The shade helped a little although, midday is still sweltering no matter what shadow you found to hide in. When I felt that I had slept enough I had to peel myself off of the body under me. My face itched from being smushed against his sweaty neck all through that day nap.
It had been quite nice at first light to curl up tight together in the back like a couple of cold children. It had been warm and comfortable. Slit had practically mewled like a tame cat under my fingers as he fell swiftly into sleep, a slow and steady growl akin to a purr. Now it was just... Sticky and thirsty.
As I moved to pull my wrist free of the cord which bound us together his reflexes kicked in. I was grabbed by the shoulders and crushed back down into that scorching, sweat moistened body of his.
"I'm awake! Done sleepin' so unhand me."
His grip only tightened and his leg joined the fun by wrapping around my own, heel digging into my calf. "I'm not done yet, woman. You need adult supervision at this point. No deal."
"Adult sup- You can take those words and shove them where the sun won't kiss!... Slit, the thing in your pants is trying to stab a scav in the belly button. Let go. Now."
"You like it. Pervert." He said and I could practically hear mama laughing away up on the roof.
"Argg! Let go, we're sweating like pigs back here."
"Do pigs sweat?"
"Dune doesn't rightly know nor does she care. Canteen. AIR... She's getting out."
Halfhearted struggling became full force flails until finally, he had no choice but to release his hold. Too bad, if he'd been cooperative he might have gotten a few more hours of sleep. Ducky was fully awake now and not at all amused as I made my exit and slammed the driver side door on my way out with the canteen.
It felt like I hadn't taken a piss in years. I was on my way to the other side of the boulder when I heard him snarl out.
"Don't wander!"
Neither of us were particularly pleasant just after waking.
"Dune's going for a leak. You can watch if you want. Kinky bastard you."
It was not a real invitation, he knew that but even if it had been he'd still have flown that middle finger for me to see as he sat with the driver side door open putting his leg on.
As I took my squat and decanted myself I also emptied what was left in the canteen onto my tongue. Not sanitary, I know, but thirst overrides the desire to live a clean and proper life. I kicked some sand over the dark spot I'd created and started making my way back to the car only to find that Ducky had the same idea to unload his bladder.
At least your man is bright enough not to whizz into the wind kiddo.
Could hear Mama whispering in my head. She's been doing that all through the trip, perhaps looking forward to home and seeing Pa again where I most certainly didn't.
"Ain't mine like that, Mum. Don't even insinuate that."
Well, with the way he's acting lately, maybe he wants to be.
"Ma. Enough already. Startin' to embarrass your daughter here."
"What the hell are you on about woman? You have any idea how weird it is to listen to you yap at a corpse while I'm trying to piss?" Slit was griping over his shoulder at me from the other side of the Impala.
"Aw, does poor Ducky have a shy pecker?"
"No. Everything's just a dick joke with you isn't it?"
"Yep. Came up with older brothers. O'course every funny I make is at the expense of the phallic."
I looked East. It was a mistake. I swore that I saw Flick and Russel grinning by the rear bumper of the car, behind them rolling fields of sunflowers rising toward the light in the sky as if in reverence.
No, I was never this crazy, I never saw shit like this outside of dreams before that fuckin-forkin' lightning.
My heart felt like it was trying to explode. I could even feel it pulsing inside my skull as I ground my forehead into the back driver side window, trying to get my head on straight and my breath under control.
"Dune? Dune..."
Ducky's hand landed soft on my shoulder but gripped it tight. My eyes just stung and my nose filled up with snot at the gesture.
"Green shit... Everywhere green shit and faces I thought I'd never see again."
He only grunted in response to that but his other hand joined the first to pull me away from the window I had to lean heavy on to hold myself up. He was steering me around the car to the passenger side. I winced as we passed through the mirage of the two boys just standing there watching us with smirks on their faces.
Slit pulled open the door and practically pushed me down onto the seat before taking the canteen from my hand. "Sit down and stay there psycho. Gonna refill this. Then we're gonna keep moving."
He seems real concerned 'bout you. Won't let you out of his line of sight, wants to protect you, even from yourself and even when he's asleep.
"It's smothering, Ma. Not endearing."
