Chapter Two: Coyote’s Call — Part 1

Jynx stopped about seventy miles outside of Phoenix, nearly two hours since she had taken a break at Sunset Point so both of them could use the toilets. It has taken her twice as long to get to Phoenix as normal, and she’s tired of seeing so much devastation. Piles of cars are visible even now, strewn along the highway in odd intervals, a lot like clutter at the bottom of a recently dried out gorge. She’s not stopped because of an emotional response to the wreckage, though it does play its part. The sun is close to the horizon, none of the streetlights that survived the storm are turning on, and she is reticent of driving at night on unlit roads still covered in burned out cars and littered with the remains of horrific accidents. Her decision to stop was ultimately decided by growing fatigue more than anything else. She came over a hill and around a bend, a misaligned sense of gravity pulling her against the door, making her question her entire sense of direction. The fact that she felt like she had drifted back to the seat for a second too long as she came off the top of the hill increased her concern for her physical and mental wellbeing. She couldn’t tell if it might be in her imagination, so she didn’t say anything. So now she’s brought the truck to a stop, driving off the road and out of sight so she can take a rest.

ChoCho is startled awake by the silence. “I had a dream that I was floating in space.” He says, “Are we there?”

“No, we’re going to spend the night here, before heading in.” Jynx starts taking off her clothes, putting funnels in the tops of three empty gallon containers. “Storm’s coming, I can see the wall of rain from here. I think I’m willing to shiver a bit to get the funk off.”

Jynx starts to undress, leaving her clothes in the cab of the truck. Feeling a need to be a little cleaner himself, ChoCho pulls off his clothes and puts his three-piece skirt by hers on the front seat, undoing his boots and pulling off his socks and shirt. Jynx is careful to put the keys on the antenna, so they won’t get lost. ChoCho looks around. He seems nervous, standing in the rain as it works quickly across him. The rain is preceded by a warm, moist wind that smells of wet dirt. The wall of rain looks to be massive, and is headed slowly toward the couple from the northeast. The clouds are calm, and the wind is gentle. There isn’t a hint of thunder with the storm. They can hear the hint of rain, smell it on the gentle breeze, minutes before it bothers to arrive.

Jynx takes out some shampoo and a container with toothpaste and other toiletries, and the two wash quickly, not knowing when the downpour will end. The rain is almost as warm as the summer air it’s falling through, and ChoCho feels invigorated, but also a little exposed. Nobody is around but Jynx, and she’s keeping her back turned to him for the moment, but he’s never bathed outside before. It feels both wonderful and embarrassing at once. The rain lasts for about thirty minutes, the sound of it causing an urgent need to pee in both of them. ChoCho discusses the building pressure in quiet tones with Jynx.

“I have to pee.” ChoCho says urgently.

“Just pee?” Jynx wonders.

“Yeah.”

“Then pee.”

“But I don’t want to walk in the rain. I can barely see anything, the pavement is slippery.”

“It’s raining, you’re facing away from me, what more privacy do you need?” Jynx says, shivering.

ChoCho walks a few paces away from Jynx and pees downwind. The sudden heat feels good, because it’s been hours since he’s bothered. Jynx looks over her shoulder, watches ChoCho relieve himself in an almost distracted fashion, and then does the same herself. She spreads her feet out a bit so the stream doesn’t spray her legs too much and pees while she rinses out her hair. Once she has gotten all the soap out of her hair and urine pressure off of her bladder, Jynx heads to The Girl. The rain, lukewarm and diminishing, forces her to use some of the water she’s collected to rinse the mud from her and ChoCho’s feet. By then the two have rinsed out their shirts and socks, brushed their teeth, and once the rain has left them, set their clothes on the hood to dry. By dusk, the two are back in The Girl, warming up and holding each other under the blankets.

Jynx feels ChoCho’s lust against her even as she reaches for a condom, working it out of its pack. It disappears under the blanket, and she slides it on with careful precision, working it with her fingers all the way down to where his hair puffs out. ChoCho starts to kiss her gently, urgently, leaning toward her even as Jynx pulls at him, drawing him between her legs. The two make cautious love in cramped quarters, sitting upright, facing each other. Jynx shifts her weight until she is on top and ChoCho is reclined back against the locked passenger door, squeezing every part of herself tightly against every part of ChoCho until his voice breaks in ecstasy and her heart races in response.

In moments ChoCho has fallen asleep, each of them having settled back into each other’s arms to get into the sleeping bag. Jynx stares at ChoCho’s features in the dim light of her cab. His lips have parted as he sleeps, his expression is utterly relaxed, and his body rests in a half curl that keeps him in constant contact with her. Jynx, however, can’t sleep as easily as him. In a few moments, when ChoCho’s breathing has slowed, she’s carefully pulled herself free of the blankets. She sits with her back against the cab door, wishing she could let her worries go. Jynx moves a little, just as a test, and ChoCho scoots closer in his sleep, a hint of worry momentarily disrupting the landscape of his face. She’s careful to tuck him in tightly before leaving him in the truck so he won’t wake up so easily in her absence.

