The Desert Ch. 07

Trudy came up to him, gave him another hug and a kiss. "I don't know how it's possible, but I really do love both of you." She smiled and kissed him again.

"I love you too, Trudy." He kissed her again and then held her face in his hands, forcing her to look into his eyes. "I'm old." She started to protest, but he silenced her with a firm look. "I am. There's no getting around that. I am not as fast as I used to be and I am certainly not as durable as I used to be. I will do everything in my power to keep the both of you safe, but more likely it will be Jackie who is the defender and protector of this family. She might not look it, but that girl has a warrior inside her that one would do best not to cross." He paused for a second as if thinking about what to say next. Then he added, in a more hushed tone. "I want you to look after her if anything was to happen to me, you understand?"

Trudy looked at him with a puzzled expression on her face, but she nodded her understanding slowly. "Of course, Joe. I'll protect her, and you, with my life if I have to."

Joe smiled and let go of her face. "I know you would. But if it comes down to a choice, you save her before me, got it?"

Now her expression went from puzzled and confused to worried. She tried to speak up, but he shushed her and just looked at her expectantly. Eventually she relented and nodded. Something about his behaviour worried her. It was almost like he wasn't expecting, or wanting, to survive whatever lay ahead of them. She wondered for a second if he knew something that he wasn't sharing with them, but she shook the thought from her mind. Surely he'd let them know if he knew there was anything dangerous ahead.

As he let her go, he kissed her on the cheek again and gave her a warm smile. She responded in kind, and then followed Jackie inside, also hoping to be able to locate her pants. She really didn't want to make the ride to where they were going, on her bike with her ass bare.

A couple of hours later, the sun was about to go down behind the horizon and everything they could bring with them was packed and loaded onto the pickup. Jackie had finally managed to take apart and pack up the water purifier again and she wasn't shy about letting the others know exactly how annoyed she was at the fact. She knew it had to be done, and that it would be much easier rebuilding it again now that she had it all figured out, but it was still annoying.

Just as they were about to set off, Jackie was about to get into the passenger seat of the pickup when Joe stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked at him questioningly when he just held out his shotgun towards her. This made her face change from questioning to surprised and she was just about to ask him about it when he shook his head and put the gun in her free hand.

"You should have this." His tone was affectionate and matter of fact. "I've seen you shoot and you are younger, faster and more accurate than I ever was. It will do much more good in your hands than in mine." He paused, smiled at her and gave her a little kiss. "Just promise to take good care of Grace for me, ok?"

Jackie was stunned. Not only because he was actually giving her his shotgun. The one possession she up until a minute ago was sure he would demand to be buried with, but he named it after his late wife. She wasn't sure how to respond to this, or if she even wanted the gun. His reasoning made sense she supposed, but he wasn't that old, or that slow, and she knew that if shit hit the fan, he could hit anything he wanted to with that gun. In the end though, she accepted it and took it as he put it in her hand. She thanked him and gave him a kiss before getting into her seat. She could do nothing but stare at the big gun that was now resting in her lap. She had never fired anything bigger than a revolver before, and lately she had only used her homemade crossbow. She supposed she knew all the mechanics that went in to firing a shotgun, but she'd have to practice to get used to the recoil, and she wasn't sure how much ammunition they actually had for it.

Joe climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine on the rickety old truck. It sounded much better now than it had done when it first pulled into the gas station. Jackie and Trudy had done a lot of work on it since then, and they had done it really well, but it wasn't a new vehicle anymore and as much work as they had done, he wasn't sure how long it would last. Hopefully it would take them to where they were going, and that was all that mattered at this point. Joe was far from sure that either of them would actually make it out of that place alive, if they managed to get in there in the first place. Hopefully Trudy was right and the place was now abandoned, but even is there were no people left, it was still a dangerous place if you didn't know what you were doing or what to look for. He could only hope and pray that he could remember the layout and placements of the old military defences from before everything went to hell. He thought he could do it, but he was nowhere near certain.

As they slowly pulled out of the gas station that had been the first more or less stable home that Jackie had known since everything went bad, she found herself deep in thought. She looked in the side mirror and saw that Trudy wasn't having any issues following them on her bike. She also made a mental note of just how sexy the older woman was in her full leather outfit and that she had to come up with some way to incorporate that in their playtime sometime in the near future.

Then she looked to her left and saw the serious expression on Joe's face and her thoughts darkened once again. Something about this excursion didn't feel right. She realized that they had to do something, or they'd run out of supplies. But there was something about this that felt wrong. Joe had taught her to always trust her gut, and her gut told her that something was about to go very wrong. She tightened her grip on the shotgun and turned her head to stare out the window at the passing scenery.

Behind the pickup, Trudy was once again riding her bike. It felt so good to be back on it again. She loved riding, but she knew it was a luxury she wouldn't be able to indulge in for too much longer. Not only because of her new family that she wanted to be around, but it would also be increasingly difficult to find gas to keep it running. And any gas they did find they needed for the pickup and the generator on the back of it, That wasn't her biggest concern as she was doing her best to keep up with the pickup, however. She thought about what Joe had said to her, that if it came down to a choice she was to save Jackie instead of him. What kind of situation was he expecting for that choice to come into play? Did he actually know something he wasn't telling them? That was the question that kept popping into her mind. She wanted to push it away, but it kept coming back, like a persistent stray cat you made the mistake of feeding that one time and now couldn't get rid of. It scared her, trying to think of what it was that he could be anticipating, but she couldn't help it. If something was about to go down she wanted to be prepared for it. She supposed the best way to do that was to just keep her eyes open, and to keep close to the both of them. But if it came down to it, she would honour her promise. She would save Jackie first. Even if it would kill her to have to leave him behind, she could thought she could still recover as long as she had Jackie around. She wasn't so sure if it would be the same the other way around. Just the thought of anything happening to that beautiful girl made her eyes tears up, fogging the inside of her helmet. No, she was going to keep Jackie safe, no matter what. She had promised Joe as much, and she wouldn't be able to live without her.

As the hours passed as they drove, the entire desert around them was dead silent, aside from the roaring sound of their engines. There was no chance that if there was anyone waiting at their destination, that they would be able to get in there unannounced. So, as the silhouette of a skyline started to come up in the beams of the pickup's headlights, Joe made no effort to stop or be sneaky about their arrival. He stayed on the road, heading straight into town.