Fourteen

Nux was wondering if what he was doing was right. Crashing the rig to stop Joe from getting back to the Citadel...it was crazy, but the blood bag and the others all thought it would work, and if this was his purpose, then he wanted to do it. There was no way of knowing if Slit or Warbird were alive, and hope as he might, he admitted to himself that the chances were slim that he would see either again, regardless of whether he drove this suicide run or not.

Warbird...shit, he hoped she was still alive. All he wanted was to see her face again and tell her how he actually felt. He had spent the entire night thinking about her, even while he talked with Capable and the others. He had never missed someone so much, or wanted to be with someone like this. Now, as he was driving to his death, he felt panic beginning to overcome him and he almost hit the brakes right then and there.

But this was his duty. If she were still alive out there, then he was going to save her by doing this. They were going to kill Joe and win, and she could go back to her old room in the Citadel and be happy and comfy and never have to worry about Rictus beating her up ever again. If Nux couldn't protect her in person, then he was going to do it through his death.

He really didn't want to die, though. He had never been afraid of it before; he figured it was just something that was inevitable, thanks to Larry and Barry, so he might as well go for something glorious, like an explosion or a car crash. He watched a lot of deaths, but for some reason now that he was thinking about Warbird so much, he really couldn't stand the thought of leaving her like that.

He had so much that he still wanted to say to her. He didn't even know how to express most of it, he just knew that he was feeling things that he didn't have names for. He wanted to sit down and stare out at the sky with her, at night, when they could see all those twinkling little dots up there as long as the dust had settled. He wanted to whisper everything in her ear, never bringing his voice louder than a quiet murmur because they were alone and he wouldn't need to. All he wanted was to hold her, and feel his hands on her skin, and never have to worry about whether he would see her again or not.

And yet here he was, on a suicide mission, doomed to never see her perfect face again. Doomed to never hear her wonderful voice again. Doomed to never hold her beautifully calloused hands, or carry her, or sleep next to her. Doomed to never look into those harsh eyes and see his own reflection staring back at him and know that she was seeing hers in his, too.

He was doomed.

He took a deep breath as he tried to swallow his fears. He had spent his whole life wanting to do something great like this, and he was finally getting his chance to prove himself and stand before the gates of Valhalla. It was everything he had ever wanted, just...not the way it should be. As the blurry shapes of cars appeared on the horizon, he realized that he was getting close to Joe's army and resigned himself to his fate. He couldn't stop now. They had definitely seen him, and all he could do was hit the gas and hope that he would make it.

Warbird hadn't been behind the wheel in a long time.

She was sitting awkwardly, using scraps of jackets and shirts from the other boys as padding, as she heard engines starting around her. Joe had yet to notice anything amiss, but now that things were getting loud, there was no way he was just going to sit by and let them get away with it.

And what exactly was it? Their plan was a loose one. About half the war boys in the entire party belonged to Joe, and nearly all of them had decided to follow Warbird. The rest had come with the People Eater and Bullet Farmer, and they had all stayed, not that they had been given any kind of invitation to join in the revolution. As far as Warbird was concerned, they could all just stay out there in the wastes until the sun grew hot enough to catch them on fire. She had no room or time for them, and whatever happened to them in the end wasn't exactly any of her concern.

Their plan was so undeveloped. They all had almost no idea what they were doing, only that they had to do something. So they had come to the conclusion that if they all just got in their cars and left, they would at least have a good chance of escaping entirely and finding a new place to hunker down, or looping back around and taking the Citadel, or catching up to Furiosa and joining her. Whatever the real plan was, they had to get moving first, and that's what was finally happening.

Warbird threw her car into gear and stomped on the gas pedal, tearing through the sand faster than she had ever remembered being able to go. The lancers riding in the back yelled their protests at her rough driving as she shifted and sped away from the rest of Joe's army, her own following close behind and around her. She was out at the point, of course, leading them to whatever their goal was, and from her good vantage point she could see blurry shapes on the horizon.

Were those...cars? Furiosa has definitely managed to get further than that. Hadn't she? There was no way she would have stopped so close to Joe, unless she had really needed to. In that case, though, she would have abandoned the rig and gone on foot, and as the shapes grew larger, Warbird realized they were coming towards her just as she was going towards them.

What the hell were they doing?

As they closed in, one of the lancers banged on the side of the car and jumped down to hang onto the door and talk through the open window. "Boss, it's the rig!"

"Wait for my signal. Don't attack until I say so." Warbird decided, narrowing her eyes. She heard the lancer climb back and shout to the others as they came closer and closer. She could see bikes driving alongside the rig, just adding to her confusion, and as sand sprayed up to signal that the rig's brakes had been slammed, she called to her lancers to tell the others to split up and circle around the smaller party.