"What?" Slit was calling from the around back where he dug into the trunk. He must have heard me rebutting against Mum's opinion on things.
"Nothing."
You seem to like it too deary, being watched closely and held tight.
It was getting bothersome now, lighting a fire in my guts. I pounded the roof with my fist a few times to quiet her. Slit had been sliding into the driver side when I lashed out against her words in my head. He gawked at me as if I had ants crawling out of my ears.
"She won't shut her trap. That's all."
He glanced up at the roof, back to me and then turned his head slowly to focus on the way ahead as he cleared his throat and turned the key in the ignition. "Okay..."
Ma was talking straight out of her ass. Ducky and I were never like that. We'd become confidants, we co-existed, we worked together, we fought out our problems and then clung to one another if we needed to but there was no... There wasn't more to it. We simply were what we were and we didn't try to find deeper meaning in existing at the same time in the same places. Of course, I cared about the failed War Boy. Wouldn't have saved him if I had no empathy for his plight, wouldn't have delighted in his ornery presence if we didn't get on well, and... What if he was getting too close? What if he thought- No. Couldn't be like that. A War Boy would know even less than I did about such partnerships, right? It felt shameful just to imagine it... Goddesses, it would be like taking advantage of a child's naivety. His kind know so little.
The point of saving him from the perdition had been to show him how to live a real life. Part of living was the stuff Mum spoke of. Never experienced that side of life myself so it was one thing I could not teach.
I was the one who beckoned him into the back seat this morning, though. I must admit to myself that I was only exacerbating any confusion he might have had. I was growing accustomed to it all, the sleeping all tangled up. I was even beginning to like it.
The journey continued. Thoughts swarmed my diseased brain and created a small but ferocious storm. Ma had more yet to say, her commentary struck like bolts of merciless lightning.
It's normal, you know, after so long together. You told him you needed him alive too. Why do you think that is?
Because I'm accustomed to his company. Because I obviously can't be trusted not to kill myself in my sleep now. I adore the forker, just not like that. It's practical to need him around.
Natural you mean. This ain't something that needs to be taught, love. Admit the truth, 'cause it's there. He needs to know it.
What truth? Fuckin' hell.
Look back. Think about who you are now and about who you were when it was just us in that cave. Think about it kiddo. Just try.
Tortuously pleasant visions of home aside, things had indeed changed since that lucky day scouring the wrecks. I no longer sat still, absorbing the silence of my singular existence and drinking in the feeling of my identity cracking in half. I spoke to myself less, instead speaking to the other living, breathing thing sharing the space with me. I felt the fog in my head dissipate just a little whenever he spoke back. Now, he was the only thing that had the power to chase off the green things which haunted even when I was awake.
Slit was the greatest treasure I had ever pulled out of the sands. The best and shiniest haul of my scavenger life.
"Slit,"
"Huh?"
"...you make me less crazy. "
He didn't reply with his mouth, not verbally anyway. He looked over, chewed on his tongue a little and slid the end of it over the corner of his lips as he scrutinized me.
Mum was silent at long last. I looked up toward the roof. "There, Dune said it. Happy now Ma?"
"Hah! Wow. Really? Having whole conversations with your dead mother in your rusted out head right next to me? I wouldn't call that less crazy, bag of nuts."
"Oh, kiss my arse Slit."
"Hell no."
Back to normal, it seems. There was, however, this very badly hidden hint of pleasure in his expression. A smug little smirk twisting the scar through his face.
"Of course, I make you less crazy. Because I'm that fuckin' chrome."
"Your ego never ceases to amaze and... just slightly disgust Dune."
His grin only showed more teeth at that.
Directions were simple at this point. Keep east. Keep east. Keep east. He was getting flustered with the simplicity of it but he also seemed to be thinking, the wrinkles in his forehead deepened as his brows pinched together.
"There's gonna be a shit ton of mud. Isn't there?"
I hadn't told him all that much about the place. I probably should have, seeing as the mud could easily become a real problem for Shurley's tires.
"Yeah, There are paths up off the worst of the muck but they're hard to find in the fog."
