Breaking but not broken.

Chapter 12

[The Woman]
I was still sitting in the sand, though, I had moved my legs to a criss cross position. The man had come to sit next to me a while ago, but I didn't look at him. I didn't look back at the girls either. I just stared forward into the dark night. What was I going to do?
    Furiosa would know what to do. I thought.                              
    The gun wielder kept scooting over to me, little by little, inch by inch. He was right next to me now, so I glanced over at him, obviously keeping it discrete. He seemed to be lost in thought himself.
   "Thank you." I told him.
I wandered over to the group in the dark sometime after that. Me and the mothers needed to talk.
    As I came closer I could hear one of the girls talking.
    "Look!" She gasped.
     Her finger was raised towards the sky, so I looked up. A satilight passed through the sky. You could see them every now and then just...floating around up there.
    "That's what you call a satellite." One of the mothers explained.
    "Ms Giddy told us about those." Toast spoke up. "They used to bounce messages across the earth.
    "Shows. Everyone in the world had a show."
   I did a head count while I listened in on the conversation, but I was two head short. Capable and Nux were missing. I searched around for them in the dark and finally spotted them up in the top part of the rig. I didn't care where they were, really, as long as they were safe.
    -"Do you think there's still... someone out there? Sending shows?"
      No one bothered to answer her question. It was likely no one knew. I know I didn't know.

[The Dag]

The seed holder and I were having a private conversation far enough away so we wouldn't disturb the others.
     "Stay right where you are, little Joe." I told my belly.
     "You havin' a baby?" The mother asked.
     "WarLord Junior. Gonna be so ugly." I explained.
     "Could be a girl." The mother said as she did inventory of her own weapons.
     I guess so. Joe wouldn't be happy with another girl, though I hoped he'd be dead by the time I'd have to deal with the baby, so his opinion no longer mattered to me, or anyone else.
    "You kill people with that, do ya?"
     "I've killed everyone i've ever met out here. Headshots, all of them. Snap, right through the mandella."
     "Hm," I started. "Somehow I thought you girls were above all that."
    After that remark we shared a quiet moment before the mother brought out a bag. It was made out of old leather and it was dusty beyond belief. The mother becond me over.
   "Seeds!" I exclaimed.
    While meaningless on the outside, this dusty old bag held the key to a new beginning. The mother went through the seeds telling me which ones were what. 
    "Back then everyone had their fill. Back then there was no need to snap anybody."
    I could feel something in my heart blossom. It was guilt over what I had said. Of course she didn't want to kill people, she was just trying to survive. Everyone was just trying to survive in a world that was uninhabitable. We smiled at each other and I swear I made a friend in that moment.

[The Man]

I broke off from the group a while ago and took out my cloth. I had a nice cut on my hand, from that damned steering wheel, so I dipped my needle into my blood to use it as ink. The cloth I had was a map. Well, sort of. Just a basic map of the wasteland. It was a very peculiar map, one that only a few people could understand.
      I could hear her feet approaching me, so I tucked my map away.
     "Can I talk to you?" The Woman asked.
     That was a phrase no man ever wanted to hear, no matter the situation. I stood up anyway and walked over to the girl that interested me so much.
    "I've talked with the others. We're never gonna have a better chance to make it across the salt. If we leave the rig here, and load up the bikes with as much as we can...we can go on for hopefully 160 days. I don't know what we will find, or if we will find anything for that matter, but we can't stay here. One of those bikes is yours. Fully loaded. You're more than welcome to come with us." She looked to me. Oh god, I can see that shimmer in her eye...
That shimmer was hope.
     "Mmm. I'll make my own way." I explained.
     She simply nodded.
"You know, hope is a mistake." I told her as I turned to face her fully. "If you can't fix what's broken you'll, uh, you'll go insane..."
      She pursed her lips together. That shimmer was small, but there. And that shimmer was going to get her killed.
     The sun rise came and went. The women had all taken off, leaving me with a loaded bike and empty rig. I was staring off into the horizon when my daughter started to talk to me again.
    "Where are you? Where are you?"
     I turned my head to see if anyone was there.
     "Help us. You promised to help us."
     That's when my little girl jerked her hand forward, like she was throwing something at my face. I blocked it, like I did every time, but nothing appeared to be there. My eyes darted around the empty sand until they settled on the dust cloud the group of women were creating with their bikes.
     "Come on, Pa. Let's go."
      I rushed to unpack my bike and drove in the direction of the wives. I raced beside the pack until they saw me and they slowed down. I pulled in front of them and stepped off the bike. The Woman pulled down her handkerchief and Furiosas goggles. I placed my cloth on the front of her bike and waited for her to examine it.

