Chapter Twenty One: Sunset Ranch — Part 1

On the ride into what is hopefully Tó Naneesdizí, ChoCho is sitting next to Jynx, picking out music to listen to. Shelley sleeps with her son in the back seat, while Kevin and Daria sit in the passenger seat: Daria is closest to the window. Kevin and ChoCho sit next to each other and all Jynx can think about is getting Daria out of her clothes. Her eyes drift right as she drives, crossing ChoCho on their way to the face that matches a scent burning in her veins. Jynx knows that despite her love for him, there are certain needs he simply cannot fill. These needs are something specific to Daria. Jynx isn’t verbal enough in her mind to try to create a vocabulary around her sensations. Some of the need comes from taste, a sweet scent that slowly builds to a bitter tang. It’s not of sharpness or saltiness, not of man or maleness, or even tied to woman specifically, and it isn’t a taste that she feels directly on her tongue. It is something physically present and essential to Daria. Jynx shivers, hoping Daria hasn’t guessed that she wants, that she craves, that she burns for a closeness that nearly overpowers rational thought. Jynx feels the flush come to her face and tries to think of anything that might take her mind from the urgent longing. As their target destination comes into view, this becomes increasingly easy.

Tomas had said that the hands of gods had slapped Tó Naneesdizí to the ground, and he wasn’t kidding, Jynx realizes. The city proper has no tall buildings left standing, no houses not burned to the ground. A crudely painted wood sign has been placed at the edge of a survivor’s settlement, written with graffiti in a strange script, but stating clearly, Tó Naneesdizí. Next to the sign is the remains of a sign that might have clearly read Tuba City before the storm. Now only the silhouette of letters has survived the wrath of lightning and the grip of rust. The metal sign is physically bent with the stress of its experiences.

Jynx feels her lips curl at the thought that one city might have two names, thinking that she must be party some form of sympathetic magick, a sort of mystic connection between her map and reality that she can never fully comprehend. The settlement is set back from the main road a ways, but there are people walking and on horseback, standing proud as they move along the freeway. Jynx slows down as she comes up to the first person on her side who doesn’t seem in too much of a hurry, who has stopped walking to look up at her. His eyes are misty, curious, in many ways hopeless. She has never seen such emptiness before, and she can’t imagine letting herself be consumed in such dark melancholy as those eyes hint at. In seconds, the darkness is gone, a smile, genuine and powerful, lights up a face covered in deep wrinkles made less ominous by the bright afternoon sun.

“Hi.” Jynx says. “We are looking for somebody, a woman who is a friend of a rancher named Tomas. She was supposed to have set up a medical center.”

The man says nothing, quietly points to the next offramp, then heads slowly on his way, his interest in the moment apparently diminished. When she sees him in her side mirror, the smile is still hinted at. For her own sanity, Jynx decides to call it hope. Jynx rolls up her window, studying the setting as she continues to drive along. The off ramp is probably the only one she can see for miles, and if she doesn’t have a way out, the others will be nervous. She decides not to worry so much, since she doesn’t intend to stay longer than she has to, and takes the next exit without pause.

Finding the friend Tomas mentioned proves as easy as heading toward a warehouse in the center of the city. First off, the warehouse seems to be the only building left standing and in one piece, and also, it is the only building with people moving in and out of it. There aren’t a lot of people, actually, but every few minutes somebody comes in or goes out. As Jynx draws in closer, she starts to realize that they are the same somebodies going about the kind of business that one might normally go about when one is bringing in or taking out supplies from a central facility, like a hospital or grocery store. Jynx pulls off into a parking lot across the street from a warehouse, and shuts off the engine. She steps down off her truck stair, reaching up and taking ChoCho’s hand, helping him down.

Nearby the vans and cargo truck pull into the parking lot, and line up in a way that makes retreat easiest. Jynx looks at how she’s parked, and realizes she’s given herself more than enough room to turn around and leave. She’s momentarily blocked out building that had one time been central to the parking lot. Whether it had been a Walmart or some other kind of supercenter, Jynx can’t be certain. The signage at the road has been uprooted and burned to an unreadable mess, the build itself shattered to its core. She looks back carefully at Daria and Kevin, who are also getting out of the car. She smiles carefully, holding tight to ChoCho’s hand.

“Listen, both of you. ChoCho and I need to head in alone on this one. I don’t want to cause a storm.” Jynx turns away, hoping ChoCho can’t see the smile on her face, can’t smell her longing.

ChoCho squeezes her hand as they walk toward the massive rollaway cargo doors that are, at least at the moment, fully open. There is a concrete loading dock set up so that semi trucks can back in and unload, similar to the one at the military base, though that one, as ChoCho recalls, had been made of metal, and designed to break down and move quickly. Jynx leads him up the steps, and into what proves to be an infirmary of sorts. Three women and a man in white medical uniforms are acting as nurses to around fifty people who are either in wheel chairs or in beds. Some of them have IVs connected to them, some are coughing, a few are crying out in pain. One woman, looking haggard, is pacing from patient to patient, checking on stats, issuing orders about treating one thing or another. Jynx is impressed, she is obviously exhausted, but driven to care for those who need it.

She’s a dark skinned woman with big ears, from what ChoCho can tell, and hair wrapped tightly into coils on each side of her head. A single gray strand hangs loose from the rest. This doesn’t seem to be by intention, because she keeps pushing it out of her wide face with its sharp, angular nose. She is beautiful, Jynx decides, but only after a fashionable moment of staring.

The woman is keen to see Jynx and ChoCho standing at the door, and her voice is sharp. “If you can walk here for medical help then you’ll have to wait until you can’t, we’ve got our hands full.” She shouts, agitation seeming to be a permanent resident to the tone of her voice. “And if one of you got pregnant, tough shit, go plant a field and keep to your home.”

“I sure as hell didn’t knock him up.” Jynx shouts, causing the woman to pause what she’s doing and actually take a moment to draw in more information on her visitors.

She pushes the loose strand out of the way one more time, beads of sweat glistening on her head. She stares first at Jynx, then at ChoCho, seeing his knife. She looks back at Jynx, a sudden, aggressive smile on her face. She points to one of her crew, who is helping somebody in one of the beds to eat. He sets the tray of food down and comes running, probably because it is a chance to do something less mundane. The woman points at a younger man she has just been helping.

“Lance it, sanitize it, salve it, and wrap it. I need a minute.” She turns, walking straight to Jynx. In moments ChoCho is nearly invisible to her, her eyes have locked aggressively with Jynx. “You must be the wife of the man who saved Tomas.”

“You must be the woman we are looking for.” Jynx says. “My name is Jynx. This is –”

“ChoCho. Tomas spoke highly of him, but more highly of you. He said you would come visit. I didn’t believe him.” She pauses, her mind obviously racing. “Jynx, my name is Kai. Welcome to the hospital.”

Jynx looks around, curious about the relative number of sick and injured that are still lingering so long after the storm. She doesn’t say anything immediately, trying to take everything in. At the Glenn, she had seen nobody immediately ill except Franklin, who had died shortly after their departure. In Phoenix, they found one survivor within the city, and plenty of bodies. In Tó Naneesdizí, apparently, there are those sitting somewhere in between.

Kai looks past Jynx, out into the loading bay, seeing Heath, who is working with Shelley to keep the puds out of trouble. “I can see you have more than your share of worries, with such a big family, let me give you directions to the ranch. Tomas will be happy to have you there.”