Wanted (6 page)

* * * *

Jessie was stumbling frequently. She tried for a while to fake it, pretending to be tripping over loose rocks and pushing herself off of rocks and bushes. It was not long before her legs and abdomen were scratched by the thorny bushes and it was everything she could do to stay on her feet and moving. The rescued siblings watched her with growing concern, wondering what was wrong. Tanya had whispered a few times her concern about Jessie having the fever. Dusty nodded, agreeing with her and even more concerned. Jessie might not have been much, but she was all they had.

Besides, if she was who he thought she was, it would be a terrible loss if she died. As it was, he was seeing that she was human and not the unstoppably sexy movie star he had known her to be. Not to mention uninhibited! He fondly remembered some of her more raunchy scenes and blushed as he found his gaze drawn to her stumbling figure. At least she took his mind off his aching side.

Jessie paused ahead of them, her hands resting against a struggling Joshua tree that had managed to live through the upwind fallout from when LA had been nuked. Her head hung low and she was breathing ragged, but then she seemed to collect herself and, without a glance back at them, she started forward again. Something pinged off a rock in front of her, but she took another step before the strange sound registered. Thunder rolled across in front of them, announcing the shot that had chipped the rock near Jessie.

Jessie’s head popped up. She looked around stupidly, trying to make sense of what she knew was happening. Tanya and Dusty ducked down, moving over to the tree and using it as cover. No more shots came immediately, but Jessie stood there staring around. She slowly raised her hands up in the air, then turned around slowly. Tanya and Dustin saw her face and saw the streaks of dirt on it from sweat and, from all appearances, tears. She looked calm at the moment, though circles under her bloodshot eyes gave evidence to exhaustion and misery. Her hands quivered in mid-air from where she held them as well.

With no more shots coming at them, Jessie finished her circle and then started forward again. The single report from the bolt action sniper rifle prevented them from identifying where it had come from, though they knew it was somewhere ahead of them. Arms still up, she stumbled a few times over the uneven ground. Once she even fell, skinning her knee and palms when she hit the rocky ground. Gasping for breath, she picked herself up and kept going. Behind her, a nervous brother and sister followed cautiously.

It took them forever to cross the ground, afraid at any minute the breath they took might be their last. Finally they were drawn into a small ditch, limiting their ability to easily go anywhere but forward or backwards. Jessie looked about nervously as soon as she realized it, then felt her heart hammering in her chest faster than ever. Her breath came in short gasps and she had to reach up to wipe some sweat from her brow. What she could not figure out was why she was sweating; she was freezing cold! Even without the near constant winds that kicked up the dirt these days, the spring sun should have made her feel like she was being baked alive.

Her next step was on some loose rocks. Her traction slipped and her knees failed to react in time. Jessie felt herself falling as though from a distance, like it was happening to somebody else. She grunted as she hit the ground, rolling slowly and wondering if she’d been shot. She’d never been shot before, perhaps that was what it felt like? Her head was pounding and her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest. Her ankle and knee hurt, and so did her shoulder. Still, it was a lot better than being caught up in an explosion.

She heard people calling her name. She wondered what they wanted. The ground was comfortable even if there was a couple of rocks poking her in the back. She could handle that. At least she was lying down. Her head rolled to the side, letting her see up the side of the small ravine they were in. She saw the lip of it, where the sky rose above the ground, and she wondered if she crawled up to it and crossed over if she’d fall off.

“
The world’s round,” she muttered, realizing how stupid that idea was. She passed out then, giving in to her exhaustion and confusion.

Tanya pulled Dustin forward, forgetting the earlier shot that had been taken at them. Grimacing and gasping in pain, he knelt down next to Jessie while Tanya tried to gently shake her to wake her up.

A shadow fell over them, making Dustin gasp, and then wheeze in a strangled cry of pain. Tanya turned at the noise and saw the soldier staring down at them from the lip of the ravine, rifle trained on them. She stood up slowly, her hands rising. “Please,” she said, feeling her own heart hammering in her chest. “Please help.”

He walked down the incline, a boonie hat shielding his face from any glare from the sun. A long barreled rifle hung across his back on a strap and a shorter more traditional looking rifle was held in his hands, pointing at them. He said nothing, but came to a stop towering over them as they knelt next to the down actress cum courier. His face was expressionless as he stared down at them.

“
She dead?” he asked, breaking the silence. His tone showed he didn’t care one way or the other what the answer was.

“
No,” Tanya said quickly. “She was helping us – taking us back to Mexicali,” she added quickly.

“
Some help,” he observed. “Who’re you?”

“
I’m…” she started, but was interrupted by her brother.

“
We were in a plane that crashed. Nobody else survived. She pulled us out of the wreckage and saved us from some scavengers.”

“
She did, did she?” He asked absent-mindedly while staring at her. Carl twisted his neck, muffled popping noises showing the success of his maneuver.

“
What’s wrong with you?” he asked, turning to look at Dustin.

“
Chest hurts,” he said, his hand going gently to cradle his ribs.

Carl nodded. He knelt down and took the pistol out of Jessie’s pants, slipping it into a pocket on his coat, then picked her up none-too-gently and tossed her over a shoulder. “Keep up,” he grunted to the others, then started off heading across the ground at a pace that was rough for the teens to follow, especially Dustin.

The walk only lasted for half an hour. Carl had enough of a lead on them that it took Tanya and Dustin a few minutes to see where he had gone. They figured it out a minute later when they looked down a narrow path between some rocks over a ridge. It was a small trail along another dry gully. Crossing it they came to some steps hewn out of the dirt and rock, occasionally shored up with a timber. They led to a small plateau that was blessed with some almost healthy vegetation. Passing through it quickly, for fear they might never find Carl, they stopped short and stared in surprise. A small clearing sloped upwards away from them gradually, but was riddled with a barbed wire fence that was the sort used to keep cattle in, save that it was at least five feet high. A break in it served as a door, and as a choke point. Carl, holding the semi-conscious Jessie, stood and waited for them.