"Hmmph. Think I've been there before... Went through a mud hole like that going after the bag of traitorous nails when she stole the Immorta's Shiny Things."
"...Three war parties chased a war rig carrying shiny stuff all the way the hell out there? I find it hard to believe that a man like Joe didn't have something better to do than chase just one tanker of stolen goods."
"Not stuff. Breeders. Shiny breeders."
"Okay, suppose that makes more sense... Did that rogue Imperator take them against their will?"
"I never paid much attention to the specifics. All I had to know was that the bitch took his women and we were gonna get 'em back. Nux and I almost did it. That old geezer Ace was in the way otherwise, she would have had a face full of lead."
"...What was that Imperator's name again?"
"Ain't calling that filth by her name."
This conversation came to a fast close. It was one of those topics that got Slit really skull-hot. He had a great deal of hate in him for the Imperator who wrought the end of the false king's reign. I let my curiosity go as I looked to the dead world around us, watchful for the hungry and desperate who'd think us easy prey. We were still alone as can be. The evening was already turning the sky to a blaze of fire and amber behind us in the west. Ahead of us, the eastern horizon faded into darkness.
"Probably about time we chewed up some scaly jerky. Yes? No? I can hear your guts churning empty Ducky."
He just clacked his teeth at me as I fetched the sack I kept the jerky in from the floor between the seats. He expected a piece to find its way to his mouth without taking his hands off the wheel.
"Lazy." He got poked in the ear with a stiff strip twice before he jerked away and snatched it out of my hand to feed himself.
Two bites into my share and I lost my appetite. Every minute that passed brought me closer to home, closer to saying goodbye to Mama, closer to revisiting all of the memories I had made a hobby of trying to forget. I was getting a headache.
"Aren't you gonna eat?"
He seemed to have noticed my sudden lack of care for bits of salty sand critter. "Ehh.. mm. No."
I handed the rest of my share over to him. He took it and I heard him chew but his hand came back and closed tight around the collar of mama's vest to pull me across the seat and into the strength of his curled arm.
He was quiet but for a snort and a grind of his teeth here and there. He wasn't pawing at my left hand to ask for attention, this wasn't a demand for touch. It took a few miles put behind us for me to understand that I was the one getting attention for no particular reason. Actually, the reason was pretty clear, a glance in the rear view mirror told me plain that I looked like I'd been dragged through hell chained to a bumper. Frankly – Seriously, who is Frank – I looked like I had been crying for an hour. Did I black out and lose time somewhere along the ride and sob my face apart or has it been all internal whimpering? It's been nothing but internal screaming in protest to be truthful.
"Maybe this was a stupid idea. You wanna turn around? We can just go back home and forget the whole thing."
I considered his offer seriously. I selfishly yearned for that option. I wanted to just forget it and go back, circle my territory, find something to throw into the maggot farm and call this venture a forgivable mistake. We've come too far, though. We'd reach the fringes of that once grand place by morning.
"No, we're close. We've gone too far to turn back now. And Dune needs to do right by Mumsy... Thank you, Slit."
He didn't reply and I never expected him to. His own tension seemed to ease, though. It was fixing to be a cold night. We stayed close, shared body warmth. The way his arm was wrapped around my ribs made it impossible for him to reach the gear shift so I did that for him when he asked. I'd foul up and jerk the knob into the wrong position every once in a while and earn myself a nasty pinch in the side or a bit of scorn. If I got it right, however, he always gave a low rumble of approval and that arm tightening around my middle. Mum must be thoroughly smug with herself right about now.
As hours passed and the distance between us and my old home grew shorter, the light slowly rose without a discernible horizon. Visibility was shit. We'd been devoured by the fog. We needed to find a proper path or else risk getting stuck in the muck.
"Alright, pedestrian. I need you to be my eyes. Can't see shit. Get out on the front end and point the way. If we get stuck, we're staying stuck."
I nodded, this was getting a little dicey. I could already hear the tires sliding through sand that was more slop than it was grit. I clambered out onto the hood through the not-there windshield and reached back with my fingers opening and closing. Ducky knew what I wanted. Mama's Enfield. He passed it through the window to me and I took a seat out on the warm hood to look out over the two or so car lengths of dirt that could be seen in front of the grill.
