El Paso Under Attack - 01 (33 page)

“Having a rough time of things Jaxon?” she asked.

“Are you a shrink?”

“Not really, but I have had to listen to enough problems over the years. Actually, I’m sort of your guide.”

Jaxon immediately turned to me.

“What’s she talking about?” he asked.

“If you have questions about me, I would appreciate it if you asked me yourself young man.”

The look Jaxon gave her as he turned his head was terrible. It should have come with a snarl.

“Alright, who the hell are you and what the hell do you want?” he asked in a low voice. His friends and family (who were scattered about the living room) all turned to see what was happening between the two of them, they were certainly more than a little worried when they heard his voice.

“First of all, I don’t like the attitude, so drop it,” she answered rather bravely. “Second of all, you are the chosen Guardian. It happens, deal with it. If the world can harbor and create things like zombies, it makes a certain sense to believe that the world can in turn create something to combat the zombies. That would be you.”

“Really?” asked Jaxon. The sarcasm was practically dripping from his tongue.

“Yes really and you better get used to it. Because there are a lot worse than zombies in your future and you need to be prepared. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and get ready to be the hero everybody thinks you are.”

It was the wrong thing to say and Jaxon was certainly in the wrong mood to hear it. Obviously, Miriam had no idea how much my husband was willing to put up with and she was definitely pushing her luck with the disrespect.

“Are you fucking serious lady?” asked Jaxon. “You really want to come into my home and run your mouth off at me?”

“Well, it obviously needs to be done by someone,” answered Miriam. “Because that’s what seems to be needed to get you to stop acting like a coward.”

Jaxons fist hit the table so hard his cup jumped into the air. I’m actually quite surprised that the granite of the counter didn’t crack. I tried to stop him, but he was too fast and too strong. He grabbed Miriam roughly by the arm and dragged her to the front door. He unceremoniously shoved her out the door and slammed it in her face.

After all that, Jaxon simply went back to his room and slammed that door as well. I went outside after Miriam who was straightening her rumpled clothes.

“What the hell is the matter with you?” I asked. “Why would you speak to him like that?”

“Relax dear. He needed that to get his motor running. You’ll have your husband back in a few days and then I’ll come and talk to him again.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. To be honest, I was furious with her. I expected her to help him, not piss him off and belittle him.

“He needed someone to vent on; I let him vent on me. Didn’t take very long though, he has a bit of a temper. Well, no matter. Now that he got it out of his system, he should be right as rain in a few days. It’s how they all work.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked once again.

“Dear, he went through a horrible ordeal. He’s hurting inside, but all the Guardians tend to freak out so to speak in the beginning. They need something to vent on, something to get them over the shock. I gave him that something. Now it’s out of his system and the healing will begin to take place. After that, we need to work on getting him to believe that he really is the Guardian and that there really are people out there who need him.”

“You’ve been through this before?” I asked.

“A few times yes,” she answered somewhat sadly.

“So he’ll be okay now?”

“He might rant and rave for a few hours, but yes, he’ll soon be okay. It’s how the Guardians work. It’s in their genetic makeup. They simply cannot be stressed out, depressed or bothered by anything for long periods of time.”

She was right of course. After she left and I went back inside to check on Jaxon, he did indeed rant and rave for about three hours. After that, he told me to leave him alone and gently ushered me out the door of our bedroom.

That evening, he finally came out of our bedroom and watched a movie with us. He didn’t talk and he didn’t eat, but he actually spent time around us.

A day or so later, Harley Davidson sent him a new motorcycle since his old one was still in El Paso. They apparently found out he was a Harley lover and wanted to do something nice for him. He was still rather quiet; the old Jax would have been jumping up and down with excitement. However, I could tell that he loved it. Fortunately for Georgie, who also enjoys riding motorcycles, they had a spare and let him keep that as well. The two of them began to spend their afternoons riding the hills of Ruidoso. It was a start, a start on the road to recovery.

