Chapter Nineteen: Westward Ho — Part 6

Pueblo reminds Jynx too much of Springfield, as most of it is burned and cratered. There are patches of neighborhoods that are still standing, however, even though there is no sign of human life to be found. The children have opted to go out and collect fuel and supplies again, and since the air is calm, she opts to call it a night at Pueblo. In fact, she intends to raid the hardware store, and head out on with a van tomorrow, and not stop until she’s siphoned enough diesel and gasoline to fill the entire back of her truck as well as the spare space in the trailer’s forward V cache. Jynx has had enough, in other words, of just getting by.

The problem is, there just doesn’t seem to be enough diesel in the remains of the cities they’re driving through to warrant the loss of fuel needed for a longer excursion, which is why she hasn’t taken the risk previously, and why she will probably talk herself out of going out looking again. Kevin, Daria, and ChoCho have all headed out together. They are by far the best finders of fuel in the group, and will probably be working until close to dark before heading back. Jynx almost wishes she had gone with them. For now, though, she has had enough of moving, whether it be on foot or behind the wheel. She stretches, looking somewhat like a cat as she works the kinks out of her body. In a moment she’s even tired of doing that, so she leans against the side of the truck, next to Shelley, who has been oddly quiet for a while. Zac is asleep in the back, and she’s getting ready to pump her breasts in order to give her nipples a rest from her son. Jynx looks up and down the rows. Blake and Joe are both armed, obviously getting ready to set out into the neighborhood they’ve parked by on foot. Heath is heading out with them, bright eyed as usual. Jynx has no idea where she gets her energy.

“You’ve been awful quiet.” Jynx says.

“Just thinking about Zac.” Shelley says. “He’s stopped asking where his father is. He’ll probably forget about him, as he gets older.”

Jynx tries to think of something appropriate to say, but settles on, “Can you blame him?”

“I sometimes wish I could forget too.” Shelley says darkly. “It’s just kind of scary, is all.”

“Yeah.” Jynx says.

“My parents died before the Storm.” Shelley says. “You miss your parents?”

“I haven’t seen them in years. I miss them sometimes.” Jynx says. “They didn’t live, in case you’re wondering.”

“I wasn’t.” Shelley is suddenly quiet. “Sorry to get so dark. It’s just that we have all these kids around and they all seem so happy.”

“Of course they’re happy. For the first time in their lives they’ve got people who care about them.”

Jynx hasn’t smoked in awhile, has decided to quit entirely, except on occasion. Since Shelley is breastfeeding, she decides that this probably isn’t one of those occasions.

“How are we going to feed them?” Shelley wonders.

“Food should never be a worry.” Jynx says. “Water is pretty damn easy to work with as well.”

Shelley sounds a little astounded. “You got it all figured out, don’t you?”

“Only the major parts. There are plenty of gaps to close.” Jynx pops her neck, rubbing her the base of her skull with her thumbs.

It puts her arms in a position where her elbows are up, and her view of Shelley is blocked. Shelley starts to laugh a bit, and Jynx wonders what so funny. She lowers her eyes and sees ChoCho pulling a kid’s blue wagon with four green five gallon plastic fuel cans. ChoCho is pulling the wagon with some effort, and struggles to get the full containers into the back of the truck. Without bothering to acquire more fuel cans, ChoCho heads back out again, wagon in tow. He’s limping a little, but determined, apparently, to harvest the rest of whatever fuel he’s found before calling it quits.

“That boy of yours is damn cute.” Shelley says.

“Damn lot of trouble.” Jynx says, but Shelley can see how proud she is.

“So I wonder where he’s pulling the diesel from?” Shelley wonders.

At first Jynx suspects he’s found a truck with an extra tank, because the usual haul is only about ten or fifteen gallons. But two things discourage the notion. First a truck with forty gallons of fuel in it is almost unheard of. Second, he hasn’t left with any canisters. When he returns, some twenty minutes later, with four more five-gallon cans, Jynx feels her heart nearly melt. As ChoCho loads them up, water is dripping off of them. Jynx would know if it was fuel, because she’d be able to smell it.

“Hey ChoCho, that all Diesel?” Shelley asks.

“Yep.” ChoCho says.

“Where are you pulling it from?” Jynx wonders.

“Machine shop.”

“Machine Shop?”

“Yeah.” ChoCho replies.

“Why is it wet?”

“There were about twenty of them floating in a massive tub of water. I think they’re bi-diesel. I’m running out of steam, so uh, let me go get the rest, okay?” ChoCho says, unaware he’s just said bi-diesel wrong.

Jynx can’t resist a smile. “Bio-diesel, huh? In the middle of Pueblo? Go figure.”

“I think they’re processing it from hemp oil.” ChoCho says.

“Shelley, hon, you don’t mind if I go help ChoCho with this do you?”

“Not at all. I’ll be here, waiting for nightfall.” Shelley says, more because she wants Zac to fall asleep.

Jynx follows ChoCho, who is obviously sore, across a street, beyond a bunch of houses, and then straight into a concrete structure that has a sign in front of it, PenNaval Corporation. They walk deeper into the compound; can see massive parts of what look like a distillery around them. Much of it is burned to the ground, but one shop, with a couple of engines hanging from cherry pickers, is still partially intact. The engines look like standard truck engine blocks, stripped from the vehicles and left hanging. Jynx decides that this must be a classroom of some form, or a test facility. Then she sees ChoCho’s tub of fuel, and is positively astounded. It looks like a massive cow trough made of plastic, and floating in it are the bio-diesel canisters ChoCho must have been talking about, marked out as batches and floating listlessly in the water.

Closer inspection shows that the fuel probably hadn’t been in the tank, initially, but had been set up on shelves along a wall that must have partially collapsed during the Storm. Jynx doesn’t know what the tank was for, but she suspects it was at one time used for cleaning parts. It must have been empty during the Storm, as part of the roof has torn out of the shop, allowing rainwater to come in and fill it up. Jynx looks behind the tub, finds the remains of canisters that did not survive, and evidence that fire and lightning raged around the tub. ChoCho pulls eight more canisters out of the water, and then checks the caps to make certain none of them are loose, he then pours off a little of each into a tank set up by one of the engines, and depresses a switch. The engine runs for about a minute, then dies, having sucked the small tank of fuel almost completely dry.

Jynx feels the heat coming off the engine in slow waves, considers how the fuel must have been part of a batch being tested for something. She pushes the warm engine block and it shakes gently on its rockers. She realizes, quite suddenly that it is a Cummins engine with some serious modifications to it. Somebody has been filing away as much of the block as is possible. The first block has cracks in it, indicative of stress marks. Jynx notices all of it, just as ChoCho did some time before. She ruffles ChoCho’s hair, smiling.

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