[The Woman]

      "Alright. This is your way home." He said pointing to the skull in the middle of the map.
Assuming the squiggles were the mountains and the skull was the Citadel I was confused by his proposal.
    "We go back?" I asked.
     "Mm."
     "Back?"
     "Yeah." He confirmed.
     "I thought you weren't insane anymore." The Dag said as she stood up on the back of the bike she was hitching a ride on.
     "What are they saying?" One of the mothers asked not understanding the hold up.
     "He wants to go back to where they came."
     I don't think he necessarily wants to go back, but he knows we need to.
     "The Citadel."
     "What's to find at the Citadel."
     "Green." He answered.
      Toast spoke up. "And water. There's a ridiculous amount of clear water. And a lot of crops."
      The mere mention of clear, clean water made the mothers mouths water.
     "It's got everything you'd ever need. As long as you're not afraid of heights." Dag added.
     The girls explained to the mothers about Immortan Joe and his Aqual cola.
     "It will take two weeks to travel the sides of the mountains." The Valkyrie explained.
     "No. I suggest we go back the same way we came. Straight through the canyon."
     "It's open. We know that, right?" Toast was starting to understand.
     "So we take the war rig and charge it right through the middle of them."
    Would it be worth it? We just got away from Immortan. We just got out of the Citadel. They were going to kill me if I got caught back there. But somewhere deep inside me knew...there wasn't anything but salt out here.
     "We can decouple the tanker at the pass. Shut it off behind us." The man explained.
     "Kaboom." One of the mothers smiled widely at the thought of a bomb.
     I looked up to see him do what I had never thought he would. He smiled at her.
    "And how exactly do we take the Citadel? Assuming we're still alive by then." I asked.
    "If we can block the pass it will be easy. All that's left is his war pups. And war boys to sick to fight." Toast explained.
    "And we'll be with Nux." Capable reminded the group. "He's a war boy. He'll be bringing us home. Bringing back what's stolen as he's meant to."
    Everyone in the group turned to the war boy making his cheeks warm up a bit.
   "Yeah." Nux nodded. "Feels like hope."
    The mothers and girls talked amongst themselves. They were delighted of the thought of a new beginning. Being able to start again? Well, that's all they wanted.
    "Look..." The man started. "It'll be a hard day. But I guarantee 160 days that way there's nothing but salt. At least this way, you know, we might be able to...together...come across some kind of redemption."
   He held out his hand to me for shake in agreement. I stared at it, then up at him. His eyes waited for my answer. He knew this was our only solid chance at surviving. I grabbed his hand and held it tightly. He smiled again.

[Immortan Joe]

The remaining members of my war parties and I were either sitting quietly or sleeping. That's when a yell broke the silence.
     "War rig! That's the War Rig!" A war boy called.
     I watched through my telescope as my stolen rig headed towards the canyon.
    "Why are they going back?" The people eater spit.
    "Are they going to surrender?" My son asked.
     Only one thing was through that canyon. Only one thing they would be willing to go back for.
   "There heading to the canyon." I yelled. "There heading back to the Citadel! They know it's undefended!"
    The war boys rushed for their cars, the doof warrior instinctively started playing his guitar again, and I grabbed Furiosas chin that was covered in dry blood.
    "Looks like you are going to watch your plans fall after all."