“
Were you more optimistic about him returning to normal?
”

I’m a wife and a wife worries about her husband. I had obviously noticed the improvement, but I also knew that he just wasn’t the same. The laughter and the orneriness weren’t there. That’s a big part of Jaxons personality. He’s always causing trouble and getting away with it.

He began running again. That was good; he was always running before the zombies. He’d wake up early in the morning and just go at it. He was also taking walks in the woods with Merrick. Another improvement, because Jax if anything is extremely curious, he loves an adventure.

I’m not sure how it happened. Somehow, they had all gathered on the porch of the cabin one morning drinking coffee and enjoying the view (the cabin has a wonderful view of the hills and valleys around it). I was watching out the window. I had taken to doing that kind of thing. I was always keeping my eye on him. Anyway, he wasn’t saying anything, but of course Georgie was talking a mile a minute. I think Georgie is the only person that I’ve ever met that can talk as much as me.

“It’s a good thing those zombies never actually made it to the safe zone,” said Georgie. “At least for them it is. I would have brought them all down with my superior fire power.”

“Let me see if I get what you’re telling me here,” said Dudley. “You actually think that you could bring down thousands of zombies all by your lonesome with one of your rifles.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” said Georgie after contemplating it for awhile.

That’s when I saw it. Jaxon smiled.

“Well, it’s too bad you were too chicken shit to leave the safe zone until the very end,” added Dudley. “We could have used your mad skills all those times we risked our lives.”

“Well, fortunately I was able to show everybody my skills at the very end when I saved Jaxon.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” said Kingsley. “You can’t hide while everything that went on went on and then act like a bad ass at the end because you were the only one with a gun.”

In answer, Georgie lifted his leg and farted.

Everyone started laughing, even I was laughing. Most importantly, Jaxon was laughing and he was laughing pretty hard. I started jumping up and down I was so happy. Jaxons mother came over to see what I was so excited about. When she saw her son laughing, she started jumping up and down with me.

And just like that, Jaxon was better.

That evening, with a full security detail, we went into town and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was a buffet and Jaxon did it some serious damage. His appetite was back with a vengeance. The boys laughed and joked all through our meal. It was great. I had a blast. My husband was back.

“
I have a question. When did he hear about what happened with the other caravan, the one that Tito was leading?
”

Oh, I forgot about that. Actually, I kind of try not to think about it. Jaxon heard about that early on. It was all over the news. I think it was his father who told him.

“
What did he say when he found out?
”

I don’t know if he said anything at all to his father, but later that night when we were alone he said something to me.

“I don’t understand why he didn’t listen to me.”

I had no response. I had no idea at the time what it was that Tito ignored. Jaxon never brought it up again. I’m not sure how he feels about it now; I’ve never heard him speak about it to anyone. I have heard the others speak about it. I’ve heard them speak in great detail.

“
What did they say?
”

It wasn’t good, but I don’t think I’ll repeat it here. Whatever choices Tito has made are choices that I truly hope he can find peace with.

“
Now that Jaxon was back to normal, what were things like?
”

Things were great. Things were back to normal. We laughed, we played, we went for rides on the motorcycles and all of us would explore the woods.

“
Were you aware of what was going on inside of El Paso?
”

Yes. Every night we would all gather and watch the news. The situation had not changed in the slightest bit. The gates were closed immediately after the caravans went through and nobody had dared to approach them. The survivors still trapped in the city were still asking for help and the military was still doing nothing but containing the zombies.

“
How did Jaxon feel about this?
”

It made him angry. He had a strong dislike for major Crass. He thought the man should be taken out and shot for incompetence. It really bothered him when the people still stuck in the city asked for the General to come and save them. He normally left the room when something like that happened and that happened a lot. He never even tried to look at the EPUA website. The news was bad enough just mentioning it and I could only imagine how many people were asking for his help there.

Miriam eventually came back.

I went out to see her on the front porch.

“Did it work?” she asked.

“It did,” I answered.

