Wanted (26 page)

Before she could decide whether talking to Dustin again was worth the risk, she saw Carl and Tanya heading back towards them, apparently empty-handed. She smiled to herself, thinking that she and Dustin had provided some food where the mighty hunters had failed. The thought of eating snake was not appealing, but she knew they must all be hungry enough that it wouldn’t matter.

“
Hey, no luck? We heard a shot,” Jessie asked when they had gotten closer.

“
Tanya dropped a mule deer at about 400 yards,” Carl stated, his way of offering her praise. Tanya smiled and blushed a little, but said nothing.

“
So where is it?” Jessie asked, easily hiding her disappointment. After all, venison sounded a lot better than snake!

“
Ain’t carrying a deer carcass that far,” Carl said. He held up the meat, wrapped in grasses. “Loins and the heart, should be enough to get us through and maybe save a little for the morning.”

“
We killed a snake,” Dustin piped up. “It’s up near the boulders. Jessie clubbed it with her rifle.

“
Snake?” Carl asked, eyes narrowing. “What kind?”

Jessie saw Tanya look at him, a worried expression on her face, and she wondered what that was about. “I’m not sure, it’s black and white and red, bands of alternating colors on it. Four feet long or so.”

He grunted. “King snake, not poisonous. We’ll eat good tonight.”

“
Why’s it matter if it’s poisonous?” Dustin asked. “The venom’s not in their bodies.”

“
That’s why you guys got captured,” Tanya interjected, knowing that Carl would never explain it. “He was shadowing us and had to go back when he got bit by a rattlesnake.”

Carl’s lips twitched in a scowl, but he pushed past it quickly. Jessie stared at him and shook her head. “Snake break a fang on you?” She quipped.

His scowl returned. “Come on,” he said, walking past them towards their campsite. “Let’s cook this up. I’m hungry.”

Jessie looked at Tanya and saw her smiling a little. She hurried after and Jessie turned to follow. Behind her, Dustin fell in and she heard him muttering, “Bit by a rattlesnake? Out here? Shouldn’t he be dead?”

Jessie glanced back at him and smiled, “I don’t think anything can kill him, Dusty. Hell’s probably afraid to take him if he did die.”

Dusty chuckled in appreciation of her opinion, then they found themselves gathered around the small pile of kindling they had acquired. Dustin added what branches he could break off the tree to it and watched carefully while Carl put the grasses and lichen in the bottom of the small hollow and then arranged twigs and bark on top of it.

Jessie kept an eye out, not wanting to crowd the small area between the rocks for fear she would block the light. Instead she watched the landscape around as the hazy sun slipped lower into the evening sky. Behind them she heard Carl working a lighter or something, trying to start a fire.

“
Hey Carl, what’s it like being shot?” she heard Dustin asked a few minutes later.

“
Why, you thinking of trying it out?” he asked. Without looking at him, Jessie thought she could almost hear a little bit of humor in his tone.

“
No!” Dustin replied without hesitation. “I just wondered if you go into shock or something. Eddie did a lot of moaning and whining, but that wasn’t shock, was it?”

“
Eddie barely got hit,” Carl said. “Bullet got him at an angle and glanced off his collar bone. Saved me from getting hit though, since that’s who he was aiming at.”

“
So what’s it like?” Dustin pressed.

“
Couldn’t tell ya,” Carl answered. “Never been hit, not with a bullet anyhow.”

“
You’ve never… but… wow. I mean, that’s good I guess, I just mean…”

“
Real world ain’t like the movies, kid,” Carl said. Jessie flinched when she heard that. It was true. She was living the real world right now and it sucked compared to her life as an actress. Staring at what promised to be a fiery red sunset, she realized that maybe it didn’t suck that much. After all, she didn’t miss her old life as much as she’d thought, even with her blistered feet, swollen ankles, dirt and sand so deep in her hair and skin and… other places.

“
Let that burn a few minutes, then put some of the bigger stuff on it,” Carl advised, having gotten a fire started.