Jynx isn’t the kind of person to take things as they come. She is already thinking of tomorrow. The clouds have moved on, the sky is clear, the moon has risen, and the stars are twinkling and vibrating at about the same pace as the tingling Jynx feels pulsing through her skin. Careful not to wake ChoCho, Jynx pulls out the binoculars and tripod, and uses the dull ceramic paint to cover the bright yellow and reflective red surfaces. The tripod disappears into a black overcoat, Jynx checking her handiwork every so often with a flashlight until none of the yellow or red paint shows through the black. The paint is quick to dry. By the time Jynx has touched up the binoculars, the tripod is ready for mottling.

It’s close to midnight when she’s done, the moon has fallen just above the horizon, Venus is burning in the sky, and Jynx shivers in the chill night, not yet ready to go to sleep. ChoCho wakes up, walks out past the edge of the bushes, and pees slowly, the sound of it carrying back to Jynx. Still being only partially awake, he’s forgotten about the condom, which is now blown free and into the bushes. After a moment, ChoCho shakes off the excess damp before letting his skin fall forward and his skirt fall down. Jynx offers him a wet-nap as he comes back, and ChoCho turns away again, undoing his side buttons so he can wipe more than his hands with it before tossing it into the bushes by the side of the road.

In the distance a high-pitched howl sends chills up ChoCho’s spine, but Jynx isn’t bothered. The sound has her somewhat relieved. It is proof that she and ChoCho aren’t the only ground walkers who survived the storm. ChoCho sits down on the step, putting his head on Jynx’s shoulder. He’s shivering, even though he’s got his skirt on. His toes touch her ankle and feel like sickles of ice. Despite this Jynx moves a little closer, hoping to warm him a little, her left hand drifting to the insides of his legs. She’s still thinking forward, so she’s not talking. In fact, she’s stifling a yawn even as she caresses him through the side opening in his skirt. Her right hand has drifted absently between her own legs, her body finally starting to relax in response to her unconscious touch. Soon her thoughts will be obliviated by a badly fulfilled need for sleep. The howls of the coyotes carry toward them on a chill breeze. ChoCho’s hands have fallen over her hands, and Jynx starts to feel a precious, comforting ecstasy build up within her.

“The Coyotes are talking about us.” ChoCho says, almost knowingly.

Jynx puts an arm around ChoCho’s shoulders and squeezes. “Ah, Cho baby, whatever they say, they say.”

“You think we’ll find anybody in Phoenix?”

“I’m hoping we find somebody. That’s why I took the binoculars, so we can look for people.”

“And you’re painting them in camouflage, why?” ChoCho asks in an imitation of innocence.

“I’m cautiously hopeful, is all.” Jynx says, her fingers shifting gently, almost impreceptibly, from a distracted tap and into a hastening rub.

“Maybe we won’t want them to find us.” ChoCho almost whispers. “If we could be together like this forever . . . ”

“Enough night air for you, Peter Pan.” Jynx says, her body shivering with delight.

Jynx pulls ChoCho inside, closing the rear passenger door. The howls have been getting closer over the hours, even though they are coming from different directions, they seem to be bent on a convergence. Maybe they are scheming on a way to lure Jynx or ChoCho out into the dark, or to steal their food. Maybe it’s just that they’re wandering and looking for each other. Jynx focuses on this truth even as ChoCho says something much like it as a way of relieving some of his own stress at laying cramped in the back of a partially loaded truck. Jynx holds him tightly from behind, one arm cradling his head and clutching his chest, the other wrapped over his belly. The quiet is getting to her.

“Nobody’s been up the roads all night.” Jynx says. “Not in a car anyway. I would have heard the engines.”

“Let’s sleep a little. Things will make more sense in the morning.” Despite his alto voice, ChoCho sounds so smart all of a sudden, like he’s really old.

Jynx trusts him a little more now than she did a few days before, and so she finds herself nodding off on his shoulder, crouched somewhat upright so she can half doze and still see the road. She’s scared, but she doesn’t want to show it. She doesn’t know what ChoCho feels, but whatever it is, it isn’t creeping onto his face all that often. She tries to imagine herself, nearly three years younger, facing down the end of the world with just one friend and her truck, and all she can think about is how she didn’t know anybody back then or now that she would rather be with, at least in the moment, than ChoCho. At some point Jynx falls completely asleep, and when she wakes with a start, several hours later, she is covered in sweat, the cab is stiflingly hot, and ChoCho is half naked next to her, having torn off most of his clothes in his sleep. Still tired, she rolls down the windows and drifts back into quiet, mindless oblivion.

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