“
Step where I step,” he told them, then turned and headed further in, towards what looked like a collection of sheet metal and broken down wooden pallets.

Tanya looked nervously to Dusty, but he just nodded his head quickly. “Go!” he hissed, his face pale from the pain of walking so quickly.

She hurried after Carl, watching him walk, and pulling Dusty with her. They followed his path, their eyes nervously straying to the ground. A few times they spotted suspicious things – a wire here, a stick there. Things that were out of place. It was enough to make the hair stand up on both of their necks.

Inside they saw an urban mess. Carl was already moving to the back door and stepping inside to lay Jessie down on the cot she had occupied earlier. She stirred, but fell back into a troubled sleep again. He stood there, scowling, then walked out and shut the door behind him.

“
You – strip,” he said, pointing at Dustin.

Dustin stared at him, eyes and mouth wide open. Tanya looked at Dustin in shock, then back to Carl. “What?” she asked.

“
You too,” he said to her. “Him first, he’s hurt worse.”

“
What… what are you going to do?” she asked, her eyes going to the guns hanging from straps over his shoulders and then to the crotch of his pants.

“
It’s called triage,” he said gruffly. “Make sure you ain’t gonna die anytime soon.”

“
Are you a doctor or something?” Dustin asked, closing his mouth finally.

He shook his head. “Ain’t got time and you look like you got less. Strip!”

His hands went to his shirt, but still he hesitated. “Dude, she’s my sister!”

Carl just stared at him, then shrugged to make one of the rifle straps slide off his shoulder and into his hand.

“
Okay! Sis, turn around or something,” Dustin said quickly.

Carl smirked at the misunderstanding. He took the other gun off and walked past Dustin, unloading them and putting them back in his cabinet. He replaced the pistol from his pocket in there as well and took off his jacket. By the time he turned around Dusty was standing in just a pair of boxer shorts, holding his badly bruised side and looking like he would have rather have been back stranded in the desert sun.

Carl moved over to him and walked around him, looking at him. He saw Tanya watching as well, though she was supposed to be turned around. It was not sexual curiosity, he noted, but rather concern for her brother.

“
Anything hurt other than your side?”

“
No sir,” Dustin said quickly.

Carl stopped in front of him and reached out slowly. He pushed Dustin’s hand away from his side gently but firmly, then touched it with varying pressure. The boy grimaced and cried out a few times as his hand moved around. Tanya hurried over, about to tell him to stop. but a look from him made the words die on her lips. He stopped finally and Dustin, his face sweating not so differently from Jessie’s, groaned.

“
One or two broken, the rest cracked or bruised. You’ll heal,” he said. “I’ll wrap it in a minute. First your sister.”

“
Strip,” he said, turning on her and seeing the questioning and suddenly terrified look on her face.

Shaking, her hands rose to pull her once-expensive shirt over her head. She held it in front of her a moment then, blushing furiously, let it fall to the floor. She wore no bra beneath it, revealing her athletically small breasts in the dim light. Dustin gasped, then winced and moaned a little at the pain in his side.

Carl walked around her like he did with her brother, then paused behind her. “The pants too.”

Her eyes brimming with moisture, she undid the clasp on her jeans and let them fall to the ground. He cursed softly, staring at the roadmap or surgical scars on her back. “You feeling all right?” he asked her cautiously.

She nodded, her throat too frozen to allow speech.

“
Moving all right?” he asked. “You feel your toes?”

She nodded again, but the distraction he caused in her with his tonal shift helped her find her voice. “I broke my back a couple years back.”

He was quiet for a minute. “Okay,” he said. He made her jump when she felt both his hands on her back, tracing down her spine. It tickled a little and made her blush a deeper red.

“
You feel that?” he asked her, his fingers pushing a little harder against her skin. She felt his right hand move like it hit a bump, jogging it up and over something over to the right.

“
Yes,” she said. “I feel it. What’s your point?”

“
Darlin’, you’re back’s busted – and it’s busted bad. No way you can walk right now.”

Her eyes widened at his statement. She tried to reach back and showed a level of flexibility that impressed him. Her fingertips slid along the skin and just barely managed to brush the spot between her shoulder blades he was referring to. “Oh,” she said, feeling the bump of her spine being dislocated so badly that her spinal column must have been severed.

“
It’s okay,” she said, turning and smiling at him. She immediately remembered that she practically nude and her arms crossed in front of her.

“
Okay?” he asked, surprise showing on his face. “What are you?”

“
Can you set it?” She asked him timidly. “I don’t want it to heal like that, it’ll put me off balance.”

“
Is she for real?” Carl asked, turning to face Dustin. For the first time they saw through the mask of indifference he had worn. He was genuinely surprised and confused.

“
Tell him,” Dustin said, looking around for a place to sit down. As much as a forbidden thrill that it was to steal looks at his sister’s body, the adrenaline was wearing off and the pain of his ribs combined with his exhaustion were threatening to do him in.

“
I broke my back a couple years ago,” she said again. “Those scars you saw are what they did to fix me. I was paralyzed. I, um, I was selected to get some special experimental surgery since I made the news. There’s computer chips that take over for my spine.”

“
No shit?” he asked, unable to imagine it being a lie, especially since he had seen the scars.

She nodded. “So, can you set my spine back in place?”

He shrugged. “Never tried before. I guess.”

He motioned for her to turn around and she did so. Dustin looked up from the chair he had found, smiling at his sister thinly then lowering his head to his chest again.