Chapter Nineteen: Westward Ho — Part 4

Jynx is the second awake the next morning, though initially she thinks she is the first. The rain pattering on the roof has woken her up, and as it sounds like a particularly strong rain, and most probably will last the better part of the morning, she decides to head out into it to clean up. She stops at the door just long enough to undress and set her clothes and towel on a chair, and then pushes open the bay door far enough to pull herself and her cosmetics through. She walks away from the entrance, standing to the right of the door. It is shivering cold, and her breasts tighten to her body, her nipples perking as the rain blasts the warmth from her skin and the fat and muscle residing underneath. Shivering, Jynx scrubs the sweat of the night from her body, and washes her hair. Once the soap is forced free of her hair, Jynx focuses on other, more important issues.

Jynx pulls her cup, washes it, and pees; the warmth of her stream is an odd contrast to the chill rain flowing down her belly and between her legs. She is a little surprised to discover that her period is just about over. In a few minutes, she feels clean and has had enough of the pattering chill of the rain to flee back through the door. Heath passes her, the younger girl’s body still shy of the curves that come to a woman with age. Having gotten the same idea, apparently, she’s left her clothes and towel on the chair next to Jynx. Jynx dries herself off thoroughly, pulls her clothes on and then sits, shaking a little, waiting for her body to get its heat back. In a few moments, Heath is back in, doing the same thing, and then Kevin and ChoCho are up, out the door together. This goes on for about twenty minutes, until most of the crew and puds are either cleaned, and by the time the rain dies back, most of them have managed to get the soap and shampoo off of them.

“It sure rains a lot more since the Storm.” Jynx says to ChoCho as he’s buttoning up his skirt.

“I think it just rains here a lot anyway.” ChoCho says.

The party eats, not talking much, as most are shivering quite a bit. Jynx and Joe touch base on the route out. She doesn’t see a reason to trek back on herself, but instead, plans on heading out through Colorado, and she wants to get Joe’s opinion on it.

“You seem to be aiming for larger population clusters.” Joe says, suspecting the reasoning.

“We need to scavenge for fuel, food, oil, and parts. You know how this stuff works.” Jynx says quietly. “This is especially important now that we’ve got mouths to feed.”

“I wish there was a way we could avoid the bodies.” Joe says quietly.

“We’re going to have to walk through a lot of bodies to find what you’re looking for. Some of them might not be dead.” Jynx says gently.

“You lead, then, and we’ll follow.” Joe says, a bit of humor in his voice. “Some day you’re going to have to tell me how you got so much sense at such a young age.” Joe adds.

“It’s a short story.” Jynx says quietly.

The rest of the morning is spent rigging the trailer back to the Girl and prepping the payload for the long trip back west. It isn’t a particularly difficult task, but Jynx hasn’t had a lot of practice at hitching up, and has to line things up several times before the trailer can be hitched and locked. She then has to drive out far enough to wait for the others to follow in line. They move along the highway at a steady 45 miles an hour, stopping at times to clear the wreckage out of their way. This is a task made much easier by the extra hands, but still daunting physically and emotionally to all involved. Because of this, the trip to Wichita ends up taking eight hours rather than the projected five, and the sun is nearly set when they settle into a rest station just south of the city for the night.

They are sitting around the fire keeping warm, when Zac pipes up suddenly. “Papa Papa!”

“Papa’s not coming baby.”

That night Zac keeps asking about his father, and Shelley has to keep telling him the same thing. Zack goes to sleep; finally, crying, and Jynx can’t imagine how it must be for a two year old to have to wonder why Daddy isn’t coming back. The morning brings with them the need to head into town to get supplies, and Jynx opts to take two of the vans with the oldest of the puds, rather than waste resources and time. She’s left Kevin and ChoCho to tend to the truck, and has Joe driving the other van, so if there is trouble, she is pretty certain she can handle it.

Once in the city proper, there are a lot of tractors, cars, lawn mowers, and sheds to raid. There are also many houses and apartments that have survived, places where food is intact and can be squirreled away. People move out in groups of four. Keeping close to each other, and always within eyeshot of the other groups. Like other cities, no survivors can be found, but there is evidence of a secondary death wave in Wichita. In a small section of the city, a cluster of survivors had set up camp, choosing to try to sit through the rot, only to die shortly after. Their bodies are about to the point where the differences between the initial and secondary causes are all but indiscernible, but the tents and foodstuffs, all set up and horded centrally betray the truth.

By noon, they have found about twenty gallons of fuel, total, about eight gallons of it deisil, while the back of the van is filled with canned soups and vegetables, and canned meats as well. Jynx pauses, considering the fuel in her tanks, wishing she had found more fuel to work with. There is a sort of quiet need to leave Wichita, to run away before she has enough additional fuel that there won’t be a need to leave before Colorado Springs comes into play, so Jynx opts to retreat with what they have, and to make a raid into another part of the city before they head out on the next leg of the journey. Joe pulls her aside before she can head back into town.

“Do we really have time for a second run?” He asks.

“I thought we could stay the night if we have to.” Jynx says. “The supplies are here, and we need more fuel if we’re going to make it to Colorado Springs without having to risk another stop.”

“We can’t stay the night here.” Joe tells her quietly, as they get ready to head back. “We don’t know if whatever killed those people in the center of the city lingered. If the wind picks up, or one of us is bitten or exposed, it could take all of us down their path.”

Jynx hasn’t fully considered this. “We need to leave, then.”

“We’ll just have to find a city along the way and make one more stop.” Joe says.

“I’ll let Daria work on that, we’ll detour if the need arises. Get everybody loaded, and we’ll move on out.”

Jynx is in her truck again, the smell of diesel fuel fresh in her nostrils, ChoCho sitting next to her while Shelley and Zac sleep fitfully next to Kevin in the back. Daria is at the next window. Whether she has heard the conversation or not, she knows the fuel situation, and is looking for the next city big enough to risk moving through. Jynx isn’t happy about leaving, but she can’t discard Joe’s concerns. Something did kill those people in Wichita, and if it was still in the air, as Joe put it, then the longer they were exposed, the greater their chances of infection, and death. Determined to die of old age, Jynx gears the truck up, and pushes on, hoping that the next city will have the fuel she needs, and in enough quantity, to keep them moving west.

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