“
How are we going to cook the meat?” Tanya asked, realizing suddenly they had no pans.

Carl took one of the saguaro ribs and used his knife to sharpen one end into a point. “Nothing like meat on a stick,” he said, handing her the long rib then picking up the snake and cutting off its head and tail. He reached into it and grabbed on, then proceeded to yank out the snake’s viscera. He handed what remained, the body of the snake minus its guts, to Dustin, who was looking a little squeamishly at it.

“
I’ll be right back,” he told them, stepping out of the boulders.

“
Carl, wait… can I come along?” Jessie asked him, trailing after.

He stopped to look at her, then shrugged.

“
Wait, you’re not going to use the little boy’s room or anything, are you?” she asked, a little concerned with how little fight he had put up.

Carl chuckled. “Gonna have to take your chances,” he said. Jessie frowned but followed after him in spite of it.

As soon as they had gotten far enough away to not be overheard, Jessie started in. “Dusty and I were talking,” she began, then paused to give Carl a chance to offer a smart ass retort. He said nothing so she continued. “He helped me realize something. Much as I’ve been trying to help out and get better, I’ve been hung up on what happened.”

“
Kind of like right now,” Carl grumbled, turning and leading them towards some pine trees.

“
Yeah, I guess,” she agreed. “But this is it, I promise!”

“
I ain’t holding my breath,” he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

“
Damn you, you son of a bitch, this is hard!” she said, clenching her fists and wanting to throw a rock at him. Carl stopped and turned to face her, looking at her and waiting with feigned patience.

“
I’m trying to say I’m done saying I’m sorry. I am, I mean… I’m really ashamed of a lot of stuff, but like Dusty said, I can’t change it so I just have to move forward and be better.”

“
Said all that, did he?” Carl asked, a look in his eyes that said he doubted her yet again.

“
Not really, but that’s what he meant, I think,” she said. She shook her head a minute later, clearing it of thoughts about Dustin’s intentions. “It doesn’t matter what he said or meant, what matters is that I’m here and I’m not going back. I’d never have been able to get cleaned up without someone being an asshole like you, so thanks.”

“
My pleasure,” Carl said with the rare smile. Unfortunately, she knew he was amused at being thanked for being an asshole and not much else.

“
I’m going to make you proud of me, Carl, maybe not anytime soon, but before this is over, you’re going to stop thinking of me as trash and maybe more like a friend.”

Carl raised an eyebrow, silently challenging her all the more. Jessie blushed, realizing she had a long ways to go with him. “Even if you never think that way, at least I’ll know I tried.”

“
You sure you ain’t drunk?” he asked her, his words slapping her across the face even though his tone was not abusive.

“
I think this might be good for both of us,” Jessie said after she worked past her shock and shame at his unintended insult, “because you’ve got a lot to learn too.”

He chuckled, then shrugged, admitting that perhaps he did. “We done here?” he asked her.

She nodded then smiled at him and said, “I think so, unless you want to take me right here and now on the side of the mountain.”

“
Thought you said you’d changed?” Carl growled.

“
I have,” Jessie said, winking at him. “I was going to shoot you down if you said yes.”

She walked past him, smiling haughtily, and felt a triumphant yell struggling to burst from inside of her. She felt alive, more alive than she had felt in years. After nearly a dozen steps she faltered and stopped, her momentary high spirits crashing as she realized that she had no idea where they were going.

“
Um, what are you doing out here anyhow?” she asked.

Carl, smiling right back at her with that alpha male look in his eyes, walked past her and up to the first pine tree. “Looking for some pine nuts, give us a little variety.”

“
Pine nuts?” Jessie asked.

“
Yeah, they’re in pine cones,” Carl told her. “This here’s a pinion pine. Grab some pine cones and we’ll head back. The nuts are under the pine cone scales.”

Jessie stared at the pine cones, each about two inches long and as big around as they were long. She’d never heard of eating pine nuts before, but she knew that she could trust Carl to know what was safe. That or he was trying to poison her so he wouldn’t have to deal with her anymore.