As they forced the bikes to a halt, Warbird could see that almost everyone was a woman, many of them old, the others...the wives? What the fuck? When she stopped next to the rig and looked up into its cab, however, her eyes nearly melted out of her skull.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she snarled at Nux as he leaned out the window.

"What are you doing?" he countered with slightly less venom.

"Driving," she snapped. "Away from Joe. He'll be here soon, though. He can only mope so long. Now, tell me what exactly you're up to here."

He was quiet for a moment, just looking at her. "We're going back."

"Excuse me?"

Go back? Back to what? Why would they, of all people, want to be going back to the place they had spent so much effort getting away from? Sure, Warbird was currently at odds with Joe, and sure, she would love to take the Citadel, but was that realistic? Was that something she was expecting to do with Nux and the wives, whom she had almost died for a lot of fucking times?

No. It wasn't. Not by a long shot.

"The green place is gone. We're going to take the Citadel while there's nobody there. It was the blood bag's idea."

"...And you trust him?" she was skeptical beyond belief. He was a blood bag. That's all he was good for. He was a slippery one, she had to give him that, but he existed now to supply Nux with what he needed to survive whenever he was almost dead, not make plans to take over the Citadel.

"Are you going to help, or just keep driving into the sunset?" he snapped.

Warbird was taken aback by his outburst. "Let me into the rig."

"No."

"Nux," she said in warning, her tone darkening. "Let. Me. Into. The rig." Why wasn't he listening? He always listened.

He looked down at her from his window, eyes defiant. "No. I have to drive it. It's my destiny."

"What the hell are you on about?" Warbird hissed. Destiny? Sure, whatever, if that's what he wanted to think, but...he was sounding like a crackpot old fool.

"Just trust me." he said, eyes wide with his plea. His lip was trembling as if something were warring inside of him. "Please."

Warbird's mouth pressed into a thin line, but for once, she didn't press. He was obviously up to something, but she didn't know what, and she didn't necessarily care, given that she herself didn't have much of a plan anymore. She only nodded and leaned out the window to look at the scene around her; her boys, drivers and lancers and polecats all surrounding what used to be their war rig, and a little ragtag group of what seemed to be the wives and a handful of old women sitting on bikes.

And Furiosa.

And the bloodbag.

Warbird couldn't help but roll her eyes as she kicked her car into gear, floored the gas, and yelled for her war boys to act as an escort for the rig as she heard tires digging into the red-orange sand. This was ridiculous. It was mad.

"Where're we goin', boss?" the lancer asked as he hopped down to hang from the door.

Warbird only gritted her teeth. "Back."

"Back? ...Why?"

"Because I said so." she looked over at him as he clung to the open window. "Give Nux details on where we left the Immortan."

"Tryin' to avoid him?"

"I fucking hope so." she glanced at the rusted chain sitting on the passenger side floor. That was her only weapon. Would she even be able to use it?

The lancer looked at her in confusion before climbing back on top of the car and yelling the details to Nux. What was he doing driving the rig, anyway? And...wasn't that his old bloodbag down there? And the traitor imperator? None of this made any sense, but then again, nothing did lately. None of the boys really knew what was going on, only that they were done with Joe and, they had thought, the Citadel. But as they turned around and headed straight back for it again, none of them could really be sure what was about to happen and how exactly they were going to pull it all off.

The sun grew higher and hotter in the sky as they drove on, never stopping, only growing closer and closer to Joe and his remaining army, and when the polecats spotted cars on the horizon, a fiery rage rippled through Warbird's boys. It was their time to fight, to kill, to make their mark and go to Valhalla. Nobody cared that Joe wouldn't be carrying them there; they didn't want him. After all, what could he do for them? Nothing. They had someone else to follow.

They had Warbird.

Metal screeched against metal as the two armies met, but the rig drove on, and the escort followed, and Warbird was gritting her teeth and sneering the entire time. She went back and forth between feeling completely calm and having her heart beating so fast she thought she might die, and when, finally, they were caught up in an all out war, flames searing flesh, cars crashing into each other, she was at some sort of tranquil place inside of herself. She hadn't done this in a long, long time, and it was feeling good to be back on the fury road like this.

She shifted gears.

She shouted orders.

She wasn't useless, she was their leader. Her boys were obeying her, looking up to her, fighting for her. They were spraying their faces chrome and calling witness to each other, and she joined in whenever she spotted someone in need of it. She felt alive, she felt wild, she felt...mad, just like this entire thing. Anger and life was all swirling around inside of her, surrounding that calm bubble her mind was in, fueling her just like guzzoline. The boys were having the time of their life, killing, fighting, doing whatever they could and whatever they wanted to do as long as Warbird was safe.

