Bridget Bundy - The Secret Weapon

“You’re lucky. They could have put you in jail for five years,” Coraset commented.

“Yeah, I know. When they told me I was going to the Mojave Prison, I nearly craped my pants.”

“I hope you really didn’t,” she said as she cringed at the thought.

“No, I didn’t, but I was scared out of my mind. Pushing against the rules seemed like a good idea when I first did it.”

“Now and days you could end up dead,” Coraset said.

Rudy agreed silently. His thoughts immediately went back to Dewey. He wondered why Coraset helped him. Why she didn’t leave him in the desert? He did try to kill her, and Rudy had no doubts Dewey would have tried to kill him, too.

He asked, “Coraset, why did you help Dewey before we left?”

“Old habits,” she admitted.

“But he tried to kill you.”

“I know, but I wasn’t going to leave him in the heat. At least, in the shed he’s a little cooler, and he has food.”

“You’re like an oxymoron, Coraset.”

“I don’t like insults, Rudy.” She warned.

“It’s not a real insult.”

“You call me an ox and a moron.”

“That does sound bad, huh?” Unable to contain his laughter, Rudy explained, “I’m just saying, you helped the guy that tried to kill you, and you shot him, too.”

Coraset thought about his statement and nodded in agreement. “Sometimes you have to be the better person, Rudy.”

That one statement said it all, and Rudy took in the advice with a new found respect for Coraset. She was hard when she had to be, but she was compassionate, too. He resolved there wasn’t anything difficult about her.

They continued walking the sandy road. Their backdrop was the unknown desert, and they felt exhilarated. Their destination was closer with each step, with each moment, and they walked all night.

The Mojave Prison set against the background of a yellow colored landscape to the east. The sun was barely up behind the huge structure. Coraset and Rudy were tired from the long night trek, but Coraset knew they weren’t even close to where they wanted to be. Her determination was still set to leave the desolate landscape, and Rudy was just as determined to keep up with her.

They jogged out of eyesight of the guard towers; a good distance from the main road that went passed the prison. Coraset wanted to get a least a mile away from the prison before going back to the road. She knew there was a caravan of vehicles transporting the prison guards within the hour, but usually a few people drove by themselves early in the morning. She wanted to catch one of them, but she had to move fast.

Finally, they found a spot to wait and to catch their breaths. Coraset kept her attention up the road. Rudy rest his hands on his knees, and he dipped his head feeling utterly tired. After a few minutes, the distant headlights of the caravan could be seen from the south. The road was paved, but still some dust could be seen.

Rudy took off his bag and sat down on it. That’s all he wanted was a bath and a bed. Every part of his muscles hurt. Sometimes it was even hard to focus. Rudy knew it wasn’t time to rest.

He asked Coraset to keep himself awake, “You remember what you told me yesterday?”

“We talked about a lot of things.” Coraset squatted down when she saw the caravan was getting closer.

“You were going to tell me how you learned everything.”

“Oh,” Coraset got down on one knee for comfort and continued. “Well, I used to travel around the world making sure the aid got to the right people. Sometimes entire shipments would be stolen or simply taken right out of our hands at the airport. It could be a seriously dangerous job, Rudy. Have you ever heard of Darfur?”

“No,” Rudy listened with heightened interest.

“Darfur used to be in the continent of Africa. They went through a brutal civil war, and we wanted to get the aid to the refugees. We got into the country. After my employees left the airport in Al Fashir, their caravan was stopped. Our stuff was seized immediately. One of my constituents tried to stop them, but-” Coraset shook her head.

The caravan suddenly reached them, and they ducked down.

Once the vehicles passed, Coraset continued, “They shot one of my staff members, they took a woman, and they took the cargo. I was still in Al Fashir when I heard about the kidnapping and high jacking. We never found Nancy, and we couldn’t find the truck, either. I decided at that point it was time to learn self-defense, and I trained on different weapons, as well. I took it very seriously. With all the good I tried to do in the world there were equally bad things that wanted to stop me. I just made sure I was prepared for the battle, that’s all.”

Rudy took in her story and stated, “I’m impressed with you.”

Distant headlights and a dust cloud snatched Coraset’s attention away before she could reply. She stepped towards the road, but stopped short a few of yards away. She tossed her bag on the ground, unzipped it, and started undressing leaving her white undershirt and underwear on. Rudy was shocked to see her half naked. He didn’t know what to say.

She tossed her orange jumpsuit into the bag, and released her long hair. Coraset bent down to get her gun, and Rudy stood upright, speechless as he stared at her dark, thin frame. The undershirt and underwear did a flimsy job at hiding her private parts, and he swallowed hard, unable to turn away. Coraset didn’t have time to be shy or to set him straight. She started for the road.

“What are you going to do?” Rudy managed to ask.

“Stay out here, out of sight, Rudy. Don’t move until I tell you. You understand?”

He looked at her weird, not really sure what was going on.

“Tell me you understand, Rudy.”

“I understand.”

Coraset continued towards the road. The car was moving in quickly. She looked to Rudy and pointed to the ground.

“Stay out of sight!” She yelled back at him.

Rudy did as he was told. She made sure that he was down before turning her back to the approaching car. She hid the gun with her body as she waited.

A black four door sedan came to a screeching halt. A man in a prison guard uniform stepped out. He didn’t understand why a half-naked woman would be in the middle of the road. He called to her, but Coraset didn’t answer. The man turned around where he stood, not really sure what to do. He stepped away from his car.

“Hey,” he called with uncertainty. “Are you okay?”

Coraset waited patiently for him to get closer. The man would stop and call to her every other step. When he finally reached her, Coraset turned towards him in a quick motion and pointed the gun at him.

The man was startled and threw his hands up. Her aim was dead on his chest.

“Rudy,” she called.

He was already halfway on his feet. He grabbed both of their bags, and he started running towards Coraset.

“Get in the car,” she ordered.

Coraset rushed to the driver’s side of the vehicle, opened the door, and immediately got in. The man kept his hands up.

She turned the car around and floored it towards Baker or rather what was left of it. She kept looking in the rearview mirror, the fear of someone tailing them overbearing her mind, but there was no sign. The drive would be an hour and a half long, and she wasn’t going to slow down for a second.

Shifting in his seat, Rudy tried to stand slightly, reaching under himself to find a cellphone. Spotting it out of the corner of her eye, Coraset reached over, snatched it from his outstretched hand and turned it on. As the dial tone resounded throughout the speeding vehicle, she smirked. Dialing in an all too familiar number, she shouldered the electronic device and waited, eyes still focused on the road stretching out like an endless ribbon before her. A busy signal sounded off, and with a groan of frustration, she dropped the phone in her hand to shut it off.