“Good. We need to get down to business. There are a lot of people that need him right now.”

“No,” I told her. “It took too long for him to come back to me. I don’t want you to say anything to upset him again.”

“Sweetheart, if Jax doesn’t embrace his destiny, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life. Aside from that, there’s no one else that can save all those trapped people.”

“Find someone else,” said Jaxon from over my shoulder. “I’ve thought about what you told me that day and I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that I’m anything special. I almost died. Those people need the military to stop acting like a bunch of cowards and do their jobs. I’m a false hope. I got lucky.”

“The military is frozen right now,” said Miriam. “They were put on hold until Mr. Hardin gets here to take charge. They’ve just located him by the way, he’ll be arriving in a week or so and he’s going to need you Jax.”

“Well,” said Jax. “Whatever crazy shit it is that you’re selling, I’m not buying. Tell this Mr. Hardin to go fuck himself. I’m done.”

“I’ll relay the message, but Max is still out there somewhere in that city and until he’s stopped, there will be no brighter day for all those people trapped in the crossfire.”

“Who’s Max?” I asked.

“He’s the former…”

“He’s nobody,” Jaxon interrupted. “Get out of here lady. Don’t talk to my wife anymore.”

“Jaxon, he’s going to come for you,” said Miriam.

“Whatever,” said Jaxon before he walked back inside the cabin.

“What’s going on?” I asked Miriam.

“Ask your husband,” she answered before she too started walking away. After a just a little bit, she turned back and looked at me. “And by the way, the Guardians always have four less powerful assistants. Since Tito has disappeared, you should probably be expecting company.”

“What about Merrick, doesn’t she count?” I asked.

“Merrick has been touched by the Guardians power, but that’s a lucky side effect. Expect a friend of Jaxons to show up sometime soon. This man will be drawn to him and his duty.”

With that, Miriam left.

I went inside to find Jax and found him downstairs playing poker with the boys. He seemed to have forgotten all about Miriam.

“Jaxon, are you going to tell me what Miriam was talking about?” I asked.

“I’m not sure what Miriam was talking about,” he answered.

“Can you tell me who Max is?”

“Never met him,” he answered.

I wasn’t about to leave it at that. Also, Kingsley and Dudley immediately perked up upon hearing the name.

“Just because you haven’t met him doesn’t mean you haven’t heard of him,” I announced.

“You may be right.”

“What have you heard about him?” I asked.

“Nothing worth repeating,” he answered.

“Jaxon, if you don’t tell me who this person is…someone else will and that someone else will receive some Dunkin Donuts as a reward.”

Dudley perked up immediately. He had a very popular attraction for Dunkin Donuts. In fact, it was the only non healthy food he allowed himself to eat.

“He fought zombies back in Nam,” blurted Dudley. “We heard about him from some mercenary. They called him a Guardian or something.”

“If he’s a Guardian, why would he be coming for you Jaxon; I thought the Guardians were the good guys?”

It took Jaxon awhile to answer. He was busy glaring daggers at Dudley.

“To be honest, I don’t really care,” he finally answered. “I’m done with the violence and the fighting. I don’t have it in me. I’m not the guy they think I am. C’mon Skie, let’s not talk about it anymore…okay?”

“Alright,” I answered.

As long as Jax wasn’t interested, I was happy. I didn’t want him dragged back into the nightmares of El Paso. That part of our life needed to be over. I was thankful to Miriam for saving me and my kids, I was also thankful that she helped Jax. Now, we were done.

Two days later, one of the soldiers guarding us announced that there was a man here to see Jaxon. Jax went out to see who it was and came back with Javie, an old friend of his.

“I brought an Xbox,” said Javie when everybody came over to hug him.

Javie is a great guy. He’s always happy and he’s always funny. Not in the pick on people kind of way that Jax is. Javie more or less makes fun of himself. Miriam predicted that someone would come by to join up with Jax. Javie’s sudden arrival made me kind of nervous.