* * * *

“
How are your feet?”

Jessie looked up from the rock she sat on, surprised by the voice, and was scrambling to reach for her vintage rifle. Carl was returning from a quick morning hike to scout out their surroundings, a grin on his face. “Always keep it close,” he said, nodding to the rifle.

Jessie stuck her tongue out at him but then looked down to her feet. “Hurts pretty bad,” she admitted, “but I can make it. What are we going to do for water?”

Carl hiked up his pack, aware of how light it was since they had drank the last of their water this morning. “Trick ain’t finding water,” he told her, “it’s finding clean water.”

“
What do you mean? I’ll risk a little mud or fish pee,” she said, surprising herself at how badly she wanted a drink. Especially now that she knew they had none to spare. Before, when it had been a matter of having water but rationing it, it was not so bad.

“
Not dirty like that, radiation,” he said. “LA’s about 125 miles west-southwest of us. Wind brought all the fallout from that first nuke in through here. North some, through the Mojave desert, but the heart of that’s only 60 miles west-northwest of us.”

Jessie looked around, her eyes going from trees to bushes and even a couple of birds “That deer last night, the snake… the trees, they’re growing fine. Wouldn’t this place be dead if there was radiation hanging around?”

Carl looked around for a moment, trying to reconcile the things she pointed out. “Must have blown most of the fallout high enough the wind took it past or further north,” he said. “Don’t mean we shouldn’t be careful.”

She nodded enthusiastically, agreeing with him. “By the way, I’m feeling much better today,” she said. “No more shakes, see? A solid meal and some good sleep did wonders.”

He grunted, then moved past her and down towards the boulders where his unofficial charges were at. They were finishing getting ready themselves, or as ready as they could be. Dustin looked rested but miserable. Tanya stood proudly, ready to put on some miles without complaint.

“
How’s your ribs?” Carl asked Dustin.

“
What? Oh, they’re sore but okay,” he said with a surprised look at Carl. He shrugged and offered a smile, “I’ll keep up.”

Carl nodded, he had pushed them hard to get where they were and he respected them for making it. The alternative might not have been an option, however, so he didn’t bother mentioning it. Just when he was ready to slow down a bit and take it easy on them they now had to push on just as hard – they were out of water and wouldn’t last long without it.

“
Hard day today,” he said. “We could head northwest up into the Mojave National Park. Good chance of finding water and shelter. Might find some other people too. Other option is head northeast, to Nevada. A few towns between here and there, might be water, might be people.”

Dusty looked up, pleased at the thought of other people. Tanya showed no emotion, leaving Carl to guess what her thoughts were. “Why tell us?” Dustin asked after a moment of thought. “You’re the guy running the show.”

Carl shrugged. “I’m keeping you alive, you’re the ones with people on your ass. You’re the ones that got to figure out where you want to go.”

“
Why isn’t Jessie down here? She should have a say too,” the teen pointed out.

Carl glanced up at the path up the side of the ridge he had come down. “Nobody gives a damn about her,” he said, “this is about you two.”

“
I care about her,” Dusty said, his eyes narrowing.

“
That ain’t what I meant,” Carl said, mentally sighing. He glanced at Tanya then shrugged; he and her little brother needed to have a talk. “Kid, she’s the hottest piece of ass I’ve ever seen,” he said bluntly, making Dustin’s and Tanya’s eyes widen in surprise. “And she might be turning over a new life – or maybe not. Either way, she ain’t the one people are after. You two are. The more people we go around, the better the chance of word reaching them. I can’t figure out why your old man’s hired guns are trying to kill you, but that ain’t none of my business. I learned a long time ago when to ask question and when to stop.”

Carl paused, letting that sink in. Dustin and Tanya looked at one another, Dustin’s face showing the concern he felt about the Maelstrom men repeatedly coming after them. Tanya, on the other hand, seemed almost regretful or reluctant, Carl was not sure.