It was going so well. War boys were dying, yeah, but honorably. It couldn't be avoided. Warbird was focused on them, on keeping the rig safe, but it was getting harder and harder the closer they got to the canyon, where the road narrowed. The rig didn't slow down, and neither did Joe, so...Warbird didn't, either. She was there, behind the Doof Wagon, when she saw the blood bag up there, hurling war boys off the sides. She thought she caught a glimpse of Furiosa climbing on the rig, and the more she paid attention, the more people she was spotting.

Nux was still driving. Joe was there, Rictus climbing on the back of the Gigahorse towards the blood bag who was coming after him. Wives and old women were in the rig or on top of it. Why wasn't Warbird up there helping?

Squinting against the dust flying through the open windows, she reached out and banged on the roof of her car. Her lancer noticed and dropped down, only to have her drag him in by the throat and awkwardly scoot over while she forced him to take her place.

"I'm going up top," she said, moving towards the passenger door.

"Warbird," he glanced at her nervously, gripping the wheel tightly. "You...you sure, boss?"

She snarled. "Sure as I'll ever be." she grabbed the chain on the floor, threw the door open, and immediately regretted her decision.

Climbing around on moving vehicles seemed a lot easier for people who had full use of their limbs, rather than damaged hips that prevented them from walking correctly, let alone not falling off of cars. Warbird clawed her way out, clinging to whatever she could, hip shrieking in pain that not even adrenaline could drown out. The Doof Wagon was just ahead, and as she climbed down onto the hood, she wondered how exactly they could all do this so easily. She was watching them climb all over these things every day, and now, as she clumsily launched herself onto the back of the wagon, fingers already bloodied, she was realizing how this wasn't exactly the thing for her. She had always just driven, or stood on the back of a car, or ridden shotgun. She had never been expected to do this.

But this was as good a time as any.

The Doof was screaming, blindly shouting after the blood bag that had used his guitar as a weapon, and Warbird took a moment to toss the chain over her torso while he ignored her. Could he even tell she was there?

The rig was in front of the wagon, and Warbird didn't waste time throwing herself onto it. If she stopped now, she knew she would never get going, and as she hauled herself up the back, and almost wanted to take a moment to commend her own efforts. But then, the second she was standing atop the rig, chest heaving with effort, lungs burning with all the dust she was inhaling, she saw Rictus standing up.

"HE'S DEAD!" a voice shouted from the Gigahorse.

Who?

...The Immortan?

The car hadn't stopped, though. Nothing had stopped. Warbird couldn't see who was driving, but as Rictus turned and lunged forward, she realized he knew a lot more than she did, and he couldn't get up there. Stumbling forward, her feet sliding with every bump the rig took, she shrugged the end of the chain out from where it was tucked within itself and unwrapped it as much as she could as she took it off.

This was finally her chance to kill Rictus, after all the pain he had caused her so recently. After dragging her through the Citadel. After slamming her down on the unforgiving rock floor. After everything he had done to inconvenience and injure her, she finally had a reason to give something back.

"RICTUS!" she bellowed, voice hoarse from the sand and dirt and dust.

He turned for a moment, sneering in confusion as he saw her closing in on him. He was bloody, his bald head bruised and uglier than ever. "YOU DIE! NOW!" roared, dropping onto the hood of the rig.

He was reaching for the engine when she finally got close enough to throw the chain, whipping it towards him with a curve that resulted in the end wrapping around his neck. Warbird's hands were bloodied as she pulled it tight, the rusty links grinding against each other as they bit into his flesh, his already red face reddening even more. With gritted teeth, she yanked, dropping to a squat in an effort to steady herself as she felt her hip giving out more and more by the second.

She had never seen Rictus so angry and so determined to live.

He slammed against the windshield as she pulled on him, gasping for air, one hand against the chain and the other reaching out. With a hiss, Warbird tugged again, desperately putting as much strength as possible into her arms as she yanked. She was slowing him down, but not enough, as he righted himself, pulling her forward after him, and he stood solidly, looking back at her while he seized the engine and tore it out.

She had no idea he was strong enough for that.

Horror flashed across her face as the chain left her hands, Rictus having managed to completely free himself from her. Fire erupted, flames springing up around him, and just past the orange blaze, Warbird could see the wives watching from the Gigahorse. The Dag saw her. Capable made eye contact. They were shocked, shocked to see her there, shocked to see the rig going up in flames.

The world felt like it was slowing down. Their mouths were moving, but she couldn't hear anything over the rig, and as the fire grew, she couldn't see anything, either. With a glance behind her, she saw her war boys back behind all of Joe's remaining army, and raised her arms as quickly as she could to signal for them to stop. The canyon was too narrow for this. The rig was going to explode, and it would just engulf them all, destroy them, eat them-

She was off balance. She was falling. A scream left her throat as she slide down the side of the cab, a bloody smear trailing after her. Then, the world slowed down even more. Nothing was moving, nothing was happening.

Then everything was upside down.

Then everything was black.