"Left. More. More. Easy... Go, not so fast! We're spinning rubber."
Both of us were hard of hearing, it became much simpler to extend an arm in the direction I wanted him to go as I navigated us around the worst puddles of mud. I'd wanted to keep both hands on the rifle, ready for whatever might lurch out of the mist at us. I cannot express how much I hate not being able to see what lies ahead at a great distance. This place did not inspire the warm, gleeful feeling it once had. The sight of the place made me nervous, the smell of rotting life made me want to retch.
"Ahead! High ground. I think it's one of the tractor paths! That'll take us deeper in toward the old square. We'll be able to find the right path from there!" I had to shout for him to hear, despite the all-encompassing silence that had fallen on this patch of the world.
Deeper still, minutes felt like hours. A sound caught my attention and I swiveled, taking aim behind the roof and over Mum's shoulder. In my peripheral, I could see Ducky move for the pistol on his hip but he could not take his foot off the gas pedal lest we wanted to sink into the muck and silt.
Fwoomp, fwoomp, fwoomp, CAAAW!
A crow passed over. Then another and another. The battle fodder and I exchanged a look, a sigh too but his eyes shifted and his expression hardened. I looked over my shoulder, seeing what he saw. We were being watched. A monster made of tatters of mud-stained cloth and long legs like a spider stood still as a scarecrow. Head turning ever so slightly as we passed. The fog rolled in thicker, concealing the creature from our eyes as Shurely heaved herself up into the tractor path, finally.
"Sky fishermen... They eat the crows."
"Are they hostile?"
"Only if you poach their catch... Or answer their riddles wrong."
We continued on. Slit grumbled with his unease and I kept the Enfield up and tight against my shoulder. Four forks in the path, four decisions, all wrong apparently. It was hard to find landmarks I recognized. When I did see something familiar, green overwhelmed my vision and Ducky had to holler to get me back to reality where he was.
"You're fuckin' lost!"
"No Dune's not! Just turned around. She knows where we are!"
He was damn near leaning out of the front window to snarl at me. This place, it made him just as nervous. That much was clear. I was beginning to regret not taking him up on that offer to turn back.
We argued, loudly. It was not long before we had company. There were two stilt walkers moving down the path toward us. Two became three, three became five. They stood on all sides of the car. Brazen and curious. Did they not see the barrel of the rifle in my hands? Were they armed? I can't imagine that they'd be able to shoot or attack in any meaningful way with their hands busy all the time.
"Lost?" The voice was low, male, rasping as if he'd spent his whole life sucking exhaust fumes out of a tailpipe.
I looked to Ducky, his eyes said it all. He was about to shoot, pistol aimed for the one leaning down and spreading its hand stilts wide so that it could have a look inside the impala.
"Slit." I needed to stop him from reacting too quickly. We were outnumbered, being sized up. I held my hand up, trying to sign some gesture of calm to him before turning my eyes back to the one who'd asked.
"We're lookin' for an old house. It's on a hill-"
"Dune! No." He didn't like this. Neither did I but if he shot I wasn't sure what they might do in retaliation. I was still sitting on the hood out in the open for seeds sake.
"Slit. It's alright... There's a tree near it, big ol' tree with branches that hang down. The house is made from a shipping container. You know it?"
The one that leaned down to look in at Slit straightened up. "Did he say your name was Dune?"
It was a woman's voice. She looked at me through thick, dirty goggles and layers upon layers of bandages to conceal her face. I nodded slowly.
"Yeah. S'my name."
She made her way around the car, shouldering the others out of her way and nearly toppling one who seemed none too graceful with its spindly false legs.
She dropped her hand stilts and let them fall into the mud, acrobatically balancing on the remaining two for a moment before sliding down them with her hands and ankles. I kept the rifle trained on her head as she held her hands up in a sign of peace. Where was this going? I had no reason to trust this.
She pulled off her goggles and began unwrapping the cloth from her face to reveal auburn hair cropped short on her head and a smile with big Irish teeth... Minus one down in the bottom front.
"Ardith?"
"Yeah. It's me, Dune. It's Ardith."
