needs your wrap." The girl says to Cheedo, who quickly takes it off and hands it to the girl.
"Prop her up, try to help her relax." She instructs the two women. She wishes she had a med kit right now to give Angharad a smoother, because it was going to hurt.
Another scream rips through Angharad and her body shakes. Thoughts of pain and worry flood in to the girl's brain from Capable and Cheedo, and she tries desperately to push them aside and concentrate.
The girl gently moves Angharad's legs apart. The baby isn't crowning yet, but it was going to happen soon. "You can get through this… be strong."
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As the three War Parties approach the canyon, the Buzzard must make a quick decision… let them pass or go after the fuel. He glances back at the War Parties and then signals the detonation.
"That's our fuel!" He says to his companion before they set off down the rocky terrain towards the lumbering War Rig.
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Three cars were lost when the rocks collapsed in the pass. The remaining War Parties were now bottled-necked at the impasse.
"Come on! Move them! Make way for the Ripsaw!" The Imperators were doing their best to make a path for Ripsaw… Rictus' rock crawler, and screaming at everyone to move towards the side.
As Rictus pulls up next to the Gigahorse, Immortan Joe's vehicle, Immortan Joe climbs aboard.
Immortan Joe turns to the Imperators clearing the way. "Once I'm over...clear the rocks and bring everyone through." He says as Ripsaw begins to climb over the rocks.
"Immortan! Immortan Joe!" An Imperator screams from the back. Immortan has them stop the vehicle and turns to see what the Imperator wants.
"I got a War Boy! Says he was on the War Rig." The Imperator says as he presents Nux, who holds up the cloth that had been used to bind his arms. Immortan Joe recognizes it from the wives.
"You! Climb aboard!" Immortal Joe instructs the War Boy, and after he is hauled up they continue to climb over the rocks blocking the path.
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The People Eater and the Bullet Farmer sit back in their vehicles and watch the War Boys clearing the rocks in front of them. Both are annoyed. Both have been with Immortan Joe from the very beginning… Back when he was still Colonel Joe Moore. But even they are losing patience with his actions.
"Fuk-ushima! All this for a family squabble." The Bullet Farmer says in disgust. "Colonel should know better by now. Healthy babies, tsk." He spits the worst out like they are dirty and polluting his mouth.
The People Eater just rolls his eyes. Of the two, the People Eater was always the quiet one.
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Max's POV
I'm throwing the rig into third gear when the older one crawls back into the cab through the hatch. The ghost girl had lefts the weapons in the front seat of the rig, and I hand her a shotgun once she gets to the front. She gives me a look of unspoken understanding, a truce, and checks to see that the shotgun is loaded. Two of the others follow shortly behind her.
"When I hand you a gun you reload it and hand it back." She tells the two in the back seat. They nod their understanding.
As we make it to a small valley in the canyon, I see at least six motorbikes with Buzzards coming down from the hills. I grab a gun from the seat next to me and release the safety.
One of the motorbikes crosses in front of the rig path now and throws a molotov behind him. It hits the front plow of the rig and explodes with a fiery bang. The top of the engine hood has flames dancing around the air intake, and soon two more motorbikes ride up and use the nearby hills to fly in front of the rig and drop more molotovs.
I fire at one of the bikers and manage to take him down. The woman leans over and activates the plow, which sprays dirt up and douses the flames. She quickly aims the shotgun at the next biker attempting to drop a molotov and connects. She hands the shotgun to the women in the back to reload.
As the plow retracts, she stands up next to me on the seat and slides open the top hatch, taking aim with the rifle. Bang. Bang. The rifle fires, and I see one rider fall in the side mirror. To my left I see another rider attempting to jump the front of the rig again and quickly fire at him. Three shots later he falls to the ground and we leave him in our dust.
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River's POV
Worry. Fear. Pain. They flood her brain and make it hard for her to focus. She's hanging on by a thread. The sound of explosions and bullets echo on the metallic walls of the hold. She needs to calm them if she's going to get though this.
"Just breathe." She says as she slowly rubs Angharad's legs and tries to will her to keep calm.
"You can do this Angharad." Capable coos to her while wiping sweat away from Angharad's face, and Cheedo holds her hand.
Tears stream down Angharad's face. "I can't."
"Yes you can." The girl says sternly. But as the worry of what this baby will be flows into her from Angharad's mind, she softens. "Your baby will not be a Warlord. Your baby will be beautiful, because you are beautiful…and brave. She promises. Now push."
Angharad lets out a scream as she pushes. She lasts for a few moments before she falls back against Capable and Cheedo.
"You're doing great Angharad." She tells the worn out woman. "Just breathe." but she isn't sure she's telling that to Angharad… or herself.
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Max's POV
Two more times the rifle fires, and after the second an empty bike falls on to the hood of the rig before sliding off to the side. The woman ducks back inside and passes the rifle to the back.
"Reload the clip." She says hurriedly as she grabs the shotgun and fires out the passenger side window.
She stands out of the top hatch again. "Gun! Gimme the gun!" She yells as she grabs frantically for any type of weapon.
The blonde behind me is struggling with it though. "It's not loaded yet!"
She ducks back down into the cab. "Now!" The sound of gunfire can be heard on the top of the rig andI don't wait for them to hand her the gun. I turn and fire through the back window, glass shattering around them, and hit the Buzzard on the back dead on in the head.
There is just one more biker close enough to do any damage, and as the woman grabs the last gun loaded, a flare gun, I shoot out the back passenger window so she can make that flare count. She hits him dead on and causes him to fall at the side of the rig, but his bike and molotov go under the wheels.
The entire rig shakes from the explosion, and as we all look back, we see the fuel pod disconnect and veer off to the left before it crashes into the rocks nearby and explore. The Buzzards won't follow us now that their bounty is gone. But any relief that I had felt is short lived when I see another vehicle emerge from the smoke of the fuel pod's crash.
"Look." I motion to the others and they all turn to see we are still being followed. The rock slide hadn't stopped all of them, and they are using a flame thrower wildly.
The flame thrower stops after a moment though, and shots begin to be fired. Everyone in the cab ducks down as the woman next to me reloads a revolver.
But before she has the chance to turn and fire, the two women in the back open the door and move so that they form a human shield of sorts.
"Get back in the cab!" I scream at them as I continue to drive, but they don't listen, and the sound of gunfire dies out.
A howling scream can be heard in the vehicle behind us. "That's my child! My property!" The driver, who I presume to be Impotent Joe, or whatever the fuck he is called. I don't get a good look at him but he sounds like a horse's ass.
A single shot rings out now, and I look over to see it was the woman next to me who fired. I kick the rig into a higher gear and push it to gain some distance on the pursuing vehicle. The women behind me don't get back in the cab until we are out of firing range.
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AN: I never really understood why Angharad would scream/ moan in the movie, so this made more sense for me. Hope you all enjoyed this update! Until next time, stay shiny ;)